The results are in and as we all suspected, word of mouth drives 13% of consumer sales and amplifies the effect of paid media by 15%. In a recent landmark study “Return of Word of Mouth” by Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), the impact of consumer word of mouth was measured across in six diverse categories finding that consumer conversations both online and offline account for an average of 13% of sales. This means big dollars representing about $6 trillion dollars in annual consumer spending.
Research and trends shows that consumers are increasingly looking to their social networks or third-party, independent news sources for brand recommendations, so this new study doesn’t come as a surprise. However it does offer quantifiable results to Word of Mouth, hopefully leveraging it’s importance and effectiveness to brand campaigns everywhere.
Fast Facts:
+ Word of mouth drives 13% of consumer sales
+ Offline word of mouth produces 2/3 of measured business impact
+ Online word of mouth drives 1/3 of measured business impact
+ 1 offline word of mouth impression drives sales at least 5 x more than 1 paid media impression
+ Word of mouth amplifies the effect of paid media by 15% Word of mouth is responsible for $6 trillion of annual consumer spending
I found this an extremely useful resource, full of great information and measurable points of impact for any word of mouth marketing campaign. To learn more about the study visit http://www.womma.org/ReturnOnWOM
