While some form of word-of-mouth marketing has always been around, in the last couple of decades, thanks to the rise of various tools, technologies, and platforms, it's become a lot more sophisticated. Many companies have realized the power of social media and digital PR reviews to impact their reputation and bottom lines.
Instead of leaving consumers to spread the word about a business, top brands have started to actively encourage customers to share their reviews and experiences. With those efforts, companies build trust with their audiences and make consumers a lot more confident about their purchasing decisions.
Social media platforms
A great way for companies to utilize word-of-mouth marketing efforts is through social media platforms, as most consumers turn to those platforms to learn more about brands in a not unsimilar way from public relations.
Many companies have achieved a lot of success by utilizing this strategy, and businesses can get some inspiration and recreate their success from their examples.
One such example comes from the popular fast-food chain Wendy's, which uses several different strategies, including interacting with customers, sharing humorous content such as memes, making references to trending topics and pop culture across their content, and providing consumers with freebies.
Reputation Management
The goal of any company's reputation management strategy is to proactively manage its reputation by providing excellent customer service, responding to negative reviews, and solving problems that consumers have.
Reputation management is an essential tool that can help businesses achieve more success. A number of popular brands, like Nike and Starbucks, use reputation management as a tactic in their word-of-mouth marketing efforts.
For example, Nike strives to reply to any consumer requests quickly, and the brand has even created a dedicated Twitter account that ensures any customer inquiries or complaints are immediately addressed.
On the other hand, Starbucks gives consumers free drink vouchers for the future visits of any customer whose order got delayed. This strategy helps the brand keep its customers satisfied, and increases its brand loyalty.
Digital Reviews
Digital reviews are an incredibly powerful marketing tool these days, and they have so much power that they have even managed to make or break businesses. There are several big digital review platforms where customers can share their opinions.
Such platforms include Google Customer Reviews, TrustPilot, and BBB. Reviews are a crucial element of any word of mouth marketing strategy because most consumers tend to check the reviews a company has received from past customers before they make a purchasing decision.
The best way that companies can get their customers to share their reviews is by reaching out to them directly and asking them to share their experiences with others.
Companies that want to get the most out of this powerful tool should be using social listening to get ahead of any potentially negative comments about them and add customer satisfaction surveys to their after-sales strategies.
They can also send customers surveys to get more feedback regarding their products or services and can add their social media links to those surveys, to make it easier for customers to share their experiences with their friends or family. Lastly, companies should offer incentives such as discounts, that encourage customers to share their reviews.
