In many respects marketing by word of mouth can be said to be the “hidden statistic” for all programs, as it’s well near impossible to actually gauge the effectiveness of marketing done this way. Saying that, however, it should be noted that almost every product in this increasingly digital age has, at one time or another, relied on this method of marketing to increase public and corporate awareness of product or service availability.

A recent study exemplified that two thirds of online marketing is expected to be done this way next year, which when coupled with the advent in leaps of Web 2.0.0 social networking and social marketing sites point towards promoting your product by word of mouth may be both more cost effective, and have an increasingly better ROI than more “traditional” online advertising media.

Think about the business model of the current social networking sites. There has yet to be a successful site of this type that charges, instead relying as they do on advertising income to turn a profit. While there is not in a real sense a metric that can be used to measure the effectiveness of marketing by word of mouth, it should be noted that there is one method of knowing if your campaign is succeeding – sales.

A company or client should know from their output volume exactly what the difference between before a campaign, during a campaign and after it’s stopped. This gives businesses a measurable statistic to show effectiveness of this type of marketing. It is true that not all businesses need or desire this form of sales technique, but is also through that not one business turns away prospects garnered from the by word of mouth method either.

Whatever your area of expertise, a study completed by Hill and Knowlton this year showed that decision makers are highly influenced by personal experience’s (58%), with recommendations tied at 51%. Coming in lower than expected was direct marketing at 21% with internet advertising lat 17%. These figures may only reflect the purchasing habits of key decision makers, but a young lady in Oregon deciding to buy one car insurance or another IS the key decision maker for that purchase, and her buddy Becky telling her to go with this company over that company will have a greater influence than any gravel-voiced actor pushing the product in a TV advert.

Essentially, this statistic can reflect any industry, any segment, if each purchaser is the key decision maker. This makes the resurgence of the world’s oldest sales tool a given – so get talking or tweeting, but tell everyone!

Not all people tell the truth, so it’s unlikely that everything you read on the web is going to be fact. To counter that, especially when in connection with something as ethereal as word of mouth information, listed here are a number of statistic’s and sources that you (if you so desire) can check for accuracy at your leisure.

1. Family and friend recommendations are more infuential when giving out word of mouth information (AdAge).

2. Traffic to a site that posts reviews will typically return to that site nine times, and are twice as likely to purchase from that website than others (source: McKinsey and Co.Jupiter Media Metrix).

3. Consumers trust close friends more than experts or even celebrity endorsements (65%, 27% and 8%, respectively; Yankelovich).

4. A Nielsen worldwide study of some 26,000 users in over 40 markets reported that consumer recommendations were the most credible form of word of mouth information advertising within the 70% plus of respondents.

5. The figure is enourmous, 116 million user generated content was made in the U.S. alone in 2008, with an additional 82 million content creators. With the extended reach and influence of Web 2.0 and social networking, these figures are sure to climb (source: eMarketer.com).

6. Social network users are three times more likely to purchase a product or service on the strength of a recommendation from an associate or friend rather than any other form of advertising. (the source: Jupiter Research).

7. 86% of people asked said they trust a friend’s recommendation over the experts, with 83% saying they trust user generated comments over a critic’s (Marketing Sherpa).

8. 66% of social networkers are more inclined to purchase due to a recommendation, compared to 52% that aren’t social networkers (Royal Mail home shipping tracker).

9. 81% of holiday shoppers read through user reviews prior to purchasing (Nielsen Online).

10. Consumers totaling 86% read reviews on businesses before buying, with over 90% saying that they trust those reviews (Kudzu.com).

11. 49% of shoppers stated that they have made many of their purchases based solely on the strength of consumer reviews. Of this total 53% bought on the strength of user reviews;48% by comparison charts;41% due to editorial reviews and comments;58% due to shared shopping lists.

12. Nearly two thirds (62%) of home-based consumers browsed on line user generated product reviews before making a purchase (Deloitte and Touche) with 62% stating that they would also browse sites with user reviews in order to make entertainment purchases (Marketing Sherpa).

