Top 10 Innovative Ways to Increase Word-Of-Mouth For Your Business

Guest Author

This is a guest post from Jessica Huhn.

Why should your brand strive to generate word-of-mouth? The answer is simple—people trust what their friends, family and peers have to say about your brand more than they trust ads and other messages that come straight from your company. So, they’re much more inclined to listen to word-of-mouth. Word-of-mouth recommendations easily convince these friends to become your new customers, because their peers trust their word

Word-of-mouth happens organically, whenever your customers positively share your brand with friends and colleagues (online or offline). But the organic nature of word-of-mouth can make it hard to predict or control. Fortunately, there are plenty of methods your brand can use to motivate customers to talk about you. We’ve rounded up the top 10 innovative ways to increase word-of-mouth. 

1. Creating an Innovative Product or Service

Usually, you’re striving to stand out from the competition, and striving to get people talking about your product more than your competitors’ offerings. But if you really want to get people talking, create a product or service that’s so innovative, it has no direct competition (or very little competition). If your brand can identify a need and expertly solve it through a product or service, you’ve got a head start in driving word-of-mouth.

Take a page out of Under Armour’s book. The brand’s founder, Kevin Plank, had played football in high school and college, so he knew that typical cotton shirts (the only available option at the time) would become heavy and sweat-drenched after an intense practice or game.  He decided to create athletic shirts from a new microfiber blend, formulated to wick moisture, keep athletes dry, and feel light even after hours of sweating. Once he gave the first samples to some of his friends (who happened to be collegiate and pro football players), they couldn’t help but share the new product. Thanks to these friends, Under Armour quickly landed outfitting deals with notable college and pro football teams, and thus caused the word to travel even faster!

Today, athletes of all levels and sports, their families, and their friends are still talking about Under Armour—now one of the biggest powerhouses in the athletic apparel game. 

2. Delivering Above-And-Beyond Customer Service Surprises

Your customers will only talk positively about you if you have stellar customer service. They remember their experience with you, above all.  But they’ll talk about you even more if that customer service comes in the form of little surprises. 

Zappos is a master at this. As their CEO, Tony Hsieh, puts it, they’re “a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes.” Zappos surprises loyal customers with free shipping upgrades, and makes their return process as painless as possible. 

Here are some other surprises you can use to delight your customers and get them talking:

• If you have a brick-and-mortar, you could offer free snacks and drinks to the people who visit your store.
• Are you a B2C that sells physical products? Sneak a small free gift into your customers’ bags or shipping boxes. 
• You could also send free gifts or discount coupons, or offer free services, on customers’ birthdays (or on the anniversary of their first purchase). 
• Almost everyone has heard of the surprise free room upgrade at hotels, or the surprise seating upgrade at concerts, plays, and sporting events — customers love to brag about their free upgrades with friends!
• Say thank you! Social media shoutouts are a great way to recognize VIP customers. But don’t dismiss the offline thank-you-note. Handwritten and personalized thank-you-notes make your customers feel extra appreciated. And these notes and recognitions work equally well for all business types (even B2Bs).
• Looking for another way to recognize B2B clients? One B2B company sent cookies to clients’ offices, along with their handwritten thank-yous (and one client tweeted back a thank you of their own for the world to see). 

3. Creating Viral Moments

Positive social media virality is the holy grail for any digital marketer. Go viral, and your brand will see drastic spikes in word-of-mouth that you can’t replicate through any other means. Although there’s obviously no guarantee that any post will go viral (the internet’s unpredictable!), these tips will equip you to create posts that make an impact—and that have the ingredients needed to create virality. 

• Know what content types the members of your target audience search for, and what they want to get out of the content. 
  • For example, do they want to be educated, entertained, or inspired?

• Plan a clear message, so your audience has no doubt what your campaign’s about—and so it’s much easier to share. 
  • Make sure the purpose and message stay central. Your brand promotion should feel natural and should seamlessly be woven into those factors. 

• Create an engaging visual piece (image or video) to hook your audience. Make sure the piece fits with your brand values!
  • The Will It Blend YouTube series by BlendTec delivers a compelling brand story. Each video in the series revolves around a simple premise—the BlendTec blender is so powerful that it will blend almost anything you throw in it, including smart devices (yes, they blended an iPhone X)!

• Tap into the right emotional triggers. The most common triggers that spark virality are humor and surprise. 
  • Wendy’s is a master of delivering both humor and surprise—you never know what direction they’ll  take on their Twitter, but it’s always on point! From their roasts to their pop-culture references to that famous “Nuggs for Carter” response, Wendy’s has put on a clinic when it comes to viral content.

4. Leveraging User-Generated Content

Virality may feel out of many brands’ reach, but user-generated content is a word-of-mouth strategy centered on social media that any brand can use. When your customers post images, videos, and other social media content featuring your brand, that’s free publicity—and it feels more authentic than the posts you make yourself. It’s in your best interest to encourage this user-generated content (UGC), and repurpose the best of it on your own social media accounts. 

