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As a result of this industry shift, online reviews have become a primary marketing tool. Between January and November 2015, Trustpilot (my employer) measured a 25-percent increase in customer content posted to its online review community — 5.8 million reviews in total. In 2016, if this trend continues as expected, more than eight million reviews will be published, and millions of new brand impressions will be made. With these numbers in mind, below are three ways your brand can harness the voice of its customers and start interactive conversations with its audience:...
User reviews have been proven to be a sales driver, through consumers taking time to read third-party reviews from the likes of Trip Advisor and Open Table.
A recent Censuswide survey of 1,000 UK consumers, commissioned by sales promotions experts Opia, found that 77% would be persuaded to make a purchase after reading a positive review, whilst 61% said they would consider pulling out of a purchase if the reviews weren’t good.
As online reviews grow as a reliable source for consumers, more people are choosing to engage directly with the process, with 52% following up their purchase by posting a review.The survey also showed that 61% of consumers decided to leave a review in order to share the great experience they had with a brand, retailer or service provider....
Each time consumers glance at an online review and then click the item in question into their shopping carts, we see the transformative powers of e-commerce reviews—namely, how first-person insights and recommendations dramatically influence purchasing decisions.
At the same time, we also observe another lasting effect of e-commerce reviews—the profound impact they've had on how today's consumers actually shop.
At Influence Central, we conducted a research study of 500+ women consumers that looked at how online product reviews influence shopping habits, whether consumers trust online reviews, and how recommendations affect purchasing decisions....
The in-app feedback provider recently asked 350 smartphone owners in the US about the “minimum star rating they’d accept in order for them to consider downloading an app.” Roughly 60 percent of respondents said that they “usually or always check ratings before downloading an app.”
According to the survey, only 15 percent would consider apps with a two-star average rating. One more star, and half the respondents would potentially download the app. An impressive 96 percent said they would install four-star apps. This makes logical sense and parallels the way consumers react to product and service ratings in other categories....
Few would dispute the impact of positive brand reviews and ratings as a word of mouth marketing tool. What may surprise you is just how important those ratings are to consumers and how much time must pass before a bad review or rating no longer matters.
New data from BrightLocal puts the spotlight on the importance of positive brand reviews and ratings as it pertains to sales. In fact, only 8% of survey respondents in 2015 said they don’t consider reviews and ratings when making buying decisions, down from 12% in 2014 and 29% in 2010. It’s downright dangerous for any marketer to disregard bad reviews, customer complaints left on social networks and poor ratings and the negative impact they might have on future sales.
Do Brand Reviews and Ratings Really Matter to Word of Mouth Marketing?
Yes, brand reviews and those 5 star ratings really matter. In the survey, 44% of consumers said a brand had to have a 4 star rating or better (out of 5 stars possible). And 94% of consumers said they would buy from a business with a four star or better rating. Conversely, only 13% said they would even consider a business that had a 1 or 2-star rating....
We asked participants, “When making a major purchase such as an appliance, a smart phone, or even a car, how important are online reviews in your decision-making?”
The results revealed that online reviews impact 67.7% of respondents' purchasing decisions. More than half of the respondents (54.7%) admitted that online reviews are fairly, very, or absolutely an important part of their decision-making process.
Takeaway: Companies need to take reviews seriously. Restaurant review stories receive all the press, but most companies will eventually have pages from review sites ranking for their names. Building a strong base of positive reviews now will help protect against any negative reviews down the road.
When do negative reviews cost your business customers?
Our research also uncovered that businesses risk losing as many as 22% of customers when just one negative article is found by users considering buying their product. If three negative articles pop up in a search query, the potential for lost customers increases to 59.2%. Have four or more negative articles about your company or product appearing in Google search results? You’re likely to lose 70% of potential customers....
When it comes to American consumerism, a 2015 study by Mintel says: Americans not only use the internet to stay connected to work, family and friends, but 69 percent seek out advice and opinions on goods and services before purchasing. Of those who seek out advice, shoppers are equally likely to visit user review sites or independent review sites before making a purchase (70 percent), while 57 percent use social media networks for recommendations.
Yet even though so many of us put stock in what our digital friends tell us, it isn’t always so cut and dry....
With no further ado, check out this jam-packed infographic from TheShelf.com. It’s full of brilliant stats that will help you seize the importance of influencer marketing. Once you’ve read everything, start to identify influencers in your industry and get started!...
