Word of Mouth Marketing: Meaning + Implementation in SaaS Businesses
What is word-of-mouth marketing?
Word-of-mouth marketing is a strategy where businesses encourage customers to share their positive experiences with others, both online and offline, to promote products or services. It includes tactics such as referral programs, influencer partnerships, and customer testimonials to generate buzz and trust.
Unlike natural word-of-mouth references, which occur spontaneously and organically among customers, word-of-mouth marketing involves deliberate efforts by a company to stimulate and amplify these conversations.
Benefits of word-of-mouth marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing offers numerous advantages when implemented strategically. These include:
- Trust and credibility: Recommendations from friends, family, or even strangers online are often perceived as more genuine and trustworthy than traditional advertising messages. This heightened trust translates into a higher likelihood of potential customers taking action, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a demo, or simply considering a brand more favorably.
- Cost-effectiveness: Compared to expensive advertising campaigns, WOM marketing is remarkably budget-friendly. It primarily relies on the goodwill and enthusiasm of existing customers, requiring minimal financial investment. This translates into higher marketing ROI, making it an appealing option for businesses of all sizes.
- Increased brand awareness: Word-of-mouth marketing techniques spread brand awareness as customers share their experiences with a broader audience. This ripple effect can introduce the brand to new users who might not have been reached through traditional customer acquisition channels.
- Brand loyalty and advocacy: When customers share positive experiences, it reinforces their own connection to the brand, fostering loyalty. These loyal customers become brand advocates, actively recommending products or services to their networks, thus perpetuating the cycle of word-of-mouth marketing.
Word-of-mouth marketing strategies
Now that you’ve understood the key benefits of word-of-mouth advertising, let’s explore how you can strategically attract customers and get people talking about your business.
Invest in your presence on different social media sites
Social media platforms provide a powerful channel for word-of-mouth marketing. By maintaining an active and engaging presence, you create opportunities for customers to interact with your brand, share their experiences, and recommend you to their followers.
Use your social media accounts to share high-quality content, promptly respond to comments and messages, run contests or giveaways, encourage UGC, and share testimonials.
Example: Outreach shares customer testimonials on their social media platform.
Become a local thought leader
Position yourself as an industry expert in your local community. Speak at events, contribute articles to community publications, participate in relevant online forums, and, if possible, create community events. This establishes you as a trusted authority, making it more likely that people will discuss you and your business with others.
Example: Wistia establishes itself as a thought leader in video marketing by providing educational and engaging content. One successful example of this is their “One, Ten, One Hundred” series:
Offer free products or a free trial
Free samples or trial periods allow potential customers to experience your product or service firsthand. This experience can generate positive impressions and encourage them to share their favorable feedback with others, either through word-of-mouth conversations or online reviews.
Example: Trello offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. This is a perfect opportunity for people in the target audience who want to know if the product can solve their needs. After a fantastic experience, users wouldn’t need an external push to share their thoughts with friends online or offline.
Invest in brand ambassador marketing
Identify passionate customers or influencers who genuinely love your brand and are eager to share their experiences with their followers. Partner with them as brand ambassadors, providing incentives such as free products, discounts, or exclusive access to new offerings. This incentivizes them to spread the word about your brand authentically, creating a ripple effect of positive word-of-mouth.
Example: Adobe leverages word-of-mouth marketing by partnering with industry experts and creators who share their experiences and endorse the product to their followers.
Amplify brand advocates
Once you’ve identified enthusiastic customers or influencers who are already singing your praises, don’t let their voices go unheard. Share their case studies and positive experiences across your social media channels, website, and marketing materials. This not only shows appreciation for their support but also encourages others to join the conversation and share their own experiences.
Example: Userpilot encourages its users to share their success stories and testimonials. Featuring these stories on social media and the website helps build trust and credibility.
Generate buzz
Create excitement and anticipation around your brand by hosting events, launching limited-edition products, or compiling industry reports that people will be genuinely interested in.
Ensure to promote these heavily on social media, your website, and to your email list. The more eyeballs seeing it, the more buzz you’re likely to generate.
Example: Userpilot’s SaaS product metrics benchmark report. This is a unique report you can’t find anywhere else, making it valuable to the right audience. People will happily share it with friends and colleagues without being asked.
Get customer reviews from your loyal customers
Don’t be shy about asking satisfied customers to leave reviews on platforms like G2 and Capterra. Consider offering incentives or running a review contest to encourage participation. These reviews will not only act as social proof but also improve your online visibility and credibility.
Example: Ask customers for a review immediately after they responded positively to your NPS or CSAT survey:
Encourage user-generated content
Invite your customers to create content featuring your products or services. This could be photos, videos, blog posts, or social media posts. Post this content on your own channels, giving credit to the creators. This builds a sense of community and encourages others to participate, generating a wealth of authentic content that promotes your brand organically.
Example: Adobe’s hashtag campaign #adobeperspective showcases user-generated creative work, encourages others to share their content, and enhances the brand’s visibility through user-generated content.
