Word of Mouth Marketing: A Guide To Build WOM Marketing Strategy

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Consumers have always valued opinions expressed directly to them. But, over the years the consumer-to-consumer channels of communication have changed.

It is now more online and businesses can drive sales and revenue by spreading the word about their products.

Implementing a word of mouth marketing strategy can help you attract, engage and convert customers in the most effective way.

Keep on reading this blog to understand how you can build an impactful WOM marketing strategy. Let’s start with the word of mouth marketing definition.

What Is Word of Mouth Marketing?

To simply define What is Word of Mouth Marketing in words – encouraging users to speak about your brand. Marketers seek out innovative ways to create a brand that is worth talking about. 

Word of mouth marketing, also known as WOM marketing creates an exponential referral chain that contributes towards constant traffic, leads, and sales.

In the end, it all comes down to trust, people are more likely to purchase products their peers have recommended.

How is Social Media Influencing Current WOM Marketing?

Before we get into the ‘how’, let’s understand ‘why’ social media came into the picture as a form of word-of-mouth marketing.

There has been a paradigm shift in how much time social media users spend on the platforms, the kind of content they consume and the kind of people they interact with. For eCommerce brands, a good social media presence has become the holy grail of selling. Word-of-mouth promotion is also known as what businesses call boosting conversions, sales and revenue – all through the use of social media.

People discover and research social media products and trust brands with strong profiles.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the influence of social media on word-of-mouth marketing.

Influencers’ Content

Influencer marketing is just a new term for WOM marketing done by influencers. With a fancy name comes fancy results. These days, influencer marketing sells as they have a massive following. 

They are called influencers for a reason, they have the power to influence a massive audience and build a loyal customer base for the brand. 

Even with paid collaborations, influencers’ content is strong enough to motivate a huge audience. Influencers know their audience and are considered trustworthy. 

Influencers’ content has the power to resonate with the audience and, of course, influence them through word-of-mouth advertising.

Danielle Guizio is a fashion influencer who has been posting luxury brands like Reebok, Levi’s, Vogue, etc., and their new fashion styles. This has led to a buzz about these brands and improved their sales.

User-generated Content

When was the last time you bought a product without looking at reviews? User-generated content is the content produced by existing customers of a brand who have real-life experience with the brand.

They post unfiltered and honest reviews about a product or service. It is the most trusted form of marketing that offers great word of mouth promotions.

User-generated content is the perfect way to boost brand awareness and motivate potential prospects to make favorable purchase decisions. UGC is a well-established marketing canon and a great source of word-of-mouth marketing.

E-commerce brands like Madewell often run UGC campaigns, exploit users’ reviews, repurpose them for multiple marketing touchpoints, and transform users’ content into shoppable galleries.

What is the current scenario of WOM advertising concerning eCommerce?

Traditional marketing has taken a backseat and many advertising channels have seen a significant decrease in their CTR over the last few years. Word-of-mouth marketing is the card eCommerce brands need to play these days. 

With a restrictive budget, eCommerce brands always look for ways to market their products effectively without spending too much. Here, women in marketing come into action. 

A look at some word-of-mouth marketing statistics:

• 40% of leads come from word-of-mouth marketing
• 88% of users trust online reviews from existing customers 
• 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a prominent influencing factor while shopping 
• 18% of Gen X consumers discover new products through word-of-mouth. 

Word Of Mouth Marketing Strategy in 2023

Strategizing through word-of-mouth marketing strategies always works, especially when it comes to marketing. Let’s figure out how to strategically play the word-of-mouth game and win over a massive audience. 

1. Bring social content to your product pages

Leveraging social content in your product detail page gives the customers an idea about the product. Offering raw insights about the product builds users’ trust and further motivates them to finalize their purchase. 

Tagshop’s product page galleries help you collect all the content generated on social media by your users and bring it to your product pages. This helps brands take advantage of word-of-mouth marketing and increase sales.

2. Quantify your sales 

Every marketer is looking for cost-effective ways to market their product. Word-of-mouth marketing works like a chain that interlinks customers and what they have to say about your brand. 

