Word-of-Mouth Marketing
There’s no workbook for this lesson.
Just watch the video and do the vocabulary quiz.
Do you remember recommending a product to a friend that you bought recently, or have you ever recommended a restaurant to any of your close relatives that you were satisfied with? The way people advertise a product or service organically is called word-of-mouth marketing, and compared to almost all other types of promotion, this is the most effective. This is because people trust the advice of their friends and relatives more than what they see on TV. Overall, word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective way for companies to increase sales.
For example, suppose Company A repairs William’s house and William is pleased. Later, William’s friend Michael is looking for a company to repair his house. In this case, the first method of searching for Michael will be to consult with friends and relatives. When Michael asks his friend William if he knows a good repair company, William recommends Company A, which he’s pleased with, and so Michael takes advantage of that company. In the future, Michael will also recommend this company to people who ask him. This leads to a chain recognition of the company. This story is a simple example of word-of-mouth marketing.
The question is, how did that company get William to recommend it to his friend? Of course, the most important nuance here is that the service of the construction company justifies or exceeds William’s expectations. In other words, the high quality of Company A’s service was the reason. As a result, William was satisfied with the service, and he now advises his friends about the company and subconsciously thinks Michael will be happy to use the company and thank him. He will say, “It’s good that you suggested the company to me,” or he’d go find a company he didn’t know, and they wouldn’t repair the house the way he wanted.
As another example, when our teeth hurt, we look for a dentist. We ask our friends and relatives first if they know a good dentist because human health is a sensitive issue. Therefore, we want information from sources we trust the most. That’s what most of us do. A small number of people may go to the doctor relying on advertisements they see on TV or the internet. It’s true that there are people who go to the doctor believing in such advertisements, and this doesn’t mean that these advertisements are false. It’s just that what we’re looking at here is that people trust their friends and relatives more than advertising. Even Nielsen, one of the world’s most popular media research companies, found that 92 percent of consumers trust the advice of friends and relatives more than any advertising.
In fact, word-of-mouth advertising doesn’t just happen when you consult your friends and relatives. It can also be based on the opinion of a group of buyers. An example of this is online shopping. Suppose you want to buy a Canon camera on the internet. In this case, in addition to consulting friends with knowledge and experience in this field, you could also consider the views of other customers who’ve purchased the same model. Here, the opinions of other people you don’t know also perform the function of word-of-mouth marketing.
If someone who owns a business or wants to start a new business asks, “How can I make word-of-mouth marketing work in my business?” the answer to this question is to pay attention to the quality of the product and service you offer because people do not recommend poor-quality products to their friends. When we say quality product, we also mean customer satisfaction in the relationship from the first moment of contact with your company to the last moment. In this case, when the product is of good quality, word-of-mouth marketing will start for your product. As another factor, once you have quality, if your business is on a digital platform, then the feedback and evaluations of past customers will be useful. It’s also an additional advantage to have short videos of satisfied customers talking about the product.
It’s important to note that, in addition to word-of-mouth marketing, other types of promotions are also very important, of course, as long as they are used properly.
