A new metric: How word of mouth translates into sales

Word of mouth can serve as a leading indicator for short-term sales, and thus represents a powerful consideration for marketers.

Marketers now can attach a tangible sales value to those digital and real-life moments when people talk about their brands.

“Nineteen percent of next week’s sales are driven by conversations,” Koen Pauwels, a professor of marketing at Northeastern University, told delegates at the 2018 CONSUMERxSCIENCE conference held by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) in New York.

“Ten percent of your next week’s sales can be explained by offline conversations, and about 9% by online conversations.”

Koen Pauwels, professor of marketing, Northeastern University

Such figures emerged from a study conducted by Pauwels in partnership with Engagement Labs, a research firm that...

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