As internet usage grows and as more and more people become internet savvy, we see a continued rise in online sales and advertising. The internet is a great place to showcase your services or products, but statistics show that word-of-mouth is still one of the best marketing tools to expose your products or services and, more importantly, create a sale.

There are various low-cost ways to market your service or product by word of mouth. Here are a few stats to help you create a strong word-of-mouth campaign.

• The average consumer mentions specific brands over 90 times per week in conversations with friends, family, and co-workers. (John Moore, WOMMA, 2010)

• 90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users. (Econsultancy, July 2009)

• Online user reviews have the biggest influence on consumer electronics purchases, with 43.7 percent of purchases affected by word of mouth. (BIGresearch, December 2009)

A March 2009 study by Knowledge Networks found that between 10% and 24% of US social media users turned to social networks when making purchase decisions about various categories of products and services. (eMarketer, October 2009)

Facebook, blogs, Twitter and customer reviews are considered the most effective tactics for mobilizing consumers to talk up products online. (Etailing survey of 117 companies, September 2009)