What inspires customers to recommend a brand on their personal social media profiles? What pushes them to natural, positive, and organic conversation – about you? These are the questions that drove researchers to survey “more than 24,000 social media-connected consumers.”
The infographic below, which includes many of their findings, will help any marketer or brand manager better understand the power of recommendations on social media. Learn how to tailor your influencer and advocacy marketing with the help of the data below....
Why Is Social Validation Important to Marketers?
The idea of social validation is important because self-propagating strategies are no longer as effective as they once were. People have grown to distrust brands, especially large corporations, and instead look to peer reviews and peer actions above any other means of justification. Cultivating social validation in a broad group can sharply increase the trust people have in your brand, and can make them far more comfortable doing business with you.
There are several reasons why social validation has such a powerful effect for businesses....
Word-of-mouth (WOM) sharing is a fascinating topic. Why people share and what people share are two complex questions marketers tirelessly try to get answers for.
Thanks to today’s featured infographic created by the customer referral program software RefferalCandy, we now have some insight into the conundrum that is WOM sharing. According to the infographic, consumers share…
Why do you read the updates you read?
Why do you browse the products you browse?
There are hidden motivations behind a lot of the actions we take online, especially so with social media. The influence of friends and family has a big impact on what we click, view, share, and like.
Researchers have discovered some specifics behind why friends impact us the way they do. These insights cover the way we interact and reciprocate, the time we spend online, and the buying decisions we make. It’sfascinating to learn, and helpful for marketers to know, too....
Becoming a truly buzzworthy company isn’t easy. But if you can pull it off, you’ll create a competitive advantage that will carry you through good times and bad. The key ingredients: 1. Sell amazing stuff
2. Bake it into your company
3. Create a movement.
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User reviews are a proven sales driver, a survey has revealed, so what are people really searching for and what decisions does this lead to?
Well, this infographic from PeopleClaim explains exactly how user reviews affect consumers’ decision-making when buying a product.
This infographic shows: - If an issue is handled quickly, 95% of customers will return - 70% consult reviews before purchase - Reviews drive higher loyalty and purchase satisfaction....
Instagram has been crowned the most effective social marketing tool, overtaking Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The site delivers more sales and consumer actions than other other social platform, according to a study which documented the 15 biggest biggest influencers on consumer behaviour.
Top 15 Biggest Influencers on Consumer Behaviour 1. Friends 2. Family 3. Partner 4. Customer reviews 5. Television 6. Instagram 7. Facebook 8. An advert 9. Colleagues 10. Newspapers & magazines 11. YouTube 12. Twitter 13. Radio 14. Celebrities 15. Blogs
Millennials were found to be the group most responsive to posts on the image sharing app, with 68 per cent of 18-24 year-olds saying they more likely to purchase an item if someone they followed on Instagram shared it. 54 per cent of respondents said they bought products after spotting them on the channel....
I recently read an interesting study posted by Myles Anderson on Search Engine Land that said 88% of consumers who read online product reviews trust the reviews as much as personal recommendations. The important caveat to this statistic, as noted by Myles, is that there must be multiple reviews on a product for this to apply, and those reviews must appear authentic.
Amazon’s recent lawsuit against fake reviewers throws this phenomenon into sharp relief. The company is targeting over 1,000 fake reviewers who have posted fraudulent reviews in exchange for financial compensation. Despite Amazon’s use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to combat fake reviews, there is still a growing market for writers willing to post fake positive (or negative) reviews on the site. Amazon has struggled with this challenge for years now, and deserves credit for working to build the trust of customers and prospective buyers.
This kind of trust issue can have serious financial implications for big brands. Canadian wireless network operator Bell was recently issued a fine of $1.25 million when it came to light that Bell staffers were writing and posting fake reviews on app download sites.
All these stories get me thinking. In the world of online product reviews, trust is key. Whose opinions do buyers actually trust? More importantly, whose opinions should they trust?...
For well over a decade, consumers have increasingly turned to online review sites to vet purchase decisions before they buy. Take a look at the top trafficked sites on the web, and it’s no shock to see consumer review sites by the likes of Amazon and Yelp both squarely in the top ten.
In fact, reading reviews prior to purchasing has become so ingrained in American consumption habits, 55 percent of all shoppers say online reviews influence where and how they spend their hard-earned cash.
Why then, when every person on the street checks a review site before buying a coffee, is it such a surprise to the software industry that consumer reviews actually matter in their space? In an industry generally considered “innovative,” product reviews are a shockingly late-adoption....
