7 Pragmatic B2B Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategies
Learn how to set up powerful B2B word-of-mouth marketing strategies to market better and drive customer sales with these 7 tips.
Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the best ways to organically grow your business and is a powerful tool that is not only cost-effective but it helps cement a stronger reputation amongst both customers and other businesses.
When it comes to B2B marketing, word-of-mouth is an important method of advertising and should be incorporated into your marketing strategy.
B2B word-of-mouth marketing statistics you should know
There can be a lot of influence that other businesses can have over the success of your own business. With 91% of B2B purchases being influenced by word-of-mouth alone, there’s much opportunity to be had with this type of marketing.
Those who work within the marketing department of businesses also find that B2B word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective. Around 64% of marketing executives consider being one of the best when it comes to the potential returns it provides.
When people are speaking highly about a business to others, it’s an organic process that hasn’t been influenced by payment. It’s really all about creating popularity within your business whether that’s directly through the products or services you sell, to the personality of your brand.
But how do you get businesses talking about your business? We’ll get to that in a moment.
The benefits of word-of-mouth marketing for B2B businesses
It’s all well and good seeing statistics on how well word-of-mouth marketing works for B2B business, but what are the core benefits of using this method of marketing? Why should you use it amongst other methods?
It helps build trust and loyalty
When you have positive reviews and comments on your company, it builds up trust and loyalty within your business.
Having a positive learning experience can benefit you when it comes to convincing your customers to make another purchase. Whether they’re new to the brand or not, having evidence of satisfied customers creates a goldmine of returns.
Don’t believe it to be true?
Well, 92% of B2B buyers would say otherwise, being more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review.
There’s less cost involved
There are opportunities in which you can amplify your WOM marketing efforts but for the most part, this type of marketing is cost-effective. With fewer costs being spent on marketing, there can be more effort made to improve any and all products or services you’re getting out into the world.
It’s important that there’s reinvestment happening within any business and with savings being made in what can often be a cost-heavy department, it’s going to help boost your ROI without having to invest too much into advertising.
7 B2B word-of-mouth marketing strategies
When asking yourself the question on how to engage B2B customers, there are a few word-of-mouth marketing strategies that you can implement. What are the types of word-of-mouth marketing that you can utilize? Here are just a few suggestions we’d recommend.
1. Encourage user-generated content.
User-generated content is big right now and a lot of companies are using it. Of course, investing in your own content is important but when you have loyal customers generating their own content, why not promote it on your channels.
It’s another way to save some money and to strengthen that connection with your customers when they’re making the effort to promote your products or services without prompting.
2. Engage with customer reviews and comments.
Customer reviews and comments are an important part of your word-of-mouth marketing. As a strategy, it’s a good idea to engage with your customer reviews and comments as often as possible. It shows interest in your consumers, rather than it just being about them providing the sales.
3. Go above and beyond for negative reviews and experiences.
No business likes to see a negative response to its brand. However, it does happen and it’s better to embrace it, rather than ignore its existence. With 34% of shoppers saying that they always read online reviews, it pays to respond to those negative ones and to provide the customer with a better experience next time.
4. Offer incentives to spread the message.
Incentives are a great way to encourage customers to spread the good news about your business in any way possible.
If you’re able to, you may wish to offer discounts for anyone that leaves a review on your website or via external sites like Trustpilot, for example. Who doesn’t like a discount or freebie?
5. Do or create something unique that’s not been seen before.
Whilst most things have been done in marketing, there are always new trends and approaches towards your marketing strategy. A good word-of-mouth marketing strategy is to create something unique. Something that hasn’t been seen before and will take your consumers by surprise. Think outside of the box!
6. Create a referral program or loyalty scheme.
Just like discounts and freebies, a referral program or loyalty scheme is always an underlying feature that can help influence reviews and positive commentary on your channels. Make sure you set up either or when it comes to offering your customers that little bit extra for the loyalty they provide to your business.
7. Show off word-of-mouth on your platforms
Your platforms are a great way to promote your positive reviews to the rest of the world. The global reach that your social media platforms or your website has on customers is more influential than you think. So show it off where you feel your users will engage with it the most.
There are of course plenty of word of mouth marketing advantages and disadvantages, as there are with other methods of marketing. However, what does come from this type of marketing is a stronger sense of loyalty that’s being built amongst your customers.
Paid promotions can be quite cold and although they can bring in sales, they risk becoming merely transactions than long-term customers.