People tell other people about your brand and so on, this is how your customers become brand advocates and do the work for you.

3. Go for the referral approach 

Running a referral program or a reward system for your audience gives them another nudge to make more content for you. 

Freebies are the users’ favorite, and they love getting free stuff. Offer your customers vouchers, discounts, etc. in exchange for reviews. 

This is a great source of retaining customers and increasing lifetime value (LTV). It keeps them connected to the brand and motivates them to keep coming back. 

4. Leverage WOM in multiple marketing touchpoints 

We have the required content but what now? Simply keeping the content to yourself will not do the trick, you need to showcase this content on multiple marketing touchpoints. 

Aggregate and incorporate WOM on multiple channels to motivate more people and generate better content.

Advantages Of Word Of Mouth Marketing

Word-of-mouth when used properly can give out amazing benefits. Want to know how? Continue reading. 

We have listed some benefits of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing that can bring your focus to it. 

1. Free-of-Cost Advertising

The significant part of WOM marketing is that you don’t have to make any investments in advertising. It is all free-of-cost marketing that is organically generated by the users of your brand.

2. Develop Brand Loyalty

If the customers are happy and satisfied with the services provided by your brand, then only they will contribute to word-of-mouth marketing. Happy and satisfied customers will become loyal to your brands as well and will stay with the brand for the long-term.

3. Online Community 

You can build an excellent online brand community through WOM marketing. These members of your brand community can act as your brand advocates on digital media. Utilizing platforms like Skool for community building can enhance this process by providing a structured space for interaction.

The disadvantage of word-of-mouth marketing here can be that negative word-of-mouth about the brand can cause an adverse impact on the community & results.

4. Build Brand’s Social Proof

When customers become your brand advocates, they will help you build trust, reliability, proof of authenticity, and credibility. Social proof is crucial for growing your brand and conversions.

5. Increase Your Conversions & Sales

Most important of all, you can increase eCommerce conversions and sales through positive WOM marketing. So, the facts prove that 9 out of 10 people turn to their friends & peers for a recommendation that influences their online purchase behavior.

Now that we have explored what is WOM Marketing and why it is essential and how word-of-mouth marketing benefits your brand. It is time to formulate a Word-of-mouth marketing strategy that can help you achieve all those and many more benefits.

How to Build a Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategy

It is easy when you want to showcase something to your audience; you have diverse channels and solutions to do that. But triggering a conversation about something among the consumers is a prodigious task.

We have some amazing word-of-mouth marketing ideas that you can use to build impactful word-of-mouth marketing strategies.

1. Highlight Your USP

We have all seen that whenever an innovative or exciting product comes to the market, people start talking about it, do their research, access updates, and more.

Highlighting your unique selling points points can make brand messaging clear for your audience, escalate wom marketing efforts, and effectively boost sales.

You can use this to your advantage by highlighting or promoting your brand’s or product’s unique selling proposition. When customers will have experience with your brand, and they will notice the USP.

It will excite and instigate them to discuss or share it with their peers and friends.

2. Create Interesting “Viral” Campaigns

Viral marketing is a fake concept. You can not create a campaign, keeping in mind that it will go viral. But you can integrate elements and trending topics into your campaign that enhance the chances of it going viral.

There is always something humorous, exciting, trending, or newsworthy that people talk about personally or on their social profiles, creating a tremendous amount of WOM content.

Always integrate these trending topics while creating a marketing campaign or just casually on your social profiles. These will help you gain exposure to the audience and their invaluable engagement, along with powerful word-of-mouth marketing.

Word of Mouth(WOM) Marketing Example: GoPro’s Fireman Saves a Kitten

3. Visuals Trigger WOM

Visuals are the most engaging form of content available, be it offline channels or social media. Videos are the future of marketing.

Using exciting and creative visual content can help you attract a massive audience to your content, and as it is interesting, people will share it more and more.

Not only that, but when you have amazing content on your website and social profiles, people will explore and share more due to engaging visual vibrancy, especially with UGC, which can help you drive positive WOM marketing about your brand.

4. Sentimental Storytelling

As discussed, consumers share their experience with others and what better way to drive WOM marketing than to tap into consumer sentiments through storytelling that can create an emotional experience.

