When customers are excited to talk about a product or service on social media, WOM marketing succeeds. People put more faith in friends’ and family’s recommendations than they do in commercials.
Even though there are many different brand marketing strategies in the market, word of mouth marketing examples has proven that WOM marketing is the most effective form of marketing for many brands.
Even while customers and fans are the ones who will determine the success of your WOM marketing, there are steps you can take to increase the likelihood of positive feedback. There are many methods by which your word of mouth marketing strategies could be strengthened.
Don’t underestimate the importance of Word of mouth marketing campaigns.
Nevertheless, to help you make an informed decision about how to promote your business, we have collected 12 case studies of successful word of mouth campaigns.
What Is word of mouth Marketing?
If a satisfied customer recommends your product or service to others, you have successfully implemented word of mouth marketing.
It might be current or potential customers who have heard good things about your company from satisfied clients.
Marketers have long relied on casual conversations between friends and acquaintances to disseminate their messages.
In modern times, social media has become an integral part of this type of advertising campaign.
It’s important to remember that word of mouth advertising can have a significant impact on your business. Don’t undervalue the benefits of word of mouth marketing since there’s more to it than meets the eye.
How Does Word of Mouth Spread?
If you want people to talk positively about your product on their own, you need to use a strategy that engages people and make them want to talk about it.
You may get your company’s word of mouth marketing off to a great start with these strategies:
1. Join forces with influencers
Perhaps you’re wondering where you’d even begin to look for the ideal influencer for your needs. Well, you’re in luck, since Ainfluencer is here to help you out.
Ainfluencer is an influencer marketplace where companies and influencers can connect to strike mutually beneficial deals that benefit both parties. If you’re interested in learning more about how you can find the ideal influencers for any given niche market, have a look at Ainfluencer. Our marketplace is one of the best and easiest ways to find Instagram influencers for your next campaign.
Ainfluencer is free of cost and easy to use. Not to mention every transaction you do in the app is completely secure and safe.
2. Sponsored giveaways
Promote your goods and encourage customers to enter giveaways.
Hosting giveaways and offering rewards to social media users who share photos of your goods using a designated hashtag, will get your happy consumers to spread user-generated content.
You can incentivize your most dedicated consumers to share content by linking loyalty program incentives to user-generated content.
3. Come up with a referral system
Roll out a referral program that rewards customers for telling their friends about your product. One method of word of mouth brand advertising examples is known as “referral marketing,” and its goal is to have satisfied clients spread the word about your business in exchange for a financial reward.
Referral marketing, sometimes known as “refer a friend” schemes, has quickly become a popular tool for online retailers to increase sales with a low cost per action.
We have a dedicated blog to WOM marketing strategy, so if you’re interested in seeing some word of mouth statistics, that’s where you should go.
12 examples of word of mouth marketing campaigns
Now we are going to read 12 word of mouth marketing examples and catch a glimpse of how different brands have used this marketing strategy to their advantage.
1. Netflix
The first example of word of mouth marketing mentioned in this list is Netflix. By offering excellent service, Netflix encourages positive customer reviews and recommendations. This feature was crucial in making the service a household name in the home entertainment industry.
One of the main selling points of the platform is that it can analyze user activity to make personalized recommendations for TV episodes and movies. Netflix also displays all of its videos in high-definition (HD) resolution for the best possible viewing experience.
In addition to improving the overall user experience, personalized recommendations help users feel more understood.
Netflix also promotes its shows by using social media to get people talking about them. Posting teasers and memes is one strategy for boosting user activity.
Netflix does this so its customers will create UGC and have a place to talk to others about what they’ve seen on the service.
Since everybody’s talking about Chris Evans today, here are some photos from The Red Sea Diving Resort you might be interested in. pic.twitter.com/KWG25Fk7wB
— Netflix (@netflix) November 8, 2022
This stunning teaser of Chris Evan in The Red Sea Diving Resort has garnered over 15K likes and 1K retweets.
2. Starbucks
The second word of mouth marketing example to highlight is Starbucks. The brand Starbucks was a little Seattle establishment 30 years ago. They didn’t employ typical word of mouth marketing strategies; instead, they created an incentive plan that matches their message.
How often do you see Starbucks Latte billboards? Consider magazines, newspapers, and other ad spots.
Starbucks hasn’t advertised in newspapers or on highway billboards since it launched over 30 years ago.
Starbucks wanted to create a “third home” for its customers.
They know who their customers are and endeavor to ensure no one leaves unhappy. Starbucks is expensive, but customers keep returning. Why? Because they deliver a high-quality product and work hard to make the “ideal cup of coffee”.
