Word-of-mouth marketing has always been the best way of marketing due to its organic approach and long-term effects. A person who becomes a customer due to others’ recommendation tends to believe in the product more than others. Word-of-mouth marketing lets the customer do the marketing of the brand while the brand focuses on other aspects like increasing the quality of the product. Marketing was vocal earlier but now it is thought to be digital. However, certain fundamental rules never change in marketing. Word-of-mouth might have become word-of-internet, but the marketing effect and the process remain the same.

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History and evolution of word of mouth marketing:

The actual Word-of-mouth marketing before was very different to what it is today. We still refer to a good brand or a good service experience with friends and family. However, the medium has changed. Most of the talking happens on social media platforms these days. So, it is vital to understand the history of word-of-mouth marketing to implement it today on media platforms and get results.

The earliest form of word-of-mouth marketing was when people used to talk about good products in the market and influence the buying intent of their fellow mates. Later came the social media word-of-mouth marketing where the opinions of influencers on Twitter and Facebook have the power to convert a huge number of viewers. While a one-to-one conversation leads to one conversion. Digital word-of-mouth marketing leads to many and sometimes even millions all at the same moment. 

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Digital word of mouth marketing

We now use technology to recommend people any products or to search for the right product for ourselves. These are public interactions that have more power to influence the audience in the right direction. But there are many ways of applying digital word-of-mouth marketing to get better results. For example, a brand might choose to collaborate with the top influencers who will be the right choice for the brand, or the brand might ask loyal customers to be their occasional brand advocates for organic promotion.

YouTube tutorials by beginners to celebrities all use word-of-mouth marketing to spread their message. The main reason why word-of-mouth marketing has a positive result is that it is a genuine and impactful review that describes the product in a functional form and not a display form. The functional form is when the product is used by the influencer to be more transparent about the characteristics of the product.

Influencer word of mouth marketing

Influencers are people who have followers that are influenced by their tweets and posts. These influencers help brand their products using their influence and in turn earn through their influence. A follower gets to choose who he wants to be influenced by and connect with people that have similar or desirable interests. It is due to this reason that the conversion rate of influencer word-of-mouth marketing is high as compared to display advertising on social media.

A follower has already chosen the people he finds trustworthy. A brand does not need to establish brand awareness as the influencer has already done this. An expense reduction and an organic way of promoting the brand are the key benefits of this type of marketing.

Brands find it quite easy to connect with the top influencers from a similar niche and then reach out to the audience via social media. It is far better than running ads which are 90 per cent of the time skipped or ignored by the user.

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Important points to develop a word-of-mouth strategy

1. Start by improving the quality of a product. 
2. Develop a simple navigational process for customer conversion
3. Assure that all the processes are as promised and not as bluffed about.
4. Interact with the initial customers and interview them about the product.
5. Create products that offer a great visual experience.
6. Make the services or products social media-friendly.
7. Create a referral program.
8. Promote and support user-generated content.

Conclusion

Hope this article will help you to understand and implement a great word-of-mouth strategy on social media platforms. Word-of-mouth marketing means connecting with customers and other users with a healthy and transparent understanding of the product. While traditional marketing tactics have been fake and untrustworthy, word-of-mouth has always been a silent promoter.

Word-of-mouth marketing has an honest approach toward customers, even if a referral program or similar strategies are used. It is known as organic marketing because it lets the users give their honest opinions and build the brand rather than create expensive advertisements which only help you to increase the debt. A start-up or an entrepreneur must always focus on word-of-mouth as it is the foundation to becoming a well-established brand.

FAQS

• What does word of mouth marketing involve?

Word-of-mouth marketing involves marketing with the help of customers. When a customer recommends services or products to other people it is termed word-of-marketing. Many influencers strategize to influence their followers and buy a product. This is an application of word-of-mouth marketing. It creates transparency as the recommendation is from an influencer and not from the brand directly. 

• How does influencer word of mouth marketing work?

Influencer word-of-mouth marketing generates more sales than any other marketing method nowadays. It is because the influencer is not a company but a person who promotes transparency. Every influencer creates brand posts that are transparent, clear and better at representing the product than the brand can. Common people relate to the influencer more than they do to a hoarding put on a busy street. Influencer word-of-mouth marketing is the best way for an advertiser or marketer to reach the audience and create a buying intent in their minds.

• What are some great books on Word of mouth marketing?

1. Word of mouth is responsible for much of what we buy- Jay Baer
2. Contagious: Why things catch on – By Jonah Berger
3. Brains on fire: Igniting powerful, sustainable, Word of Mouth movements.
4. Why real relationships rule in a digital Marketplace: The Face-to-Face book- Ed Keller
5. Why some ideas survive and others die?: Made to Stick- Chip Heath & Dan Heath
6. Creating customer evangelists: How loyal customers become a volunteers sales force- Jackie Huba & Ben McConnell
7. Purple Cow: Transform your business by being remarkable- Seth Godin
8. The Tipping point: How little things can make a difference- Malcolm Gladwell
9. Talk Triggers- Jay Baer & Daniel Lemin
10. The secrets of word-of-mouth marketing: How to trigger exponential sales through runaway word of mouth- George Silverman

• Does word of mouth marketing help businesses?

 Yes. Word of mouth marketing helps a business grow without saying a single word. It lets your customers be the marketers for you. All a business has to ensure is quality service to the customer. A referral program can be developed which focuses on easing the process of recommendation for the loyal customer and gives more potential customers uniformly in the long run.

References

[1] Chen, Z., & Yuan, M. (2020). Psychology of word of mouth marketing, Current opinion in psychology.

[2] Stokes, D., & Lomax, W. (2002). Taking control of word of mouth marketing: the case of an entrepreneurial hotelier. Journal of small business and enterprise development.

[3] Meiners, N. H., Schwarting, U., & Seeberger, B. (2010). The Renaissance of Word-of-Mouth Marketing: A’New’Standard in Twenty-First Century Marketing Management?!. International Journal of Economic Sciences and Applied Research, 3(2), 79.

[4] Li, P., Yang, X., Yang, L. X., Xiong, Q., Wu, Y., & Tang, Y. Y. (2018). The modeling and analysis of word-of-mouth marketing. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 493, 1-16.

[5] Phelps, Joseph E., Regina Lewis, Lynne Mobilio, David Perry, and Niranjan Raman. “Viral marketing or electronic word-of-mouth advertising: Examining consumer responses and motivations to pass along email.” Journal of advertising research 44, no. 4 (2004): 333-348.