How to build a Word-of-Mouth Marketing strategy: 4 mechanics for B2C startups

Learn how word-of-mouth advertising turns consumers’ love for a brand into a powerful marketing tool.

Nowadays consumers are gradually becoming less receptive to advertisements. Therefore, they don’t drive them to make a purchase anymore. Online reviews, product information and personal recommendations help brands build their audience trust, and have become the key factors in consumer decision-making at the moment.

Different sources indicate that 90% of people trust brand recommendations from friends. At the same time, 75% of consumers don’t believe advertisements at all!

Nearly 95% of people read reviews before reaching a purchase decision, and 61% of consumers use search engines to read about products before making a purchase.

To build brand awareness, generate sales and stay in demand brands should:

• build their online presence and stay connected with their customers;
• foster a friendly and supportive environment for their audience. It is going to encourage consumers to share their knowledge of the brand among their friends and family.

What is WORD-of-MOUTH advertising?

According to McKinsey, word of mouth influences 50% of purchase decisions throughout the customers’ journey. It generates sales more than twice that of paid media as consumers are 4x times more likely to buy a product recommended by their friends.

Word of mouth — is a way of communication between consumers that implies their willingness to share the information about the brand and its products. Essentially, it is free advertising that is encouraged by positive customer experience.

With WOM in place, the focus of marketing shifts from collecting likes and getting more followers to actively seeking meaningful connections with your customers.

The key to word-of-mouth marketing is the community of consumers. They should be willing to share their customer experience, product information and various brand content with others for free.

The goal is to find true brand ambassadors among your loyal audience. In fact, the promotion and marketing of the product is put into the hands of consumers, true fans of the brand.

Startups tend to ignore WOM advertising due to a common misbelief that it is a rather ineffective and hard to manage marketing channel.

But it is simply not true. Digital marketing offers a great variety of practices and tools to be able to channel WOM advertising to your brand’s advantage. Let’s have a closer look at the main mechanics.

WOM advertising mechanics for startups

In order to encourage word-of-mouth advertising, you need to identify the consumer’s trigger. Whether it’s going to be a gift, shared brand values or exceptional customer service which goes beyond all expectations, — the choice is yours. Most importantly, every decision should not be guided by your intuition, but by comprehensive knowledge of your audience’s interests and preferences.

1. Launch a referral program

You won’t be surprised by everybody constantly buzzing about being busy all the time. They will go on and on about how little free time they have. Why would you expect your consumers to be any different? Even your most loyal customers, who are genuinely in love with your product, will not put a lot of effort into recommending it to others. It means you need to find an effective trigger to encourage consumers to leave reviews about your product, share recommendations and links to your service.

Dropbox is a great example of a 2-side referral program. The cloud storage service offers 500MB extra space both to the user who shared the referral link and the one who signs up for an account via this link. In 2010, this helped Dropbox increase its user base by 60%.

2. Reward your brand ambassadors and fans

When consumers like your product and make an effort to share the information about it with others, it’s well worth showing them your appreciation. Show them that you really care about the time your consumers have dedicated to doing something that directly benefits you. Make them feel valued.

Appreciation can take many forms. It doesn’t necessarily have to be about money or free extra cloud storage. Sometimes, the best encouragement for your users is the recognition of their personal contribution to the company’s mission. For instance, Tesla’s mission is to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” Their consumers get the information on how many tons of CO2e emissions have been avoided as well as their personal savings on gas thanks to driving a ‘green’ vehicle. As a result, it creates an additional emotional affinity with customers.

3. Build in-house expertise

Turn your product team into the first brand ambassadors, the evangelists of your product. No matter what industry your startup is in, you are sure to have employees who fit your consumer profile. Most importantly, your employees shouldn’t be forced to do that by the company. The more comfortable they feel about it, the higher quality content you’ll get as a result.

Empower your employees to represent the product — you’ll be surprised that your marketing budget will only benefit from it in the process.

Starbucks is a great example of employee contribution to the promotion of a product. The company developed a special program which allowed employees to post their personal messages on Starbucks social media. There was just one condition — to follow Starbucks explicit guidelines.

4. Deliver WOW customer experience

Your marketing budgets should be equally allocated between customer marketing and user acquisition. Your customers expect you to have a good product, but they don’t think you’re likely to exceed their expectations.

For example, ensure the customer’s comfort and offer them a delicious coffee while they are waiting for the manager. Instead of sending an automated response, call back and personally handle the issue. Celebrate Christmas together with your customers and send them an unusual colouring postcard. It will give them a way to express their creativity and encourage them to share the result online. As a part of your delivery packaging, send a welcome letter from the CEO of your start-up to your consumers and tell them what values your brand stands for.

Wow-effect triggers a new tidal wave of speculation and hype around the product.

A remarkable story once took place aboard United Airlines. When Kerry Drake was boarding his flight to San Francisco, he knew that if he missed his connecting flight in Houston, he would not be able to get to the hospital in time and say goodbye to his dying mother.

When he found out he wouldn’t make the next flight, Kerry burst into tears right on board the plane. The flight attendants found out what was wrong and explained the situation to the first pilot. A few minutes later, the pilot contacted the crew of the connecting flight and asked them to delay the departure until Drake was on board. In the wake of this event, many United Airlines staff were willing to escort the man to the hospital to make sure he made it in time to say goodbye to his mother.

Word-of-mouth advertising should be considered as a long-term marketing strategy that focuses on the message or story of the brand. As for Influencer Marketing, it is a great tool to achieve short-term goals, e.g. to ensure a successful product launch, promote a service and others. It means that IM can deliver results rather fast, but it may also be able to help brands go viral in the process.

— Kristina Nikeenko, Head of influencer marketing department at Zorka.Agency

Put marketing in the hands of those who love you

In its marketing approach, word-of-mouth validates the product brand through social recognition and customer trust.

As for the implementation, the real power behind word-of-mouth marketing is customers who take the initiative to share product information, ideas and product brand philosophies.

Word-of-mouth advertising delegates product marketing to its loyal customers. On the one hand, there is a risk of losing control over the advertising campaign. This is why it is so important to carefully analyse the audience in order to choose the best communication models for them.

On the other hand, it is a growth point for your marketing. Loyal customers are transformed into product marketers.

Word-of-mouth marketing — is a story of your relationships with your customers.

The better relationships with your consumers, the higher is the chance that your brand will be recommended. It’s like a snowball effect. A single occasion of outstanding customer experience is enough to encourage your customers to share their impression and talk about your product everywhere.

Are you ready to build a solid digital marketing strategy for your brand? Get in touch!