Word of Mouth Statistics By Strategies, Sources, Demographics, Consumer Behavior, Unhappy Customers and Purchase Decisions

Barry Elad

Updated · Jun 26, 2023

Word of Mouth Statistics By Strategies, Sources, Demographics, Consumer Behavior, Unhappy Customers and Purchase Decisions

Introduction

Word of Mouth Statistics: Marketing is a crucial part of all businesses. There are various types of marketing strategies, but mouth publicity is one of the most effective methods to increase sales. If a business is running on the internet, then word of mouth provides the best possible branding awareness opportunities in all corners of the world. It has been proven that using the mouth-to-mouth publicity strategy improves overall business performance by 90%. On the other hand, this method of advertising is free of cost to some extent. If you tell your friend about your business, then he will refer you to another person using this method.

These Word of Mouth Statistics are written by focusing on the American region. Don’t forget to take a look till the end.

Editor’s Choice

  • Word of Mouth Statistics states that 38% of consumers in the United States of America consume food items from brands that are recommended by their acquaintances.
  • 84% of the marketing executive believe that word of mouth is the most effective marketing method.
  • 1 out of 25 consumers who engage in bad experiences with the brands, spread the negative review by word of mouth.
  • On average, consumers unknowingly discuss the brands with their friends and family 90 times every week.
  • 26% of the customers avoid brands if their friends or family members had negative experiences.
  • Customers who hear about the brand by mouth publicity, are 200% times more likely to spend than the average customer spending.
  • A customer with positive reviews about the brand will only recommend the company to only 3 people.
  • 70% of marketers are looking forward to increasing the company budget on word-of-mouth marketing.
  • 73% of online shoppers said that while purchasing a product, user-generated content increased brand image in their minds.
  • Products with more than 50 reviews, generate more returns compared to other products with no reviews.

What is Word of Mouth?

Word of mouth or viva voce is passing knowledge or information from one person to another person. It could be a form of anything like news, storytelling, or simply chitchat between friends and family. This is the most affordable yet effective way of marketing. In the world of the Internet of Things, it is crucial to stay on top of the eCommerce fights and increase brand awareness in every market. To do other ways, the company is required to pay huge amounts of advertising fees. Whereas, if a consumer recommends his friend living in another country, that means he is using word of mouth marketing strategy.

Why Is Word Of Mouth Valuable In Branding?

  • It helps the company to understand the market as well as the customers.
  • Word of Mouth strategy is more effective than any other kind of marketing strategy.
  • Mouth publicity requires now huge amounts of investments in advertising.
  • Using this method, the company can improve its products and services by listening to customer reviews.
  • Word of Mouth marketing method is like a chain that goes on and on including positive or negative reviews.
  • Increase in brand awareness in unknown markets.
  • Increase in total number of sales.
  • Word of Mouth strategies includes passive income options for influencers or referral marketing affiliates.

Word Of Mouth Marketing Strategies

  • Influencer marketing
  • User-generated content
  • Social media hashtags
  • Online customer reviews
  • Referral programs
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Email Marketing
  • Social media promotions
  • Experience Marketing

Types Of Word Of Mouth

Buzz Marketing

Buzz Marketing occurs before launching a product or service. This can be done by creating a waiting list for upcoming launches, or teasers in the form of videos.

Referral Marketing

Referral marketing includes affiliate marketing or paid sponsorship to increase brand awareness. Influencers use referral marketing to reach new customers. There are many big eCommerce companies that offer such programs that can help a user to earn passive income.

Social Media Marketing

Building the community using social media marketing is one of the most popular ways to reach new markets. Using hashtags and creating stories on Instagram, going live on YouTube or Facebook, or creating educational content on LinkedIn regarding the company’s goals, products and services can positively influence the audience.

Content Marketing

Content marketing includes podcasts, blogs, videos, infographics, and the like. These can be performed by asking people some provocative questions, and or by telling real stories in the form of storytelling. The content part is the crucial one, in this case, as content will be representing the brand of the company.

General Word of Mouth Statistics

  • 70% of marketers are looking forward to increasing the company budget on word-of-mouth marketing.
  • Word of Mouth Statistics states that 38% of consumers in the United States of America consume food items from brands that are recommended by their acquaintances.
  • Electronic items have a 37% purchasing power by word-of-mouth marketing strategy.
  • 20% of the Americans who became aware of the brand through word of mouth, completed a purchase instantly.
  • A customer with positive reviews about the brand will only recommend the company to only 3 people.
  • 92% of the customer have faith in the brands recommended by their friends.
  • 84% of the marketing executive believe that word of mouth is the most effective marketing method.
  • A Word-of-mouth marketing strategy increases overall sales 5 times more than paid advertisements.
  • Total yearly spending on word of mouth results in $6 trillion.
  • Online reviews are trusted by 88% of the customers.
  • Word of mouth Statistics states that marketing effectiveness is boosted by mouth publicity by 54%.
  • 20% to 50% of the sales occur because of mouth publicity.
  • Word-of-mouth marketing strategy is 37% more effective than any other marketing method.
  • 73% of online shoppers said that while purchasing a product, user-generated content increased brand image in their minds.
  • Products with more than 50 reviews, generate more returns compared to other products with no reviews.
  • 65% of companies use word-of-mouth recommendations for filling up open positions.
  • 58% of the customers provide positive reviews on social media.
  • 22% of companies around the globe provide formal referral programs.
  • Offline mouth publicity helps to increase sales by 20%.
  • Customers gained by means of word-of-mouth marketing are 37% more likely to stay loyal to the brand.
  • 49% of the customer trust products recommended by their influencers.
  • 39% of the customer are more likely to suggest the brand to friends and families if it is offering discount coupons or gift cards.
  • In the United States of America, only 4% of consumers trust sponsored content by brands.
  • 41% of customers around the world, discover new brands every week through their influencers.
  • 10% of the sale occurs without any mouth publicity marketing strategy.
  • Word of mouth method has the ability to increase the willingness of consumers by 400% to make a purchase.
  • On average, consumers with influenced by mouth-to-mouth publicity spend $629 on purchases.

