We are strong believers that the smartest marketing tactics are the ones that use people to reach desirable results. Well, this is the situation in word-of-mouth marketing. E-commerce businesses use people’s tendency to share their experiences for the benefit of the business. So, it can be said that it emerges from the people to serve the business.
Word-of-mouth marketing is a marketing tactic where a brand encourages people to share their experience with a certain product or service, hence, encouraging their peers to make a purchase.
Even though word-of-mouth marketing might seem simple, in reality, it is not. To ensure successful word-of-mouth marketing, some tactics and strategies should be followed by e-commerce businesses.
We sparked your curiosity, didn’t we?
Keep on reading the upcoming paragraphs for a full guide on the best Word of mouth tactics and strategies.
Table of Content:
Word-of-mouth marketing shouldn’t be neglected by any e-commerce business due to its vast benefits. Therefore, in the upcoming paragraphs, we will fill you in on the best practices and tactics for successful word-of-mouth marketing.
The first practice you need to work on while utilizing word-of-mouth marketing is connecting with your audience.
As an e-commerce business, customers see only your products, nothing more. Therefore, you need to connect with your audience to have good word-of-mouth marketing.
You might ask by now, how can I connect with my audience?
The answer is pretty much easy. You need to engage with your audience by monitoring conversations where your brand has been mentioned and jumping in. Reply to your customers' comments, feedback and questions.
By mentioning feedback, we don't mean the positive ones only; but the negative ones as well. You need to be genuine with your audiences to have them desirably talk about your business.
Also, to show that you are connected, you can share customers' photos with your product and share their comments and reviews.
The point is that you need to be involved with your audiences in their conversations about your products or their conversations about anything relevant to your products. This will lead to improved word-of-mouth marketing and make your business more visible to your audience.
Let’s agree that visual content is one of the key points to a successful e-commerce business. Not only that, but it also leads to WOM marketing.
People love to share appealing and interesting visual content. Hence, with more shares, the more your e-commerce business is part of customers’ conversations.
Accordingly, one of the best WOMM tactics is to invest in your visual content. Work on providing visually appealing images to encourage customers to talk about your product. You need to grab your customer’s attention with exciting visuals that show how you will be beneficial to them.
In addition, video content is accelerating and performing really well. According to business insider, in 2020, there were 244 million digital video viewers in the US. So, this is an opportunity you don’t want to miss. Your videos can be as simple as ones shared on your Instagram stories or reels. Therefore, you don’t have to do something huge to get your customers' attention.
For a successful word-of-mouth tactic, work on providing interactive and exciting video content for your audience. This leads to more sharing and more exposure for your brand.
Want people to talk about your brand and recommend it? (We are sure you are).
So, deliver value to your customers, so they recommend your brand.
Yes, it is as easy as that.
A winning word-of-mouth tactic is to deliver value to your customers. Value might be in the form of exceptional customer service or amazing product quality. Also, the value might be your ability to offer benefits that no one else is offering; or it might be a solution to a problem your customers are encountering (sometimes customers are not even aware of this problem).
Therefore, highlight your product value proposition and work on delivering it for a guaranteed tactic of positive word of mouth.
A simple yet tricky tactic for successful word of mouth is appealing to customers' emotions.
Generally, people respond really well to content that appeals to their emotions. It might be funny content, sad one, or one that provokes nostalgia. Accordingly, customers will be more likely to share this emotional content with their friends and peers, which leads to more exposure and word of mouth.
In one of its campaigns, Nike decided to appeal to people by triggering leadership emotions. It was a successful ad by Nike in which it was able to emotionally appeal to a large number of customers, hence, being part of their conversations.
E-commerce influencer marketing is collaborating with influencers to promote your brand and products. Influencer marketing is an accelerating word-of-mouth tactic due to its desired results.
Influencer marketing can be easily done by sending your products to influencers to talk about them with their followers. As a result, leading to more brand awareness and better recognition for your brand.
The good thing about influencer marketing is that it is viewed by customers by someone they follow and admire. Accordingly, customers are more likely to purchase to imitate their actions.
However, while utilizing e-commerce influencer marketing, you have to choose the right influencer wisely. The right influencer will allow your product to reach the right audience. Also, you have to check the influencer reach, engagement rate, and credibility to avoid losses.
We are strong believers in the importance of word-of-mouth marketing for e-commerce. Therefore, to achieve measurable results, check the upcoming strategies for splendid word-of-mouth marketing.
User-generated content (UGC) is all the content created by consumers and shared through social media platforms. This might be in the form of videos, photos, reviews, or ratings. With thousands of people creating content worldwide. So, why not benefit from this content for your business?
The importance of the UGC lies in the fact that your customers are the ones who are talking about your products, their specifications, features, and benefits. You don’t have to do anything but ignite such talks and watch the magic.
If this is not your goal, then we don’t know what it is !?
So, what can you do to create user-generated content?
One of the primary ways to create UGC is through creating a viral hashtag. Hashtags make your brand more visible and encourage more customers to talk about your business.
Your hashtag needs to be clear, simple, and to the point. But it won’t hurt if you spice up your hashtags to be more creative. However, make sure your hashtags are unique and have not been used before by other businesses.
