Word of mouth marketing is so effective because people trust friends and family members who are close to them. In fact, a study done by Ogilvy found that 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision.

Because word of mouth marketing is so effective, businesses need to find ways to increase opportunities for their brand to come up in organic conversations.

Ways to increase word of mouth marketing:

  • Create referral programs
  • Emphasize good customer support
  • Encourage user-generated content
  • Incentivize positive online reviews
  • Share customer testimonials

One notable example of a brand who created a campaign that initiated word of mouth marketing is Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola created the “Share A Coke” campaign to encourage customers to find the bottles with a friend’s or family member’s name on it and share it with them. They also used a social campaign with the hashtag #ShareACoke to get people talking about it on Twitter.