Word of mouth marketing, or WOM, refers to when customers recommend a product or service to others through oral or written communication. It can be positive or negative. WOM is highly effective because recommendations come from personal connections and have a high conversion rate. In the social media age, WOM is strongly influenced by online presence and interactions. Positive social media engagement can drive positive WOM, while mistakes online can spread negative WOM quickly. Tools for effective WOM include quality service, high quality products, social media promotion, and hiring staff that prioritize customer satisfaction and relations. WOM, both positive and negative, has a significant impact on business success.

1. Word of mouth
Marketing

2. Definition
When a customer experiences a product or a service, and recommends the product or the
service to someone else, orally or via written communications, then that is known as Word of
mouth marketing or WOM marketing or WOMM.
Word of mouth marketing can be both – good or bad. It can be good if the recommendation is
positive or it can be bad if the recommendation is negative.
The reason word of mouth marketing is so important to marketers is because of it generally a
personal recommendation by someone you know – and hence it is known to have a very high
conversion rate – higher than any other forms of marketing.

3. Importance
Word of mouth marketing is one of the most important types of marketing for most
brands, products or services.
• Impact: Word of mouth marketing is literally the best form of marketing because 92% of
people will buy the product which is referred to them by WOMM.
• Huge returns on investment: It is a myth that word of mouth marketing does not cost
anything. You need to invest in giving solid service to customers to generate WOMM.
However, once u give that service, you will get a huge return on investment.
• Using Brand advocates: Sometimes, some customers become so happy with your brand
that they become brand advocates. These customers are the ones who generate maximum
business for you via word of mouth marketing – without any cost to you!

4. • Power to small businessmen: Word of mouth marketing is becoming very important
especially for small stores and local brands who do not have a huge marketing budget. They
can give good service and get the returns because of the personal relations that they built.
• Negative WOMM means huge losses: Negative word of mouth can cause huge losses to a
fresh launched product or brand. When Tata Nano was launched, it suffered a huge hit to
its brand image because people called it the “poor mans car”. That is why companies need
to focus on positive word of mouth at all times.

5. Word of mouth
in the Social Age

6. • Social media has become so powerful, that all political elections across the
world are happening more on social media than offline.
• Many politicians are focused on improving their online image by regularly
sharing the best pics and actions on social media. If they make a mistake, it is
plastered on the internet.
• In today’s day and age, if you want a positive word of mouth, it is impossible
to get it if you do not concentrate on social media. On the contrary, have a
positive social media image with the right social signals, and you are likely to
generate more positive word of mouth and get lot more inquiries for your
business.
• Today, Social media controls word of mouth in a major way.

7. The effect of Negative word of mouth
Negative word of mouth publicity is devastating for any business. Today, with the internet and
Social media, negative word of mouth is a major problem for brands, products, and services.
Just like positive word of mouth marketing means customers recommending the product to
other potential customers, negative word of mouth means customers stopping other potential
customers from buying the product or the service.
Negative word of mouth has a huge impact on the bottom-line or the profits of any
organization.
Product sales on any E-commerce platform is an example of how negative ratings can
immediately result in a drop in sales.

8. Tools for word of mouth marketing
Service:
One of the most common factors for positive
word of mouth marketing is giving prompt
and effective service to the customers. This
makes your brand or product reliable and
the customer will strongly recommend you
to others because of the reliability.

9. Quality:
Quality makes a huge difference in the word of mouth generated for a product or service. If the
customer was expecting a good quality, and he got better instead, expect a very positive WOM to
be generated for your product or service. On the other hand, if the quality was below
expectations, then expect negative feedback as well.
Social Triggers:
Social media is one of the strongest tools for word of mouth marketing. The phenomenal success
of social apps overnight shows the power of social media and the power of word of mouth
marketing. Friends want their friends to come online and to stay in touch – the reason why
Snapchat and Instagram became so famous overnight.

10. People:
Customers might not remember your brand. They might not remember the product too. But if
you have the right people in your company, more then likely, people will build good relations with
the end customer. A wrong person can make the customers go away with his rude talks and
unkempt looks. But the right employee can bring more customers with his polite talk, patience,
listening skills and the ability to ensure that customers leave happily.
The happier customers you have, the more positive is the word of mouth and the more automatic
is client acquisition (the backbone of any industry). This is why brands need to ensure to
have customer satisfaction surveys and feedback in place and improve customer satisfaction if it
is lacking. Otherwise, it can result in negative word of mouth publicity which can affect the brand
in the long run.

11. Thank You!