The Holy Grail: Word-of-Mouth Marketing

By September 10, 2015General

Every business needs marketing to sell. But we all know that. And that is a broad statement. What if there were a way to build your business, year in and year out, regardless of fluctuations in the economy or the activities of your competitors?

Well there is, and it’s called word-of-mouth marketing.

Word-of-mouth marketing is perhaps the world’s best-known marketing secret. If you’re wondering how it can be the “best-known” and “secret” at the same time – it’s simple. Everyone knows how important word-of-mouth marketing is, and yet almost no one understands how to build their business using it.

We have outlined some key steps below, but first; let’s go back to basics:

What is word of mouth?

Word-of-mouth marketing is quite simply the unpaid spread of a positive marketing message from person to person, whether it’s through conver sation, email, text or any other means of communication.

Humans are social creatures

As a species, we are wired for social influence and word of mouth marketing – all we need is something amazing to talk about, and word can spread like wildfire.

This is great news for your brand.

How can you encourage word-of-mouth marketing?

Target influencers:

Make sure you are speaking to leaders and influencers in your space, whether they’re journalists, public figures or bloggers. The age of Social Media has given everyone the power to broadcast their opinions and some bloggers and YouTube sensations have amassed strong followings.

Make a list of influencers that appeal to your key demographic and make sure that they know about what you do.

Be a thought leader:

Not only do you want to target the influencers in your space; you want to be one! Figure out what makes your business unique, and tell people about it. In order to do this, do you market research and find out where you can reach your target audience. It might be on social media, or at a conference, or via your company blog. Work out which medium best supports your ideas and develop a strategy to grow your presence there.

Be honest:

The success of Word of Mouth marketing depends on customer’s trust of the brand, and you have to earn enough merit to become a worthy topic of conversation. You can do this with an exceptional product and by maintaining integrity across online platforms.

Hotcow is a non-traditional creative agency that specialises in experiential marketing that goes viral. Our campaigns generate buzz through crowd participation, PR and content sharing. Contact us on 0207 5030442 or email us on info@hotcow.co.uk.