How Major Brands Leverage Word of Mouth Marketing
TechsPlace | How do you sell products in the 20th century? Well, you need to leverage people. This means that you need to do more than advertise the benefits of your products. You also need to prove that other people are using your products and they liked your products. This is the only way you can convince others to join your customers. You can only convince people to buy from you based on the past experiences of other customers on your website.
This is the perfect time because customers have developed the habit of talking about the brands that they like. This is crucial for getting your brand in front of your target market. They need to speak to you for them to know you. And they need to talk about you for them to trust you. You see, trust is a factor that doesn’t develop from past purchases or working relationships. It can happen from mere recommendations. The key is to find someone who will recommend you by backing it up with the experience that they had with your brand. From here, other people will take notice, and they will try your products and services out of the mere recommendations of other people.
While you may encourage your customers to recommend you to their family and friends, that doesn’t mean that they will do it. You still need to have a reliable product or service for them to do this. In this article, you can take a closer look at the biggest brands in the world so that you can learn from their word of mouth marketing campaigns. If you are selling on Shopify, there are also many ways to promote your Shopify store that you can start today.
Here are some Word of Mouth Marketing examples
Wendy’s
Wendy’s is known for its witty answers in their Twitter account. It all started when a customer challenged them on how they can get free nuggets for a year. Their witty reply has generated millions of retweet for the brand, and this helped the brand to gain traction in the food industry as well as in social media. Up to today, Wendy’s continues to be the brand that people frequent on Twitter. That simple tweet has led to a wave of conversation on social media, which has led many people to their brand.
IHOP
If you want people to talk about your brand, you need to do more than resort to old marketing tactics. If you are doing what other brands are doing, you will only get ordinary results. If you want your audience to react differently, you will need to do something differently. This is the reason why IHOP did a subtle name change on social media. From IHOP, it changed its name to IHOB. On the surface, the name change may have been simple. But it sure did encourage the conversation across social media channels. It made the people guess what the ‘B’ means. From ‘International House of Pancakes,’ it then becomes ‘International House of Burgers.’ While the company did not even proceed with the name change, it still did its part of fostering conversation on social media. This drew a lot of attention to the brand.
In-N-Out Burger
Another example in the food industry is In-n-Out’s secret menu. While the restaurant may seem like an ordinary burger chain, you’ll find that what’s on the list is not all that they have to offer. They also have a so-called ‘secret menu’ that many people on social media are raving about. While the concept may seem simple, it is about allowing customers to request a secret menu in their local restaurant. And this is enough for their most loyal customers to want to know more. Because of this, the so-called secret list has then become the center of their word-of-mouth marketing campaign. And it worked.
Coca Cola
If we are going to talk about viral campaigns, then we should talk about Coca Cola. Not only is it famous for all of its Christmas campaigns, but it is also a brand that is known for its word-of-mouth marketing campaigns. One of these campaigns that took the market by storm is the ‘Share-a-Coke’ campaign. This is where cans and bottles are printed with names. It may seem simple, but it drove people to groceries and supermarkets to grab their names on the shelves. And in the case that their name is too unique and not available on the shelves, they can contact coke to order a custom bottle from the company. In the age of social media where everything is shareable online, this simple campaign drove people to look for their names to share with their family and friends.
Tinder
Tinder is a dating app that started on college campuses. The reason it became popular is word-of-mouth marketing. This happens because students shared the app with their family and friends when they were on holiday break. It started when it is promoted by college students who have used it to find people through the app. From here on, the app is now known as a useful tool for finding new people, which can blossom into lasting relationships.
Another app that grew because of word-of-mouth marketing is Twitter. On the surface, it may seem like a simple app that allows people to share their thoughts on a limited number of characters.
But the story of Twitter started way back in 2007. This was when they launched the app in a conference called SXSW 2007. It all began with a bright idea. When all of the participating companies have their booths inside, they wanted to make use of the hallways of the convention center. This is where they launched a ‘join SXSW’ campaign through the screens in the area. They asked them to text it to a number, and this instantly exposed the app to a large user base. This is how Twitter started. This is also the reason why it has a significantly larger user base right from the beginning. From here, the participants of SXSW did their part in promoting the app all across the globe.