When consumers come across campaigns that tap into their sentiments, they share it and talk about it wherever possible.

Create campaigns that tell a story and can connect with the audience emotionally. Social media is the best channel to do so that it can generate positive WOM and possibilities for exposure & engagement.

5. Encourage & Promote User-Generated Content

User generated content is a revamped term for WOM marketing. With the inception of digital media, UGC has become an impactful Word-of-mouth.

The more you have positive user-generated content on your eCommerce website or social media profiles. The higher chances you have for user-engagement and conversions.

As a part of your WOM campaign, encourage users to share their ideas, opinions, and experiences on digital media and tag the brand using hashtags or profiles.

You can promote your word-of-mouth marketing by using a platform like Tagshop, which offers shoppable UGC galleries and customer review feeds that brands can publish on their websites to build trust, showcase authenticity, and inspire more sales.

It is an excellent word-of-mouth marketing strategy to build user trust and loyalty and drive conversions.

6. Reap in Influencers

The influencer industry is an immensely successful and influential one with a stronghold over its massive audience. The critical aspect is that the audience trusts the words of influencers about brands and products.

You can identify the key influencers in your product category or brand’s industry and ask them to share their reviews, opinions, and experiences about the products/brand with their audience.

All the big brands use influencers, especially in the gadgets industry. For example, brands like Apple, Samsung, and Google regularly provide their gadgets to influencers.

Credible influencers sharing positive words about your brand can help you tremendously with benefits like conversions and sales.

7. Rewards Program 

What is it that customers love from the brands? 

• Gifts
• Offers
• Giveaways
• Discounts
• Coupons
• Rewards & Points

When brands offer something to the consumers as rewards, the consumers feel rewarded and gratified that encourages them to share with others the special feeling.

It can be associated with the sharing of user-generated content that will help your brand to get more exposure and awareness. Also, happy customers can build an excellent brand image through WOM marketing.

Examples Of Successful WOM Marketing Campaigns

1. Reebok CrossFit Shoes

You must have heard about ‘CrossFit’ as a form of exercise before Reebok introduced its new range of CrossFit shoes, which were an asset for athletes boosting their performance.

But the question is, what led to Reebok’s growth from a basic fitness shoe company to a big name in the industry for athletes’ activities?

Word-of-mouth marketing did it all!

Reebok introduced this range to the audience in the carved out niche market i.e. athletes, along with a specific message which was somewhat like, “buy these shoes and challenge yourself to increase your performance.”

The feedback of the athletes who wore the shoes during activities was exciting and worked as word-of-mouth for the brand to drive sales.

2. Netflix

By tracking viewers’ interests and understanding what they love to watch and what grabs their attention for a long time, Netflix has not only started recommending shows to its viewers but also has started creating new shows that they can watch with immense interest.

It recognized and utilized the term “Binge-watching”  by creating the Netflix original series that evoked the sentiments of its viewers and promoted it with the help of its influencers.

Netflix used the reviews by its viewers on social media sites to prompt interest in others. It also showcased its viewers’ excitement about the upcoming series to land new customers and grow globally.

3. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

One of the most famous WOM marketing campaigns was ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) Ice Bucket Challenge, 2014. It was a fundraiser campaign presented in the form of a challenge that encouraged people to pour a bucket full of ice-cold water.

Attendees had to capture the moment through images and videos and upload them on social media. Furthermore, they were asked to nominate their friends and families to participate in the event.

This campaign got its fame with word-of-mouth advertising so much that even celebrities participated in this challenge and nominated their friends.

This challenge helped the organization raise a huge amount of funds, which amounted to $115 million in an 8-week period.

Future of Word-of-Mouth 

Ultimately, the success of your WOM marketing campaign relies on the experiences and intentions of the consumers.

So your goal should be to deliver an excellent consumer experience through maximum touch-points that fulfill the needs and requirements of the consumers.

What turns a business into a BRAND is when its customers are willing to take credibility and responsibility for its products/services. That is when the magic of word-of-mouth marketing happens.

Have a Consumer-focused approach, and your customers will build your brand.