Word of mouth marketing is frequently overlooked by business owners and members of company marketing departments, and is more often than not seen as one of the less effective techniques when promoting a product or service.
People forget that buyers are probably more likely to trust a referral, assuming others were happy with what a business has provided them with, rather than just going off the likes of a leaflet. According to Nielson's Global Trust in Advertising, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other form of marketing!
Cold calling has always been a go-to marketing technique for many businesses in many industries. However, in previous years, a recorded 209 million people have been listed on the Do Not Call registry. That's a lot of people not being exposed to a lot of companies! So, alternatively, word of mouth marketing is a great way of reaching this large group, and for a low cost.
Essentially word of mouth marketing is getting your customers to do your marketing for you, with recommendations helping you to build a positive brand and increase overall brand awareness.
Here's how your company can achieve this:
1) Competition
No matter what industry you are in, being aware of your competition, their whereabouts, and their actions is vital. You should always be one step ahead, and always be asking yourself, what can you do to be better than them?
Identifying their weaknesses early on and using these to your advantage, making your company unique and memorable, is what will strengthen your word of mouth marketing. In order to achieve great word of mouth marketing you must provide something people will talk about with their family and friends, as opposed to them discussing your competitors.
2) Customer Service
Another way of significantly improving your word of mouth marketing is by focusing heavily on the customer service and customer experience, not just on the product. Evidently, your product needs to stand out from the rest, however, do not underestimate the importance of your staff's people skills. Customers are very unlikely to recommend an average service, so the training in this department for your team members should never be neglected, making sure only the very best service is given.
3) Audience
Fully understanding your target audience is crucial when it comes to word of mouth marketing. The only way of achieving what they regard as 'greatness,' is if you provide exactly what they like, want and most importantly, need.
To understand the depth of the needs of your customers you must take the time to research. Nothing good comes easy, and this very much applies to word of mouth marketing.
- What social media sites does the majority of your audience use?
- Where are the majority of your audience based?
- What ages/gender are you mostly targeting?
4) Rewards
There's not many things people would do for you for free, and recommending your service to family and friends probably applies to this too. That's why it is so important to provide incentives for referrals. An example of this would be to give 10% off the customer's next order if they get a friend to sign up to your newsletter. Another example of this would be for a car wash business, offering a customer their next wash FREE if they recommend to a friend.
5) Exclusivity
Exclusivity is a long term strategy that inspires and drives loyalty from customers. By switching the focus from selling to informing, and by concentrating on the company culture, customer experience, and a high quality product or service, you are adopting a marketing technique that many of your competitors will not have.
Exclusivity is about making people feel important and as though they're part of an exclusive group. Including advertising copy such as “we're not for everyone,” and “membership has its privileges,” often has a very positive effect as people enjoy the idea that not everyone has what they have.
This style of marketing gains attraction from people that are likely to put word of mouth marketing into practice and tell their friends and family.
6) Influencers
Especially today more than ever, engaging with influencers is a fantastic way to achieve successful word of mouth marketing for your company and brand. This is a hugely popular form of word of mouth marketing, and marketing in general, especially on Instagram and Twitter!
Even just a small, subtle recommendation or product placement made by the likes of celebrities, bloggers and people with a large social media following can have the greatest impact on your company's sales. Engaging with influencers could be the difference between you being a small unknown firm, to becoming a globally recognised brand.
Hopefully this article has helped inform you of a few techniques in order to achieve successful word of mouth marketing! If you have any queries, please comment below or call us on 01332 343281 for an informal chat.