Invest in referral marketing
Create a structured referral program that rewards existing users for referring new ones. Offer incentives your audience will love, and make the referral process simple and trackable.
This will encourage customers to spread the word and attract new users who are more likely to trust a friend’s recommendation.
Example: Dropbox’s referral program offers additional storage for both the referrer and the referee.
Invest in influencer marketing
Partner with influencers who align with your brand values and target audience. Collaborate on sponsored content, product reviews, or social media takeovers.
This exposes your brand to a wider audience and leverages the influencer’s credibility and reach to drive word-of-mouth recommendations. Choose influencers carefully, focusing on those whose audience aligns with your target market for maximum impact.
Example: Personal branding tool Taplio partners with Justin Welsh to demonstrate the product value and offer a 14-day free trial to prospective customers.
How to implement a word-of-mouth marketing strategy in your company
Follow this step-by-step guide:
Create user personas
User personas are semi-fictional characters based on your ideal customers, created from market research and real data about your existing customers.
How to create effective personas:
- Conduct research: Gather data from customer surveys, interviews, and product analytics to understand the demographics, behaviors, needs, and pain points of your audience.
- Identify key traits: Focus on commonalities in your research, such as age, job roles, challenges, and goals.
- Develop personas: Create detailed personas, each with a name, occupation, background, and characteristics that represent a segment of your audience.
- Validate and refine: Test these personas with your team and adjust based on feedback and further insights.
Segment new customers into those user personas
Once you’ve created detailed user personas, the next step is to segment your new users into different groups based on their characteristics.
This vital step allows you to develop targeted marketing campaigns and personalized messaging that resonate with each group’s specific needs and interests. That way, you can increase the relevance and effectiveness of your marketing efforts, making customers feel understood and valued.
Userpilot makes customer segmentation easy, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your WOM marketing strategy.
Surprise and delight customers to gain their loyalty
Exceeding customer expectations looks different for every company. However, make it a practice to consistently surpass what your customers anticipate in terms of product quality, customer service, and overall experience. Start by understanding your customer needs through regular surveys and in-app behavior tracking.
Utilize this data to provide proactive customer support, trigger personalized onboarding experiences, recommend relevant features, and deliver targeted communication. This personalized approach enhances customer satisfaction and encourages them to spread positive word-of-mouth.
For example, you may find that a segment of your users primarily interact with lead management features. Armed with this information, you can guide them toward resources and webinars on lead nurturing, further solidifying their expertise and satisfaction.
Turn loyal customers into brand advocates
Identify your most active and engaged users through metrics like product usage, feature adoption, and customer satisfaction scores.
Then, create a formal brand advocacy program that rewards them for sharing positive reviews, referrals, and testimonials. Offer exclusive perks like early access to new features, invitations to beta programs, or discounts on premium subscriptions.
Note: While the above 4-step process is a powerful way to cultivate word-of-mouth marketing, it’s important to remember that it’s just one strategy among many. You can explore other tactics, such as social media engagement, content marketing, customer success stories, and brand partnerships.
The key takeaway, however, remains consistent across all strategies: building a base of loyal and satisfied customers.
Word-of-mouth marketing examples from B2B companies
Let’s consider some examples of SaaS companies leveraging WOM marketing.
Canva
Canva’s success is rooted in its strategy of making graphic design accessible to everyone, which naturally encourages sharing.
To further advance its mission, the company onboarded Guy Kawasaki in 2014 to become the product’s chief evangelist. Following Kawasaki’s appointment, Canva’s user base grew significantly, thanks to a combination of factors, including influencer marketing, UGC, and the growing demand for easy-to-use design tools.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs has established itself as a leading authority in the SEO industry through its comprehensive blog and educational resources. By consistently producing high-quality, informative content, Ahrefs attracts a vast audience of marketers and SEO professionals. This content, shared and referenced across the web, serves as a continuous source of word-of-mouth referrals, solidifying Ahrefs’ position as a go-to tool for SEO.
The company actively builds community through its blog comments, social media channels, and online forums. This strong sense of community not only encourages users to engage with the brand but also creates a space for them to share tips, experiences, and recommendations, further driving word-of-mouth among their peers.
Slack
Rather than relying on traditional advertising, Slack focused on building a product that teams genuinely loved. Its intuitive interface, real-time messaging, and searchable history addressed the pain points of fragmented communication, making it a superior alternative to email.
A key element of Slack’s WOM marketing success was its freemium model, allowing teams to experience the platform’s value before committing to a paid plan. This approach encouraged users to invite colleagues, creating a growth loop that rapidly expanded Slack’s user base within organizations.
Conclusion
The core message boils down to this: make your customers happy, and they’ll become your most passionate marketers. It’s a simple concept but requires dedication and a deep understanding of your customers.
Ready to take your word-of-mouth marketing to the next level? Userpilot can help! Our platform equips you with the tools to craft detailed user personas, deliver personalized experiences that delight customers, and trigger in-app prompts that encourage them to spread the word. Schedule a demo today and get started.
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