Starbucks gave customers a positive experience, service, and product, and customers helped shape the company. A few customers had a memorable coffee experience and notified their friends and relatives. So hopefully, now you can understand why Starbucks can be mentioned as one of the top word of mouth marketing examples.
3. Lush
Lush exemplifies how engaging in social activism can boost brand awareness.
As the third word of mouth marketing example, the brand Lush is noticeable. Since 2016, the brand’s popularity and sales have been sustained in part by social media marketing efforts.
Lush supports social causes like fair trade, animal welfare, and anti-fracking with their cruelty-free cosmetics.
By advocating for worthy causes, Lush’s customers are more inclined to buy the company’s products and tell their friends and family about them.
4. Casper
Next on the list for word of mouth marketing companies is the direct-to-consumer mattress maker Casper, which has gained attention for its rapid expansion in a short period of time. A small advertising budget and positive WOM can be seen as one of the benefits of word of mouth marketing which has helped it sell $20 million in its first 10 months.
The brand’s social media strategy is entertaining and includes posts on sleeping, prompt replies to comments, and giveaways. When combined with quality goods, these factors increase the likelihood that satisfied consumers will spread the word on their own.
Philip Krim, co-founder of Casper: “Getting customers to engage with Casper was a crucial part of the startup’s strategy from the beginning because it didn’t have the advertising budget to compete against the mattress giants.”
5. Threadless
Another one of word of mouth advertising examples to mention is Threadless, headquartered in Chicago, which is an online marketplace for custom t-shirts. It facilitates the internet dissemination and sale of artists’ designs for apparel and accessories.
More than 10,000 people signed up in the first two years, and the site made six figures from the sale of t-shirts (mostly through word of mouth marketing).
It used contests as a tactic in some of its plans. Jake Nickell, the company’s creator, used blog comments and social media to spread the word about a contest for people to create T-shirts. The event was openly shared amongst family and friends.
The company’s early dedication to the word of mouth advertising has helped it grow to a $12M annual revenue run rate.
6. Zappos
Next word of mouth marketing example is Zappos. The brand Zappos, headquartered in Las Vegas, is an internet-based company that specializes in shoes and apparel. Established in 1999, Amazon paid $1.2 billion in 2009 to acquire the company.
How does it plan to expand? Marketing through personal recommendations.
It’s yet another example of how a company’s focus on customer satisfaction led to rapid growth. When Zappos learned that one of its customers wanted to return the shoes his late wife had purchased before she had passed away, the company went out of its way to make them feel special by sending flowers and giving them VIP service.
Excellent service is built into every aspect of the Zappos brand, including the return process. Anyone who doesn’t absolutely adore their new pair of kicks is welcome to send them back without penalty.
7. Sozy
Sozy is an apparel company with the goal of providing women with confidence via their clothing. Furthermore, it deserves a spot in the word of mouth marketing examples list as it has a social mission, devoting 10% of its income to helping victims of sexual abuse and another 10% to various other charitable causes. One may safely assume that they are a popular brand among female consumers.
One of the most efficient methods of advertising is word of mouth. Sozy’s creator, Lanai Moliterno, claims this is the only way to prove the worth of your work. The brand’s ambassador program actively seeks out and rewards those who organically spread the word about the company.
“We offer ambassadors a gift card to join. Once they do, they are usually our best marketers. Our clothing is so soft and flattering that it doesn’t take much convincing for them to talk about it with their audiences. It works so well. We built a dedicated process to grow our ambassador program.”
As a bonus, Sozy’s brand advocates offer their opinions on potential new goods. In this discussion, they discuss design ideas, popular content, and audience reactions. Sozy is able to refine its offerings for its clientele, which in turn generates word of mouth marketing and increased sales.
8. Sephora
Customers adore freebies. As a result, the next brand which can be mentioned as a word of mouth marketing example is Sephora capitalizes on the beauty industry’s obsession with them.
Several times a week, Sephora clients receive promotional emails with codes good for a freebie. Customers who spend beyond a particular threshold are eligible for bonus freebies.
In the month of their birthday, clients can pick up their free gift at any Sephora store or online with any purchase. Does it lead to recommendations from satisfied customers? yes, many users tweeted about their free birthday present.
I got my birthday gift from @Sephora today 😂
— Yemigold (@y_e_m_i_) November 25, 2022
They were so tiny! pic.twitter.com/6WPtDUWpKw
9. Dunkin’ donuts
The widespread Dunkin’ Donuts has become a significant element of America. And so this allows the brand to be counted as one of the greatest word of mouth marketing examples in the list. The tasty snack has become a renowned US brand among both natives and visitors. Dunkin’ Donuts has developed brilliant methods to capitalize on the WOM marketing opportunities presented by its devoted customer base.