Word of Mouth Statistics by Unhappy Customers

  • For a brand, 40 positive customer reviews and experiences are needed to recover the fallen brand image through one single bad review.
  • 1 out of 25 consumers who engage in bad experiences with the brands, spread the negative review by word of mouth.
  • Further studies state that 12% of the consumers with negative reviews will spread it to at least 20 more acquaintances.

Word of Mouth Statistics by Strategies

(Reference: sitecentre.com.au)

  • Word of Mouth marketing strategy is the most used method by companies resulting in 92%.
  • Whereas, 70% of the brands use online opinions to spread the company image.
  • On the other hand, paid advertising methods are used by 58% of companies to boost their brand awareness.

Word of Mouth Statistics by Sources

(Reference: hubspot.com)

  • Influencer marketing is the top most used source of Word of mouth advertising resulting in 34%.
  • Whereas, other types of sources include mobile-friendly website design as well as Experiential marketing resulting in 33% and 29% respectively.
  • Short-form video content and virtual events similarly contribute by 31% to mouth publicity marketing strategy.

Word of Mouth by Ways To Acquire New Customers

(Reference: constantcontact.com)

  • The most common method used by brands to acquire new customers is Word of mouth resulting in 64%.
  • Followed by Social media marketing (18%) and Website marketing (10%).
  • In addition to the above ways, other methods include Email marketing (4%), Coupons (2%), and online deal sites (2%).

Word of Mouth Statistics by Consumer Behavior

  • 59% of the customers prefer to provide feedback by means of mouth publicity.
  • Customers who hear about the brand by mouth publicity, are 200% times more likely to spend than the average customer spending.
  • 50% of Americans choose a word-of-mouth strategy before making a purchase.
  • On average, before making a purchase, consumer reads at least 10 online reviews.
  • 26% of the customers avoid brands if their friends or family members had negative experiences.
  • On average, consumers unknowingly discuss the brands with their friends and family 90 times every week.
  • 23% of consumers share their views about their favorite brand every day with their family members and friends.

Word of Mouth Statistics by Demographics

  • Millennials are 38% more likely to discover new brands based on recommendations from their family and friends.
  • Whereas, Gen Z discovers new brands resulting in 12% by word of mouth.
  • And, Gen X contributes to discovering new brands through word-of-mouth methods by 18%.
  • Baby Boomers are more likely to get influenced by word-of-mouth marketing strategies.
  • 83% of the women refer to social media before making a purchase decision.

Word of Mouth Statistics by Purchase Decisions

(Reference: savemycent.com)

  • The top product category or service influenced by word of mouth is dining out resulting in 37.6%.
  • Followed by Electronics and Grocery items resulting in 33.1% and 32.2% respectively.
  • In addition to the above product categories, other most influential categories are as follows: Apparel/ Clothing (27.5%), Home improvement (25.7%), Car/Truck (22.8%), Medicines (20.3%), Financial Services/ Insurance (18.8%) and telecom services (17.7%).

Conclusion

Concluding the Word of Mouth Statistics, we definitely give thumbs up to this type of marketing strategy. As these statistics already show, people tend to buy from brands that are recommended by their friends or relatives. Moreover, this method is cost-effective to some extent. Once the business is operating on a larger scale, the number of audiences also increases with increased brand awareness due to WOM.

Moreover, creating WOM is simple, you are only required to ask customers for reviews, or host events and contests, this way, automatically brand awareness increases. In the world of cutthroat competition, it is important to set up a perfect strategy for Word of Mouth marketing.

  • Statistics
  • FAQ.

    Which companies offer affiliate marketing programs to earn passive income?

    Booking.com, Amazon.com, Shopify.com, eBay, HubSpot, Sendinblue, Fiverr, Etsy, and Target are some of the best eCommerce companies that offer affiliate programs to earn passive income. You can join the programs by filling out a form on their website, once verified, you can start earning.

    How to build word of mouth marketing strategy?

    -Focus on user-degenerated content

    -Create unique hashtags

    -Create community

    -Provide excellent customer service

    -Understand the market and offer appropriate products and services

    -Engage in customer reviews.

     

    Above mentioned dos will help to build a perfect strategy for mouth publicity.

    What are examples of Word of Mouth marketing?

    Influencers or brand ambassadors promoting goods and services of the company, consumer reviews, user-generated content such as blog posts, press mentions or earn media, hashtags, and social mentions or tagged posts are examples of word-of-mouth marketing.

    What is the major drawback of word of mouth?

    In the case of a word-of-mouth marketing strategy, it has a limited audience. Moreover, even if we recommend the brand to 5 consumers, we can’t give any guarantee that all of them will recommend it further.

    Barry Elad
    Barry Elad

    Barry is a lover of everything technology. Figuring out how the software works and creating content to shed more light on the value it offers users is his favorite pastime. When not evaluating apps or programs, he's busy trying out new healthy recipes, doing yoga, meditating, or taking nature walks with his little one.

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