Did you know that people trust a brand up to 50 times more than ads when friends or family recommend it, that 70% of people believe in consumer opinions, and that customers acquired via word-of-mouth marketing spend 200% more than your average customers? Did you know that word-of-mouth impression brings in 5X more sales than a paid media impression?

Yes, people trust real people than advertising, even if they are strangers. And the prospects that are brought in are already primed to purchase. This is the power of word-of-mouth marketing. It gets people talking about your brand. And this effect ripples in today’s hyper-connected world. However, a vast majority of businesses today ignore it. This blog lets you know the strategies to be employed for effective word-of-mouth marketing.

What is Word of Mouth Marketing?

Word-of-mouth refers to the naturally occurring instances where happy customers spread the word about a product or brand to their circle. In word-of-mouth marketing, the word-of-mouth spread of a brand is influenced or encouraged by that brand.

It isn’t a new. It has existed for ages, even before the written word came into being. However, unlike the traditional method which was done in the real world, the modern word-of-mouth marketing is carried out over social media. And, due to the lightning-fast spread of news and information in social networks, the modern one is highly successful.

Important Statistics of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Here are a few stats that convey the significance of word-of-mouth marketing.

• Studies have proved that 90% of people place the highest level of trust in word-of-mouth recommendations from family and friends and 70% believe in consumer opinions more than ads of any type.
• Before buying a product, 62% of consumers search online for information and reviews.
• Brands inspiring a higher emotional intensity gain 3X as much word-of-mouth promotion as brands that are less emotionally connected.
• According to 28% of consumers, word-of-mouth is the most vital factor in eroding or reinforcing brand affinity.
• Only 33% of brands are actively seeking and gathering reviews.
• 64% of marketing executives in a study said that word-of-mouth is the most successful form of marketing.
• 82% of marketers in a study said that they employ word-of-mouth marketing to increase their brand awareness and 43% to increase their direct sales.

All these stats suggest how much consumers and marketers value word-of-mouth than any other marketing. So, businesses that haven’t yet employed this tactic should start using it at the earliest to stay ahead of the competition. And even those brands that are utilizing this marketing technique would benefit from knowing what works and what doesn’t. So, read on to know those.

Effective Word-of-Mouth Strategies for Your Business

1. Motivate User Generated Content

User-generated content is content created and shared by consumers about products or brands. It can take many forms such as videos, pictures, reviews, blogs, testimonials, comments, etc. Due to its authentic nature, people tend to trust it. 86% of millennials believe that UGC is an acceptable measure of a brand’s quality. UGC videos can boost sales effectiveness by 20%.

Your brand can get users to generate content by incentivizing creating and sharing GIFs, blogs, reviews, images, videos, etc. on social media. Your incentive can be a discount, added feature, or gift. You should prominently showcase such user-generated content on your website. Also, have a unique hashtag to identify your UGC.

2. Use Social Proof

Studies say that 79% of consumers trust online reviews and testimonials just as they would trust personal word-of-mouth recommendations. They reassure the quality, value, and/or performance of your claims and convince people to buy your products/services. A study shows that having just 5 reviews can increase the chances of purchase by 270%. So, encourage your customers to share testimonials about how they have benefitted from your products/services in text or video format.

You can host these on your site as well as provide links to those on popular review sites. You can also ask your customers for giving you positive ratings on review sites. Also use your reviews and testimonials in your lead generation content, dedicated site page, and relevant product/service page.

3. Facilitate Product Ratings on Your Site

Empower your customers to rate or review particular products/services directly on your site. Ecommerce sites specifically would find this useful. Feedbacks from customers provide valuable insight into your products or services. Having reviews on your site can also improve SEO as reviewers tend to use your keywords over and again. Even bad reviews can be good as people perceive such sites to be credible over those that have only praised reviews.

Studies say that 63% of visitors tend to purchase when a website has ratings/reviews. Further, customer reviews are trusted 12 times more than the brand’s descriptions. So, having reviews can increase sales by 18%. You can get your customers to rate or review your brand by asking them for those over emails. Make sure that the process is absolutely quick and easy for your customers.

4. Employ Influencer Marketing

Ecommerce brands can induce awareness and promote their brand by getting niche-related influencers on Facebook and YouTube to talk about them. You’ll need to pay the influencer to feature your product on social networks. And since you are paying them, you’ll have a certain degree of control over the post they create.

Many people report that they rely on recommendations from social media influencers. So, this can help you increase brand awareness and sales. However, it isn’t organic and can be expensive too in the long run. You can try some ways to cut out on the expense. Maybe you can gift them with your products or connect them with a worthy cause to talk about your brand in their social media posts.