Google processed over 1 trillion search queries in 2014. As Google Search continues to further integrate into our normal daily activities, those search results become increasingly important, especially when individuals are searching for information about a company or product.
To better understand just how much of an impact Google has on an individual’s purchasing decisions, we set up a research study with a group of 1,000 consumers through Google Consumer Surveys. The study investigates how individuals interact with Google and other major sites during the buying process....
We all know that in the past decade digital has been the big story in the marketing world, with traditional techniques either being side-lined or used alongside new technologies, such as social media.
To an extent, some of the more traditional marketing practices have transferred onto online platforms – for example, email newsletters instead of paper ones, and advertising on websites instead of magazines.
One area which seems to work better online than offline is reviewing. Whilst previously reviews could be seen in dedicated magazines or marketing literature, thanks to sites such as Trip Advisor and Amazon, reviews can now be written and published instantly for the world to see....
Greg Daniel AM, national practice leader of KPMG SR7, discusses how social media has changed the way people respond to advertising and PR.
In 1997, direct marketing guru Lester Wunderman talked about a new definition of brand: “It represents a cluster of consumer needs. It is each customer who is becoming a brand. I am a brand – and each of you is a brand.”
At that time, he said there were 260 million individual people brands in the US alone. More than 15 years later, the rise of social media has seen Wunderman’s prediction become a reality – in ways no-one expected.
This new reality represents the biggest single opportunity the PR industry has ever had – at the expense of advertising.
According to Nielsen, only 16% of people are influenced by advertising they see on the Internet while 84% are influenced by what people tell them on social media. While the growth in online advertising is dramatic – it is still advertising!...
What matters most about WoM is the social system, the people involved and their desire to interact about something. Clearly endogenous or self-generating WoM is much more powerful than superficial marketing generated WoM that organisations initiate. This reflects the deep seated human characteristic of talking to each other about a topic which nourishes the interactions with other people.
People are highly motivated to share their passions and obsessions with others. We are drawn to identify with a cause. People will chat whatever you do, and sometimes it will be about you, but more often it won’t be. The real reason for WoM is the social interactions around the topic. The subject of discussion provides the oxygen to sustain interactions rather than the purpose of our conversations....
Bill Tancer: One thing I look for as an analyst and an author is inefficiency. There’s a large gap between the importance that reviews play in online commerce and the amount of attention that online marketers give the review “channel.” According to the latest research over 80% of all consumers consult online reviews before making purchase decisions. All research points to the fact that the mere existence of online reviews on purchase pages increases conversion. In addition to that, online reviews are the intersection of search and local content. For all these reasons online marketers and search marketers should pay more attention to the online review world....
Did you know that more than 4 out of 5 consumers value word of mouth recommendations over all other sources? Amazing isn’t it? The power of a trusted opinion!Local influencers are people Small Businesses should target.
This recent blog talks about the importance of connecting with local influencers to increase your word of mouth. There are 2 data points are worth considering: - Consumer-to-consumer word of mouth generates more than double the sales of paid advertising (Source: McKinsey) - 84% of consumers say they trust word of mouth recommendations from friends and family above all other sources of advertising. (Source: Nielsen)...
You may be surprised to learn that only 7 percent of word-of-mouth communication happens online. (WoM) is information passed between a non-commercial communicator and a receiver concerning a brand, product or service.
Seven percent.This is a pretty shocking statistic, and I didn’t want tobelieve it. So I looked through the footnotes of Wharton Professor Jonah Berger’s book Contagious: Why Things Catch On, and looked into the study that this statistic comes from. It turns out that it was really well-constructed research.
If this is true, how do PR practitioners navigate from their brave new digital world back to the grassroots? How do we compel our audience to talk about our products, services and people? How do we create buzz? This is what I want to explore in this post....
We are thrilled when we get positive reviews – it’s a reaffirmation that the investment we’ve made in the customer’s experience has been worthwhile. But correspondingly when we get negative reviews, that’s why it can feel so personally wounding.
Yet to truly exploit reviews, it is essential to look at all of them – whether they’re good or bad. To do this, we need to understand shopping psychology, to see the reviews through our customers’ eyes so we can strategize accordingly....
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Columnist Jordan Garner discusses the power of reviews and other user-generated content in fostering transparent two-way relationships between brands and customers.
Columnist Jordan Garner discusses the power of reviews and other user-generated content in fostering transparent two-way relationships between brands and customers.