Power of Word of Mouth (WOM)

An article in the Creating Results blog has some interesting stats about the effectiveness of referrals in the Health, Travel and Financial Services Industries

• 50% of the 17 million adults who found a new primary care physician in the past year relied on recommendations from friends and relatives. More than 25% used such recommendations as their only information source.
• At AAHSA in 2008, a presenter shared statistics from Shouldice Hospital which counted 49% of new patients as referrals from past patients.=
• 34% of UK vacationers told consumer research group Mintel that they chose their destination on the basis of a face-to-face recommendation. Another 27% used online word of mouth sources such as user reviews.

The power of WOM was also illustrated by the research from Meredith’s Better Homes and Gardens reader panel that I blogged about in June.

This form of product promotion/product endorsement is not something that should be an after-thought to a marketing campaign but an integral part of it. Dick Stroud