Types of Word of Mouth
A Pandora's Box of Peer Power and Persuasion
Contrary to some popular belief, Word of Mouth (WOM) encompasses a wide gamut of alternative marketing, media and research. WOM is an umbrella term for 14+ strategies and tactics that get people talking.
As traditional marketing methods are becoming much less effective, word of mouth marketing is taking on much more prominence in the success of large companies and start-ups alike. It belongs as a distinct practice with unique features alongside its more well-known cousins of advertising, promotion, PR, and mass media.
We have identified the 14 key branches of word of mouth below (and as a services firm practice nearly all of them and have identified 300 related tactics):
Integrated
- Brand/Customer Community-building WOM - providing a forum for key stakeholders to engage and participate in a brand through content, dialogue, activities, social connections and/or rewards
- Advisory Panel/Co-Creation WOM - the practice of inviting experts, prosumers and innovators to collaboratively exchange ideas, develop solutions, input suggestions and thus, endorse a wide array of company operations
- Influencer-driven WOM - identifying and incubating a front row audience of opinion leaders to carry the weight of their recommendations and endorsement to their followers
- Product seeding/intervention WOM - providing extremely targeted advance exposure or samples to people, typically in advance of launches, within new target audiences or as a tool for competitive conversion
- Referral-driven WOM - getting an established base of advocates to recommend products and services to their trusted social circles based on brand affinity or positive experience
- Grassroots sponsorship/cause-driven WOM - organizing volunteers and enthusiasts to rally around social movements and widen the circle who support and/or fund the cause
Offline- Dominant
- Experiential WOM - the creation of live, brand-relevant, immersive and customized events focused around the lifestyle and needs of the target community who voluntarily step into your brand
- Buzz/Guerilla WOM - use of live events/stunts/field teams to get passersby to turn their heads and media to cover the story
Online
- Social Media Production/Outreach WOM (i.e. blogs, podcasts) - getting content and conversations developed and spread through forums, blogs, wikis, podcasts
- Social Network Production/Outreach WOM - getting content, conversations, influencers and traffic developed and spread through social networks, photo, audio and video sharing sites and their groups, applications, mashups, widgets, ads and other vehicles
- Viral Marketing/Advertising WOM - the creation of compelling, entertaining and/or culturally important content engineered for passing along to many others
- User-generated content/media WOM - generating brand-sponsored news, content, reviews, creative and other contributions through people (customers, fans, users ) not company professionals
- Advergaming/Virtual World WOM - using multimedia forms to promote interaction and exposure between brands and users
- Affiliate WOM - an explicit reward-based and reciprocal relationship between a business and third party publishers or social media content authors
Currently Practised Forms of Word of Mouth
- Social media - blogs/podcasts - 45%
- Social networks - 42%
- Buzz/Guerrilla Marketing - 25%
- Influencer Programs - 23%
- Brand Experience Initiatives - 21%
- Viral Ads - 18%
- Brand Communities 16%
Source: Agent Wildfire Research 2008
The most important attributes of creating great word of mouth
- A Conversation Worthy Idea/Concept (32%)
- The Customer/Member Experience Provided (15%)
- A Great Product/Brand (14%)
- The People Who Participate (12%)
- The Culture/Employees of a Company (10%)
Agent Wildfire Research 2008
Rescue that orphan. Put word of mouth at the top of your to-do list. Don't let it get lost and don't let it get buried under more comfortable, traditional advertising programs. Word of mouth has always been you most important source of new business.
Andy Sernovitz, CEO, GasPedal
47% of marketers are strongly optimistic and 32% are somewhat optimistic in their company's current position on word of mouth marketing building value with its organization.
Agent Wildfire Research, 2008