Word Of Mouth Marketing: What It Is And Why It’s Important For Your eCommerce Business

If you’ve ever recommended a restaurant, shared your favorite clothing brand, or introduced someone to a product that has positively impacted your life, you have participated in word-of-mouth marketing. Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool that is often underutilized. While many customers will share their recommendations without any prompting, there are ways to boost your word-of-mouth marketing.

What Is Word Of Mouth Marketing?

Word-of-mouth marketing is a strategy where businesses encourage their customers to share positive experiences. Word-of-mouth marketing is extremely effective because the reviews come from actual customers, rather than a business trying to sell more products.

Benefits Of Word Of Mouth Marketing:

Word-of-mouth marketing comes with many benefits! Customer loyalty is one of the biggest benefits. If customers are endorsing and recommending your product, other customers will be led to believe that you have the best solution. It also helps build brand trust, especially for smaller businesses. New customers are much more likely to believe their family and friends, or even people that they follow than they are to believe anything a brand says. Word-of-mouth marketing also helps boost your social engagement, and can even help create buzz around your products!

How To Use Word Of Mouth Marketing:

Although word-of-mouth marketing depends on how much your customers want to share, there are ways to encourage them to talk about your brand. Using social media is one of the best ways to get people to share what they love about your brand. Ask your audience to comment on what they love best about a specific product. Giveaways are also a great way to get people talking- have them share your giveaway to their stories and tag a friend in the comments for a chance to win a prize. This is an easy way to reach a wider audience and grow brand awareness.

Interacting with your audience is very important to encourage word-of-mouth marketing. Although it is hard to respond to everyone, do your best to acknowledge comments or compliments your customers offer you. Re-posting stories, liking comments, or saying thank you goes a long way! Customers enjoy seeing that brands are actually listening to them, and it makes them feel special when they are acknowledged. Encourage them to keep posting about your products by asking them to tag you in pictures or leave a review for a chance to be featured, and then choose your favorites to share.

Do not delete reviews, even negative ones. If someone is researching you, and all of your reviews are glowing, it can come across as a red flag. No matter how great your products are, they are not going to be a perfect solution for everyone. Take negative reviews as an opportunity for improvement, and do what you can to remedy the situation professionally. Your goal is to draw in customers who would benefit from your product, and allowing customers to express the pros and cons they found helps guide your ideal customer to you.

Word-of-mouth marketing is based on products that people love and want to share! Take feedback to heart, and make improvements where you can. Show your customers that you are listening to them and that you care about them, and they will be happy to recommend you!