Running a contest, campaign, or regular feature is one of the most effective ways to encourage UGC.

• Incentivize sharing by holding a contest with a valuable prize for the winner. 
• Or, run a regular campaign or feature with a branded hashtag, and post the best content with the hashtag on your own social media page. Watch brand Daniel Wellington does just this: it regularly highlights user-created branded photos on their Instagram with their #DWPickoftheDay series.

You could also pose a “challenge,” where you encourage fans to complete a certain task with an associated hashtag. Even if they don’t participate, customers will tag their friends if they like what they see. 

And don’t forget that customer reviews and comments count as UGC!

•  Post the most glowing yet authentic customer reviews on social media.

• Consider responding to customer questions and comments in a creative or humorous way. This provides a method of highlighting positive comments, and clearing up misconceptions. You can even use this tactic to defuse negative feedback. When done correctly, it will shift your momentum to positive word-of-mouth, as people appreciate your witty response (check out the example from automotive brand smart below).

5. Genuinely Giving Back 

Supporting a cause that you’re truly invested in will resonate with your customers, especially younger customers, who prioritize supporting socially responsible brands. Your customers will spread the word about your brand because they’re excited about the good you’re doing (and want to help make a greater impact). Just be sure your giving is genuinely philanthropic, and not done solely for publicity, or else this will backfire.

You can boost word-of-mouth through giving in several ways. Remember that your gift does not have to be monetary as long as it helps a worthy cause. 

Firstly, you could make a charitable donation (or contribution to a cause) outright. 

• Timberland offers an example of this, as they recently pledged to plant 50 million trees over the next five years.

Secondly, you could create charity “tie-in” products, where a donation or contribution would be made with every purchase. 

• 4Ocean uses this model—the company pulls a pound of trash from the ocean for every bracelet purchased. 
• TOMS gives a pair of shoes to a child in need with every pair purchased. 
• Bombas follows a similar donation model, but donates a pair of socks to people in need with every pair purchased. 

Or, you could turn your intent to donate into a social giving campaign, which generates word-of-mouth because customers know sharing will make them part of the positive impact. 

• Have your customers complete a certain action and include a branded hashtag, and pledge to donate a certain amount for every post. 
• Disney did this with #shareyourears. For every picture that fans posted in Mickey ears, using the hashtag, Disney made a donation to Make-a-Wish. 

6. Enlisting Influencers or Ambassadors

Influencers and brand ambassadors promote your brand on their own social media accounts, using their own authentic perspectives.

Influencers promote your brand in the short term, are social media-centric, and focus on showing how they use a product in everyday life. They might not have much exposure to your brand before you contact them, but if they genuinely love your product, they’ll be happy to share it with their followers. 

In contrast, ambassadors engage in long-term promotion. Besides promoting your brand on social media, they’ll also engage in offline promotion, such as at events and through networking. They focus on telling others why they love your brand—they thrive when given the chance to have personalized conversations about you. And they’re always already loyal customers of your brand.

But influencers and brand ambassadors share important similarities.

• Both will promote your brand because they love your products or services and think your brand will offer value to their audience.

• Both hold solid sway over their follower bases. Influencers and brand ambassadors have some sort of authority in your niche or among members of your audience, so it’s easy for people to trust them.

James Zhu (@jamesz52) serves as a student brand ambassador for Polo Ralph Lauren. 

7. Crafting “Insider Secrets”

Create brand secrets that aren’t regularly publicized, but are very enticing. Your loyal customers will come to appreciate these secrets—and they won’t be able to keep from sharing them. This is because exclusivity is another key activator of word-of-mouth. If people think they have insider info about something amazing, they want to let other people in on the secret, so these peers can also benefit.

Two of the most popular examples of this technique come from the “not-so-secret” secret menus of In-N-Out and Starbucks.

In-N-Out’s Animal Style burger and Starbucks’ Pink Drink are well-known and well-loved menu items, but you won’t find either of these items in the regularly published menus. Both, rather, are on the secret menus of their respective chains. But loads of people know about these items because loyal customers have shared about them on and off of social media. They know these menu items are too tasty not to share. Word-of-mouth has popularized these items and has led people to flock to In-N-Out and Starbucks to try them.

8. Taking Full Advantage of Reviews

Where do most customers head when they’re trying to decide whether to purchase a product in your niche? They flock to third-party review sites to compare what others are saying about you and your competitors. So, when existing customers leave positive reviews of you, this benefits your business greatly. 

Make sure that customers leave positive reviews in the places your potential customers will be most likely to see them. 

•  Set your business up on Google My Business, Yelp, other popular review sites, and any review sites directly related to your niche. 

