What can be better than your buyers becoming the advocates of your brand? And that too when you don’t even ask them to do so!
Probably, nothing! The reason is – behavioral psychology. Your buyers are humans. And humans have emotions which they apply (knowingly or unknowingly). Before making any purchase, they often rely on the recommendations of their family or friends.
92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other form of advertising. (Source: Lithium)
When consumers share their positive feedbacks or word of appreciation, they are more likely to trust your brand.
What is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?
Word-of-Mouth marketing (WOMM) is a form of marketing in which satisfied customers share information about a product, service or organization with others by using any medium – online or offline.
Here are some of the best practices to help you create a word-of-mouth marketing strategy that works:
1. User-generated content
AdWeek pulls out the data,
When making a purchasing decision, 93% of consumers find User Generated Content to be helpful
User-generated content is a form of content marketing in which your users or customers create content for you and you collect, organize, and use that content for your marketing programs. This content can be used on social media platforms, company website, email marketing campaigns, and more.
You can leverage user-generated content to spread word-of-mouth marketing and to increase traffic:
- Ask customers to write reviews for your brand
- Share those reviews on social media platforms
- Conduct a survey and include the results in various content pieces
These practices can entice your readers eventually leading to a better word-of-mouth marketing.
2. Employees’ advocacy
Word-of-mouth goes better when your employees share the messages, pictures, or videos about you. This way, your potential and existing buyers get to know more about you – more than just a brand. When they see that your employees are happy, they believe that you are a brand that cares about its employees and can go to any extent to prove it. This practice gives them a feeling of trust for your company. And it is the power of trust that will help you build better and long-termed relationships with the prospects or clients.
Benefits:
- Increases trust in the buyers
- Better customer-retention
- Cost-effective method
3. Reward loyal consumers
One great way of making your customers talk about your brand and to promote your services is to connect with them on an emotional level. Rewarding them for being your long-termed customer or client can help you do this better.
Make a list of some of your oldest customers.
- Roll-out an incentive or offer
- Send to the long-termed customers as a thank you gesture for being your loyal and long-termed customers.
- You can apply this tactic to some of your newest buyers also.
These practices will give them a feeling that you value them as your worthy custoa mers. They will never miss sharing their positive feedbacks with their family, friends, and even colleagues.
Also Read: Improve Brand Loyalty Using These Email Marketing Tips
4. Engage with the right influencers
Today, the Internet of Things (IoT) has changed the ways customers make a purchase decision. Also, it has altered the ways buying journeys are completed. The only way that can help the marketers get more qualified leads down to the sales funnel is to give their prospects the proof of credibility.
When the buyers know that they are interacting with an expert in the industry, they are more likely to initiate a buying process.
Influencers can help you do this. They are the people who have a strong following and thus can influence a huge number of people.
They can be (to name a few):
- A renowned person from your industry
- An established thought leader
- An industry-specific expert
What can be the best ways of appealing to the influencers?
- Partner with a few influencers
- Give them the options of trying your services, solutions or products for free
- Follow them on social media networks
- Share their content
- Write a blog about them
There are many ways to do word-of-mouth marketing. All that you need to do is to know your audience and to follow the voice of your brand. Try the above ideas and let us know what worked the best for you!