Building a successful business requires marketing. The two go hand-in-hand. You cannot build a business if people don’t know about it. People cannot know about your business if you are not marketing it. It is as simple as that. If you are trying to build a business of your own, just remember this: word-of-mouth is still the best form of marketing there is.
Word-of-mouth existed long before there was Madison Avenue. It existed before the printing press. For all intents and purposes, word-of-mouth marketing has existed for as long as human beings have been able to speak. It is also the one form of marketing that absolutely never fails.
People Tell Other People
The secret to word-of-mouth marketing is the people who do it for you. Simply put, people tell other people about their experiences. Customers who have a good experience with your company are likely to tell other people about it. They are likely to recommend your business if given the opportunity. What makes this so powerful is the trust factor.
You know yourself that TV and online ads only have so much pull with you. If you are faced with the choice between believing a TV ad and believing what your best friend has to say, you are going to go with your friend. Why? Because you trust that person. On the other hand, you don’t know anything about the people behind the TV ad except for the fact that they are looking to make money.
It’s a Simple Message
Word-of-mouth marketing is fascinating on many levels. At its foundation is a simple message passed from one person to the next. There is nothing complex about it. Telling a friend or family member that you love a particular product doesn’t require an advanced degree in marketing. You don’t have to sit down and carefully choose your words based on Google search results. You just speak your mind. And guess what? People respond to that.
Plurawl is a New York City clothing brand that markets specifically to the LatinX community. Their Latinx apparel are a big hit with their loyal customers. Guess what? A lot of the company’s marketing is accomplished through word-of-mouth. The testimonials on their website say it all.
Customers purchase Plurawl clothing like they would any other brand. Then they go out and wear it. What happens? People start asking them questions. They see the LatinX messaging, and they are intrigued by it. They see the quality of the garments and want them for themselves.
Even Digital Marketers Know It
If you are still not convinced that word-of-mouth is the best form of marketing there is, consider professionals in the digital marketing space. It’s reasonable to say that digital marketing has surpassed more traditional marketing just because so many people now live their lives in the digital arena.
Digital marketers place a heavy emphasis on social media. Why? Because social media is the perfect digital venue for word-of-mouth marketing. The digital marketer’s goal is to get people talking about brands on their social media pages. Marketers know that people trust social media messages more than just about anything else. Whether that is right or wrong is beside the point.
Marketers have lots of tools for getting the message out. They have plenty of tricks up their sleeves, tricks designed to convince people to buy products and services. At the end of the day though, few things in the marketing world are as effective as word-of-mouth. Satisfied customers telling friends and family members about their experiences are the most effective marketers of all.