• Then, provide links to review sites on your website, in newsletters, and in promotional emails. Include an eye-catching button that says “Leave us a review.”

You’ll also want to directly ask your customers to write reviews. But ask carefully. There are ways to stack the deck in your favor, by focusing on the customers who are most likely to leave a positive review. 

The key is to ask at moments when customers are most likely to be very satisfied with your products/services and customer service.

• Ask immediately after a customer has made a purchase, or shortly after they’ve given you positive feedback in private (or on social media). 
  • Prioritize asking those customers who have just made repeat purchases, or who have paid for your service for the longest consecutive amounts of time.
• If you know you just delivered a stellar customer experience, and you’re speaking to that customer directly (in person or via video call), ask for a review.
• And to determine who is truly willing to recommend you to their peers, run a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey. 
  • Directly reach out only to the people who say they’re most likely to recommend you (your “promoters” in the NPS framework, who give an answer of 9 or 10 out of 10), and ask them for reviews. 

Then, it’s time to repurpose these stellar reviews on your own channels! Dedicate a review page, or section of your homepage, to this feedback on your website, and let your customers’ words do the work for you. And don’t forget to post these reviews on your social media accounts!

9. Creating Unique Events and Experiences

Promoting your brand at events sparks word-of-mouth, but creating your own unique event (or experience) with a branded touch will cause word-of-mouth to really ramp up. Just make sure the structure of your event or experience lets your brand values shine through. Two awesome examples of how to do branded experiences right come from Bumble and Red Bull. 

Bumble hosts free, unique events focused on networking. Although each event has its own spin, the goal of every event is to get Bumble users interacting with each other in real life. The events are free, but you must show your Bumble app to get in (another solid way to leverage exclusivity). Examples include their Hive pop-up networking spaces that offered career-building seminars, and their Fab Lab that fostered mindfulness and happiness (with a rose-smelling room, a beach VR relaxation room, and a “gratitude wall” where people could write what they were thankful for). 

Red Bull injects adrenaline and adventure into every experience they put on. They host several high-energy sporting events and competitions. They might be best known for their BMX events, but they also host more unique experiences like cliff diving, soapbox car racing, and their Flugtag flying machine competition.

And both Red Bull and Bumble know that events and experiences don’t have to be seen in-person to make an impact—a social media element is crucial. 

Red Bull is well known for the branded extreme stunts that they film and post on social media. One prominent example is Felix Baumgartner’s skydive from space, which was streamed live. The suspense and rush of these stunts create experiences that people can’t stop talking about. 

And Bumble designs its experiences in ways that people can’t help but share on social media, from their own perspectives. For example, the wall of flowers in the Fab Lab’s rose-smelling room was highly Instagrammable!

10. Starting a Referral Program 

Referral programs are an innovative way to increase word-of-mouth because they make sharing easy. These programs formalize word-of-mouth, simplify the sharing process, and reward customers with incentives for sharing your brand with their friends. So, they give your brand some control in generating trusted recommendations from existing customers.

Need another reason to start a referral program? Referred friends are 4 times more likely to purchase from you than people who aren’t referred. 

If you choose to implement a referral program, make sure it has these three crucial elements to maximize word-of-mouth. 

1. Your program must make sharing easy.

•  Customers should be able to find your referral program, and share with their friends, in as few clicks or taps as possible. 
• It should be especially easy for existing customers to find your program, since they can provide compelling reasons why their friends should purchase. 
  • Consider integrating your program into your purchasing login, or make program pop-ups appear only for existing customers.
• Offer multiple sharing options, so each customer can pick the most convenient option for them. 
  • These options could include email, social media platforms, and texting. 
  • Regardless of the other options you choose, always let customers copy and paste a unique referral code or link, for swift sharing anywhere.

2. Your program must also give customers a compelling reason to share. Ideally, you’ll accomplish this through referral incentives. 

• Select incentives that motivate your customers, and that work best for your brand. Your options include discounts, cash, credits, free products, branded swag, and other rewards. 
• Consider cumulative incentives (repeating rewards for every referral) and dual-sided incentives (which reward both the person making the referral and the friend).

3. Your referral program should effortlessly mesh with social media, where your customers naturally share their recommendations and opinions with large groups of their peers.

• Let customers instantly share a referral link via Facebook, Twitter, and other popular social media channels. 
• Simplify social sharing with a prewritten message, addressed from your customer. Make sure this message sounds conversational, not salesy. But give users an option to personalize the message, if they wish, so it sounds more authentic. 
• Make your referral program mobile-friendly, because most people access social media (and shop) via mobile devices. 

So, there you have it—10 innovative ways to increase word-of-mouth. Now, it’s time to apply these tips in your own business, and let the positive talk about your brand ramp up!

About the author: Jessica Huhn is a content writer at Referral Rock, where they believe every business has the potential to increase their word of mouth. When not writing, Jessica is likely singing or arranging songs.