7 Ways Word-of-Mouth Influences Sales

Word-of-mouth had been a powerful influencer of sales for years. But do you still have word-of-mouth in your marketing plan? Lots of companies these days seem to discount word-of-mouth from the get-go. We see this as a huge mistake that you simply cannot afford to make. Why? Word-of-mouth marketing is cheap, extremely effective, and can either boost or diminish your sales. Here, we will tell you just why word-of-mouth is so very important to your business.

Word-of Mouth Directly Influences Sales

The biggest reason to seek out word-of-mouth advertising is because it can directly influence sales. When compared to some other sorts of advertising, you can actually increase your sales by around 100%. Even with the same product, a study concerning mobile phones showed that positive word of mouth can increase sales by about 10%. By utilizing word-of-mouth, you can seriously trump your competition. Currently, word-of-mouth gets consumers to buy from 2 of 10 to 5 of 10 products that they buy for the first time, ever. Word-of-mouth is a fantastic way to influence and win over new, loyal customers that might generate even more business.

Can Be Good or Bad

Not all word-of-mouth is great. This is an important factor to remember when you are doing your best to drum-up more sales from word-of-mouth. It is also why you might actually be hurting your sales by not actively pursuing positive word-of-mouth from your current clients. Most customers agree that despite what they were to find online, or hear in advertisements, just one negative experience told to them by a close friend would have them second guessing how to spend their money. This second-guessing can actually hurt your sales in the long run. Without good word of mouth, you might be losing out on 20% of sales in just 2 years.

More Trusted than Any Other Information

But why would you need word-of-mouth when you already have printed advertisements, email campaigns, online reviews, social media pages, and promotional products? Quite simply, consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations more than any other form of advertising. About 9 in 10 consumers trust an enthusiastic recommendation from a friend. The key here is that the person recommending the product is a trusted friend. Compare that to only 7 in 10 who trust online reviews and opinions. And only about 6 of 10 trust editorials. Clearly, this is the most powerful sort of marketing anywhere.