4 Effective Word-of-Mouth Marketing Tips to Grow Your Business
By: Nitish Menon
Tags: Psychology, Customer Experience, Marketing, Business, Startup

“The best advertising is done by satisfied customers.” ― Philip Kotler

We would all love to imagine a world where customers are buzzing about your product, without you having to drown millions of dollars on marketing spend. They snap, tweet, post, and hashtag about your product, while also raving to friends and family on the benefits and features of the product. They take a step further, to actually recommend your product, sometimes even posing as the brand ambassador for it.

Great world, right?

If only it were that simple.

Maybe it is. Read on to know how you can turn this imaginary world into a reality.

The Holy Grail

Word-of-Mouth (WOM) is considered as the holy grail of marketing because it provides you with the two ultimate forms of brand validation — social recognition and trust. Customers tend to buy products by trusting recommendations made by other people. Your satisfied customers vouch for your product(s) and signal to others that you are worthy of their hard-earned dollars. Another great thing about Word-of-Mouth marketing is that it paves the foundation for brand loyalty, an anomaly in our extremely choice-filled lives. And the best part? It’s free.

Think of Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOMM) as a snowball effect. You start off with a small, interesting impression your product creates on a customer. That impressed customers then spread the word to more people. Before you know it, you are creating a mega-brand name for your product.

Numbers Don’t Lie

Customers love to hear about other shopper’s experiences. Nearly 95% of people read reviews before reaching a purchase decision. Yes, myself included. Your comments, ratings, and reviews can be the clincher when it comes to transforming a prospective buyer into an actual customer of your product. Word-of-Mouth marketing helps in building a community and not a commodity, it builds an engaged fan base rather than a buy and bolt customer.

According to Statista, close to 45% of people rely on customer reviews in their search process, only falling second to Google search. Similarly, a seminal McKinsey study revealed that word of mouth influences 50% of purchase decisions throughout the customers’ journey, generates sales more than twice that of paid media, and is the most disruptive to consumer decisions.

Hopefully, the numbers speak for themselves, which saves me the trouble of stressing how important Word-of-Mouth actually is in marketing.

Execution Strategies

There are numerous ways you can increase the Word-of-Mouth for your business. The right strategy can set you apart from the rest and invites a steady stream of future referrals in order to complete the cycle.

There are several Word-of-Mouth channels available today, namely, reviews, partner programs, influencer programs, and affiliate marketing. Whichever channel you choose, you will need to build a strategy around it, while also measuring its impact.

But, how do you get them talking about your brand?

Here are four Word-of-Mouth marketing tactics you may want to consider:

1. Deliver an outstanding customer experience

People almost often talk about the moments of surprise and delight, where a brand went above and beyond their expectations to make their experience memorable. You must make every brand interaction, right from discovery to purchase, and everything in between, seamless and enjoyable. Why? To ensure the whole customer experience is simple, convenient, and delivered with utmost care.

You might have noticed the rage tweets and poor reviews posted by customers to a brand that lacks customer service more than a faulty product. People want to feel special and be heard. For example, The Sol Wave House in Spain constantly engages with their guests on Twitter before and during their stay providing them with immediate customer service. This bridges the communication gap and conflicts (if any) are resolved almost immediately.

Pro tip: They allow guests to get poolside drinks using the #poolbarorder hashtag. Sign me up.

2. Celebrate your customers

A great way to celebrate your customers is leveraging user-generated content (UGC) for your business. UGC offers rich new storytelling opportunities, and which strengthens your relationship with current and potential customers. There is no higher compliment than a satisfied customer documenting their positive product experience via texts, emails, and social media. Their vouch is critical because they valued your product enough to announce their review of it to the masses.

Airbnb, for example, harnesses UGC effectively to improve brand trust and resonance. Asking for their opinion on important brand decisions like the one above, builds trust, and creates a sense of community. Your marketing will feel more like “us” instead of “you” (the marketer), and “them” (the customer). How does this help? Your customer now feels welcomed into the community, which prompts a positive image of the brand in the eyes of the customer.

3. Use emotional provocation

Tapping into people’s emotions can be a very powerful tool for getting people to talk about your business. People tend to respond to emotion. If you can generate some sort of emotion from your customers, you are likely to get them to share their experiences with others. People usually share happy, sad, angry, and funny reviews because their emotions lead them to do so. If you think about it, reviews are either good or bad. Let’s just agree to disregard the confusing ones.

Emotional provocation can be done effectively by taking something you believe in and tying your brand close to it. This strategy wouldn’t work if you don’t link this content onto your brand's social media pages, your website, and anywhere else you possibly can.

BigCommerce retailer Ben & Jerry’s does this exceptionally well by attaching themselves to a cause they passionately believe in — environmentalism. The buzz is built into the very soul of the company. Every time a customer buys an ice-cream, they are advertising for the brand’s social message. When doing good is on the line, people are eager to spread the word any way they can.

4. Reward your loyal users

Consider offering real-time and long-term rewards to your most loyal customers. They want to be recognized and rewarded for their loyalty. A few good ideas here are offering special discounts, conducting UGC contests, and offering other loyalty and affiliate programs. Giveaways are always positively received by your customers, giving them a greater reason to spread the word. Don’t believe me? A Neilson report states that 84% of customers are more likely to stay loyal to a brand that offers competitive loyalty programs.

A good example here is Caravelle Resort, which launched a quarterly #HappyGuest campaign where one lucky winner is chosen for a free 2-night stay at their resort.

North Face sets the benchmark when it comes to loyalty programs, by offering customers traditional purchase rewards. What’s great is that they also accept points for attending North Face events, downloading their app, and checking in at one of their retail locations. These points can be redeemed for either products or travel experiences to different parts of the world. Now, who wouldn’t want such a deal?