In 2025, businesses are spending billions of dollars on marketing strategies such as email and social media, influencer marketing, and paid advertising. Don’t get me wrong, these are all great, but we often overlook the value of existing customers.

Word-of-mouth marketing gives you a chance to tap into a group of people that you would have otherwise missed out on. Referral programs are one form of word-of-mouth marketing, which is what our software ReferralCandy lets you do. 

This article will not just focus on referral programs as a word-of-mouth marketing strategy. Instead, we will look at the big picture of word-of-mouth marketing, discuss the different strategies that go with it, and show you examples of successful word-of-mouth marketing campaigns.

To begin with, let’s start by defining what word-of-mouth marketing actually is.

What is word of mouth marketing?

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOM marketing) is a marketing strategy that relies on customer recommendations to spread information about your product or service. Word-of-mouth marketing aims to create a customer experience worth talking about and encourage customers to recommend you to their friends and family.

A successful word-of-mouth advertising campaign involves implementing different strategies. 

For example, a popular fashion retailer might create a referral program where customers receive a $15 discount for every friend they refer that makes a purchase. This encourages existing customers to share their positive experiences and attracts new customers through trusted referrals.

4 reasons why word of mouth marketing is so powerful

The main reason word-of-mouth marketing is effective is that consumers trust recommendations from people they know. Besides all other forms of marketing, it does not take money from existing customers, and it is a scalable approach.

Let's take a closer look at each of these reasons.

1. Consumers trust recommendations more from friends and family

The main reason word-of-mouth marketing is so powerful is that 88% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, as well as other forms of marketing.

Personal recommendations from friends and family are perceived as less biased and are more genuine compared to traditional advertising.

2. Doesn’t take money from existing customers

Unlike most forms of marketing, word-of-mouth marketing doesn’t take money from existing customers in many cases. Most word-of-mouth marketing revenue is new revenue since it comes from referred customers.

For example, you could set up a referral program and encourage existing customers to recommend your products to their friends and family with a referral incentive. The main benefit of this is that you're able to access a customer group that is otherwise not accessible.

3. Builds up a community of brand advocates

When you execute the word-of-mouth marketing strategies we will go through in the next sections, it will gradually begin to build up a community of brand advocates.

Your brand advocates will go above and beyond to recommend your products or services to their friends and family. They will also be more than happy to recommend you to their followers on different social media platforms.

4. It is a scalable marketing strategy

Word-of-mouth marketing is not often seen as a scalable strategy, but there are a number of things you can do to make it a long-term strategy. These are called ‘word of mouth marketing strategies’, and we will discuss them next.

7 word of mouth marketing strategies you can start implementing today

There are dozens of different word-of-mouth marketing strategies out there, but we will look at seven that we consider the most effective.

Let's get started on the first one!

1. Maintain a great customer lifecycle

Maintaining a great customer lifecycle is arguably the most effective way to enhance word-of-mouth marketing. The customer lifecycle involves five different stages: reach, acquisition, conversion, retention, and loyalty.

All steps of the customer lifecycle should be made as seamless as possible so customers naturally want to recommend your products to their friends and family members.

So, what can you exactly do?

Here are action items related to the five stages of the customer lifecycle:

1. Reach: During the reach stage, customers have just found you, and they're comparing your products to competitors. To win the customer over initially, you should clearly state how you will solve the customer's problem, your brand should be visible on Google, and you should engage on your social media pages by posting new content and answering customer questions.
2. Acquisition: In this stage, the customer has entered your website. The goal is to guide them towards making a purchase by publicly showcasing customer reviews, educating the customer on the problem you're solving for them, and answering any questions they may have. Content offers, pricing pages, and blog posts should all provide the customer with the information they need to decide.
3. Conversion: The conversion stage is when the customer gets over the line and makes a purchase from you. After this, you should ensure that the post-purchase process is seamless so customers stay loyal. Optimize your post-purchase emails, provide customers with tracking numbers, and educate them with product use cases and helpful blogs.
4. Retention. During the retention stage, your goal should be to continue building up the relationship with your customer. You can send them an email asking how they've liked the product and offering a discount for future purchases in exchange for a product review. At this point, you can even start inviting them to your ecommerce referral program.
5. Loyalty. At this stage, customers have become your most valuable asset. They might write product reviews, post about their experience with your company on social media, and start recommending you to their friends and family. To maintain their loyalty, hold giveaway contests, establish loyalty programs, and continuously provide them with valuable content.

