Sara: “Hey, your hair looks amazing today, I am afraid that must have cost you a fortune.” Eliza: “Thanks, Sara. I went to the new salon on 4th Avenue yesterday, but all this is in just $14.” Sara: “Don’t joke around Eliza!!” Eliza: “You don’t believe until you go.” (Sara visited the Salon the next day.) The conversation above between two friends is known as Word of Mouth Marketing. In literal words, Word of Mouth Marketing is the unpaid marketing which is done by the existing, satisfied customers to their friends and family. This marketing carries a lot of importance as it a no-cost, yet most effective advertisement done by their existing customers.  With the rapid increase of online marketing people sometimes gets encountered with fraud. Thus, they only trust the views and reviews of the people they trust. According to a study by Nielsen, 92% of the people only buy a product if it is recommended by the people they know.  Therefore, the satisfaction of existing customers also matters the most as the incoming of new customers depends upon the existing ones.  Word of Mouth is all about creating a buzz.  The traditional word of mouth consists of where there is only sharing of words (recommending services/products) between two or more people. But in this digital era where everything is done online from booking tickets to consulting with the doctors, so why not word of mouth marketing? These days’ online businesses launch their referral program to promote and recommend their services via social media platforms.  If you choose to launch a referral program for your business, you will minimize the manual work and also make all the recommending interactive. Your consumers will get the benefit as a referral program is all about giving out rewards. Your consumers will get rewarded on sharing the referral program with their friends and in return, you will get new customers (friends of your customers).   Further in this blog, we will learn about how word of mouth marketing works.

How does Word Of Mouth Marketing work:

According to a study of 2011, researchers derived the psychological side of Word of Mouth Marketing. Merely a word of a consumer can impact the psychology of the other person to whom the consumer promote a specific brand. In other words, it’s not only the promotion of a product but also consumers imitate each other by following a social paradigm. It can either shoot or deplete a brand’s growth immediately. By sharing information on a specific product, a consumer can either take the other person towards or away from the brand. Let’s understand it better with the help of the following model : WOM influences a customer to share information about a specific product to other people. That means the other person adopts the buying decision listening to the information. The model represents how this buying decision takes place. The central influence of marketing is the argument or information quality that your loyal consumers share with others. Therefore in-depth information about your brand can influence the other person.  WOM works on a simple phenomenon:  Make your existing customers happy and catch hold of new ones Your loyal customers are your biggest assets and work as credible sources for you.

How to use Word of Mouth Marketing :

You can have millions of followers but still, your brand is not getting attention. Why? Because your success must not be defined by some count of numbers. Who holds the pillars of your brand success is your supporters or loyal customers. You must aim to gain them in order to earn success.  What are the steps to generate Word of Mouth Marketing :

#1: Help others to help yourself: 

It is not just a saying but it can work wonders in every aspect of our life. Similarly, You can help your customers and help yourself better with it.  You must educate your customers about your brand and selling your product must be your secondary concern. An enriched content can pull people towards you like a magnet.

2# Support customers unconditionally:

Work towards providing exceptional customer service. Build trust with your existing customers who will, later on, become your supporters only if you listen to their queries and resolving them with patience and resilience

3# Share product ratings and reviews:

Ratings and reviews on your site are social proof of your success. They grab people’s eyeballs more than any other thing. Therefore get your reviews shared by your loyal customers and you are ready to pull in more customers.

4# Offer great incentives:

Offer some value to your customers so that they can refer your brand to other people. Everyone likes rewards and so does your customers. They would value you more and give you more referrals. Therefore, As mentioned above Referral Marketing is refined and sorted out the method of Word of Mouth Marketing. InviteReferrals provide an exuberant automation software that lets you track your referral programs. You can easily track your referrals, manage rewards and coupons without any chaos.

4# Create a formal referral program:

A formal referral program will make your task easy at hand.

• It will help in propagating your message much easier.
• It will give incentives to both parties. i.e. referral and referee.
• It will help in measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns.

 

5#Connect with Industry influencers:

Influencers are people who are already associated with the brand and can influence other people more effectively. An influencer can transform your Word of Mouth Marketing strategies in a quick wit. look at the word of mouth marketing statistics and you will be amazed how influencers can affect others decisions :

• 40% of people purchase an item online after seeing influencer’s viewpoints on social media.
• 49% of people say they depend on influencers’ recommendations while making decisions.
• 73% of marketers say that they lay a specific allocated budget for influencer marketing.

 

6# Adopt affiliate marketing:

Affiliates are the bloggers, publishers or organizations that can help in boosting your popularity. They can uplift sales for your product by promoting it on social media channels. Remember Affiliate marketing is the most cost-effective source for promoting your brand.

 How Word Of Mouth Marketing is beneficial for you :

 

• Builds trust: Buyers generally trust their close friends and associates who are also known as referrals before buying any product. Therefore, more than any other advertising stuff. Buyers rely more on referrals recommendations.

 

• Pays more rewards: Referral marketing pays more rewards and stability than traditional marketing methods. Calling people and influencing them to buy their products won’t work as much as referral and influencer marketing does. 

 

•  low-cost maintenance and high profitability: As mentioned above, Affiliate marketing and Referral Marketing are great sources for propagating the relevant message for your brand. Also, they involve lower costs.

 

• Expandability: Smaller businesses can expand themselves by letting their name flair in the air through low-cost marketing strategies.

Use the above tips and take advantage of the innumerable benefits of Word of Mouth Marketing strategy to boost your sales and uplift your brand value.