Although broadcast advertising had control over consumers’ spending for a few decades or so, it didn’t actually displace word-of-mouth marketing from its place as the holy grail of marketing.
We had a short period where advertising conquered all things marketing and determined if a product is destined to be sold in millions or not. But all has changed with the advent of social media.
But what has social media got to do with word of mouth marketing? Well, in the past, people could only review a product to their neighbours, their relatives or the people they met often in the market. This didn’t generally don’t cause much harm to the business owners as the circle of influence simply isn’t big enough.
But with social media, it’s as if everyone is suddenly gifted with the telepathic power of Xavier, they are able to percolate their thoughts through to people around the globe; people whom they don’t even know.
This literally shifted the power to consumers, and business can no longer behave shoddily and still expects to get away with it.
But businesses too can play this game to their advantage:
Firstly (Try to build up comment on your Facebook Ads)
Take Facebook, for example, a lot of brands have been using Facebook’s sponsored post for advertising their products or services, and the best thing that comes with such advertisements? Social proof. This is especially so for brands that consumers tend to be wary about.
Look at this 2 different ads for Kris By Mence, which one are you more likely to click on given the circumstances?
I would bet that you have chosen the one with lots of comments? Why? Largely it’s because of the number of people who have left a comment on it. This creates interest for your prospects as it shows others are interested enough to ask a question and this might just cause them to ponder more and to find out more about your services
Secondly (Make use of social listening tools)
Make use of social listening tools to help your advocators even more convincing. Social listening tools like SimplyMeasured, Buzzsumo, and Google Alerts are great for spotting your brand champions.
If your brand provides extraordinary services, I am sure you will find yourself a brand advocate or two who will be more than willing to share their experiences on social media.
Thirdly (Ask your customers to leave a sincere review for you)
Although most word-of-mouth recommendation is done voluntarily online by your satisfied customers, there are a lot of untapped reviews in those who are simply too lazy or don’t bother to do so. If you are confident about your service, one way to increase the number of positive reviews is to simply ask your customers to do so. And if you wish to increase your chance of success, simply add a reason behind it, even though it’s obvious! (Take a look at this life-hacker article on how to cut queues)
Where are some of the most popular review site?
Although there are countless review sites, there are definitely some which hold more weight over others, and some that are more likely to pop-up in your customer’s face while they are searching for your services or products.