FourSquare
Twitter is not the only online application that managed to gain traction through conferences. Foursquare did the same. So what they did is they also promoted their platform in a convention in 2009. This has led to an initial boost of numbers for the app as well. Their promotion method, however, is more direct. The co-founders went ahead and plugged the app in the convention and encouraged people to try it. And they did. The best part is that it did not stop there. They also promoted the app to the people that they know.
Under Armour
If you are going to create a brand for athletes, you should start with your target market. This is what Under Armour did, and they were quite successful in getting the word out about the brand. What the founder did is he started by giving away his products to football athletes in high schools and colleges. Eventually, the quality of the product reached other people. Since they began with their target market, this allowed them to gain access to prestigious college football and NFL teams. Because of this, the company started by serving groups, and this created the boost that the brand needs for it to grow.
Tesla
This is an example of a brand that did not spend a cent on marketing but still managed to get the attention of its target market. Why is it able to attract clients even though it is not spending on marketing? That’s simple. It relies on word-of-mouth marketing. After all, they know that they have a unique product that cannot be found elsewhere. They have an electric car.
What encouraged people to promote their brand? They had a well-thought referral program. Their referral program is far from ordinary. It is not like the other programs you find on the Internet. It is a program fused into a contest. Through it, their referrers can earn not just from making one referral but also from reaching a promotion threshold. This means that the more references a referrer makes, the more prizes he can unlock.
Also, their rewards are not just any prize. It is still geared towards innovation. By participating in their referral program, users can have access to other technologies. Take, for example, the Solar Roof Project and the Tesla unveiling event. These are events that can only be accessed by a select number of referrers. Also, referrers can get a Tesla. If that is not enough motivation, I don’t know what it is. This is the reason why the Tesla referral program is so effective. It is because the worth of the reward is often high.
Pinterest is an example that word-of-mouth marketing campaigns should not be limited online. It knows that the reason why it is thriving is the people who support the brand. Because of this, the company went out of its way to talk to Pinterest users through meetups to gather their feedback. From here, the company can create a remarkable referral campaign called ‘Pin it Forward.’ This is where their users can invite other people to pin images and create vision boards to spread the inspiration online.
Threadless
If there’s one company that understood their customers the most, that would be threadless. They invited graphic designers and art enthusiasts to create custom shirt designs. They understood that their audience is creative by nature. Because of this, they are catering to a market that needs more than just products that spark creativity. There is also a need for custom and unique products for creatives. This vision has allowed the company to grow, and it has managed to earn as much as $6.5 million because of this.
Dropbox
Dropbox is an example of a company that managed to create a word-of-mouth marketing campaign on a budget successfully. While other companies spend a ton just to advertise and get people talking, Dropbox simply created a referral campaign that is designed to give away extra storage for referrals. The approach is simple. The user could get an additional 500 MB of storage if they managed to attract more people to the business. It worked, and it allowed Dropbox to build its business to what it is today.
Uber
Uber is known as one of the top transportation companies in the whole world. But this did not happen by accident. Instead, the company launched a referral marketing campaign that gives away free rides for riders and incentives for drivers. As you know, the company thrives based on the number of drivers that use the service. So they focused their rewards though ride incentives. This is when drivers are rewarded if they managed to complete a particular number of rides in a day. This encouraged more drivers to join, and this is the start of the growth of the business.
Casper Mattress Company
While some companies focus on rewards, other companies focus on client satisfaction. This is precisely what Casper Mattress Company has in mind when they allow customers to take home mattresses free of charge and return it after 100 days if they did not like it. It may seem like a steal, but customers were so happy that they often end up paying for the product because they loved it.
Also, the nature of the offer is intriguing. This leads customers to think about why a company is willing to lose money for customer satisfaction—this quickly generated conversation about the brand that granted it even more customers and sales.
Start with a Referral Program
Don’t know where to start? Don’t look far. You can easily set up a referral system with referral software. You can look through different apps like affiliate marketing tools to see if it can work for you. If you are selling on Shopify, referral marketing is excellent because it can help you promote your products to a larger audience. Even new websites like Hunting Bow Labs that sell some of the most powerful crossbows have used this strategy with success.
So if you want people to talk about your brand, give your audience a reason to do it. A reward can go a long way. This is the reason why every business should have a referral program. This is so the company can have automated word-of-mouth marketing.
This article is contributed by guest author on techsplace.com.
