Nielson Global Trust in accordance with an Advertising survey claims that 92 percent of the people entrust their friend’s recommendations over any product. The essentiality of word-of-mouth hence proves its vitality even in this modern era of marketing technology. Even though you have a plethora of promotional and advertising tools making a go at social media, this age-old form of promotion still remains as prominent as ever. According to a recent fact base qualified by leading marketers, the major information sharing and internal promotion happens offline and not online. Taking instances in our daily life, we tend to share various information and several ideas regarding several brands, products, and services. According to the fact base, almost half of our conversation goes around about either recommending, considering or avoiding a particular brand. This further intensifies the fact how crucial word of mouth communication is in the consumer decision-making process.
There are several factors which make word-of-mouth more power as compared to the other forms of advertising. They are mainly captured by two factors:
1) Trust: Trust is a factor which is cultivated more as humans than as billboards. Additionally, we are always aware that advertisements are a form of glorifying of the brand by the brand itself. Our awareness of the fact that advertisements, on the whole, provide us with a partial point of view about the product as it is a monetary endorsement more than anything else hinders us from putting on the whole faith onto it. On the other hand, our friends do not have any ulterior motive related to any views they have about any brand, be it good, bad or worst. This is the reason we are more likely to believe an unbiased opinion from a friend than a biased billboard advertisement. The all in all conclusion is that a consumer likes to believe another consumer than a digital ad.
2) Relevant targeting: Word-of-mouth proves to be a much more targeted form of advertising than paid media or any other broadcast platform. For instance, even if you target a particular advertisement based on a particular advertisement audience you are still taking a rough guess of the best form of probability. It is still just a best guess. However, if a person you know is going to recommend a product to you he already has the basic information about your field of interest and hence half the work of an advertising campaign is already done. Due to the common field of interest, we tend to believe more on the opinions of people we know, which is way above what any promotion or advisement can inculcate. In conclusion, we always tend to buy or invest in a product which is entrusted and consumed by our peers other than some unknown people enacting it out in an advertisement.
The question now comes to how you as a brand can garner the word-of-mouth technique to your benefit?
– Firstly start by investing in the customer who matters the most and who would help share your thought process with others in the most genuine way possible.
– Ask your satisfied and most elated customers to share your referrals to others. They would advocate you in the mightiest way possible.
– Lastly try advocating a good word-of-mouth amongst people in your respective field of interest such as your suppliers, strategic partners, and business associates. They would provide the best advertisement in the most fertile networks due to the common field of interest and communication circle and hence adjoin you to the most glowing opportunities in your circle.