Best Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Business
The last thing that I bought online was a pair of sneakers worth $150. My brother’s friend was wearing them. And he couldn’t stop talking about how comfortable they were.
That’s all it took me to buy them! A personal recommendation from a friend.
That’s how powerful personal recommendations and your customers are for your business. They spread kind words about your business and bring more customers.
Isn’t it great? Your customers become your brand ambassador, and that’s for FREE.
And who doesn’t like free marketing?
In today’s post, I’ll share the 13 best word-of-mouth strategies to grow your business.
First, let’s look closely at the term “word-of-mouth marketing”.
Table of Contents
Word-Of-Mouth Marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing is where happy customers and fans promote the brand.
This type of marketing can result in many forms. Such as the customers can share images and videos about a product on social media. Or they can create a blog or vlog to talk about the brand and promote it to their audience.
And do you know what I love the most about this marketing? It’s FREE (most of the time) and brings a lot of sales.
Word-of-mouth marketing is responsible for 90% of all shopping. Because 88% of people trust a brand if their friends and family members recommend it.
So, if a person shares good things about a brand, it influences his friends to buy and try out the product.
Now imagine: How many people will come to you if your current customers spread good things about you?
I am sure you’re excited to learn the best word-of-mouth strategies to grow your business.
So, let’s not waste another minute, let’s begin…
The 13 Best Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Business
1. Provide Quality Products
Rule#1: Provide your customers with products that are worth bragging about.
If a business sells low-quality products and customers aren’t happy with the products. Then, no marketing tactic can outlast that negative experience.
Hence, the first step to trigger WOM marketing is to offer exceptional products to your customers. Make sure that your products fulfill the claims that you make. Because if your products are far away from your claims, it can cause negative WOM marketing.
Did you know that a customer who’s had a terrible experience with a brand tells 8-16 people about it?
It’s pretty scary if you ask me. One unhappy customer can shoo away many potential customers. So, enhance your product quality that makes people talk about it with their friends.
Apart from offering amazing products, make sure to…
2. Provide Stellar Customer Support
Suppose you sell awesome products. But your customer service sucks.
Trust me, your customers will never return to your website to shop. Let alone recommending your products to others.
After all, there are millions of online businesses in the world. Pretty sure at least a dozen of them offer the same products as you. And if they provide better customer service than you, their customers will talk about it.
The result?
People will go to that brand instead of yours to buy the products. So, raise up your bar of customer service. Exceed the expectations of your customers and watch them rave about you.
See how Tesla’s happy customer shares his experience on Twitter:
Don’t forget to look at the engagement his review received. A person marketed Tesla to a wide audience, and Tesla didn’t even spend a dime for it. All it did was provide timely help to its customers.
If you do the same, people will leave excellent reviews on your website and social sites. Let’s discuss it below:
3. Collect Reviews And Ratings
Triggering WOM marketing is easy, right?
Give people excellent product and customer service, and they’ll constantly talk about you…
Unfortunately, that’s not how it happens. You need to give a little push and encouragement to your customers to review your products.
It will take a few efforts, but it’s worth gathering them:
- 95% of buyers read a business’s reviews before buying anything from it.
- 91% of adults trust online reviews like personal recommendations from friends and family.
- 93% of customers say that online reviews influence their buying decision.
The presence of online reviews helps people trust a brand. When people see many positive reviews on the website, they are less hesitant to buy your products.
You can send a follow-up email to your customers and ask for their feedback on your product and services. You can also ask for star ratings from your customers. It’s simple, easy, and only takes a click to rate your products or services.
Etsy also does the same:
The next strategy on today’s list is…
4. Getting Social
Presence on social media is a must if you want to become the talk of the town. Nearly 5 million people use social networking sites.
Social media marketing has become an essential part of digital marketing campaigns. Thus, create your business profile on social sites and engage with your audience.
If you have a large following on social media, more people will learn and talk about you. So, make sure to create awesome content that makes people engage with your content.
And if people share content on their profile, you’ll get exposure to a wider audience. Also, don’t forget to interact with your followers. Thank them for their comments. Start a quiz or discussion thread on your profile to engage your audience.
Moving on, we have…
5. Use The Hashtag Effect
Hashtags are a surefire way to get popular on Twitter and Instagram. Whenever you post something on your Twitter or Instagram account, don’t forget to add a unique hashtag to it. You can use your business’s name. Or you can select a fancier hashtag.
