Word-of-Mouth, more than just talking.

What is WOM Marketing?

We speak of Word-of-Mouth (WOM, literally word-of-mouth) marketing when a consumer is so enthusiastic about your product or service that they bring it up in their daily dialogues. In short, it’s free advertising created by a positive user experience. Often, then, something happened that went beyond consumer expectations that sparked enthusiasm. . WOM is often encouraged by various publicity activities set up by companies where there is a lot of emphasis on interaction.

As a company, you can encourage your consumers in several ways. Give them a reason to talk, exceed their expectations or provide exclusive information. Aim especially for customer service. Exemplary customer service is very valuable; they can make or crack your business.

The efficiency of WOM

Consumers are more emotionally connected to a brand when they are actually heard by the company. This is why many companies have representatives who personally discuss their products and services with consumers. This type of interaction, as well as the promotional event, can foster conversations about a company’s product.

The best strategies for WOM are:

Practical value: people like to share useful information to help each other. This value is strongly linked to social appearance.
Social appearance: when a product or service makes that person appear better or makes them feel better, they are more likely to share it.
Emotions: ‘Sharing is caring’. The more emotion the message carries, the more easily we are going to share it.

Note: dishonesty is not an excuse. A marketing expert on WOM, Andy Sernovitz has developed a sort of code of ethics to avoid problems: