What’s Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM)? To be very concise, it is free advertising based on customer experience. Customers who are happy with the brand talk about its products and services. This includes friends, family, and people who fall into their network. Studies show that Word of Mouth marketing strategy is one the most powerful forms of advertising. Approximately 92% of consumers trust their friends’ recommendations over other forms of media. In its very modern sense, WOMM includes both targeted efforts as well as organic promotion of the brand.
Organic Vs. Amplified Word of Mouth Marketing
There are two types of word-of-mouth marketing strategies. Organic word of mouth is a natural process where people promote a brand if they like it. They talk about the brand enthusiastically. This comes from within due to personal liking.
Amplified word of mouth refers to campaigns that a brand pursues to speed up the process of WOMM.
Brand promotion through WOM Referrals
It’s understood that any customer would talk about the brand only if they’re happy with it. WOMM works when the customers are happy. Anything negative and there could be negative consequences at that very instant.
Customers who have already received good products and services turn out to be the best recommendations a brand can pass on to potential customers in the community. Those who don’t know anything about the brand might be very hesitant to get involved with it. So, it’s always best to keep customers happy. They pass along a positive message. Plus, they talk from personal experience. That counts as authentic reviews for someone who has never visited the brand before. We have listed some ways in which WOM Referrals turn out to be productive:
1. Sell good products
Brands cannot run successful marketing campaigns if their products are not good enough to please their existing customers. Remember, selling quality products is crucial. It leaves the customer happy and promises better returns in the future. Anyone can work on building a good office. It might have all the necessary staff to take care of specific tasks. But if the product is not good, the customer will not visit the brand anymore. Plus, they might spread negative word of mouth in the community, which would hamper the brand. With good products, the customer also looks for good service. Make sure to make them both happen. It builds the brand over time, paving the way for its success.
2. Create a well functional website
Considering online trends in shopping nowadays, people get easily frustrated if the website or online platform is not smooth and glitch-free. It becomes important to make the eCommerce site and ordering process easy and compatible on any device. This way, people can access products from any device and it’ll be easier for them to place orders. People will become permanent customers and spread brand referrals in their network, hence promoting WOMM.
Amplify Your Brand,
One Influence at a Time.
3. Take care of delivery operations
Loqate reports claim that 49% of consumers shop online more only if they are confident about the delivery process. According to the same reports, bad delivery rates make 57% of the total consumers reluctant to shop from the brand again.
Manage sales and keep track of products that are sold online. Make sure to maintain operations for on-time deliveries. Also, it’s important to be responsive to queries that the customer poses. Resolving them as soon as possible makes the customer believe in the brand’s service even if mishaps occur.
4. Handle customer interaction responsibly
Whenever customers engage with a brand, they do so in the hope of getting direct support from customer executives in case they need assistance. Every customer interacts in a different differently in motion and puts every customer first.
Sometimes, brands like KFC convert negative customer feedback to introduce a new item on their menu. It’s the ability of a brand to a marketing campaign, especially one that covers past mistakes.
5. Make your brand unique
The market is full of products that can be replicated, or the idea behind them can be the same. That increases competition in the market. Further, this makes it difficult for the brand to please customers. Customers are attracted to unique and innovative ideas. If the idea is unique, the brand stands out.
If it’s about something the customer cannot get anywhere, they’re forced to talk about it with others, helping in WOMM for the brand.
One way is to send emails about the brand’s progress in the market to the community at large from time to time. Highlight success, and highlight why. Give them interactive experiences. The customer would return, that too with more than just a desire to buy the product.
6. Encourage UGC (user-generated content)
One very good example of this is online video shopping. Through this, customers who bought the product post a video on it. It works like video reviews. Video reviews by customers authenticate the product and encourage other people to buy it. It also builds trust and supports marketers in their campaigns. And this trust can help in word-of-mouth marketing.
How can a brand get users to generate content? Start working with a unique hashtag on social media platforms. Ask users to use that hashtag in their videos, and incentivize this whole process. This can be done through lucky draws that choose a random winner if they enter the contest. Increase engagement with the audience by posting this content on the brand’s social media handles.
Image Source: Vecteezy
Check out our article on online video shopping to learn how it works.
7. Work on ratings and reviews
The brand must use better products in the future. Negative feedback should be used positively to know how the product is being received in the market. It’s an effort towards creating a buzz and converting negative feedback into positive experiences for customers. Online reviews reflect how the brand is going to continue in the future. Every customer who goes online and learns more about any product goes through the whole portfolio before making any purchase. In current timers, people read 7 reviews before trusting any brand or business. That is an increase from previous market trends. For them, online reviews are like personal recommendations. Better the The better the profit. That’s the mantra every brand should follow consistently. It’s also good to display those reviews on the brand’s website and other marketplaces. They can be in the form of written reviews and average star ratings. These reviews give good products more attention, while those products with bad reviews get a chance to make them better for consumer use.
8. Announce an Official Referral Program
Give rewards to those customers who bring in more people to the brand. For instance, Uber India gives coupons and special discounts on every sign-up that is made through the user’s invite code. It motivates them to refer the brand to others for rewards! This marketing strategy takes the burden off of marketers and promoters, who get extra helping hands. This might be a random system, but it sure adds on those people too are connected with the brand. For this, make sure that you keep your customers in touch with daily or weekly updates about the brand. Never let them wait or forget, nudge them to refer to your brand. Take every opportunity.
WOMM through Influencer Marketing
Influencers have a strong social media presence. This puts their promotion at an advantage over traditional marketing strategies. 49% of people rely on influencer recommendations while making a purchase.
How do you involve influencers in WOMM? There are many ways in which it can get done. For instance, sending influencers free products is something the brand can start with. Now, influencers receive many free products, so make something that’s irresistible to talk about.
Another way is to connect your brand with a worthy cause. Just recently pride Month received an overwhelming response. Every year, famous brands join the cause by manufacturing specialized merchandise representing the LGBTQ Community. This way, the cause gets more support and gives a bigger platform to the brand too.
Why choose WOMM?
Competition in the market is getting tougher day by day. As this is happening, brands are running out of new ways to generate online sales. Everything is on the plate but is being used by everyone. However, as people are moving forward, they are leaving behind essential strategies. For a human, the community brings a sense of purpose. And so, even if word of mouth word-of-mouth is neglected, it still has a lot of potential to spark profits over time.
Join Hobo.Video
Whether you’re a Creator, an Influencer, a brand, Hobo.Video caters to all your needs. Hobo’s outreach covers every potential influencer and influencer there. Influencers can create a video experience that is unique and understandable to their followers. We know how community building is important these days, and we work on the same strategy. On Hobo.Video, you get to be a part of the larger community. A community that works on brand collaborations and influencer marketing strategy. Brands get influencers specific to their niche, as well as can use WOMM to promote the products.
Visit Hobo.Video and explore!
Kunal