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Posts Tagged ‘online word of mouth’

In many respects online word of mouth is as effective as any other medium to convey the worthiness of a product or service. This methodology can be illustrated simplistically – someone writes that they had a certain experience with “X”, this comment is then read by other individuals who believe that this person or the place the comment is being made is a trustworthy way of collecting opinions on something that.

It all begins with trust – the audience must trust the source of his or her online information before forming the opinion that will ultimately have them vote for or against the subject. Studies have shown that consumers are much more likely to be influenced by online word of mouth than by radio or TV advertising, with print ad’s falling to a much lower level than that prior to the advent of the internet.

This form of consumer generated content has increasingly become popular with younger generations, people below 30, with teenagers the most likely to have both read about and being influenced by online commentary, and to have added their own comments. Social commentary of this nature has been found to gain social proof on areas about health, transport and consumer electronics, each of which could be considered a major capital outlay.

For online word of mouth sales to be realized, marketing needs to be targeted towards the individuals most likely to be interested in it, as mentioned above. The exponential growth of social networking has capitalized on this sort of advertising, with many sites and indeed multimillion dollar businesses solely supported by increasingly sophisticated methods of targeting the right audience, at the right time with the right product.

So how do you get the idea out there online that WidgetX is an outstanding product? So, having a quality product at a price point that targets the masses is important (why buy WidgetX if it’s 3 times the cost of a comparable other WidgetY?), which coupled with an understanding of exactly who it’s aimed at and why it’s of benefit to that market is key.

Opposite to what most people think, consumers today are on more on the ball than many marketers give them credit for, this is why some companies may spend fortunes on high cost advertising campaigns, both on and off line, still to see their product fail totally or fail to bring an acceptable ROI (return on investment), all because consumers ultimately decided that the product was not worth buying.Then they spread the same dialogue to others. This is why online word of mouth is enormously successful for those who succeed with it, and why it exerts so much influence over just about every market there is.

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