Do you want to use a different kind of word of mouth marketing to improve sales or create some buzz before launching a product? Do you want to learn a few strategies that apply the micro-influencer effect?
As we enter a post-coronavirus world, more services are now online and digital. That means more businesses and brands now use a variety of digital marketing tactics. It also means that your competition is growing and ever-evolving.
One of the oldest marketing strategies is the word-of-mouth strategy. It came to be before digital media and is one of the most effective ways to start a buzz around a brand. Read below to learn how word-of-mouth strategy works and how it creates micro-influencers.
1. What Is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?
A study reveals that 83% of people trust the recommendations of family and friends. Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing is a business tactic that creates consumer interest through other consumers. Interest grows from daily dialogs like brand recommendations or experiences with a product. Brands use buzz, viral, emotional, and social marketing in their marketing strategies.
2. What Is a Micro-Influencer and What Makes Them Effective?
Micro-influencers are people seen as experts or topic specialists in a specific niche. As the name suggests, a micro-influencer has a smaller following than an influencer. Often, their audience count is between 10,000 and 100,000 people.
Having audiences at this number gives them a lot of pros and cons. A big advantage of micro-influencers is that they are 3x more effective. Because micro-influencers have a smaller following, it’s easier to engage with them.
They don’t need to look through or create replies to millions of others. This engagement makes them more effective than influencers who speak to a crowd rather than individuals. This gives them more authenticity and builds their trustworthiness.
Another thing is their scalability and flexibility compared to traditional marketing. Influencer campaigns take up a lot of effort and time. You negotiate a lot of deals and make sure that the general public will receive your content well. You do more and spend more, and this isn’t always accessible to smaller brands and businesses.
With that said, hiring micro-influencers is more cost-effective. It is easier to plan and launch campaigns created for micro-influencers. They often indulge a niche with specific interests, gender, location, or age.
3. How to Cultivate Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of Mouth marketing is a powerful strategy that businesses of all sizes need to learn how to use. However, you need to understand that WOM marketing doesn’t always happen overnight. You also need to understand that it still takes work for your WOM marketing strategy to succeed.
There are six principles that you and a micro-influencer need to touch upon on the campaign. These are triggers, social currency, emotion, public, practical value, and stories. Your strategy needs to make good use of these six aspects to be successful.
One strategy is to create offline and online WOM campaigns. Another strategy is to hold events online or offline that will generate buzz for your brand. Music festivals are great destinations for fashion and tech brands, for example.
If you can hire more than one micro-influencer, go for it. This works well when they belong in the same industry. You may also hire micro-influencers from related industries where audiences overlap.
4. How to Find the Right Micro-Influencers for Your Brand
Not all micro-influencers will match a brand or product and vice versa. You need to find one who fits your brand message and style. When looking for a micro-influencer to advertise your product for you, ask yourself some questions.
First, ask yourself if the micro-influencer is authentic. Does he or she create honest or truthful posts? Does his or her audience perceive his/her content as authentic? If not, do you want a fake or a liar to represent your brand?
Does the micro-influencer have and maintain the audience’s trust? Again, you want to observe their tone and style before you hire.
Another thing to note is if you can afford their services. Micro-influencers are more affordable than influencers, but some may charge too much. Understand the costs for both parties and try to make a deal that will make both parties happy.
Is the micro-influencer willing to promote your products long-term? Remember that the key to creating a name that sticks is to make sure audiences see it often. You don’t want to hire a micro-influencer once and then hope to see more sales come in. It takes time for your brand or products to make a mark on the market.
5. Tips and Tricks to Improving Your WOM Potential
Don’t stop at only hiring micro-influencers. If possible, encourage customers to write their reviews and recommendations as well. Give them incentives like special discounts when they leave reviews on your site.
Another way to encourage more reviews is to hold contests or raffles on social media. The more people a participant can reach, the more chances they have of winning.
If you’re unsure about where you can find micro-influencers for your industry, ask a professional. Digital marketing agencies offer WOM marketing services and can connect you to micro-influencers.
6. What’s Wrong With Influencer Marketing?
The effect of influencers is dropping because of the drama that often surrounds them. A famous example is an issue around beauty bloggers Tati Westbrook and James Charles. The whole event around them also put Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star in a bad light.
Influencers can fake their impact on others. They can buy fake followers, hire click farms, or promote products they don’t use.
These are only some reasons why people have fallen out of touch with influencers. However, that isn’t to say that there aren’t any trustworthy and reliable influencers. It’s only becoming common for users to rely on brand communities rather than influencers.
Create Positive Buzz for Your Brand
That ends our guide on Word of Mouth marketing and the micro-influencer effect. We hope you learned something useful in this guide. We also hope you now know how to find a fitting micro-influencer for your brand.
Do you have any questions? Talk to us here.
