Any marketer worth their salt knows just how valuable word-of-mouth marketing is for brands. But don’t take my word for it. According to Nielsen, 83% of people trust recommendations that come from friends and family. On top of that, two-thirds of people trust opinions that they’ve read from consumers online.

That means that the majority of people will be willing to take a chance on your brand if you can manage to effectively promote word-of-mouth.

Still not convinced? Let’s see what we can do. Check out these seven data-backed reasons why word-of-mouth marketing is a crucial focus for any brand.

More trustworthy. Like I’ve already said, most people trust recommendations from friends and family. But do you know why that’s so important? It’s because most people don’t actually trust advertising in the first place. 75% of people actually don’t believe advertisements, according to IMPACT.

Drive to purchase. There’s obviously a multitude of factors at play whenever a customer decides to make a purchase. And one of those is often word-of-mouth. According to Ogilvy Cannes, 74% of consumers say that it’s a key influencer when they ultimately make their purchasing decision. Nielsen ranks recommendations as one of the top five influencers that impact brand decisions before going shopping.

Increase sales. A little bit of word-of-mouth can go a long way. Even just a marginal increase in word-of-mouth can actively lead to better sales. According to research from MarketShare/Keller Fay Group, just a 10% increase in word-of-mouth, whether online or off, can lead to a 0.2 to 1.5% sales increase.

More affordable. Not only is word-of-mouth a more effective form of marketing, it’s more affordable. You can spend a ton of money on paid advertising, yet still see less desirable results than you would from effective word-of-mouth. Research from IMPACT tells us that word-of-mouth generated twice as many sales as paid ads do.

Better social media engagement. Social media has become one of the preferred methods for brand evangelization. According to Mention, 18% of social media conversations are positive brand reviews. That’s nearly a fifth of all social media conversations. And it directly drives traffic back to the brands in question, leading to more followers, more engagement, and more purchases.

People act fast. Have you ever gotten a recommendation or read a review and weren’t able to get it out of your head until you just broke down and bought the product? That’s actually pretty common. According to VisionCritical, more than half of social media inspired purchases took place within a week. 80% took place within three weeks.

Stronger branding. Good word-of-mouth will directly lead to a stronger brand. According to Invesp, 28% of customers say that it’s the most important factor when it comes to strengthening (or eroding) affinity for the brand. If you’re looking to amp up your brand image, look no further than word-of-mouth marketing.

Promote Word-of-Mouth Automatically With CoGoBuzz

Ready to start promoting word-of-mouth automatically? Get started with CoGoBuzz, our state-of-the-art digital marketing service. Leveraging advanced WiFi, SMS, and Email solutions, we’ll promote your business both in-store and out, setting you up with more social media followers, loyalty members, and repeat customers.

Discover your core demographics with your new in-store HotSpot. We’ll hook you up with fully developed customer profiles for every single customer that connects to your WiFi, letting you examine their Likes, Interests, and more. Promoting word-of-mouth for your business becomes that much easier when you’re that much more in tune with your audience.

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How does your brand promote word-of-mouth? Sound off in the comments!