Definition: Word of mouth marketing is promoting a brand and its products with the help of content (opinions, comments, reviews, reflections...
Definition: Word of mouth marketing is promoting a brand and its products with the help of content (opinions, comments, reviews, reflections) distributed on all kinds of online discussion platforms (forums, blogs, social media ).
The content distributed in this area, of course with a positive overtone, is generated directly by brands or created by the participants of the discussion on their own inspiration (financial resources or material goods).
In the ideal concept, word of mouth marketing is to carry out such activities (making products available for testing, cooperation with consumer organizations, product presentations among industry specialists, participation in fairs, etc.) so that Internet users themselves expressly express their free will about the brand on the web.
In fact, most often the company (principal of the campaign) prepares appropriate guidelines (which product value should be emphasized or which advantage should be highlighted) and commission marketing activities in this aspect to a special agency.
The latter prepares ready-made announcements and looks for their distributors. Most often they are ordinary Internet users or opinion leaders in their environment who "spontaneously" (most often their spontaneity results from remuneration, adequate to the position in the group) disseminate this content.
Currently, brands use profiles and avatars specially created for the needs of the campaign, less frequently to send content. If they are decoded, the effect of actions may be counterproductive.
Moreover, most websites have special safeguards to prevent the creation of false accounts for marketing purposes. In addition, a number of portals, incl. Opineo.pl or Amazon.com is fighting fake comments.
Almost everyone has come across word of mouth marketing, at least once in their life, although he may not even have been aware of when and on what occasion the brand directly influenced his decision.
Whenever we ask a question to the forum community about our purchasing dilemmas (we do not know what brand to buy, e.g. a bicycle), we can assume with a high degree of probability that many voices praising a given company and its specific technologies are not the result of a positive experience with this equipment of their authors, but the result of the brand's activities (the brand influenced their way of thinking).
Social proof of the rightness
The effectiveness of word of mouth marketing results from the power of recommendation in social life. In fact, most of us, although we do not admit it, follow the opinions of others in our daily behaviour. Especially when we don't know how to proceed.
Marketers have long recognized the power of social proof of equity in influencing consumers' purchasing decisions. This rule, well described by social psychologists, says that we decide whether something is correct or not by referring to what other people think about it (R. Cialdini, Influencing People. Theory and Practice), Gdańsk 2000).
We consider one thing worth attention, most often because others think so. Most often we look for hints when we have absolutely no idea about a given situation, we meet it for the first time (for example, when we want to buy a thing, and we have no knowledge in this area, it is highly probable that we will ask for the opinion of people who, in our opinion, know it and have experience in it).
Social proof of rightness has the greatest impact when it comes from many different people. If most of our friends have a phone of a given brand, then most likely in the future, when buying a new one, we will use the equipment of this manufacturer (in the spirit of the advertising slogan "Everyone has a mamba.
I have it too"). A chance that the customer, having a choice of several products, will choose the one about which a friend said positively is 85% greater than the one he found out about in the TV ad. Word-of-mouth marketing, along with declining confidence in advertising, will be increasingly used by brands.
Here the rule is simple, the more people behave in a given way, the more we are to consider this behaviour to be right and correct. The opinion of people similar to us (or the same) has the greatest influence on our behaviour.
Because if people with the same education, the same profession and earning similar income go on vacation to the Dominican Republic, it means that it is a good choice. As researchers emphasize, human beings are by nature imitators, imitators.
In hip-hop, the process is called photocopying. The artist does not have his own style, he copies others. It is also visible in advertisements, where brands refer to ordinary people, ordinary consumers.
However, this does not mean that people only like to imitate people who are similar to each other. They often take an example from famous people, that is why brands more and more often engage stars (influence marketing) or bloggers who are respected by the target group in their campaigns.
The influence of TV personalities on the masses is overwhelming, as you can see it was recently when celebrities were hired to promote New Balance footwear. Thanks to the fact that the stars started to wear them, everyone wanted to wear the shoes of the brand, which returned to the market after years of non-existence.
