What Is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

What Is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

At its core, marketing is the way businesses grow a customer base. It is the process or the steps taken to attract consumers to a product or service. It’s the pathway for startups and accomplished businesses alike, to grow and become profitable. Marketing is crucial for the success of any business selling a product or service. Without a marketing plan most startups would be hard-pressed to find clientele and get their feet off the ground. Marketing is multi-faceted and there are many effective ways to market a product. Word-of-mouth marketing is an effective way to engage customers while also keeping them committed to a company and coming back for more.

The basic definition of word-of-mouth marketing (also known as WOM), is marketing that is naturally created through the conversations and dialogues of customers who have experienced service or purchased a product. But in order to create a buzz around a product that sparks conversation, a business must create the optimal experience for a consumer that it causes the consumer to share with others because it was such a positive experience purchasing the product or service. To facilitate WOM, a company must go above and beyond so customers have something to talk about with their friends, family members, coworkers, or anyone that they may interact. 

Word-of-mouth marketing is essentially a free way to advertise a product or service because customers are not paid to share their positive experiences with others. A company sets up avenues for consumers to interact and if customers have a great experience, they are more likely to walk away and pass that interaction along to others in the form of dialogue. 

Word-of-Mouth Marketing Tactics

As noted previously, WOM does not fully occur naturally or without any work, it must be spurred on by a company’s effort to please their customers. Businesses have to create an environment that give consumers a reason to share. This can come in many different forms from loyalty programs to excellent customer service platforms. 

Loyalty programs offering benefits for becoming a recurring customer can spawn positive feedback and WOM.. This may come in the form of discounts for future purchases, coupons, and anything that will benefit the customer in addition to providing them with a top-notch service or product. Utilizing this tactic makes a customer happy and in turn, causes them to want to share how much money they may be saving with their friends and family in order to get them to save money too. WOM comes with a domino effect and that’s why it’s so effective. In fact, word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most successful marketing strategies. Most people trust loved ones more than they trust the media to tell them the truth. 

Giveaways and contests are another way companies can add fuel to the fire. Everyone always wants to win something and when they do, they are excited to tell others about the experience. When a business engages consumers with a contest, the word spreads to others to join in on the fun of potentially winning something of great value. This naturally creates a buzz around a product or service. This is widely used on social media through the use of influencers who partner with companies to do giveaways. Many times the “rules” of entering such a contest may be to “tag” a limitless number of other users in the comments section in order to create more attention to the product and get more people involved. 

Providing excellent customer service is another way to forge a positive relationship with customers and get them talking. It is undeniable that consumers are just as eager to share a poor customer service experience with others as they are a good one, maybe even more so. So, it is extremely important to provide customer service that goes above and beyond. A customer service team and procedure that exceeds a customer’s expectations can generate a favorable bond between consumers and the company they are contacting. A client is also very likely to share a satisfactory experience with others through social media as well as through posts online such as Facebook which boosts the news about a product or service even more. 

Digital WOM

Digital word-of-mouth marketing is another avenue of gaining customer attention and traction. Social media use has become a common household pastime for anyone who has a connection to the internet. Humans are spending hours upon hours scrolling through feeds, reading blogs, and interacting online. 

The use of blogs, spaces to leave reviews, and influencer product giveaways all play a crucial role in achieving WOM. Social media users enjoy leaving reviews for products and services, positive and negative, anywhere that they can. Whether it be through commenting on a company’s social media page, leaving reviews on Google, or sharing an experience through a social media post, the internet propels word-of-mouth marketing at lightning speed. The news about a product can spread through conversations and interactions on the internet within seconds to billions of people around the globe. 

Importance of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing is important because it’s essentially what gives a business a distinguished and exceptional reputation which in turn generates even more businesses. WOM increases a company’s sales and boosts brand recognition so customer’s want to come back for more. It’s the financially savvy way for a business to advertise their products and services. Marketing campaigns come in many forms and can cost businesses millions of dollars, but facilitating WOM is the fiscally smart way to boost brand recognition and gain clientele. 

WOM Facts to Remember

Word-of-mouth marketing is a marketing strategy that is propelled by the customers. It is when consumers share their positive experiences about a company and their products and services. It can be seen as a hands-off marketing approach, but the bottom line is that businesses must foster a satisfactory environment for customers in order to give customers a favorable experience to share with others. WOM is spread quite literally through the word-of-mouth conversations consumers have with their family and friends, but it can also occur online through the use of digital interactions. Word-of-mouth marketing is cost-effective and one of the most successful and trustworthy marketing campaigns.