There will always be a place for advertising, a paid means of increasing awareness for a company, brand, message, product or event. And there will always be word of mouth marketing: people sharing opinions, stories, and recommendations. The term word of mouth advertising shouldn’t really be used. The difference between marketing and advertising is credibility and passion. One is a paid, non-emotional method of connecting with prospects, the other is people connecting with people about something they care about (or don’t care about).
The best marketing involves users, fans, and customers helping spread the word, person to person. The best marketing interweaves passion and emotion along with the message. Whether it is a strong love, or a strong hate the message will spread, make more of an impression and inspire action (or non-action). Why? Word of mouth promotion is the opposite of paid advertising – it’s a real testimonial, honest & credible feedback, a message or experience that moved someone enough to want to tell a friend, or the world.
There is, of course, word of mouth advertising where influencers, spokespeople, and profiteers are paid (or benefit) to spread the word. It is always best to consider the source of the word of mouth advertising and determine levels of truth and honesty. Word of mouth marketing is organic and natural – word of mouth advertising is more likely to be sponsored or contrived.
Advertising which raises awareness, but lacks believability and passion: recommendations from an “influencer”, billboards, newspaper/magazine ads, brochures/flyers, tv ads, on-line sponsored ads, etc. These methods can resonate and strike an emotional chord, but at their heart they are still a paid ad trying to grab attention, raise awareness, and perhaps coerce action.
Word of mouth (WOM) marketing that boosts and encourages connections: social media (from personal networks), amazing customer service, articles/blogs/stories produced by outsiders, a unique or amazing product, vinyl custom stickers displayed by fans, etc. For businesses although word-of-mouth marketing can “just happen,” it is best to offer something worthy of talking about and give happy fans/customers the tools (like a sticker) to encourage conversations, pass-along awareness, and heartfelt referrals.
Jeff Nicholson is the founder and Creative Director at 
2 Responses
Great post! Millennials are highly influenced by word of mouth marketing as well as brand/product reviews. Stickers are an easy, inexpensive way to help increase WOM and create customer loyalty with the Millennial demographic. All businesses should be utilizing stickers as marketing tools!
Well said. Word of mouth doesn’t have the skepticism elicited from paid advertising, as we are all perpetually inundated with ads that cast a wide net, but are typically disingenuous and just playing the numbers game. There is no better way to pique someone’s interest in something when it is coming from a trusted, personal source.