Today, most people look for patterns of behaviour not only in their immediate environment but also in the media. This is the easiest and fastest way. Just turn on the TV or start the computer to find out what people like us think about the case.
Research shows that from year to year the Internet increasingly influences Poles' purchasing decisions. Consumers most often search the web for information about the price and opinions of other users. 2/3 of respondents use mobile devices for this purpose.
The goal of word-of-mouth marketing activities on the Internet is:
creating a positive buzz around the brand (buzz marketing),
inspiring customers to certain activities related to the brand's products (promotion of a certain lifestyle),
provoking discussions about the brand, products and innovations,
assistance in making a purchase decision - a person whispering about the brand becomes an expert,
promoting products through education (explaining the principle of operation of new technology on the example of a product of a specific brand, for example, the essence of a hybrid car on the example of Toytoy cars)
To be successful in the word of mouth marketing, activities must be:
subtle, intrusive advertising is unwelcome in any environment, especially in the hermetic circle of forum users. Before any talk about a brand, you should build a certain "story" on the forum. It is best if the whisper knows a few people from other websites. It is not worth starting new threads, it is better to politely speak up in the ongoing discussion, initiated by a person well known to the group members.
natural, the brand or agency working on its behalf cannot open a separate thread about the promoted product on each forum, the discussion about the brand should result from natural circumstances (for example, the emergence of a new processor model), the role of the whisperer or stimulating discussion on a given topic. They cannot directly persuade Internet users to buy.
credible, in the word of mouth marketing it is inadvisable to cheat or omit certain facts. Activities in this area should focus on presenting the real advantages of the product, precise technical parameters and possibilities. The effectiveness of word of mouth marketing depends on the trust that the potential customer - the recipient of the message has for the source of information. After all, in interpersonal communication, as important as the content of the message, it is also important who delivers it.
well-thought-out, the brand must have a clearly defined goal of word-of-mouth marketing activities, it cannot be a chaotic operation made from a jump. Positive noise can only be produced with a certain concentration of activities in a given period.
organized, sometimes you can observe that at a given time, wherever we look, there is a discussion about one brand on the Internet - and this is not the result of some mishap, but a planned strategy. Brands commissioning a whisper marketing campaign, in brief, define the profile of the target group they want to reach and the agency tries to carry out activities where you can meet people with similar interests.
high-quality, many companies outsource whispering campaigns to small companies that rely on casual workers, often students or high school students (horrible sometimes also in junior high school students). This results in comments with spelling or stylistic errors, not to mention the lack of punctuation marks (unfortunately it slowly becomes a bad habit on the web). Probably no respected brand wants to be associated with such carelessly written opinions, so it is worth paying attention to this aspect of activities. Of course, quality comes with the right price, but that's probably normal.
substantive, people involved in the campaign must have at least a minimum knowledge of the promoted product.
ethical principles that should be followed by agencies are included on the WOMMA (Word Of Mouth Marketing Association) website.
You can commission a word of a mouth marketing campaign to a company or design it yourself using one of the platforms available on the web.
With the help of this application, you can create campaigns dedicated to specific products or brands, choose people who will conduct activities, monitor the results and browse thematically segregated discussion platforms on the web.
Summary
Word of mouth marketing is an excellent tool not only for building a positive brand image on the Internet but also for supporting sales activities. With the help of a whispered campaign, you can directly reach potential customers interested in the topic, who themselves search for information on the Internet about a given product or brand.
If it weren't for an effective whispering campaign, the Red Bull brand wouldn't be what it is today. Her journey to the energy drink summit began with this energy drink summit. The owner of the then little-known company producing drinks hired several hundred young people who scattered soda cans in nightclubs and told all their friends, quite by accident, about the benefits of this product. The news of the magical power spread quickly, not only in Austria but all over the world.
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