Marketing Word of Mouth, Prominent Strategy for Effective Promotion

We live in the digital age.

We live in an era where everyone do a transaction via the internet. If you want to buy something, just click and then pay. After a while, the item we wanted arrived in front of the house. Again, thanks for the internet.

Changing the way people buy has also led entrepreneurs to change their marketing strategies. From those who usually put up billboards on the side of the road, to placing advertisements on certain websites. Starting from Google, Youtube and even social media by utilizing well-known influencers.

How is the result?

Behind the best-selling sales are expensive paid advertisements. The fact is, big companies today are really spending money in advertising on the internet. There really isn’t anything wrong with that.

However, there is one free marketing strategy that many entrepreneurs overlook even though its impact is greater than paid advertising. Yes, Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM).

What is the meaning of the Word of Mouth and why is it the dominant strategy?

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Definition of marketing word of mouth

74% of consumers think that the Word of Mouth is the best recommendation for buying a product or service.

WOMM is proven to be a free but effective marketing strategy because it can increase sales by 54% from the previous one, according to research quoted by Forbes.

What is Word of Mouth? Simple

Which product do you choose between recommendations from friends or seeing advertisements scattered on social media? Of course, you will have more trust with friends’ recommendations. That is what is meant by Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM).

WOM is a free word of mouth marketing strategy that usually occurs because of the quality of the product or service provided.

It is a natural law, people will voluntarily provide information to their friends about certain products or services if they get benefits after using them.

That is why, WOM is the best weapon in marketing even though there are currently many paid advertisements.

Consumers trust other consumers

Word of Mouth happens naturally. Entrepreneurs cannot force their product or service to be known by many people. So, what should entrepreneurs do if they want their products to go viral?

Create a different product or service. Or, create a product or service that is sold in a higher quality.

If you sell something that has a big impact on consumers, then they will not hesitate to share the story with their friends who might become your business customers.

Quicksprout has done research on how to market products well. 2 of the top 3 points, namely recommendations from friends and netizen opinions on social media, are an attraction for someone to buy.

From this graph, it can be seen that customers will naturally come to buy through recommendations, not through paid advertisements like the one on the internet.

Natural WOM, quality still determines

Artist cakes mushroomed in Indonesia several years ago. Entertainers are competing to open a cake shop by using social media as the main marketing strategy. Yes, they do promote via Instagram, Twitter etc.

Can it be considered WOM? the answer is yes.

Unfortunately, the artist’s cake phenomenon did not last long because many were closed, whether it was bankruptcy, there were no buyers or anything. Most of them, failed to survive and chose to close their business lines.

WOM does happen naturally. Entertainers have a time on their Instagram so the products they sell become more quickly recognized. However, what power if the laws of nature are willing.

WOM does not run optimally because it is likely not accompanied by product quality.

A quality product will generate many customers.

Conversely, if you have many customers but don’t have quality products, the business you create will quickly go out of business, aka bankrupt.

In conclusion, WOM is not only by word of mouth because the internet makes it easier and faster to spread through social media etc.

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Go-Date, Evidence of the Successful Word of Mouth

Hundreds of thousands of viewers on Youtube channels and tens of thousands of likes on Facebook and other social media, Go Jek had made a virtual world viral with the Go-Date application which was ‘launched’ in 2016.

At that time, Gojek’s CEO, Nadiem Makariem, succeeded in making his ride-sharing application the talk of many people after talking about his desire to make a dating application on Gojek.

In the end, Nadiem was just joking about the application. But for Gojek, the impression they got at that time was so big that it became a very smart marketing strategy at that time.

What is done by Gojek can be taken into consideration for you if you want to start a business.

Primarily, make a product or service of the highest quality so that it becomes the topic of conversation for many consumers.

That way, consumers will, voluntarily, recommend your product or service to other consumers. Have an opinion on this, please write in the comments column below.