Word-of-mouth advertising (or WOM) is a marketing strategy that uses those closest contacts and their experience as users of our company.
In addition, it motivates them to share their references with their friends, family, or work colleagues since people usually trust more in the opinions and recommendations of their relatives, friends, neighbors, or colleagues when it comes to buying a product or hiring a service.
Those opinions and referrals from a close contact are the greatest source of promotion for any business and are at the heart of what we call a "word-of-mouth" marketing strategy.
The effectiveness of word-of-mouth advertising is exceptional, because, according to statistics, it generates 65% more trust in the consumer.
Wisely use "word-of-mouth"?
The "word-of-mouth" marketing strategy has come to revolutionize promotion programs such as referral marketing.
Recommendations are essential for referral marketing and thanks to "word-of-mouth", they can reach more and more potential customers.
Despite this advantage, word-of-mouth advertising requires work and a lot of knowledge in the area of marketing. Elements of inbound marketing such as product marketing, content creation, and social media marketing need to be used together.
What should we take into account when promoting a word-of-mouth advertising strategy?
1. Know your product or service and your company well
Know the pros and cons of your company and your product or service. Your entire advertising team, customer service team, and other collaborators should be involved in word-of-mouth marketing campaigns.
We must analyze the competitors and their points in common with our company. In addition, let's get closer to our audience to find out what reaction they have to our offer, to always work for their tastes and needs with pleasure.
2. Build a real relationship with your potential customers
A deep understanding of your target audience and how they communicate, in addition to their tastes, needs, and preferences, is essential to know what recommendations we will obtain.
For this, social networks will serve us, since we will be able to create a more solid communication and, therefore, a community.
We must do deep research and look at which niches to target in particular.
3. Let's take advantage of exclusivity
Promoting recommendations from those who have access to our service or product, especially in the early stages of development when it has just been launched on the market, is a way to take advantage of exclusivity in favor of "word-of-mouth".
4. Let's highlight the value of our offer
Brands that add value by providing unparalleled customer service success through word-of-mouth
Adding value is also one of the best ways to earn the goodwill of a customer. So if you can offer value you may just earn a positive customer review and increase word-of-mouth.
5. Let's take advantage of emotions
Emotional bonds are one of the biggest drivers of word-of-mouth marketing.
We need to share emotional content and stories that help us make people instinctively want to share them with others. Therefore, if you can create experiences that elicit positive emotions, word-of-mouth efforts can go a long way.