Market your Product without Spending a Time - Use Word of Mouth Publicity

When you start a business, the one thing that you want to focus on is the product you want to sell. Every business owner wants to channelize all their resources towards that. This is particularly true for a country like India, where start-ups are mostly bootstrapped.

Business owners try to cut costs in every way possible so that they can bring a unique product to the market. Essentially, this is the priority. However, what follows the product development phase is a robust marketing strategy that will make the product visible to potential customers. Publicity is crucial for business growth as it helps to establish your brand and develop the trust factor among the customers and investors. Without this, the sale will not happen.

No matter how good a product you have, unless you can make it visible and accessible to the customers to get sale conversions, your business will fail. There are several tried and proven marketing strategies to promote the products. These include advertising, social media marketing, and personal communication. However, the most effective and organic way of promoting your product is by word of mouth publicity.  

Why should you Publicise your Product?

Business happens when the product you want to sell meets the people (read potential customers who need it. And, that too, your product should either reach your potential customers – either before any other company selling the same product reaches them, or, your product should show the potential customers reasons that will make them ditch the other companies and start buying from you. Publicising or marketing your product helps you to achieve this objective.  

Publicising your product helps to –

• Establish your brand name – If you want people to know about your business, you need to speak about it. You need to coin a name that resonates with your company’s philosophy and the promise to deliver what your potential customers require.
• Accelerates your Sales Figure – Once you have established the trust factor with your customers, you will be on the top of their minds whenever the need arises. This will surely reflect on the sales figure as well.
• Faster and Better Customer Engagement – Affecting marketing strategies help to acquire customers faster and also keep them engaged with your brand activities. The objective is to keep reminding them that your brand is always ready to serve them.

What is the word of mouth marketing?

Word of mouth marketing (WOMM) is when your customers speak about your brand to other potential customers. It is the ‘words of their mouth’ that help to spread awareness about your product or service. It is the best way to publicise your product. It is an organic way that does not take even a dime to carry out your brand awareness campaign.

Word of mouth publicity is effective to acquire customers as it works on peer influence. We consult our family and friends from choosing an apparel brand to selecting the school or coaching centre for the kids or even investing in real estate. No matter how much we research on the internet, we give priority to the advice we receive from the people we know. We try to learn from their experiences so that we don’t have to burn our fingers by trying something new. This mindset makes word of mouth marketing an effective yet inexpensive way of publicising your product.

If you want word of mouth publicity of your product to spread like a wildfire, all you have to do is to make your customers happy and the rest will be taken care of. Essentially, it proves to be a boon for small businesses in their starting phase.

In the digital era, the same concept of word of mouth marketing is being used as customer feedback and testimonials that are posted on social media and the company’s website. It helps the visitors to evaluate the product review and make an informed purchase decision.

Why is Word of mouth Marketing so Effective?

‘Owner’s envy. Neighbour’s pride!’ – it used to be one of the popular taglines of the ’80s. Why did I pick this tagline here? Because it shows how much our purchase decisions are influenced by our peer group.

When we meet a friend after a long time and she is carrying a newly launched gadget, we can’t control the temptation to ask them about it. We ask them about the performance of the gadget, how much it cost, from where they buy it and from where we can get the maximum discount. And what they say in reply influences us more than any television commercial or any other marketing strategy.

Word of mouth marketing is the fastest and the most effective influencer because we are always surrounded by our friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances. And more importantly and by default, we are either showing off our prized possessions to them or eye on what they are flaunting in front of us! And in both ways, we all are doing word of mouth publicity of one brand or the other.

Thus, word of mouth publicity provides third-party validation that creates a positive impact on your brand image and results in the upward moving sales curve. New customers tend to rely more on people who have used your product than they do on the other marketing campaigns carried out by you or your marketing team. Moreover, when a prospect comes to you after being influenced by feedback and recommendation from their peer group is already half convinced about buying your product. All you have to do is to live up to their expectations.  

How does a Product Gain the Momentum via Word of Mouth Marketing?

Put yourself in the shoes of a customer and think about all the trigger points for the purchases you make.

You visit a birthday party of your neighbour’s kid and compliment them for the customised cake that they ordered. After a few months, when it’s your turn to order a birthday cake for your child or any other family member, the first person you are likely to call is that neighbour of yours. You will dig out all the information about the bakery. And, based on your neighbour’s feedback, you could consider giving the new bakery a try.

In the same manner, you will have some of your guests who like the cake too. They might call you up for your feedback about the bakery. If you are happy with their services, you will share the same with them. And, thus, through word of mouth, the product will gain momentum and will create a loyal customer base within a specific locality.

In the digital age, word of mouth marketing is playing a vital role in converting sales. When we make an online purchase, we see the customers’ reviews and the star rating. Ecommerce platforms also mention ‘verified customers’ to validate the review to be a genuine one.

It is the virtue of third-party validation that makes business possible on social media. Visit any group on social media, it is flooded with product recommendations and reviews. All these factors establish the impact of third-party validation as one of the effective marketing techniques for influencing people.

How to Market Your Products using Word of Mouth Marketing?

The concept and impact of the word of mouth marketing sound encouraging. But doesn’t it sound like a slow process? Well, every organic process is slow. But is there any way to accelerate the process? The answer is yes!

Instead of waiting for your customers to give their verdict about your product, what about asking them for feedback and referrals? You can ask for referrals only when you have superseded your customers’ expectations in every way. You have to make sure that they are overwhelmed by your product. You can ask for a referral from a customer who comes back to you with repeat orders.

Use social media to engage your customers. Ask them to share their experience on your page. Guide them to the ‘invite friends’ button or share your page link on their page. In this way, you can bring together the virtues of social media and word of mouth marketing to speed up your sales.

Finally…

Word of mouth marketing is an age-old marketing technique that has worked for businesses to garner sales since time immemorial. And even in the digital era, the same technique is helping several bootstrapped start-ups to grow their businesses. So, learn to leverage the virtues of this marketing technique and watch your sales figure grow!    

Also read:

1) Why is Word-of-Mouth Publicity Important for Small Businesses?
2) How to Get Free Publicity For Your Small Business?
3) Tips to Understand Your Market while Starting a Small Business
4) How To Register A Small Business In India? Step-by-step guide

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FAQs

Q. How to use word of mouth technique through digital media?

Ans. Online sales thrive on third party validation. It has spoiled the customers to such an extent that they feel jittery to purchase anything without reading reviews on it. The best way to use word of mouth technique through digital media is to highlight the customers’ feedback and testimonials on your website and social media page.  

Q. How does the word of mouth publicity help attract investors?

Ans. Investors are always looking for promising business ventures. Your customers’ feedback and testimonials on social media will not only get you more customers but, will also help you to get noticed by the investors.

Q. What percentage of people trust online reviews and what percentage rely on a friend’s advice?

Ans. As per a study by Nielsen, 92% of people rely on their friends’ recommendations and 88% of the people make their purchase decisions after reading an online review.