Word of mouth gaining ground

Word of mouth marketing in the contemporary business world is rapidly becoming a significant part of marketing. Check this out, a recent Brandweek article entitled outlook 2008 projects that word of mouth marketing will hit 1.3 billion this year, 33% up from 2006. In fact, the spending is estimated to triple that figure by 2011. The growth of the internet plays a big role in this spending. Many marketers are using word of mouth (WOM) to generate buzz about websites and are considering WOM to be a separate entity from advertising and public relations. Pete Blackshaw, evp-Nielsen Online Strategic Services, puts it into words perfectly. “The Internet has put word-of-mouth on steroids, with archived commentary and product reviews that make a big impact, the fastest growing sources of indexable content in Google’s search engine are first-person testimonials.” Getting consumers to essentially do the marketing for you is cheap and effective, that is if you are on their good side. Some marketers worry that WOM can backfire and is only a quick fix instead of a long term strategy. But the numbers don't lie, WOM is a fast growing tactic that has been proven to work wonders for business.