Word-of-mouth marketing is more effective than ever if you include online reviews, social media chats, text messages, etc. in that category. 

Word-of-mouth used to happen when people happened to be talking with each other about other things and simply mentioned companies in passing. Now, with all the communications technologies we have it is the norm to either rant or rave about a company where normally you wouldn't have picked up the phone or visited with a neighbor to do it.

Today, a few button clicks can have people communicating about brands and businesses with virtually no effort which is why business owners should have a strategy for encouraging it.