Why use Word-of-Mouth Marketing for your brand?
Reality is: in modern markets a brand recommendation (from a friend) is the most trusted, credible and actionable source of information available today. Therefore you can't, as a brand, afford
not to employ Word-of-Mouth.
Media Fragmentation is up - the average consumer receives 1300 product related messages a week. Of these they only engage with 4.
Brand credibility and trust are down - consumers have stopped basing their purchasing decisions on traditional media referral channels. They've started looking for referrals from a source (an
Influencer) they trust.
Using traditional media your brand stands a 1 in 325 chance (of connecting with a consumer) versus a 1 in 3 through Word-of-Mouth.
If you could empower these Influencers and get them to converse (with their peers) about your product you'd tap into the referral-rich Word-of-Mouth - the most powerful form of advertising available to brands today. Imagine, respected and trusted Influencers proactively talking to their peers about your product.
South Africans are particularly partial to Word-of-Mouth. We are 86% (17% higher than the world average) likely to recommend a product.
How Word-of-Mouth Marketing works
Word-of-Mouth marketing bridges the gap between awareness (generated by traditional advertising) and the credibility required to get consumers purchasing a product.
Word-of-Mouth marketing works by empowering
Influencers with product knowledge. The Influencers connect with their peers and unleash personal (experience-based) conversations or recommendation about their product encounters.
Who is an Influencer?
Influencers are people defined by their (greater-than-the-average-person) reach - through Word-of-Mouth - in a particular marketplace. They actively share their opinions (with their peers) about products/brands that affect their lives.
Have
YouHeard
Influencers are recruited through precise profiling. We're not into the one-size-fits-all approach - all of our Influencers are painstakingly selected for each campaign.
The HaveYouHeard Way
We employ methodology, expertise and our Influencers to unleash (action-provoking) conversations about your product in the marketplace.
Our approach gets Influencers interacting with your brand in the most powerful trial process ever.
Every aspect of the campaign is measured ensuring feedback (from our Word-of-Mouth campaigns) is both enlightening and actionable.
Click here to see what and how we measure our campaigns.
1. Connect and Engage
The first phase, of our threefold approach, sees us connecting and engaging, on behalf of your brand,
with our
Influencers.
The
Influencers opt-in to being part of your team, agreeing to be educated about your product and to share
their credible opinions with their peers.
2. Empower and Unleash
In the second phase of our process we empower the
Influencer's, through hands-on product experience
and consumer friendly product information. We then enable
Influencers to unleash their personal-experience
based conversations onto their peers. These conversations are the ultimate form of a recommendation; they
are considered trusted and highly valuable by consumers.
These
Influencers are empowered,
through hands-on product experience and consumer friendly product information, to create and share
credible opinions with their peers about your product.
3. Solidify and Analyze
The final phase of our process is where we solidify the product experience, for the
Influencer, and elicit feedback.
In this phase we measure as much as we can to gauge the effectiveness of your campaign,
this includes amongst others: the Net Promoter Score, Purchase Intent and Conversational Impact.
The feedback you, as a brand, receive from a Have
YouHeard Word-of-Mouth campaign is not just
enlightening it's also actionable.
Measuring Word-of-Mouth
These are some of the mechanisms we utilise to track/measure the success of a Word-of-Mouth marketing campaign.
1. Product Experience
People spread WOM about highly impactful experiences. So the amount of WOM generated around your brand hinges on the Influencer's experience of the product.
The first aspect we measure is the satisfaction and enjoyment level associated with this experience. This dictates the level of success you can achieve with a WOM marketing campaign
2. Net Promoter Score
This is the internationally recognised Word-of-Mouth measurement tool. At Have
YouHeard we use it to measure the level of positive Word-of-Mouth (around your brand) both pre and post campaign.
Click to learn more.
3. Conversational Reach and Impact
We realistically estimate the reach and impact of your brand's Word-of-Mouth campaign. Although and estimation, this gives a clear indication of the total conversations that were had - during the Word-of-Mouth campaign - about your product and brand.
4. Purchase or Intent to Purchase
We are able to track any impact - or future intentional impact - on your brand's bottom line.
5. Call to Action success rate
Our call-to-action methods equip us to directly measure the rate at which Influencers (and their peers) are incentivized to purchase.
6. Change in Perception and opinion of the brand
Powerful brands resonate with individuals. Key indicators - personal perceptions, associations and opinions - allow us to gauge the growth in brand value.
Word-of-Mouth Statistics
1 Word-of-Mouth agent spreads their message to (an average of) 60 people. This message continues spreading for long after a campaign has ended - BzzAgents.
- 76% of people don't believe that companies tell the truth in advertising.
- 68% of people trust other people 'like themselves'.
- 43% of U.S. companies plan to use Word-of-Mouth in 2009.
- 92% of people site Word-of-Mouth as the best source for new product idea's.
The "brands I talk about" versus "brands that talk to me" are 1.5 times more likely to grow.
South Africa is the Global Leader in spreading positive Word-of-Mouth. We as a nation are 86% extremely likely to recommend a brand to another person.
All the above information is sourced from Millward Brown.
Click here to view site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Word-of-Mouth Marketing is very new; how effective is it compared to my traditional marketing mix?
Consider the following Word-of-Mouth Marketing research statistics:
- 80% of consumers trust Word-of-Mouth more than any other source of product/brand related information.
- The average Word-of-Mouth conversation (about a brand or product) lasts for 10 minutes.
- People act on 1 out of 3 peer recommendations.
- South Africans are particularly partial to Word-of-Mouth. We are 86% (17% higher than the world average) likely to recommend a product.
- Word of-Mouth agent spreads their message to (an average of) 60 people. This message continues spreading for long after a campaign has ended.
You probably already intuitively believe that Word-of-Mouth is indeed the most powerful form of advertising. Now HaveYouHeard can help you leverage that power for your own brands.
How do we know that the Influencers involved in your campaign are the right ones?
We understand that not all Influencers are created equal. Which is why we conduct stringent profiling focusing on their personal credibility, influence power (reach) and relevance to your brands product category. This ensures that (through the Word-of-Mouth marketing campaign) your product is given the highest likelihood of both product-adoption and brand-conversion.
What happens if an Influencer has a negative product experience?
We don't consider this a bad thing. Our Word-of-Mouth campaigns take place in a completely measureable environment - We can find out (exactly) what an Influencer doesn't like about the product and supply you with (never-before-available) valuable brand and product insights.
How much do Word-of-Mouth campaigns cost?
This depends on the size of the market (you want to penetrate) and the length of the campaign.
The best would be to contact us and we will get back to you - within 24 hours - to set up a meeting.
Click here if you would like us to contact you.
What is the ROI of a HaveYouHeard Word-of-Mouth marketing campaign?
Word-of-Mouth provides one of the most powerful advertising communication platform available to brands today. It does more for brands than most other channels whilst providing a higher return-on-investment.
Ultimately Word-of-Mouth marketing bridges the gap between awareness (generated by traditional advertising) and the credibility required to get consumers purchasing a product. The Return-on-Investment is therefore (campaign specific) focused on brand growth and increased sales.
