We all have a ‘go-to’ person when we need advice about a product or service. We trust their opinion because we know they have our best interests at heart. We as consumers are highly influenced by those we look up to or we trust. If we hear them rave about a product, this product will automatically enter our purchase consideration set. This concept is more famously known as Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing. WOM is and remains to be the most powerful marketing phenomenon and can generate twice the sales of paid advertising. But don’t get too excited, WOM may be free but it is incredibly difficult for marketers to generate.
So how can organisations generate positive WOM?
Connect with your customers
It’s all about connecting to your consumer’s people! Brand-consumer relationships are no different to human relationships, they are built on trust. Too often brands are mistaking quantity (i.e. number of followers) as quality brand connections. We wonder… how many brand followers trust and recommend the brands they follow? Are ‘likes’ being confused as real brand sentiment?
Create meaningful content on your social media platforms that generally help or inspire your consumers and always give them a safe place to share their ideas and feedback. Relationships are a two-way street after all!
Engage your customers
Give ‘em somethin to talk about! Marketers must be content focussed to ensure brand followers are always engaged, this also ensures the relationship is continually developing. Content doesn’t need to be a long article; your advertising campaigns are content too! Think about the ads that inspire or make us laugh. Our favourites include Cadbury’s gorilla, Metro’s “dumb ways to die” and NZ Airline’s safety briefing. These ads are simply brand conversations we have with our consumers to keep them engaged.
As the old saying goes – quality over quantity. Don’t focus on lots of content and followers, focus on increasing your brand advocates (those ‘go-to’ people we mentioned at the start of the blog). And, remember to create content to help, inspire and delight your consumers.