When you start using the hashtags in your posts, your fans, customers, and audience will follow you. Now, remember, hashtags will not bring you overnight fame, nope! You have to use it and encourage your followers to do the same.
With time, your hashtags will become popular and build better brand awareness. What’s more?
If your products dominate the hashtag feed, you are more likely to get found.
Now, we’ll talk about…
6. Publish User-Generated Content
User-generated content is the content that your followers and fans create. It could be in the form of images, videos, blog posts, or even a vlog.
Suppose your customer posts a picture of himself using your product. He also tags you in his photo. You can take the person’s permission and post the image on your feed or website.
Posting user-generated content will encourage other followers to create content. As a result, more followers will create content to get featured on your page.
There is another way to encourage your followers to create content…
7. Host Giveaways And Contests
You can create a contest and ask your followers and customers to take part in it. Moreover, you can ask them to share their pictures with your product to win exciting gifts.
You can also host giveaways. Share a picture of the goodies that the lucky winner will receive. It will attract more people, and they won’t mind following your profile. In fact, they will engage with your posts and invite their friends to do the same.
Next up, we have…
8. Influencer Marketing
Brands work with influencers to reach a greater audience and increase brand awareness.
Influencers will talk about your brands with their followers. They can talk about their favorite products from your brand. Or they can promote any ongoing deals or sales on your website.
And the best part?
You have somewhat control over what influencers share about your brand. This marketing tactic isn’t free. You have to pay the influencer, and you can share what type of content you want from them.
For instance, you can ask the influencer to emphasize your product features, quality…or packaging.
Talking about packaging brings us to…
9. Get Creative With Product Packaging
I am confident you must’ve seen this type of picture on your social media
Starbucks writes customers’ names on their coffee glasses. The customers cannot resist capturing its picture. And then upload it on their social handles.
Starbucks doesn’t even spend a dime! Yet, hundreds of pictures of its glasses circulate on the internet daily.
If you want people to market your goods for free, get creative with your product packaging. Packaging that is unique and interesting inspires people to talk about it.
Do you know what else will make your customers talk?
Free goodies. Thus…
10. Surprise Your Customers With Freebies
Freebies can hook a person to your brand and make him rave about you. Surprise your customers with free products on their birthdays. You can also send discount codes or gift vouchers to your regular customers.
When people receive gifts from their favorite brands, they cannot wait to show them to others. They will click the pictures and share them in their social circle. Or they can even post it on their social handles.
Moving forward, we have…
11. Create Affiliate Networks
An affiliate marketing program involves paying affiliates commissions for each sale they generate.
Your customers and influencers can become your affiliates. You can make them sign up for your affiliate program. The affiliates will earn a commission if their audience buys your product.
For example, an influencer promotes your goods. As a result, 4 of its followers buy your products. You will pay the commission of 4 sales to the influencer.
This marketing tactic works well as people promote your goods to their audience. You will only have to pay once you make a sale and not before that.
12. Referral Program
If you don’t like the idea of paying commissions. No problem! You can use a referral program for using word-of-mouth marketing for your business.
A referral program is the same as an affiliate program with one difference. Unlike affiliate programs, you will not give commissions. Instead, you will offer discounts or non-monetary benefits.
For instance, your customer refers your product to his colleague. The colleague buys the product from you. As a token of appreciation, you can offer a 15% discount to your customer on his next purchase.
The last strategy on the list is…
13. Support A ‘Cause’
People love and appreciate the brands that support a cause or do something for society. The brand gets instant attention, and people talk about it in good words.
Many famous brands, TOMS, Blk and Bold, Leesa, etc., support the cause. They donate their sale proceedings or distribute shoes, mattresses, etc., to the needy.
You can do the same! Support a cause, donate to charitable institutions, and people will talk about you.
Give People NO CHOICE, But To Talk…
Marketing is a magnet that attracts new customers and boosts sales. And customers are the biggest assets of the business.
So, use your customer base to trigger word-of-mouth marketing submit post for your business.
Keep your current customer base happy. Go above and beyond for them. And watch them turn into your biggest fan and ambassadors.
Good Luck 🙂
Author Bio:
Ricky Hayes is the Co-Founder and Head of Marketing at Debutify – a Shopify theme for sales, helping dropshippers build high-converting stores in minutes. He is a passionate entrepreneur running multiple businesses, marketing agencies, and mentoring programs.