If you can optimize these five customer lifecycle steps, you will quickly notice that customers are more satisfied, which will naturally lead to them recommending you to others.

2. Launch your referral program

Referral programs help incentivize your existing customers to share your product with their friends and family. Referral programs work best as a word-of-mouth marketing strategy when the whole process is seamless for the customers.

To get started, follow these steps:

1. Select your referral program software. Without good referral software, you can't make your referral program scalable. Referral program software, like ReferralCandy, lets you set up your referral program, enable post-purchase pop-ups and emails, and automate customer rewards.
2. Add referral incentive. Referral incentive is the reward you promise to your customers when they refer your products to their friends and family. Two of the most popular incentives are cash rewards and discounts. For example, you could set up a 'Give $10, Get $10' off incentive.
3. Create a referral landing page. A referral landing page allows referrals to sign up for your referral program. On your landing page, you should use a clear call to action, make the rewards clearly visible, and have a low-friction form where customers can sign up.
4. Invite customers to join the program. Setting up a post-purchase email is the easiest way to invite customers to join your referral program. For old customers, you can send a dedicated email explaining that you've just created a referral program and offer them an incentive.

These steps will help to get your referral program up and running. After this, you should continuously monitor the performance to get more referrals.

3. Use social media to your advantage

We love sharing examples from successful ecommerce brands, so let's see how Oodie uses social media to enhance its word-of-mouth marketing strategy.

They have built up a large Instagram following of over 400,000 followers, and every day; they share stories of customers wearing their product, which is a wearable long hoodie.

They also continuously encourage user-generated content through emails and then share it on their Instagram feed.

From a word-of-mouth marketing perspective, this has many benefits.

The first is that Oodie gets free engagement from customers who share the products on their Instagram pages. The second one is that when potential customers see the community Oodie has built, they are more inclined to join and purchase their products.

They are also likely to invite their friends to join the Oodie community and wear the hoodies together.

Similarly, you could start building a community among your customers, either through social media or email (or both). 

4. Encourage customers to create UGC content

According to research done by Nosto, 81% of marketers believe visual user-generated content resonates more with customers than professionally shot photos.

User-generated content is often seen as less pushy, making it easier for customers to trust the brand.

One of the best ways to encourage customers to create UGC content is to offer them incentives. For example, this could mean giving them a discount on their next purchase or giving them a chance to win a free product.

5. Make use of influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has been on a steady rise for a long time, and it's expected to be worth $24 billion by the end of 2024.

Influencer marketing is also one of the most steady word-of-mouth advertising strategies out there.

To use influencer marketing, you need to pay an influencer to promote your product on their social media pages. In exchange, they will link to your website in hopes of bringing you new customers.

You can contact the influencers through email or directly within the social media platform.

6. Collect and publish customer reviews

99.9% of consumers read reviews when shopping online, and 98% say reviews are essential when it comes to making a purchase.

This just proves the power of authentic customer reviews, which is why you should also use them for word-of-mouth marketing.

To collect customer reviews, send an automated email to every customer after they receive their order. Getting customer reviews without giving anything in return can be difficult, so offer them an incentive, such as a discount on their next purchase.

Once you have started collecting reviews, you should publish them on pages where additional social proof is needed.

The most common places to add reviews are:

• Product pages. For example, see how Dockatot adds customer reviews to their product pages:

• Home page. A common place to showcase customer reviews is a home page. Home page reviews are typically short and to the point, like here:

• Social media page. If you have started building your social media page following, it's a great place to showcase customer reviews.
• Emails. Whether you are sending a welcome email, survey email, promotional email, or any other type of email, customer reviews can add credibility.
• Dedicated review page. Some brands also have a dedicated review page that is all about increasing social proof through customer reviews.