13. 7 out of 10 people who read consumer generated news and reviews are highly likely to share those opinions, which amplifies the impact (Deloitte and Touche).

14. 74% of surveyed consumers state they base purchasing on user generated reviews of their customer rating for a product or company (Society of New Communication Research).

As you can see, word of mouth information coming from trusted sources such as friends, consumers, etc. is the most powerful form of advertising.

There are several strategies that you can use for viral video marketing.Your video will not go “viral” if you do not plan out your strategy well.No matter how great you think it is.To reach tens of thousands of viewers takes time and luck.Here are some tips you can use.

Keep it simple.  A 30 second clip is perfect.People have very short attention spans.If you have a long clip, shorten it.If you use the correct targeted keywords, parts will show up in the “related videos” area on YouTube. You don’t have to think twice about getting the entire story out.People will look at it, if they have interest in it.

Post all videos that you have together.  The more videos that you have out there, the more likely you are to get a click-thru to your website, which is of course the ultimate goal of viral video marketing.

Try to avoid making an obvious or outright advertisement.People will never share your videos with their friends if it looks like an advertisement.When you get their business, you can use e-mails to bring in friends of friends.Your first goal is to get viewers.

Once people see a thumbnail of your video, the important step is to get them to push the “play” button.You can do that by using a shocking or amusing headline, something that gets their attention.

Viral video marketing works best if “you” have a lot of friends.If you don’t have a Facebook profile and a My Space account, get one.Join chat rooms, clubs, groups and networks.Collect as many friends as you can.  Whenever you have new videos, you share it with all of them.You can include your real friends, you business acquaintances and your existing customers. 

Here’s why this is important. There are so many millions of people that have these types of accounts.Each one of them may have a few hundred close friends.When they come across an interesting or funny video, they will often share it with a large group of friends, who then share it with their entire list of friends.f you can get listed, you can literally reach hundreds of thousands of people in a day or two.

This all takes time and effort, that’s why there are companies that will do your viral video marketing for you.They have created a business out of enhancing your company.  Why not make it easy on yourself?

In today’s time, there are a variety of advertising options for entrepreneurs.If the marketing budget is unlimited, they can easily advertise through mass media, such as television, or radio.Internet advertising can be used if the budget is smaller.  However, in each case what will really win them over is not the advertising itself, but whether or not the offer can successfully acquire one power… the power of word of mouth.

So, how does an entrepreneur with a new company acquire the power of word of mouth, due to the fact that they will have received little puclicity?Well, first they need to examine similar companies that have had a high level of success with this strategy.Think about Avon, a brand that took word of mouth to a new hights.Using them, word of mouth marketing would be the main solution that would sell their products.Why? Simply Because they would employ it in such a way that their customers would actually become their salespeople.Avon decided to sell their product through a referral-based business opportunity, instead of hiring a staff of professional marketers and salespeople.When customers liked their products, the business could actually make more sales by selling the products to family and friends as well.

Of course, MLM is just one approach to releasing the power of word of mouth.If you have no interest to incorporate that type of business structure, you could simply promote word of mouth by giving your target market consumer free products.  If the product is decent, customers will be glad to promote your company on their own… just because they thought what you gave them was that worthwhile.

However, there are methods where you can force word of mouth marketing.For example, companies offering free laptops.So, if customers sign up for the service and refer others to do the same, they will receive a free laptop.You can use the very same concept for your own company, even for those who sell a service.

In fact, some businesses are incorporating this type of incentive marketing through their payment processing.Consider Trial Pay, one payment processor that does not accept cash, (like Paypal or Google Checkout).  Instead, the customer pays by signing up for a product or service from one of their affiliates.  You could actually be one of these affiliates to guarantee you’ll get sales, or you could offer TrialPay on your website.  If you do the latter, you will truly learn the power of word of mouth.  Why?  It’s because when people see your site, they will think of something that gives away free products.Granted, the products do have a cost.For marketing purposes, this type unique arrangement gives them the appearance of being at no-charge, which is essential for buzz marketing.