Why Word of Mouth Marketing Is A Timeless Strategy
By Ted Wright September 23, 2019
By Ted Wright
Like the Roman colosseum, a good Word of Mouth Marketing strategy will stand the test of time.
Word of Mouth Marketing may not always be as glamorous, but it’s solid and unbreakable.
Defining Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of Mouth Marketing has come to mean something broad for many people, so I often get asked to define the term.
Word of Mouth Marketing is the organization of those people out in the public who love to share stories with their friends and make sure those friends have an easy way to learn about products and services worth knowing about.
This group of people is only about 10% of the population, but they have a number of channels to share their stories and opinions as efficiently as possible.
- Face-to-face
- Social media
- Messaging
The concept of storytelling has been around for thousands of years. Just because the medium has changed, doesn’t mean the concept is going away anytime soon. If anything, it’s just easier now to get a story to move.
At the core of Word of Mouth Marketing is Influencers
I’m talking about real influencers, not just people who have a large social media following. The difference here is that real influencers are the amalgamation of 3 different personality traits.
- They like to try new things because they’re new
- They love to share stories with friends
- They’re intrinsically motivated
Word of Mouth Marketing is about trying to get your story out to people who are really going to care about it.
People will always welcome having things shared with them as long as they they fit into these 3 categories:
- Authentic to the person (or brand) sharing this with me
- Interesting to me
- Relevant to my life
These 3 pieces are the air beneath your brand’s wings that help your brand story fly around. Word of Mouth Marketing is a long-term marketing strategy, so it needs to be the brand story that sticks with people.
Definitions Make a Difference
It is a lot of work to do Word of Mouth Marketing well. When applying it in real life, there are tools to use and strategies to implement.
- Social media is about likes, retweets and shares
- With Experiential marketing you hand out stuff
- Word of Mouth Marketing is all about conversations and stories
Defining it correctly matter because it helps you create a process and implement it accordingly.
Word of Mouth Marketing is where real influencers live, and that’s why it’s so powerful.
When taking surveys for almost any company or brand – from your dentist to your favorite shoe store, they always want to know “How did you hear about us?” and they’ll place this question right at the very top of their surveys.
Cracking the Code to Word of Mouth Marketing
Like most things in life that lead to long term success, there are no shortcuts. Word of Mouth Marketing is all about building and building. If you do the hard work that it takes to stay inside the definition you’ll have a strong foundation that will remain standing like the pyramids. Build it using shortcuts and may end up with a collapsing structure.
With Word of Mouth Marketing, defining it correctly is crucial. This will help you avoid getting distracted by all of the other options that are out there.
Lack of distraction and focus will allow you to make the most out of this as possible – for years to come.
Ted Wright is the founder of Fizz, the world’s leading word of mouth marketing (WOMM) agency. Ted is also an acclaimed WOMM keynote speaker and the author of Fizz: Harness the Power of Word of Mouth Marketing to Drive Brand Growth
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