They constantly communicate with their fans and customers by using social media to host contests and share original material with their audience. People participate in a variety of ways, including liking posts, sharing them, and even making their own content based on the brand to talk about how they feel about it.
Following their efforts, their social media profiles saw massive growth, with more than 16M Facebook fans, 2.2M Instagram followers, and 1.3M Twitter followers.
10. Jeep
The Jeep brand hosts Jeep owner gatherings, known as Jeep Jamborees, several times a year for off-roading adventures. These gatherings are a continuation of a custom that began in 1953, in which participants load up their decked-out SUVs and travel for several days across rough terrain.
What makes the Jeep Jamborees so powerful for word of mouth, according to Rosen’s The Anatomy of Buzz, is that “for two days attendees eat, drink, sleep, dream, and think Jeep.” When they return to work on Monday, Jeep is the only topic of conversation.
As one auto executive put it to Brandweek, “A Jamboree makes for fantastic drink talk.” It’s quite unlikely that anyone would pass along information about a cool Jeep commercial or billboard they saw to a friend or family member. However, spending the weekend with other Jeep fans off-roading in the Ozarks in your 4×4? At the very least, you’ll share it on Instagram or talk about it with a coworker during lunch. This gives us the ability to mention Jeep as part of the word of mouth marketing examples on this list.
11. Superhuman
Another example of word of mouth marketing is Superhuman. The email app developed by tech firm Superhuman prioritizes speed. The package costs $30 per month and is designed for “email power users,” or those who receive and answer numerous emails daily.
Superhuman has built a customer base in the thousands without resorting to expensive marketing campaigns or employing a large sales force.
How? To begin with, it is a highly selective app, with many of its earliest adopters being key decision-makers and influential business executives. Each new user of Superhuman has a one-on-one onboarding session with a representative of the organization, and joining Superhuman is contingent upon passing a pre-qualification process.
Former venture capitalist Kevin Kwok remarked, “The perceived status of being acknowledged as an early user of Superhuman has aided Superhuman’s acquisition and conversion.” It’s not that users require other people to use Superhuman for it to work; rather, they spread the word about it because they like doing so.
Superhuman’s simple yet ingenious design characteristics also helped boost the product’s profile. Every email includes a “sent via Superhuman” link at the bottom that, when clicked, directs the recipient to a specific page. In addition, with a single keystroke, customers may easily create an email containing a referral link to send to their friends.
“It was all word of mouth. It was all referral,” Speaking to Mixergy, Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra attributed the company’s rapid early development to word of mouth. “The untold truth about most consumerist companies is that growth happens through word of mouth.”
12. Dropbox
The last on the list for word of mouth marketing examples is Dropbox. Not every company has the financial resources of the Coca-Cola Company to waste on expensive advertising campaigns. That’s fine, by the way. Discounts, gift cards, and highlighted features are all good incentives, especially for smaller firms.
When Dropbox first launched, the lure of free storage space attracted a large amount of referral traffic. Many people had never heard of “the cloud,” or online storage for their files, so the service it provided was immensely valuable.
For both new and recommended customers, the corporation provided 500 MB of free space in its cloud. Customers are more likely to remain dedicated to your brand when they know they can keep earning bonus storage space simply by referring their friends.
People have more of a motivation to prefer Dropbox over its rivals because of the referral program. By giving customers additional room to store their data at no cost, hosting providers have successfully discouraged the practice of consumers scattering their content over various free sites.
Conclusion
Word of mouth (WOM) marketing is, without a doubt, an effective method of boosting both foot traffic in stores and click-through rates on websites as can be seen throughout the word of mouth marketing examples said in this blog.
Making products people want to speak about is the key. Provide excellent support to customers, encourage brand evangelists, and grow your fan base on social media. Consistent word of mouth referrals are hard to standardize as a marketing approach, yet they can significantly expand your firm.
Check out how top brands get customers talking with these brilliant word of mouth marketing examples.
1. Netflix
2. Starbucks
3. Lush
4. Casper
5. Threadless
Word of mouth marketing is a strategy that depends on how customers feel about certain brands and what they say about them to their friends and family. It’s a form of free advertising that comes from what buyers think, feel, and say.
1. Collaborating with influencers
2. Have some exclusivity
3. Upload customers reviews on the website
4. Create a tight-knit network
5. Promote content created by users
Posting teasers and memes is one strategy Nexflix uses for boosting user activity. Netflix does this so its customers will create UGC and have a place to talk to others about what they’ve seen on the service.