5. Offer an Incentive

Give your customers a reason to share your brand with others. This can heighten your word-of-mouth marketing. Your incentive need not be necessarily big, but it should offer some sort of value to your customers. These can take forms like discounts on their next purchases, cash/cash back, a gift, store credits, gift cards, a free subscription period, etc.

You may consider incentivizing both the customer who refers as well as the referral. This kind of double-sided or two-sided rewarding can bring you a lot of successful referrals. Customers will be happy to share your brand as they’ll gain something for their efforts and referrals would be happy to join in because of the incentive they would get from doing so. Further, your advocates will be able to bring in new customers without appearing to be self-serving.

6. Create an Official Referral Program

Sometimes people are happy about your brand, its products, and services. However, they need a little nudge to spread the word about it in their circle.

So, you just need to come up with a referral program and implement it on your landing page. Make sure that it includes the following features-

• Facilitates the quick and easy spread of the word about your brand (Maybe you can include a link or have it in the main navigation).
• Benefits both the customers and the referral (via incentivizing both parties).
• Measures your campaign’s results.

Using a referral or loyalty program app can help you in this regard. ReferralCandy and LoyaltyLion are two of those.

7. Split the Referral Process into Stages

Some brands and businesses have a lengthy buying process. They may have an initial consultation phase, a demo stage, and a trial period before the actual sale. However, such long waiting periods before the customer can get their reward can make them lose interest in making referrals.

In such cases, you can keep your customers motivated by breaking down the whole referral process into stages and rewarding them for each stage they achieve. For instance, you may give a customer $5 when his referral gets in touch with you for an initial consultation, another $5 if the referral uses the trial period, and then $10 if he ultimately makes a purchase.

8. Give Them a Memorable Experience

Remember that the foundations of a good referral program are great products, an exceptional buying experience, and great customer service. For, happy customers become happy word-of-mouth marketing advocates for your brand. So, apart from having high-quality products, your brand should incorporate a wow factor.

You can do this by automating the entire process, providing amazing service and support, having unique images and smooth navigation on your site, surprising packaging and unboxing experience, a personalized thank you note, etc. that they can’t help but keep being reminded of. This will prompt them to share it with their friends, folks, and colleagues. Also, make it a point to ask for reviews and ratings when things are going well. Don’t wait.

9. Create a Memorable and Clean hashtag

We have earlier mentioned the importance of having a social media hashtag for your UGC. While creating a hashtag make sure that it is creative, memorable, and simple. This will help it stick in people’s minds and thus go viral. Here are a few tips to craft a viral hashtag:

• Have a simple few words with a few letters. This will make it easy to share and remember.
• Include branded keywords so that people associate your products with your brand and your brand with your products.
• Capitalize the first letter of each word in your hashtag to help avoid confusion.
• Check all versions of your hashtag across different social media networks to ensure uniqueness and distinctiveness.
• Motivate your followers to use your hashtag by sharing product giveaways, quizzes, or prizes.

10. Employ Captivating Video Content

Many people would love to share video content that they enjoy watching. So come up with moving or entertaining video content that people will watch and share. You can captivate the shoppers’ attention with visually pleasing, quick, and unique video content.

You can use videos to provide a clear description and benefit of your products, or straightaway product promotions or in-store shopping experience highlighting new products, offers, and deals. Whatever you make, ensure that the content is engaging and entertaining for your audience. Just be personable and authentic so that people will connect with your brand and promote it via word-of-mouth marketing.

11. Have a Human Connection

In today’s extensively automated and data-driven world, sometimes, a human touch is the best word-of-mouth marketing strategy to connect with your customers. Brands that tend to be more real with their audience in person or over social media or email or in-person drive actual product confidence.

So, send personal thank you notes to your customers on their recent purchases from you. So monitor keywords and conversations in which your brand has been tagged in social media, and respond to those aptly. Such an authentic marketing connection is all that people look for in a brand. A study found that brands that focus on delivering human experience are likely to make twice the revenue growth of their counterparts that don’t over three years.

Rounding up

People believe in brand recommendations from friends, folks, and consumers. Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful marketing tip that companies cannot afford to neglect. If you haven’t yet started working on a solid word-of-mouth marketing campaign, it’s time you do it. Even if you have one, you would benefit from implementing the strategies that we’ve discussed in this blog. For, these will help you take your word-of-mouth marketing to the next level in the forthcoming days.