How many friends do you have? – None? ’cause same 😥
HAHAHA just kidding. (not really)
ANYWAY, How often do you visit a restaurant because your friends have told you about an amazing experience they had there?
Do you remember using a product and it’s so great you had to share on your social media?
This concept is not new…
Everyone talks about their experiences, needs, and their emotions. We communicate and exchange our thoughts about things with each other. We are storytellers by tradition.
Word-of-mouth is a natural phenomenon that occurs all the time and everywhere and when people start sharing information about brands, they become natural brand advocates. It’s a great way to improve brand perception, reputation and customer loyalty.
This makes word of mouth marketing (WOMM) probably the most powerful and organic marketing effort on earth! 92% customers trust in suggestions from friends and family more than they trust other form of advertising, according to a Nielsen study
The important thing is people only share something that is worth sharing, therefore for marketers to use the power of WOMM, they need to provide customers with something worth passing on to begin with.
WOM can travel through both physical(offline) and digital(online) channels. Combining with the use of social media these days, word-of-mouth travel VERY fast! It became easier for people to share and express themselves in a real-time nature that can also reach larger audience.
How about VIRAL MARKETING?
Most people think that WOMM and viral marketing are the same thing, but they are not. (very similar!)
While with WOMM, a customer tells their friends about the experience with a brand, and then it fades and ends there. This process repeats for viral marketing. The customer who had direct interaction with the brand would tell their friends and then these friends would pass information along to others.
Brands/business owners have some sort of control over WOMM but with viral marketing it is harder to control the messages being pass on.
Do you think WOMM is important? and how have recommendations from the people you know have helped shaping your purchase decisions? or can you think of something that went viral as a result of word-of-mouth?
Share you thoughts in the comment section below! and I will be your friend xx
References:
MiniMarketingMems 
Hi friend! 🙂
Great post, i do believe that word of mouth marketing is essential for today, especially when everyone is on the internet and social media. Tons and tons of information is shared daily and people have a wider perspective of new and upcoming stuff very quickly. Though sometimes it can also cause a brand to break the internet with something controversial, like the Pepsi and kendall jenner ad, which spread like wildfire across the globe even before Pepsi could shut the ad down.
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Exactly! Even though most of the WOM messages tend to be positive ones but we do see so many examples of negative WOM that went viral and damaged companies’ image and reputation! So businesses really need to be careful than ever in whatever they are doing or the whole internet will start trolling them!
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Great post Minnie! I think that every business should really need to pay careful attention to the possible consequences of word of mouth marketing when they plan a marketing strategy. As you said how 92% of people trust recommendations, this could also mean if a business is doing poorly that people trust their friends NEGATIVE feedback too! I think its very important to be careful in how you operate your business to ensure most feedback from customers through word of mouth is a positive one that helps further promote your business!
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That’s true Michael! WOM can be controlled so businesses need to make sure it’s a positive one! Especially these days I only see WOM that go viral being negative ones, as people tend to look out and spread the words about the wrongdoings of the business! and once it goes viral businesses can not do anything about it much to turn it around!
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Hey Minnie! don’t worry I will be your friend hehe ^^
but yes I think word of mouth is definitely a important marketing tool, It is probably one of the best ways to create the most loyal consumers. If a customer loves a product enough to actual recommend them to their friends and family, it probably means they genuinely love those products. This is probably really similar to influencers as their opinions can greatly influence their followers and viewers.
With great power can also come great limitations. Word of mouth marketing can sometimes have a negative impact on a brand, if a certain individual has a negative experience with a certain brand and shares it with others. This could seriously impact a brand, especially if it comes from someone with great influence or a huge following. Their experiences may not accurately reflect the brand or the issues they encounter may be only personal to them. For example a certain product may not work well for some individuals but work amazingly for others, the same way that someone may have been in a bad mood or had a bad day when interacting with a certain business. Word of mouth is objective and can not always be relied on.
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That’s a very great point you made there, Arena! It’s so true as everyone has different opinions and expectations when it comes to these things so of course people will talk about the business the way they see it personally. At the end of the day, businesses have little control over the messages being passed on, therefore they need to be ready to respond to negative WOM that could potentially go viral!
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Hey Minnie,
Great post this week and I like how you were able to take a very personal approach to this topic to connect with the audience. Word of mouth marketing is a great example which is becoming an increasingly effective tool in marketing today to promote any given product or service and its truly amazing to think that 92% of individuals value the opinion of friends and family for decision making. can you give me any recent examples of viral marketing campaigns you have liked and used to entice your friends to watch it or even purchase the product or service they have promoted?
Thanks,
Kristian
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