What is peer-to-peer marketing?
Peer-to-peer marketing, also known as P2P marketing, is a type of word-of-mouth marketing where your customers recommend your business or brand to their peers. It essentially turns your brand’s stakeholders (customers, partners, employees, etc) into marketing channels.
It’s a known fact that consumers hate being sold to, and people are more likely to buy products from those they trust. These two ideas combined forms the basis for P2P marketing. With 56% of consumers being influenced by their peers while shopping, peer-to-peer marketing encourages new customers to purchase, builds long-lasting relationships, and strengthens brand loyalty.
Examples of peer-to-peer marketing
Peer-to-peer marketing allows your customers to become marketing channels. But what is successful peer-to-peer marketing? Here are two examples:
- Word-of-mouth: This is where your customers mention your business to their friends, family, or coworkers, and talk about your product or the excellent service they’ve received. For example, if a customer contacts a customer service department and their call was answered immediately, they may be pleasantly surprised as they’re often left on hold. Then, if their query was dealt with in a helpful and friendly manner, they may be impressed with the customer service they’ve received and mention this to their friend. This recommendation could then encourage the friend to purchase from the brand themselves.
- Referrals: Another type of peer-to-peer marketing is to create a referrals program. Also known as a refer-a-friend progam, this marketing method offers rewards to your existing customers for sharing your brand with their network. You then reward them with an incentive, such as loyalty points or store credit, to thank them for bringing in new customers to your business.
Why peer-to-peer marketing is important
Peer-to-peer marketing is an effective form of marketing that relies on your customers recommending your brand to their network. It’s important and effective because people trust the opinions of those closest to them, with 93% of consumers trusting friends and family over all other influences. So, if your customer recommends your brand to their friend, it’s likely that friend will look into your business and consider a purchase. This is because you are more likely to trust the opinion of someone close to you compared to a company’s own advertising, as they are less likely to gain anything from the interaction and therefore seen as more honest.
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Related Terms: Customer Community, Word-of-Mouth Marketing, User-Generated Content
Related Resources: Bury Your Competition With Peer-To-Peer Marketing From Advocates, Earn Buyers’ Trust with Peer to Peer Marketing
