Word of Mouth Marketing: Turning Customers into Your Biggest Advocates

What is the fastest way you have been converted to become a company’s customer, maybe a loyal one at that? Have you ever bought a product or used a company’s service solely relying on what other people have told you? The question is why you trusted their word so much even though you have been seeing the ads of such a product or service.

The answer is simple. You believed that if your friends or family members referred you to a product or service, then it means they have used it and are satisfied with the result. This is therefore referred to as Word-of-Mouth marketing.

WHAT IS WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING

Word-of-Mouth marketing (WOMM, WOM, WOM marketing, or word-of-mouth advertising) is when a customer talks about a company’s product or service almost in their daily conversations. Essentially, it is voluntary advertising influenced by customers’ experiences and most of the time, something that exceeds their initial expectation. In addition, getting people to talk about your brand, product, or business is the primary goal of WOM marketing. It is believed to be one of the oldest but most effective forms of marketing.

In a research conducted by HubSpot, it concludes that consumers talk about specific brands casually around 90 times per week. Additionally, according to the same study, roughly 71% of prospective buyers believe online customer reviews. In simple words, consumers trust recommendations made by family and friends.
EXAMPLES OF WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING

Examples of Word-of-Mouth marketing includes collecting and publishing customer’s reviews, as other customers, most especially, first time buyer/shopper often read reviews when shopping online. You can share it on your website, social media platforms to spread the good news about your business.

Another example is leveraging social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok to let others know about your brand and what it offers. More so, you can encourage customers to share their experiences on the platform. We are now in the digital world where you can get almost anything you want on the online space. Therefore, social media has not come to erode WOM marketing; instead, it has come to help amplify it.

WHY WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING WORKS BEST FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing is one of the most powerful tools for small businesses, especially in close-knit communities like Ilorin, where personal relationships and trust play a crucial role in buying decisions. Here is why it works better than traditional advertising:

1. It Builds Brand Loyalty

The truth is that WOM converts faster than any other kinds of advertisement in the sense that potential customers tend to trust the words of recommendation from their friends and family members. Word-of-mouth marketing, does not just bring in new customers, it also builds long-term relationships. Customers who come through recommendations tend to stay loyal to the brand because they trust the person who recommended it.

2. It is Cost Effective

Unlike the traditional advertising like TV, radio, and digital ads that require high budgets, WOM is relatively affordable for your products and services. Many small businesses in Ilorin and across Nigeria operate on tight budgets, making large-scale advertising almost impossible.

This happens naturally when a customer is pleased with your product or service. The ripple effect of this is that a single satisfied customer can bring in multiple new customers without any direct marketing spend.

3. It Expands the Customer Base Naturally.

The downside of paid advertising is that it stops bringing in customers the moment your budget runs out, but that is not the case with WOM. Word of mouth marketing has a compounding effect – when a customer tells five people about your brand and each of them does the same, it increases your customer base naturally.

For instance, you sell food around the school area, a satisfied customer shares his experience with five of his friends, and each of them brings two people to patronise your brand. That means you have gained fifteen customers without spending extra on marketing.

STRATEGIES FOR WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING

1. Ask for Feedback

As a business owner, your interest should not only lie in making a sale and ending it there. You should take it a step further to ask for the reviews from your customers. In the digital world that we are now, WOM does not just happen in person; it goes and spreads across all social media platforms. If you are into fashion and someone buys from you, ask him or her if they have used the product, how it looked on them – were they comfortable with it? And many more. In fact, on the part of the customers, they feel like they are part of the brand for what it is. Let’s spill the tea, Nigerians love and rely on reviews and testimonials when making a buying decision and as a business owner, you should maximise that to your advantage – post it on your website, social media platforms,etc.

2. Leverage Social Media.

If you are still shy to bring your brand on social media in this era, then business is not for you. In addition, for to those that only rely on WhatsApp to talk about their brands without any strategic marketing tips other than “Come and buy what I’m selling o.” If you think you are making enough money not to bother yourself with social media, I bet that you can make 10x of it if you leverage social media to your advantage. Choose a platform that works best for your brand and build something with it. Talk about the stories that surround your brand shamelessly. Doing this helps build a consciousness in the mind of your customers.

3. Create a Referral Programme.

Referral programmes are one of the most popular ways to gain customers without spending much on marketing. A referral programme incentivizes customers to refer their friends and family by offering them a reward whenever someone signs up or buys using their referral code. It is an easy and cost-effective way to expand your customer base. Whether you are looking at gaining new leads, boost visibility or retain customers, then you should try doing a referral programme. You can offer coupons, credits, discounts, or free products to the referrer that leads to a purchase.

Word-of-mouth marketing should not be played down upon as a small business owner. It has been proven to be the most powerful, cost-effective, and trust-building strategy available. Unlike paid advertising, which requires an ongoing financial budget, WOM marketing has a compounding effect, which helps to expand your customer base as satisfied customers share their experiences with others.

If you are a small business owner in Ilorin or anywhere else in Nigeria, now is the time to leverage word-of-mouth marketing. The more people talk about your business, the faster your brand grow without the heavy costs of traditional marketing.
Start today and watch your business thrive through the power of word-of-mouth marketing.