What Is Digital Word of Mouth? Recommendations You Cannot Control
DICTIONARY · DIGITAL MARKETING

What Is Digital Word of Mouth?

Digital word of mouth is the online recommendations and conversations about a business that influence what other people buy.

In plain English

Reviews, group threads, comments, replies to someone asking who to hire. This is where a large share of buying decisions are actually settled, and none of it is under your control.

What you can influence is the substance behind it. Word of mouth reports experience, so improving the experience is the only reliable way to improve what gets said.

What to know

Uncontrolled
You influence it by deserving it, not by managing it.
Highest trust
A stranger's honest account outranks any advertising.
Findable
Reviews and threads surface in search for your brand name.
Responsive
How you answer criticism is read as carefully as the criticism.

Why it matters

For service businesses this is frequently the largest single factor in whether someone enquires. It is also the least managed, because it sits outside the marketing plan and inside the delivery of the work.

Common mistakes

×Asking for reviews before delivering anything worth reviewing.
×Ignoring negative reviews, or arguing with them.
×Incentivising reviews in ways that compromise them.
×Treating it as marketing's problem rather than the whole business's.

FAQs

How do I get more good reviews?

Ask every satisfied customer, at the moment they are satisfied.

How should I answer a bad review?

Briefly, factually, and with what you changed. Future readers are the audience.

WRITTEN BY TARIQ SALLAM
Marketing Consultant. Entrepreneur. Content Creator.

I'm a marketing consultant, entrepreneur and content creator. I help businesses grow through practical marketing, websites, SEO, content and AI.

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