Collecting and publishing online reviews helps to influence consumers who aren't just ready to buy from you.

7. Do small extras that customers will remember

If you think of brands that have made a lasting impression on you, it's usually because they went the extra mile to exceeding customer expectations. Because of this, you might have even recommended their products or services to your friends and family.

It can be as simple as:

• Remember customer names: For example, if a customer emails you after a purchase, the simple thing of remembering/knowing their name will make them feel more special.
• Provide them with freebies. If a customer buys something from you, you can give them a complimentary product. This doesn't have to be anything big to make customers feel valued.
• Host giveaways. For example, you can host a giveaway of a free product for all of your customers. You can inform them about the giveaway through emails and social media.
• Create educational content. You can share educational content on your blog, social media pages, or via emails, such as newsletters. This should be related to your niche and product so customers can relate to it more.
• Give customers a bigger reason to buy from you. Many potential buyers prefer brands that have a bigger mission behind them. For example, 4Ocean mentions that they clean 5 pounds of trash for every bracelet purchased.

These are just a few extra things you can do!

Top word of mouth marketing examples

Next, let's look at three word-of-mouth marketing examples from other ecommerce brands.

We show you what they did to succeed so you can take inspiration for your own campaigns.

1. Branch Basics

Branch Basics is a brand that offers eco-friendly all-purpose cleaning concentrates. They used ReferralCandy to launch their referral program with the hopes of generating awareness in the competitive cleaning market.

Brand Basics made the referral program simple:

• First-time customers received a $10 discount
• For referring a friend, customers received $10 off their next order, which could be applied to their next purchase

To spread the word, they sent emails to customers encouraging them to join the referral program. Customers were directed to this landing page:

As a result, Branch Basics created over $1.5 million in sales through the referral program. Close to 10% of their total sales came from referral sales, proving the effectiveness of it when implemented right.

2. 4Ocean

4Ocean is a great example of how to generate buzz about your brand and get people talking. Their main product is a bracelet that cleans five pounds of trash every time someone purchases it.

They post videos on Instagram showing them cleaning trash out of the ocean and protecting animals, such as turtles.

Doing this, they have gained a whopping 3+ million followers on Instagram and have made it one of their primary channels for customer acquisition.

In the same way, you can use viral marketing techniques like this as your word-of-mouth advertising strategy.

3. Endy

Endy is doing an extremely good job of collecting and publishing satisfied customers reviews on their website and social media posts.

After the customer receives their product, they send them an email asking for a review.

This is how Endy showcases customer reviews on their home page:

They also have a dedicated page where customers can read the over 30,000 reviews Endy has received.

On top of these, they also show the reviews on their product pages and social media.

If you're looking to use reviews as your word-of-mouth marketing strategy (which you probably should), Endy is one of the best brands from which to take inspiration.

Word of mouth marketing strategy checklist

To conclude, here is a checklist of the seven word-of-mouth marketing strategies we recommend:

1. Maintain a strong customer lifecycle during all its stages, including reach, acquisition, conversion, retention, and loyalty.
2. Launch your referral program with referral software, such as ReferralCandy.
3. Take advantage of social media sites to start building up a community
4. Utilize influencer marketing on platforms like Instagram and TikTok
5. Encourage customers to create user-generated content and then share it
6. Collect and publish customer reviews on your website, social media, and emails
7. Do small extra things for customers, such as remembering their names, providing them with freebies, or hosting giveaways.

Utilizing these seven strategies, your customers are more likely to be satisfied with your brand, and they will naturally recommend your products and services to others. That's the essence of word-of-mouth marketing!

Further reading

Here are some articles that we think might be able to help you enhance your word-of-mouth strategy further:

• 22 Examples of Providing Practical Value in Marketing
• The 7 Best Referral Program Ideas (And One That Doesn't Work)
• How to Use Referral Marketing to Scale Your Organic Customer Acquisition

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