For successful word-of-mouth results, you need to link your hashtag with desirable attributes. Accordingly, it accelerates positive impressions toward your brand. Also, you can encourage your customers to post content while incorporating your hashtag to go viral.
A prominent example was #AerieREAL created by Aerie, a clothing brand affiliated with American Eagle. It created the hashtag to encourage body positivity and diversity. The hashtag was indeed viral. It is simple, clear, and strongly linked to a cause.
A noteworthy tactic of UGC is the creation of social media contests. To encourage word of mouth, you can create contests for the best post featuring your product. In return, you offer a gift for the winning post.
Your social media contest might include the necessity for mentioning a certain number of people; hence, leading to more word of mouth. Also, your contest might be offering a gift for the post with the most likes while mentioning your product.
It is necessary to incentivize sharing your contest while adding an urgency factor to make sure that your contest goes viral.
As mentioned earlier, thousands of users post content on several social media platforms every day. Therefore, the key is to push creating this content for your side.
Referral programs are word-of-mouth strategy that works on simply rewarding your customers for bringing new customers.
By creating referral programs, you are giving your customers more reasons to promote your products and share them with their peers. Therefore, contributing to more word-of-mouth marketing.
To ensure successful referral marketing, you need to incentivize your customers to share your products by offering them discounts, coupons, or gifts. However, you need to offer valuable rewards that customers would cherish. In fact, you can reward the new customer as well as a way to attract more customers.
Additionally, you will have to ask your customers for referrals. The idea of referring your products to their friends won’t emerge without asking. Yet, it is important to ask at the right time to avoid customer refusal.
For example, you can send an email after a successful purchase asking your customers for referral; or after a positive review from your clients. Timing is crucial for a successful referral program.
Also, referring should be easy and simple. Forcing your customers to go through a lengthy process to refer to a friend won’t make things work for your side. In addition, referrals should be easily done through mobiles, especially with the increasing number of mobile users.
Harry’s is a widely known shaving brand that decided to get good use of the referral programs. For each referral, the referrer receives a reward like a free razor, a free premium razor, or free shaving for a year. Also, the referee gets a 10% discount on the first purchase. The results of this referral program exceeded expectations.
Creating a referral program might be a bit complicated word-of-mouth strategy, but we can tell you that it is definitely worth it.
You can go the extra mile for a successful word-of-mouth strategy and create your brand ambassadors. Your brand ambassadors can be either your loyal customers or popular influencers.
When you deliver a high-quality product with excellent customer service, you are creating a base of loyal customers who are willing to recommend your products. As a result, you can create a brand ambassador program by collaborating with your loyal customers.
However, your brand ambassador program requires mentoring your loyal customers along the way to witness desirable results. Also, you will have to choose your brand ambassadors wisely to reach the desirable results. At the end of the day, you want brand ambassadors who influence your potential audiences. In return, you will have to reward these brand ambassadors.
If you have enough budget, you can collaborate with famous influencers to be your brand ambassadors.
Having influencers as your brand ambassadors requires a deeper and long-term relationship than simply social media posts. Having influencers as your brand ambassadors will be able to reach a large audience. It is considered an extended relationship.
After working with influencers multiple times, you can ask them to be your brand ambassadors. This ensures more word of mouth and better visibility.
Brand ambassadors are, in the first place, loyal customers who tried your products several times. Therefore, influencers who have tried your products multiple times are more likely to deliver genuine and trusted content.
The benefits of creating brand ambassadors are vast. It increases brand awareness, trust, and reach. Most importantly, it is a winning strategy for successful word-of-mouth marketing.
An example of having brand ambassadors is Tommy Hilfiger's collaboration with Gigi Hadid as its brand ambassador.
88% of people trust online reviews from previous customers, which affect their purchase decisions (Bright local,2022). Also, 72% of customers will take a certain action after reading a positive review (referral rock,2022).
Well, we just want to tell you that if you want a successful word-of-mouth strategy, you have to post testimonials and reviews.
As an e-commerce business, you have to show your potential customers what previous buyers got to say about your products. In fact, you need to incorporate such testimonials and reviews on your website, social media platforms, and even your product page.
The vitality of testimonials and reviews is that it creates a psychological phenomenon known as social proof. People find safety in imitating others and getting confirmation from others; this is known as social proof. Therefore, posting reviews facilitates word-of-mouth marketing and encourages people to talk about your brand.
Customer reviews are the real meaning of word-of-mouth marketing. Therefore, you should do what it takes to get it.
Some customers might give their feedback on your products, while others might need a gentle push. Therefore, you should ask for reviews to take advantage of its benefits. For example, you can send emails after product delivery asking for feedback.
Also, a little incentive to get people to write reviews won’t harm anyone, isn’t it? So, you can offer simple rewards for people’s reviews.
Reviews and testimonials are factors that will affect a client’s decision to make a purchase. So, you definitely don’t want to ignore it as a word-of-mouth strategy.
Final Thoughts:
You are now ready with all the tactics and strategies to create successful word-of-mouth marketing. The key to a successful WOM is to deliver valuable products that are worth sharing, and success will be guaranteed.
We know that extra help will be beneficial for your e-commerce store. So, check out ConvertedIn, a marketing automating system for e-commerce that uses data and shopper’s insights to create personalized multi-channel marketing that boosts customer engagement and maximizes ROI.
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