In this increasingly competitive business world, having a stunning web design and exceptional content is no longer enough for you to stand out. Ad spaces are getting more expensive, so it’s important to be extremely smart about where you spend your money on. One of the simplest ways you can cut back on advertising costs is by improving word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM). Thanks to the internet and social media, WOMM is easier now than ever.
What are some of the advantages of Word-of-Mouth Marketing?
If you’re ready to focus on word-of-mouth marketing for your next campaign, here are some tips to help you do it successfully.
Before you can even start working on your WOM strategies, you’d want to invest in topnotch customer experience first. After all, customers don’t talk about average experiences, they only talk about the positive and the negative ones.
According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other type of advertising. With a stat that powerful, you’d want to get your customers raving about your product at all times. However, it is hard to convince people to refer their family and friends if their experience was average, so you’d want to go above and beyond every customer’s expectations to ensure that the experience will be share-worthy in a positive way.
Aside from selling quality products and service, you want to meet your customer’s needs in every department. Factors such as timely responses and fast shipping are just a few qualities a customer expects when doing business with you.
Often, user-generated content receives more engagement than posts which are purely promotional. It adds a human touch that helps build trust towards your brand.
User-generated content is an important tool for marketers to learn because it helps you develop a deep connection with your audience, driving them to promote your product or service even without you asking for it. It allows you to leverage on your customers’ loyalty and turn them into brand advocates.
A deeply-engaged community in social media is essential for a successful word-of-mouth campaign. You’ll need to know where your customers are and how they like to communicate online. You’ll find that some people prefer spending a lot of time on platforms like Pinterest or Instagram rather than Facebook or Twitter, so you need to do a bit of research to find where your target audience is.
While you’re at it, be sure to respond promptly to questions and comments, whether positive or negative. Acknowledging your audience adds personality to your brand, and also shows your customers that you actually care about them.
Below is an example of a great response by Cadbury.
For people to get talking about your brand, you need to bring them something worth sharing with their friends and families. To achieve this, you need to think outside the box and step up your marketing game.
Perhaps one of the best examples for this is Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign. The company effectively prompted consumers to use the #ShareaCoke hashtag and upload their own photos and stories. It was a whole level of advertising in that it created a stronger connection between Coca Cola and its consumers and encouraged a lot of user-generated content. Ultimately, the consumers themselves ended up doing the advertising work for Coca Cola although it didn’t seem like it.
Photo Credit: Coca-colacompany.com
Did you know that only 33% of businesses are collecting reviews? Unfortunately, this leaves the remaining 77% losing out on a lot of sales.
If you don’t believe it, check out these stats from the 2017 Customer Review Survey by BrightLocal.
Today’s savvy consumers are looking beyond the testimonials you post on your website. In fact, they take utmost care in looking for online reviews to get an insight of how your business operates before they do business with you.
Because manipulative reviews are rampant on Yelp and Google, it’s important to pay close attention to less-traveled customer complaint sites such as My3Cents and Hissing Kitty. Having your presence in these third-party platforms gives your customers the impression that you’re not hiding anything. Moreover, it allows you to track complaints before they escalate.
Sometimes, your customers may need a little push. You must give them reasons to actually want to share your product or service with others, and you can usually achieve that when you offer something in return. Here are some simple rewards you can offer your customers that could drive them to talk about your product or service.
According to a joint research by Annalect and Twitter, influencers affect about 49% of customers when it comes to making purchase decisions. Moreover, 40% of customers admit to buying a product after seeing an influencer use them.
When choosing your influencer, it’s important to pick someone who has at least 10,000 followers. However, aside from choosing someone who is very popular, you’d want to pick someone who has integrity.
This is one great example of using influencer effectively.
When done correctly, WOMM can be one of the best tools you can use to raise awareness about your brand. By applying our 7 tips, you’ll be able to reach a larger audience and ultimately increase sales and customer retention.
