What is Word Of Mouth Marketing?
Word Of Mouth Marketing, popularly known as WOMM, is basically a form of free advertising generated by people sharing with others the experience of using a product or service.
WOMM seeks to actively influence people to generate an organic discussion or conversation about an event, brand, etc.
Why is WOMM Marketing Important?
Human beings, by their nature, need to communicate with each other; it is an innate impulse. This need makes them pass information from one to another.
People trust their friends, family, acquaintances, etc. This is why WOMM is the most powerful and inexhaustible source of marketing.
In fact, if people have to choose between the opinion or recommendation of a stranger and that of a friend, most of the time they will choose the latter, and that interaction will be passed from one person to another and so on.
In the same way Word of Mouth Marketing or Word of Mouth Advertising works, it creates advertising that generates comments and then actively drives conversation among people to increase traffic, attract more potential customers and get more sales from a brand.
Word of Mouth Marketing strategies
To build a successful Word of Mouth Marketing strategy, the key is creativity. Each campaign must be created uniquely and ingeniously.
Before knowing which are the most effective WOMM strategies nowadays, it is important to point out that there are two main elements that should not be missing:
- Create something that really sparks commentary.
- Promote organic buzz.
These two factors are the indispensable combination to carry out the strategies mentioned below:
Influencers
Incorporating influencers into your WOMM campaign is the best and effective strategy in 2021.
In this era where almost everything revolves around the internet, e-commerce has skyrocketed; most people follow some influencers and like to share with others their information and the products or services they recommend.
To use this strategy, you can send a rumor through an influencer, which will multiply your message quickly and will make people talk about it. If you want a product or service to be placed in your publication, you usually pay a price that has the advantage that you can control the time and the way it will be shared.
Visual Triggers
Designing an impressive website for visitors to see is undoubtedly a great strategy to talk about and advertise your brand; with the number of tools and visual resources that exist, you can certainly leave a good impression if you set your mind to it.
Trends
Connecting the promotion of your products or services with trends or trending topics is a WOMM strategy that can attract more attention to them.
Emotions
Seeking to sensitize people to provoke conversations between them and your company or with other people or institutions can help you promote your brand.
Referral Marketing
This type of strategy consists of one person referring your product or service to another in exchange for something like a discount coupon.
Affiliate Marketing
This refers to the strategy of paying people an incentive to sell your products or services. See here more information about Affiliate Marketing, learn here how to create an income with affiliate marketing.
User-created content
Another current way to do Word Of Mouth Marketing is using content generated by users; for example, if they bought your product, ask them to upload an image to a social network and tag your brand, another case may be to use a customer review, and you share it with others.
Sweepstakes
To grow your business and raise awareness of your brand, you can hold sweepstakes offering prizes with conditions for participation, such as asking people to tag three friends, follow your account, or create some original content.
Word of Mouth Marketing examples.
Some examples of successful Word of Mouth Marketing strategies are the following:
Dropbox
For many, an unforgettable WOMM strategy was when Dropbox asked its customers to tell their friends to use its services with a referral link and, in return, offered them 500 MB of additional storage for both sender and receiver. At the time, that amount was sky high and extremely attractive to users.
TOMS
This shoe company boosted its sales and achieved fame with its One-for-One WOMM campaign.
This strategy consists of promoting a charity where the consumer, with the purchase of a pair of shoes, helps TOMS to donate a pair to a child in need.
Coca-Cola
Another example of this type of strategy that gave much to talk about and boosted the brand was created by Coca-Cola with the #ShareACoke campaign, which consisted of replacing the name of the brand with that of the two hundred and fifty most popular American names of the moment. Then, they were asked to share the drink with their friends and post it on all social networks.
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
One of the most viral campaigns in history and one that is still talked about today is the famous Ice Bucket Challenge, created to raise awareness of motor neuron disease and followed by millions of people around the world and by well-known personalities.