According to the results of a 2014 Think With Google Study that looked at why consumers make the decisions that they do, 74% said they were most influenced by what is known as word of mouth (WOM) marketing. This means that most base their decisions on the recommendations and advice they receive from family and friends.

This advertising tool isn’t just helpful to companies looking to add customers in the business world. NFPs that want to raise awareness about their cause, and increase growth by bringing in new supporters can benefit from this type of marketing strategy. The following are a few tips on how to use WOM to build your nonprofit’s brand.

Focus on Engagement

Most nonprofits put a great deal of effort into creating useful content for their supporters. Many folks are pressed for time these days, so getting your volunteers, staff, donors and others to take the time to share your posts can be difficult.

Focus on engagement when creating content. Encourage your supporters to comment on your posts and share their thoughts in the comments section in addition to sharing on their social media channels. Tell stories that will matter, and interest your followers so that they are more likely to want to share. Remember to mix up the content, and use the appropriate type and length of content for the specific channel. This means to use photos, videos, infographics and other images to help you tell your NFP’s stories rather than relying on words alone.

Make Spreading the Word Rewarding

One way to encourage your supporters to recommend your nonprofit to others is by offering incentives for doing so. If your association has dues or other membership fees, consider offering a discount when they refer new members. You might also present awards or additional incentives, such as a gift card, to the member that has recruited the most new members during a specific time frame.

Make Sharing Easy

It’s not just that people are short on time these days; some nonprofits make it difficult to share their content. You can encourage members to share your content with their networks of friends and family by making the content easy to share. In addition to including buttons in your posts that make it easy to share content with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, there are other social media tools that make it easier to build your community of support. Create a unique hashtag to make it easier for supporters looking for related topics to find all of your content and share links to funny, interesting or otherwise engaging lines of text for your supporters to tweet.

Why Word of Mouth Matters

Word of mouth marketing is one of the few forms of advertising that is free. It increases your community of supporters by using your existing members to “vouch for” you and recommend you to their connections. This simple step builds trust, generates buzz and builds loyalty to your NFP’s brand.

If just one of your posts is recommended by enough of your members that it goes “viral”, it can rapidly bring in hundreds, or thousands, of new supporters that otherwise would have never even heard about your cause. This is why it is well worth every NFP’s time and effort to include word-of-mouth into their overall marketing strategy.