Word of Mouth
Word of Mouth Generates Buzz and Goes Viral
Although not new, word of mouth (WOM) itself has generated a lot of buzz in the past few years with the proliferation of consumer generated media (CGM) and online communities like MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube. Often called buzz marketing, viral videos, or consumer generated media, word of mouth remains largely misunderstood, as people find new and clever ways to share information.
What is Word of Mouth?
Word of mouth (WOM) is simply the act of people sharing information with others.
Word of mouth marketing (WOM marketing) is the marketing activity that facilitates conversations between people and encourages them to pass along a message.
Why Word of Mouth?
Word of mouth marketing overcomes traditional marketing's weaknesses because:
- Consumers trust word of mouth
- Consumers are more inclined to buy based on word of mouth recommendations
- The word of mouth message is by its nature relevant and its recipient engaged
- The costs associated with word of mouth marketing are typically lower than traditional marketing because it supplements macro marketing expenditures, and when executed well, consumers will spread the message themselves
How Does Word of Mouth Work?
Word of mouth around your brand already occurs naturally ("organic word of mouth"). Word of mouth marketing utilizes tools and techniques to help it along and create new messages for people to talk about. Although there is a lot that goes into a well-executed word of mouth marketing campaign, the fundamentals are:
- Relevance: Crafting a message around your brand that people will want to talk about
- Portability: Making sure the message is easy to pass along and understand
- Key Influencers: Finding the most influential people, in the best locations, to help pass along the message
- Reach: Executing a campaign, that includes online and offline components
- Optimization: Measuring campaign effectiveness, and adjusting tactics as needed
Strategically, we believe word of mouth marketing should be the means to an end, not an end in itself, and should be used to achieve a specific business goal. Therefore, it is not a stand-alone tactic to generate buzz, but a measurable activity that results in tangible brand benefits.
Whether off or online, your word of mouth and direct response efforts at any marketing touch point (such as banner ads, direct email/mail, SMS, print ads, and even television) should be coupled with a drive-to-Web call to action and work in tandem with the objectives and goals of the campaign. The more synchronized the messaging, the better the results.
It all starts with understanding your brand, creating a theme, and then building a smart campaign.
Why ID Society?
- We take a consultative and collaborative approach when working with our clients.
- Our strategy, creative and technology teams are committed to working in sync to develop effective, measurable and successful word of mouth campaigns to reach your target audience.
- IDS Strategy: focused planning, positioning and targeted messaging that meet specific business goals
- IDS Creative: compelling concepts and designs that extend brands and encourages action
- IDS Technology: innovative solutions that enable and facilitate conversations and leverages the speed and reach of the Internet
- We are a member of, and utilize, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's best practices including a common vocabulary, a code of ethics, as well as referring to the great academic works that have built modern word of mouth marketing concepts.
- We create action-oriented campaigns with enough excitement and buzz to ensure that your current customers, key influencers and brand evangelists want to share and advocate your brand by word of mouth to their peers in their demographical and geographical market space.
Let's Have a Conversation
For more information on the above services, please contact us.