Word of Mouth Marketing is the Best

Word of Mouth Marketing is the best.

…but it would be better if someone you personally knew and trusted told you that.

Why? Because we still prefer recommendations from friends and family over any other form of advertising. Think about it! When someone makes a recommendation, they are putting their own reputation on the line, with nothing to gain in exchange.

That’s all great Lisa, but can you prove it?

Why yes, yes I can.

The smart people of Nielson (2015) conducted an online survey of 30,000 respondents, and guess what the people said? They confirmed that the most credible advertising still comes from people we know and trust. In fact, 83% said they completely or somewhat trust the recommendations of friends and family, and people were 4x more likely to purchase when referred by a friend.

MarketShare studied several different brands and found that word of mouth increased marketing effectiveness up to 54%.  

According to McKinsey, word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20-50% of all purchasing decisions. (http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/a-new-way-to-measure-word-of-mouth-marketing).

In 2014, the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association released the “State of Word-of-Mouth Marketing” survey, demonstrating what marketers think of word of mouth marketing.

• 64% of their respondents mostly or completely agree that word of mouth marketing is more effective than traditional marketing.
• 50% have already incorporated word of mouth marketing into their traditional marketing campaigns
• 70% of those surveyed plan to increase their online word of mouth marketing spend, and 29% will increase their offline word of mouth marketing spend.

So Word of Mouth Marketing (or “WOMM” as we say in the biz) is clearly the bees knees. Want to know more about how to optimize your WOMM? Click here to read about 10 ways to get more out of your WOMM.