There are lots of ways of attracting more customers to your business, and crowd marketing is one of the most popular options. The reason is that it's cheaper than the alternatives, and here is how you can use it for your business.
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What Is Crowd Marketing?
It's a type of marketing that promotes a business/good/service through recommendations. The main driving force is people willing to share their experiences with other users. The main advantage is the ability to work with an audience of interested customers.
What does a person do when searching for the best betting site New Zealand? He enters "betting site + reviews" into the search engine. Finds reviews and forums. Compares ratings and watches video reviews. He selects 1 or 2 platforms and studies further in more detail. Traditional advertising tools won't work here because the client already knows what he plans to find. According to Nielsen research, it is recommendations and reviews that have the greatest influence on the decision.
In fact, you're promoting a product through "brand advocates." These are customers who liked the company and are willing to tell you about it. Customers who have heard something good about the company. Consumers who haven't tried the product but really want it. According to BrightLocal statistics, 76% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust the words of family and friends.
Crowd marketing is often confused with influencer marketing (working with bloggers), but its functionality is different. After all, recommendations are made not only by opinion leaders but also by ordinary people. It combines content creation and search engine optimization. Reputation management to order allows you to get recommendations on dozens of sites. There are several opportunities at once:
- Increase loyalty through reviews and mentions.
- Increase organic reach.
- Get custom links from topical donors.
- Attract new audiences who are interested in the query.
- Increase rankings through positive feedback.
- Get loyal, and therefore, cheap leads.
- Increase ranking in the top of search results for product and industry queries.
Ways of Crowd Marketing
Online recommendations adapt to the platforms on which they are posted. They need to respond to user queries, be clear and credible.
Answers on Question-answer Sites
Users' topical questions are tracked, then influencers answer them and share their experiences. The answers contain informational benefit, personal experience and recommendation.
Participation in Forum Discussions
This is relevant to buyers of real estate, cars and children's goods. In all categories where people are guided by other people's experience and expertise. Users trust experienced customers who make great reviews and objectively describe the product. Agents of influence should have high ratings and be active participants in communities.
Seeding Discussions on Review Platforms
These are sites where customers share purchase details and recommend products. From the reviews and evaluations form the rating, which directly affects the ranking of the product. Popular testimonials are well indexed by search engines and are traditionally at the top of the search for the name of the organization. You need to join positive reviews regularly to block out the negativity from aggressive authors.
Reviews on Marketplaces
On such platforms, the path from acquaintance with the product to purchase is short and fast. Therefore, buyers need to be motivated to leave positive reviews so that the product card comes out at the top. Remind them by email, receipts, social media, text messages, chatbots, and business cards.
UGC (User Generated Content)
The main platform is social networks. You can attract both regular users and micro-influencers. They don't have huge audiences, but the level of reader engagement is much higher. The advantage of this approach is that the publication does not look advertising.