Word of Mouth Marketing 1
A quick introduction about the writer, he is a friend, his name is May-Las Akorede and he is so excited to have you read his post. Let's go.
Sometimes towards the late ember months in 2019, I stumbled on a couple of information that has changed my views on business and how it's been run. I decided to follow up on that information and I started digging and researching hoping to uncover more information – well, I'm not done uncovering – but the good news is I've uncovered some pretty good stuffs that I believe every business owner should begin using NOW. Not tomorrow, but NOW.
I know a lot has been wrought in you up to this point and I don't take it for granted, and all I simply need is for you to have an open mind and be receptive to some of the insights I'll share. They've been time-tested, and experienced personally.
My name is May-Las Akorede and I run a photography business, a real estate business and a consultancy business; let’s just make that a form of introduction of myself.
“How much you grow is dependent on the quality and quantity of information you have access to. This is the Knowledge Economy” – Debola Deji-Kurunmi
Let’s Begin!
Have you ever had a nice time at a restaurant you visited for the first time, and when you got back home, you told someone about your experience at the restaurant?
Or have you ever watched a cool movie or listened to a really nice song and you tell your friend about it?
Or you just bought a new pair of shoes and every time you wear it; you always want to snap pictures and post it? Or in some cases, you want people to actually see the shoe on you?
You’ll most likely answer yes to one or more of those questions or know someone who has engaged in something similar. The real challenge is in knowing how – a business owner – to engineer such situations in your products and services also, such that when our customers patronize you or use your products, they just can’t hold it to themselves and they become advocates for you, telling their friends and families about your business and how cool it is to patronize you.
Do you know that on an average, people share more than 16,000 words per day and every hour there are more than a 100 million conversations about brands, products and services?
People love to share stories, news and information with those around them. The things others tell us or text us about, have a significant impact on the actions we take, on what we think, read, buy, watch, sing, do etc. We watch movies our friends recommend, we download songs people talk about, we read books our friends praise and often times we vote candidates our friends and family endorse.
Word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20 percent to 50 percent of all purchasing decisions.
So, while traditional advertising is useful, – still very useful – word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) is at least ten times more effective and I’ll give two major reasons for that;
Word-of-mouth is more persuasive. Ads tell you how great a product is, and because ads always claim that their product is the best, they’re not really credible. Most people don’t believe ads and you can almost count the number of times you’ve seen an ad and immediately respond to it. You won’t find an advertisement that would “shade” their product. However, our friends tend to get blunt, they tell it to us straight, they just simply call a spade, a spade. If they believe a product is great, they’ll tell us exactly that. If the product is bad, they’d also tell us. We trust our friends more than we trust ads. We listen to them. We believe them.
Word-of-mouth is more targeted. A lot of businesses advertise in ways that allow them to reach as much number of interested customers. That might not be really efficient because many of the people who see the ad may not need your product/service or may not need it immediately (P.S I'm not against ads, I advertise for my business also, but minimally, I focus more on word-of-mouth... I'll advise you do both). Word-of-mouth is naturally directed toward an interested customer. We don't share stories with everyone we know. We select particular people who we think will find it valuable. You won't tell a friend who doesn't have children about a new diaper. Word of mouth tends to reach people who are actually interested in the "thing" being discussed.
And we believe our friends more than ads, because we know they're mostly not working with the company in question. And Word of mouth gives you infinite return for little investment on a customer. That means, from one customer, you can get an infinite chain of other customers.
This implies that as a business owner, you should find a way by which conversations about your business is infused into people's daily "small talks". Those "small talks" of theirs can fetch you big money and influence.
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