Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) remains a potent force in the digital era, influencing opinions and purchasing decisions in subtle yet significant ways. While its outreach might be comparatively small, its impact is disproportionately big, making it a very powerful tool. Unlike its more transactional cousin, referral marketing, WOM marketing evolves through organic interactions and genuine customer experiences. Rather than being designed by a marketing team, it comes fully formed from the mouths and minds of satisfied customers.
This article explores WOM marketing and the different ways to encourage it.
What Is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?
Word-of-mouth marketing is a form of marketing that happens organically from person to person. It begins with a satisfied customer, but can then spread among groups of people who aren’t yet customers. If a respected person suggests a brand, the spread can be surprisingly powerful.
WOM marketing is considered one of the most credible forms of advertising because it is typically unpaid and organic, originating from past and existing customers who genuinely appreciate what a business offers. Even if we’re influenced by ads, we know they’re designed to sell and that they are, by their very nature, dishonest. But if we hear from a person—with no vested interest in a particular brand—that a product or service is good, then we are far more likely to take these claims seriously. These days, WOM marketing can take place online as well as in person.
How WOM Marketing Works
Word-of-mouth marketing occurs through natural interactions among individuals. Brand recommendations can be from friends, family, or colleagues, and may happen in person or via different online platforms. Unlike paid advertising, WOMM is, by nature, organic, free, and highly effective. Its power resides in two factors—first, that it comes naturally from individuals; second, that people understand the individual would only recommend a brand, product, or service if they were genuinely impressed.
While WOMM is organic, that’s not to say that it can’t be influenced and harnessed by businesses to make the most out of it.
Word-of-mouth marketing involves the unpaid, organic spreading of product or service recommendations, primarily driven by customer satisfaction.
Word-of-Mouth Marketing vs Referral Marketing
WOMM and referral marketing both involve individuals endorsing a brand or product, but they are fundamentally different. Referral marketing uses incentives to encourage people to share something, be it a product or an advert. If they share, they may get a discount or some other reward. Those receiving the referral are aware of this, so this exposure doesn’t imply that it genuinely comes recommended from the person who shares it.
As WOMM, in contrast, is organic, it generally represents an authentic recommendation of a brand. A major benefit of referral marketing, however, is that it is measurable and controllable, whereas WOMM is a process that is mostly out of your hands.
Whereas word-of-mouth marketing is an organic, incentive-free practice, referral marketing often uses explicit rewards to drive behaviour.
4 Types of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
While there is only so much you can do to control WOMM, the better you understand it, the more you can influence it. Here are the four different types of WOMM.
Positive Word-of-Mouth
This type is what you’re after, as it enhances brand reputation and encourages new customer acquisition. This can happen in numerous ways, but at its core is really very simple: one satisfied customer tells someone else of their good experience, which acts as a personal endorsement.
Negative Word-of-Mouth
The opposite is negative WOM, where a person speaks poorly of a company or brand, warning other people away from it and sharing stories of negative experiences. This type of WOM can hurt, as people are far more likely to avoid a company that has negatively impacted somebody they know. Unfortunately, it’s more common for people to speak negatively of a company than positively, so negative WOM is easy to come by.
Traditional Word-of-Mouth
This type of WOM refers to face-to-face sharing of information between individuals about a product or service. This may be one friend telling another of their experience, an employee telling their colleagues about a helpful product, or two executives discussing a helpful service. Whatever it is, it’s a very powerful form of marketing as it’s as personal and intimate as marketing can get.
Electronic Word-of-Mouth
Electronic WOM occurs through digital platforms like social media, websites, and email. This has a far greater reach than traditional WOM, but arguably has less impact. If somebody sees something on social media, they are less likely to be moved by it than if they hear about it in person. Nevertheless, due to the potential reach of this kind of WOM, it is still highly useful.
There are four main types of WOM: positive, negative, traditional, and electronic, each affecting brand perception differently.
Word-of-Mouth Marketing Examples
WOM marketing can manifest in various forms, all of which can expand reach and enhance brand reputation. Some of these types are easier to generate and control than others, so it’s worth understanding each and considering how you can integrate them into your business model.
Shout-Outs on Social Media
Social media platforms provide a vast stage for customers to express their brand endorsements, reaching a large audience rapidly. Now, genuine online WOMM is not the same as influencer marketing—as this is paid advertising. Instead, it really is the result of a satisfied customer giving you a mention. Still, this can be gamed a little bit, and it’s well worth trying to get a shout-out from somebody with a large following.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content encourages customers to create content related to their positive experiences, which serves as indirect endorsements. Again, this can be influenced somewhat with a little incentivisation (e.g. giveaways) or even just a request to the community. Often, competitions are utilised to encourage people to create their own content. If you opt for this method, try to keep the incentivisation to a minimum, else you risk undermining the strength of the message.
