Social media has dramatically changed the relationship between consumers and brands. It has given a voice to consumers when it comes to the marketing of a brand. Gone are the days of one way marketing campaigns where brands choose the message that is relayed to their consumers. Consumers that love a product can easily spread that love around to massive groups of people via social media. They can also spread hate if they are dissatisfied with a product or service they receive.
Positive word of mouth can be a huge benefit to a brand because word of mouth marketing is known as one of the most effective ways of marketing. Word of mouth marketing can have a much broader and more significant effect than that of traditional marketing as it is the most influential type of recommendation. Another bonus…IT’S FREE! This is a self-sustaining strategy with a long-term value. People who share positivity of a brand, share with other potential customers who share with even more potential customers. This approach provides a low cost high value strategy that builds long term customer relationships.
Did you know that…
- 83% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends about products and services – making these recommendations the highest ranked source for trustworthiness.
- 90% of people trust suggestions from family and friends.
- 70% of people trust consumer reviews online.
- 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision.
- 72% of people get news from friends and family, making word-of-mouth the most popular channel for sharing.
- 68% of people trust online opinions from other consumers, which places online opinions as the third most trusted source of product information.
- 88% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts.
- 32% of consumers trust online reviews only if there are multiple customer reviews.
- 30% of people give online reviews equal trust when they believe them to be authentic.
- 26% of people trust online reviews depending on the type of business.
Word of mouth marketing is great, great, great….until it isn’t. Brands that have existing social media strategies but that didn’t include crisis management in their strategy might see a negative impact on their brand’s reputation if they aren’t prepared to deal with a social media crisis. “All marketing is good marketing is not always a true statement. Negative word of mouth can be debilitating for a company. Consumers are more likely to believe a bad review than they are to believe information that is being presented directly from the company and bad reviews can spread like wildfire across social media.
I think the implication that word of mouth marketing will have on brands in the future is a result of changes in technology. In the past, before the invention of social media, word of mouth marketing, whether it be positive or negative, didn’t have the ability to reach millions of people like it does now thanks to social media. Sure, people have always talked about their experiences with products, brands and customer service, but with the arrival of social media, the impact of word of mouth marketing changes the way businesses are affected.
References
Grinnell, B. (2014). 4 benefits of word-of-mouth marketing. Retrieved from http://www.twolegit.com/4-benefits-word-mouth-marketing/
Kapadia, A. (2018). 40+ Word of mouth marketing statistics that you should know. Retrieved from https://www.getambassador.com/blog/word-of-mouth-marketing-statistics
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