Digital Marketing Services India — Why Word of Mouth Marketing Is So Incredibly Important!

Word of mouth marketing has been around for decades. Long before the days of newspaper ads, billboards, broadcast ads and other forms of paid advertisements, there was a simpler and more effective means of marketing: Word-of-mouth. People have been sharing their reviews, comments and questions about their favourite products and services with other people for decades. Despite the advent of other online and offline marketing strategies, word-of-mouth marketing still prevails as the most effective one. 

Technological advancements have improved social connectivity making it easier than ever for consumers to share their reviews and opinions. Digital Marketing Services India enable brands to utilise the power of the online media to generate conversations around their brand and increase WOM. It takes only a few minutes for a customer to post a review or to give a rating. But it will reach hundreds of friends who trust them, and can rapidly spread out to thousands more. In today’s inter-connected digital world, even a single recommendation can create a greater impact.

Word Of Mouth Marketing 

Word of mouth marketing (WOMM) involves spreading brand awareness, product information or opinions from one person to another. Happy customers often share their experiences and recommend it to others on your behalf. Businesses too motivate customers to spontaneously talk about their products, services, or brand through digital marketing services India. In fact, customers do the marketing for you. Customers promote your brand straight to their network either in-person or through social media. This makes WOM not only cost-effective but also a highly valuable marketing strategy. Word of mouth is often triggered by an event experienced by the customer. 

Word of mouth marketing can happen in two ways, either organically or through targeted marketing or advertisement campaigns. When customers are happy with a product or service, they have a natural desire to share their experience with others. They will love to share their support and enthusiasm and thus, become advocates of your brand. Professional digital marketing services India provides help businesses to launch successful campaigns through targeted activities, to encourage or accelerate WOM among existing or prospective customers. This is amplified word of mouth marketing.

Why Is It Important?

In this digital era, the word of mouth marketing or WOMM has evolved alongside smartphones, tablets, social media, blogs and more. Previously consumers were limited to talking about their favourite products over the phone or in person. Today, digital means let them connect with a larger audience than ever before. Hence, the traditional WOMM has transformed itself into a new more effective digital WOMM. It is the most credible form of marketing as it is done by real users or customers. People trust brand recommendations from people they know. Reports show that WOMM is the third most-cited source for brand discovery after search engines and television ads.

Earlier WOM was limited to an individual’s close circle of family, friends, and colleagues. Today, it allows users to connect with more people than ever before. Social media platforms allow consumers to voice an opinion about a brand and have it shared instantaneously with hundreds of other people. It opens up the door for on-going customer communication about a product, service or about a brand. People can receive immediate feedback and reviews about the brand they are curious about. Even if you personally do not know someone who has used a particular product or service, a small post about it is bound to generate some traffic.

What Should Be Done: Proven Strategies For WOMM 

Trigger

Find out something that your audiences or customers see or do on a regular basis and create triggers accordingly. Associate these with your brand to make people remember and talk about your brand. It prompts customers to think of a company or brand even without actual advertisements. It lets people recall products or services, promotions and sales of a brand mentioned by their peers. Triggers help in promoting brand awareness among buyers when it is most useful for them. 

Engage

Listen to your customers and connect with them. Participate in their conversations about your brand. Respond to your followers on social media platforms. Constantly keep a watch on brand mentions, answer customer queries and give replies to positive reviews. Never ignore negative comments. Apologize and rectify the mistake as soon as possible.  Understand your customers and offer them what they really need giving them reasons to speak about your brand. It would be wise to engage cost-effective digital marketing service providers to get this done in the most effective way.

Encourage

Customer reviews or recommendations ensure the reliability of your brand. Majority of the people read reviews before deciding whether or not to opt for a particular product or service (or a brand). Positive reviews often help in building your brand’s social proof and online reputation. It will help you gain more exposure and more people will start talking about you. More and more customer reviews will let you expand into other channels and platforms. Hence, it is important to remind your customers to leave reviews after their interaction with your brand or after their purchase. Provide them with opportunities to talk and share. Buyers trust online reviews and it is concrete proof of a brand’s trustworthiness.

Influencers And Referrals

Online influencers will have a huge number of followers. They often have the power to influence the purchasing decisions of their followers. It may be because of their authority, position, knowledge, or relationship with their audience. People rely on them for providing quality content and recommendations. As they have a wide reach they can get people excited about your brand. Offer incentives for sharing information about your products and services through referral programs. It encourages users to recommend your brand to their friends and family. 

Value

Customers love brands that make them feel special and offer value-added service. Let your customers know that they are important to you and their opinions matter. Only the brands that provide value are worth talking about. It is not always about offering high-quality products. Customers will have a natural desire to share about your unparalleled customer service or timely problem resolution. Value-added services are the best way to gain customer goodwill. Valuing your customers generates positive word of mouth recommendations. Also, make your products and services unique or exclusive. Customers will love to share their experience about something which they won’t find elsewhere.

WOMM is one of the most valued forms of marketing. Mainly because consumers trust it the most and are influenced by it. And for this reason, WOMM drives sales. Organic conversations around your brand are great, but it makes sense to use WOMM to create and leverage online conversations around your brand to boost brand visibility and increase engagement. This is how the digital marketing services India delivers generate WOM online. Engage with your online audiences, put out relevant content around your product/service, deliver responsive online customer service and enable your customers to talk about and share stories about your brand online.