Word of mouth marketing is the most honest form of marketing. This type of marketing is defined as orally passing negative or positive information to a person’s social network. While it is defined as oral communication, text and email are also ways to promote word of mouth marketing.

There are several basic elements of word of mouth marketing. The key elements are explaining to people about the product or service being offered, pinpointing the audience that would most likely share opinions, supplying the tools to make it simple to share information, analyzing how and when opinions are being shared and paying attention to both positive and negative feedback.

This is a highly valued, more believable type of marketing that builds trust.  When one is spreading positive feedback it is more credible than other types of marketing thereby generating more interest in the product or service being talked about. In order for this type of marketing to work, the marketer must provide complete satisfaction with their product or service. There are several different types of word of mouth marketing; buzz marketing, grassroots marketing and referral programs are just a few.

There are some drawbacks to word of mouth marketing. If a customer is unsatisfied they can also use word of mouth to spread negative feedback, which seems to get around twice as quickly as positive feedback does. Word of mouth marketing can’t be relied upon as the primary form of marketing. If buzz is not being generated about the product or service being offered the interest in the product or service virtually stops, meaning there must be another type of marketing in use to drive interest in the product or service.

Word of mouth marketing is a free, easy way to get the word out about the product or service being offered. As long as other methods of marketing are in force, the disadvantages of word of mouth marketing are minimal.