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Centuries ago, humanity like we know it today was different, especially from a technological point of view. Technology was at its first steps, influencing the methods of production, as well as the methods of buying and selling. During this period, with almost no competition or similar products in the market, there was no need for selling strategies or master marketing plans like the ones we have today. Moreover, the success of a new product or service was based on simple techniques, like word of mouth, recommendations or logistics.
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Viral marketing, word of mouth marketing, creating buzz and social networks… these are the new weapons that marketers use to get closer to their target clientele and confront the threatening competition.
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Originally, ‘word of mouth’ simply meant trust; this idea of confiding in someone could be clearly seen.
According to Delia Passi, a marketing consultant and author of the book Winning the Toughest Customer: The Essential Guide to Selling to Women; “The most sought after method for generating sales, is through recommendations, spreading by word of mouth...For all small or medium businesses, it’s about a cost-effective technique to sell their products and/or services.”
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Marketing by word of mouth can be a very powerful tool and is entirely accessible for a medium sized company. In addition, if it’s used well, the message will reach more people than with traditional approaches, resulting in marketing efforts that will be awarded with success and accumulate credibility.
To implement a marketing strategy by viral marketing or word of mouth is not always easy, because it necessitates a quality product or service. But it is also important to identify and motivate the “evangelists” without making them feel exploited, and then understanding what encourages them to talk about a product.
To strive for such results requires a thorough analysis in order to determine the factors that motivate a person to share their opinion of a product or service.
We will identify the factors that transform the customers into “preachers”.
The 4 factors:
1) Selling a quality product or service
We have a tendency to say that a good product, in part, sells itself. No one will recommend a product that does not correspond to the needs of the customer. Even worse, if the product or service does not compare to the expected worth, the business will have a lot to do in order to reverse negative feelings from dissatisfaction.
2) Target and find enthusiastic clients
It is not enough to have a good product to start generating buzz about your company. It is also necessary to target and initiate contact with people to interest them in the product start recommending it to others. In general, for a word of mouth marketing strategy to be a success, companies have to:
- Identifier des réseaux, des groupes d’utilisateurs ou des communautés de personnes qui connaissent leurs produits ou leurs services
- Identify the networks, user groups or communities of people who are familiar with their products or services
- Identify the methods of contact with these people via the company’s blog or a team dedicated to the task
- Supply genuine reasons to people to promote products or services of high quality
3) Encourage the “Evangelists” to “preach”
Generally, people who accept, from their own free will, to preach for a product, do it for many different reasons, notably to be acknowledged or to help a friend. However, they do it rarely for the money or to be remunerated. One misconception to avoid is buying the customer’s loyalty.
Therefore, it is necessary to supply customers with good reasons to talk about your products or services, as was said above.
4) Guarantee “ambassadors” a certain freedom and a role in your business
According to an article written by Microsoft, effective marketing campaigns based on word of mouth present another important advantage: the control is transferred to the self-proclaimed ambassadors of the company. In order to find out how a word of mouth campaign should be implemented, and the essential moment to let it evolve, a plan should be created. At the end of the day, the objective is to initiate a relationship with the users, which plays on their emotions.
An effective example can be found in the same article:
In our next post, we will present ZackBrandit’s strategy through its social shopping platform; the strategy consists of amplifying the word of mouth phenomenon and recommendations in the interests of the client’s brands.
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Jean-Paul
