Countless online conversations about your brand are happening every day. Oftentimes, curious customers have learned all that they need to know about your brand long before your company can formally introduce its own products or services via marketing campaigns. Forrester reports that by 2020, 80% of the buying process is expected to occur without any direct human-to-human interaction.
So where are customers learning about your product? Online.
Sure, you could leave your brand reputation and offerings in the hands of anonymous commenters and third-party websites. You can even hold out for a life-changing viral hit if you’d like. Or you can cut a nice slice of the word-of-mouth pie and take a proactive role in guiding the flow of your digital business.
Forging authentic, long-lasting bonds with your customers takes time, but we’ve gathered three simple steps to get you started.
Build Trust
It may seem like a long road ahead for brands aiming to getting curious online browsers to convert into loyal customers and transform into active brand ambassadors. Trust is the shortest path to reach this goal.
Whether you are in the B2B or B2C industry, word-of-mouth marketing increases the odds that your customers will rely on you for all of their needs. – Why Word of Mouth Marketing Is Important For Your Brand eBook
Word travels much faster than it used to thanks to customers and companies alike. As both groups turn to social media for new information and self-promotion, it becomes even harder to filter through the noise. Luckily, the easiest (and most accessible) way to get heard is to incorporate the familiar, trustworthy voices of fellow customers into your marketing strategy. According to Nielsen’s Global Survey of Trust in Advertising, 84% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family and friends about products. That means customer-to-customer recommendations are the highest ranked source of trustworthiness.
Appeal to Existing Customers
Automated referral marketing empowers companies to track the sharing behavior of their most valuable business asset — existing customers. Just think about it, existing customers lay the foundation for future business and revenue. One good brand experience can inspire your customers to make repeat purchases and open the floodgates for new leads. The most effective word-of-mouth marketing strategies ensure that sharing is easy and customer rewards are generous.
Recommended customers are 18% more likely to stay with a business than other customers. – Journal of Marketing
Connecting the dots between excited fans and loyal customers makes it that much easier to reward your existing customers with rewards.
Automate Manual Processes
There are a lot of uncontrollable variables involved in building trust with your customer base and attracting new customers. Thanks to marketing automation, your referral program doesn’t have to exist beyond your control. Automated referral marketing ensures that ambassadors are easily enrolled, effectively reached, and rewarded in a timely manner.
They get rewards and you get cost-effective, high-quality leads.That’s a win-win solution for ambassadors and marketers alike.
Automating the manual process of enrolling, tracking, managing, and rewarding referrals, referral marketing automation enables brands to quickly scale their word-of-mouth marketing efforts. – Why Word of Mouth Marketing Is Important For Your Brand eBook
It can be hard to spark meaningful interactions and proactively engage with customers in the flurry of today’s online conversations. Finding an automated solution to streamline the manual legwork of following the word-of-mouth trail makes for an insightful and strategic marketing approach. Automated referral marketing empowers companies to create truly unique brand campaigns that capture customer sharing behavior and incorporate intrigued members of your customers’ networks.
Making The Push for Word-of-Mouth
Word-of-mouth marketing is built on a set of intangible elements. Customers adore brands that make a good first impression and search for a feel-good factor in their interactions with your company. Innovative brands combine these soft skills with the hard facts that are shares, clicks, referrals, and generated revenue for more cost-effective marketing. Read our “Why Word-of-Mouth Is Important For Your Brand” eBook to discover why referral marketing is an easy choice.
