Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) is the OG of marketing tools - it is the oldest [marketing] trick in the book, one of the cheapest forms, and probably the most effective tool as well.

According to Nielson, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising, which isn’t surprising as they are the people we trust most so why should we not believe their rave (or bad) reviews about a product?

As a small business that is just starting out, WOMM is an important tool and in this blog we detail a few tips on how to utilise it.

You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression

Creating a first impression is important for any new business but is essential in WOMM. The first time someone has an experience with your business can usually determine whether they become loyal and share positive reviews, or never use your service again and leave negative feedback.

There are a number of ways to make a good first impression, welcome gifts or discount codes are usually a popular choice for most businesses. You can also try sending a welcome email, or a thank-you after they’ve bought a product or used your service, or even helpful guides that will be relevant to the service or product they used - remember to be personable and make sure you acknowledge your customers from the first instance.

Put the Spotlight on Yourself

Word of Mouth can’t happen if no one knows about you or your business, so make sure you shine a light on yourself to get people talking!

Make sure people can get to your business information both online and offline. Get listed in the phonebook and on various web directories, make sure all your contact information on your website is up-to-date and easy to find, and make sure the information is optimised for search engines (handy tips here).

Getting in to the local press or being part of the community is a great way of getting your name out there. Using a PR agency is a way of spreading your business’ name but if you check our previous blog here, you can find a few handy tips.

Keep Them Coming Back for More

It’s one thing to get someone use your service once, but it is another to turn them into loyal customers who come back. Make sure you give them reason to come back, as returning customers who are happy are more likely to tell their friends and family about you.

Show you appreciate your customers by rewarding them with gifts or discounts, or implement a loyalty programme, such as a points system like Boots loyalty card, or reward them after X amount of purchases, like Nando’s loyalty card.

Providing excellent customer service is a great way of keeping on the good sides of customers. Always go above and beyond for your customers and be extra helpful so that they go away having a positive feeling for your company, as opposed to negative and angry-tweeting about it.

Have a Sense of Humour

With social media and becoming viral being a possibility, being a bit entertaining can help. Being a bit more informal can make your brand more approachable and gives your social media a bit more flexibility on what you say.

Tweet fun links that are relevant to your product, or tweet about current events and see how you can link your product with it. Innocent Smoothies’ social media is a great example of this, why not check it out and you will see some great tweets that are pun-tastics, laid-back and engaging.

All these tips are a great way of helping maximise chances of word of mouth and are easy to implement within a marketing strategy. Always give your customers something good to talk about, and encourage them to spread the word!