So, you have a great business idea, but you don’t know how to tell people about it? Finding new marketing strategies for your business can be quite tricky.
While the traditional marketing strategies still work just fine, there are newer and more efficient strategies to take your company to the next level – word of mouth marketing is one of them.
In this article, we’ll cover the ins and outs of word of mouth advertising and how it can benefit you.
You’ll also see the best examples of the strategy so you can implement it in your business.
What is word of mouth marketing?
Word of mouth marketing happens when someone directly promotes your business to others.
They may be your past customers who have a positive experience with your product or service or potential customers who hear of your business’ reputation.
Traditionally, word of mouth marketing is spread from one person to another through small talk.
Nowadays, this marketing strategy uses social media as its main tool.
Word of mouth marketing can make or break your business
The reason is that people’s opinions about your product or service will affect others’ purchase decisions.
How important is word of mouth marketing?
Building small businesses from scratch is not a walk in the park as there are many factors to consider. First and foremost, you need to earn potential customers’ trust.
That’s where the word of mouth marketing strategy comes into play. When customers have a positive experience with a brand, they will likely mention it to their friends and family.
92% of customers claim it’s easier to trust products and services recommended by their close ones than advertising.
Meanwhile, 88% of consumers say that they believe online reviews.
Providing stellar services and high-quality products makes it easier to get people talking about your business and its potentials.
Benefits of word of mouth marketing
Word of mouth marketing comes with many benefits, such as:
- Free marketing. You don’t need to invest money upfront in promoting your business.
- Increase in sales. Positive reviews and comments left by your customers will most likely convince others to trust your brand and purchase your product
- Scalable. Once your business grows, you can collaborate with influencers and celebrities to do some endorsements
- Build trust and credibility. Having positive reviews and testimonials builds up your brand’s trustworthiness and reliability among your target customers
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How to implement the word of mouth marketing campaign
Implementing a word of mouth marketing strategy means enticing interactions with your product and talking positively about them on their own free will.
Here are some of the best methods you can implement in your business to jumpstart a word of mouth marketing campaign:
- Host giveaways. Invite customer to join giveaways by promoting your product
- Create a referral program. Launch a referral program where users can recommend your product to their friends to get discounts
- Collab with influencers. Send gifts to customers with a significant following for them to review or endorse.
- Encourage user generated content. Make sure to ask customers to share your products on their social media accounts
- Provide product ratings on your website. With 91% of customers looking up ratings and reviews when choosing a brand or a business, creating an online reviews section on your site makes it easier to influence people’s buying decisions
- Create an active online presence. Create hashtags and start discussions on various channels to get more people talking about your brand
- Give freebies to your customers. Send your customers free products on their birthday to make a lasting memorable experience
Five examples of word-of-mouth marketing in action
If you’re not yet convinced this marketing strategy will work, here are some word of mouth marketing examples that might seal the deal for you.
1. Netflix
Netflix encourages word of mouth marketing by providing a top-tier service to their consumers. This aspect helped turn the platform into a household name for home entertainment.
For one, the platform uses behavioral analysis to recommend shows and movies based on a user’s interest. What’s more, Netflix makes sure all of its videos are displayed in HD quality for a better viewing experience.
The personalized recommendations not only make users feel understood but also enhances the overall user experience.
Netflix also uses social media platforms to encourage people to talk about its shows. One of the ways to trigger user engagement is by posting teasers and memes.
By doing so, Netflix encourages its consumers to produce user generated content and provide space for people to have discussions with other people.
2. Wendy’s
Wendy’s is well-known for its social media interactions on Twitter.
In 2017, the famous fast-food chain restaurant managed to create quite a buzz on Twitter by promising a one-year deal to a user.
The catch was that the person must get 18 million retweets first.
This tweet quickly went viral, reaching millions of retweets in just a few days.
Other brands, celebrities, and even Twitter itself helped the person reach their goal. In doing so, they gave Wendy’s positive publicity and exposure for free.
By actively interacting with users on various platforms, this fast-food chain leaves a unique impression worth sharing by multiple users.
3. Lush
Lush is the best example of how supporting social causes can get people to talk about your business.
The brand has maintained its relevancy and sales since 2016 by doing social campaigns.
With its non-cruelty beauty products, Lush fights for various social causes such as fair trade, animal welfare, and anti-fracking.
By promoting good causes, people are more likely to support Lush and spread its efforts to other people that take a similar stance in those issues.
4. In-N-Out
In-N-Out is a popular fast food chain specializing in burgers. Among its exceptional burger-centric menus, there’s one thing that makes it stand out: their secret menu.
Starting from being a hidden gem that only exists among its loyal customers, the not-so-secret menu became extremely popular after In-N-Out listed it on its website.
Due to its secrecy, many people talk about it on various social media platforms.
The hype gets to the point where people from other states travel across the country to try out the secret menu.
5. Coca-Cola
In 2011, Coca-cola released a “Share a Coke with” movement that encouraged its customers to enjoy their drink with other people.
The company jump started the campaign by releasing bottles with popular names printed next to its logo.
People worldwide joined this movement as they tried to find bottles with their own or their close ones’ names.
The ones who found theirs then posted their bottles on social media – giving the brand free advertisement.
This campaign was so successful that the company followed it up with the launch of a standalone program that allows people to design their own bottles.
With all of these great tips and tricks for new marketing strategies for your business you should hopefully see an upturn in your conversions and your profits since your company should not have to spend as much money on traditional advertising.
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