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Word-of-mouth marketing uk

What is word-of-mouth marketing anyway?

See Word Of Mouth Marketing

I have been doing some research for some forthcoming posts and I kept coming across this term word-of-mouth marketing in different contexts so I did a little research into it and wanted to share what I found.

My take on word-of-mouth marketing is that it is being used to cover a multitude of disciplines from inbound marketing to email marketing to twitter marketing and even field marketing. ie anywhere you are face to face (that could be a digital face) with consumers and anywhere where they are communication about you / your brand. Here is what some other say:

Wikipedia

Word of mouth is a reference to the passing of information from person to person. Originally the term referred specifically to oral communication. (literally words from the mouth), but now includes any type of human communication, such as face to face, telephone, email, and text messaging.

Word-of-mouth marketing, which encompasses a variety of subcategories, including buzz, blog, viral, grassroots, cause influencers and social media marketing, as well as ambassador programs, work with consumer-generated media and more, can be highly valued by product marketers. Because of the personal nature of the communications between individuals, it is believed that product information communicated in this way has an added layer of credibility.

Microsoft says:

Word-of-mouth marketing: How to get customers to do your selling
By Douglas Gantenbein

In Summary:
• Word of mouth generates sales in a cost-effective way.
 • People don’t spread the word for pay or favors — if they love your product, they’ll do it for free.
 • Invite people to discuss your product or service through company blogs or other communication methods.

I got the tag list for this post from Andy Sernovitz’s site http://www.wordofmouthbook.com/, well he wrote the book on it.

9 comments on “Word-of-mouth marketing uk”

  • mountain tents says:

    “word of mouth” is basically what is being said about your business or product. There are several strategies to begin this, the most simple and basic is taking care of your customers so that positive referrals can take root.

  • Aaron Savage says:

    I have to be honest and say that I have never been comfortable with the term ‘Word of Mouth’. It’s too imprecise and generally fluffy to be a term I can take seriously. There is also an image in my head that the epitome of Word of Mouth marketing would be of Hilda Ogden and Ena Sharples in a 1970s episode of Coronation street as they gossiped about the price of stout in the Rovers Return. (Links provided for the benefit of our international audience, can’t stand it myself)

    On a more serious point Word of mouth does tend to give rise to a phrase which too little time is being spent on and that is ‘lifetime customer value’.

    It is a very good thing that we are now looking at ROI as s serious proportion in media and can measure results like never before, but there is a temptation to look at thing in a very narrow way and simply say this worked and that didn’t after a five minute measurement when we already know that it is the long tail which is important.

    In general there is a discussion at the moment about how when and if digital marketing as a whole can grow up enough to be able to take the coveted ‘Lead Agency’ position in a client relationship. I suspect the reason is right but not until digital marketing agencies start providing an overall Digital Marketing Strategy, as part of their offer. Terms like Word of Mouth marketing, can inform and teach us lessons but I am not sure that it will serve a useful purpose when used in a boardroom presentation to a client.

  • David Sroka says:

    For those who find the term “word-of-mouth marketing” to be “imprecise and generally fluffy,” there is a branch that is very concrete: customer reference management. Customer reference management programs have long existed in the major technology firms, but they’re popping up in smaller companies and other industries. The programs are responsible for managing a membership complete with benefits and a sense of community. Members are satisfied customers willing to share their experiences with potential buyers. In return they’re given more peer-to-peer networking opportunities, greater say in future product development, joint marketing opportunities, etc. Ultimately the program’s impact is measured by the amount of new revenue it influences. This is concrete and straightforward.

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