Get the most out of your word of mouth marketing

Perhaps it’s to do with the rise in social media. Perhaps it is to do with reduced marketing budgets. Whatever the reason, more and more businesses are realising the real power that word of mouth (WOM) marketing can potentially bring. And if you can excuse the pun, its importance is spreading like wild-fire!!

However, whilst businesses seem to appreciate its importance, very few actually get the most out of it. This is because its value is underestimated and they fail to see WOM as an integral part of the communication mix. Instead they leave it to chance and hope it will just happen by magic.

So what is WOM?

Word of mouth is quite simply giving people a reason to talk about your rand, and making it easy to do so.

There will be many different reasons why someone chooses to talk about you. It could be due to a particular customer experience – good or bad. It could be the result of something they have heard, rather than experienced. It could be due to the buzz of a new product, which Apple are very good at. Or it could be as a consequence of a piece of marketing, such as that achieved by the Cadbury’s gorilla adverts a few years back.

What should you consider?

For really effective WOM, you need to think about it, manage it, measure it and be proactive to make it work in your favour.

There are many things to consider, such as those set by Charterhouse Research and a good starting point is to think about these points below, which will be expanded upon in future posts:

1. Why and how should you be using WOM?
2. How can you measure WOM?
3. Who is talking about you and where are they saying it?
4. Why are they talking about you?
5. Are their views being listened to?
6. How does WOM impact future customer behaviour?
7. What should you be doing and why?

WOM offers companies lots of opportunities, so spread the word by clicking the TWEET button below.

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