Word of mouth marketing might be thought of as an ancient or old fashioned marketing technique, after all word of mouth marketing existed before the idea of marketing its self actually did. While there’s no denying its age in a world where a social media presence is practically a must for any business having a good understanding of word of mouth marketing is extremely important.

Word of mouth marketing evolved with the development of the internet it’s no longer the same marketing technique it once was. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter make it possible for businesses to talk with more consumers than ever before and with an estimated 1.73 million users of social media the opportunity for word of mouth to increase interest in your business is massive.

So it would be wise to not ignore word of mouth marketing just because we now live and operate in this new digital landscape. Many big brands have embraced word of mouth marketing to advertise their products and the good thing about word of mouth marketing is that there are many different ways to approach it.

For example Starbucks have run a number of different social media campaigns that aim to get customers to directly interactive with them and advertise their products in exchange for the chance to win prizes. For example the popular redcup contest aims to get customers to share images of themselves and friends enjoying a coffee or meal.

These types of social media campaigns are quite common and are very popular. Another approach to word of mouth marketing is seen by the UK fashion label Superdry which picked up the public’s interest of celebrity clothing and even cleverly used fashion journalism to spread its brand name when celebrities where spotted wearing Superdry clothing.

Another approach of word of mouth marketing that practically got the whole world paying attention was seen by the ALS association. The ALS association raised a huge $115 million dollars as a result of the Ice Bucket Challenge (IBC)

The IBC used a variety of approaches to spread awareness about ALS and raise money for the charity including celebrity and public involvement. The IBC proved so popular that it gained wide spread news coverage and raised the profile of the charity considerably on a global scale.

The above examples show that while word of mouth marketing is a very old marketing technique the digital landscape as actually increased the importance of it and shown that having an understanding of it is now more important than ever.

David Varty