Employee Advocacy
Employees can be powerful advocates, sharing their inside views and enthusiasm for the brand they work for. Of course, this is not going to be as powerful as someone from outside a company speaking up for it, but it can still carry some weight. This is especially true if your brand is respected and has a good image, which will naturally bolster the words of anyone who works for you.
Reviews and Testimonials
Online reviews and testimonials are crucial, as potential customers often seek out honest reviews before making a purchase decision. The best step you can take to encourage these is to create good products, and follow up with good customer service. Nothing beats a whole bunch of genuinely positive reviews.
Blog Posts and Offline Encounters
Both online blogs and offline, real-life stories about customer experiences help in shaping public perception of a brand. There’s not much you can do to influence this, other than create a good product or service. You can also write blogs and try to have them posted on third-party websites, which looks like positive WOM even if it’s not. But for the most part, this is out of your hands.
Examples of WOM include social media shout-outs, user-generated content, employee advocacy, reviews, and real-life stories.
How Effective Is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?
The effectiveness of WOMM is significant due to its trust-building capabilities and the natural manner in which it integrates into conversations. In fact, WOMM is considered one of, if not the, best forms of marketing around. In terms of conversion from those exposed to those who become customers, WOMM has a massive success rate. Below, we outline why.
Building Trust and Bonding with Customers
WOMM creates trust more effectively than traditional advertising, creating emotional bonds through personal connections and shared experiences. Think about it; if a trusted friend tells you about a brilliant brand, you’re far more likely to believe this than you are an advert paid for by the company themselves.
Cost-Effective With Increased Reach
It is a cost-effective marketing strategy, often yielding better results in terms of reach and conversion compared to paid advertising. True WOMM is free, so it’s about as cost-effective as marketing can be. And reach can be greater than you might at first think. Even these days, news travels fast between individuals and within groups.
More Sales
Ultimately, the increased trust and wider reach contribute to higher sales conversions, as recommendations from friends and family typically carry more weight than other marketing channels. People may even come to you feeling a degree of loyalty. If a respected individual or group in their lives rates your brand highly, they may decide it’s for them before even trying it themselves.
WOMM is highly effective due to its ability to build trust and improve sales through genuine recommendations.
How to Increase Word-of-Mouth Marketing
To enhance WOMM, businesses must focus on customer satisfaction and quality service. Your efforts are far better spent on this than in trying to create fake WOMM. If your company is genuinely brilliant, word will spread, and people will flock to you. Here’s how to influence it.
Create Buyer Personas and Know Your Company
Understanding who your customers are and what they value, such as by creating buyer personas, helps you to craft messages that resonate and encourage sharing. By understanding your customers, you will create products and services that click with them, make them feel understood, and that actually provide something they think they need or want. If you know your customers well enough, you can satisfy them, and they will reward you by talking about you.
What’s more, you should know your own company as well. This might seem obvious, but if you don’t know the strengths and weaknesses of your own brand, then you’ll struggle to communicate convincingly, making you less likely to resonate with customers.
Offer a Standout Customer Experience
From navigating a website to receiving customer support, ensuring every touchpoint is positive is crucial for encouraging WOMM. People really appreciate a good experience, and will often be more positive about this than the product itself. If you can make people feel respected and looked after, you will create loyalty in existing customers and rapidly grow a new customer base through WOM at the same time.
Put Quality First
High-quality products and exceptional service are fundamental to positive WOM. People won’t tell their friends about you if the product or service you offer is average, but they will if you’ve created something genuinely brilliant. So focus on quality—it will eventually pay you back.
Be Unique and Build a Community
Standing out from the competition and creating a sense of community can foster a more substantial, engaged customer base that’s motivated to share their experiences. You can use all sorts of methods to do this, but it’s most easily achieved on social media. Creating and interacting with a community in an organic way is a form of indirect marketing. If you create an identity for yourself, people are far more likely to talk about you.
Evaluate and Improve
Continuously measuring and refining WOMM strategies is key to maintaining its effectiveness. Keep on top of trends, understand how your target audience evolves, and monitor discussions online and, if possible, offline too.
Increasing WOMM involves understanding customers, ensuring quality experiences, and continuously adapting strategies based on feedback.
Word-of-Mouth Marketing: The Power of Happy Customers
Word-of-mouth marketing is, even today, a powerful strategy that revolves around genuine customer satisfaction and organic brand advocacy. You can influence it, but you can’t fake it. You have to be good! By focusing on creating positive experiences and influencing natural customer conversations, businesses can amplify their reach and improve their market standing dramatically. People trust other people more than they trust adverts, so understand this and use it to your advantage!
