Five Word of Mouth Marketing Strategies You Can Use

Word of Mouth Marketing is a powerful tool that is based in personal recommendations of specific brand, products and services. It spreads one person at a time, without much handling from devices like advertisement. Like the old shampoo commercial, if you like the shampoo, “you’ll tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on…”

Recommendations from people who are familiar and trustworthy are the easiest path to a product sale, donor acquisition, link or new subscriber. This is because recommendations are perceived as incentive-free, unlike advertisements.

There are five strategies that can be used for your own organization or business. These can all be initiated by your own organization:

1. Leverage Existing Social Networks – online communities, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and My Space have a large body of users. They have created a trust group by which they get their positive and negative information about outside influences. Tap into these communities with tools or content targeting their specific sub-culture and you’re likely to get a lot of attention.

2. Target the influencers – Look for individuals who are trend-setters or authorities on a specific topic. They should preferably be individuals who have many personal connections or a large and loyal audience. Examples include celebrities, power users on social websites like Digg and popular webmasters or bloggers with many loyal supporters.

3. Exclusivity and Scarcity - many companies offer and exclusive group of beta testers, or the opportunity to acquire limited editions or time-sensitive discounts. Combined with the above influencer and you have upped the ante of your brand to a group of devotees. Exclusivity invited curiosity and scarce products generate consistent demand and conversation.

4. Micro-Market – focus on the individual by providing highly-customizable products. Mike and Puma are examples of micro-marketing that allow you to design and purchase your own unique sneaker online. Adopt-A-Family does something similar by allowing companies to choose whether they will be providing for a single parent vs. two-parent family, how many children, ages of the children, etc. Combined with scarcity and existing social networks this can produced increased word-of-mouth exposure

5. Industry Marketing – Instead of focusing directly on the customers, focus on the people who can build your brand. Instead of seeking for thousands of views from a wide audience, make your mark within a niche community to build relationships and leverage-able connections.

Word-of–mouth marketing does not exist in a vacuum and it can certainly develop without any efforts on your part if your product or purpose is seen as extremely helpful, interesting, unique or valuable by a specific niche market. However, you are likely to have to jump start some promotional method to initialize word of mouth buzz.