Network to Drive Revenue
Prepare your site for an explosion in online word-of-mouth sales
February 2006 By Ken Burke
|
There are millions of people out there who not only love to shop, but love to talk about the things they buy. They’re talking online through social networks and online product reviews, providing marketers with a huge opportunity to drive sales.
At first, a consumer’s desire to spread his or her opinions across the electronic universe seems very narcissistic. After all, who cares what BillyBob1634 in Sheboygan thinks about the latest iPod?
Actually, millions of his online shopping peers do. They care a lot. They care more about his opinion than they care about yours. They’ve become numb to TV commercials, ads and e-mails, and they’re jaded by marketers’ promises. They know that they will discover the real truth about a product the hard way—after they buy. So nowadays, before clicking “Buy,” they muster the collective wisdom of their online social network, put their purchase up for a vote, and let the majority rule.
Drive Sales Through Online Social Networks
Savvy marketers are playing along in the social network game to get the world talking about their products and services. They’re using a number of viral marketing tools on their own sites and on sites specifically built for social network marketing to attract new buyers and spread the word about their products.
An online social network is a loose affiliation of people who interact through Web sites. The Web enables any person to build a vast number of relationships with others, regardless of geographical distance. It also makes it possible for people with similar interests to find each other and to contribute their comments and ideas in diverse forums. It’s the number and diversity of possible relationships that is the key to online social network marketing.
Network Within Your Own Site
At their most basic, online social networks may grow around tell-a-friend and wishlist features, which allow people to communicate product information to other individuals they know. However, everyone’s product knowledge and personal information is kept from the outside world, and strangers can’t interact with them or benefit from their experience.
Product ratings and reviews collect the buying experience of your community of shoppers and place it on your product page to support sales. The communication is one-way, but it does get your shoppers listening to each other. Rating systems invite users to rate products on a simple scale, usually from one to five stars. Product reviews permit the writing of extended comments. Sharper Image (www.sharperimage.com) and Norm Thompson (www.normthompson.com) both provide good examples of simple product reviews.
As positive a feature as product reviews are, in their simplest form they only support sales of the reviewed product. Amazon.com takes the product review paradigm further and adds some significant twists that introduce shoppers to new products. Each review includes a link to the reviewer’s other product reviews, and each review has its own “Add to Cart” button. This technique builds up a community of independent reviewers whose opinions will drive additional sales to Amazon and its partners as time passes.
Netflix (www.netflix.com), a pioneer in online DVD rental, goes further still and actively seeks to hook up individuals with similar tastes. Netflix “Friends” enables site users to create a list of other users with whom they can share comments about movies, ask for recommendations and reviews from others, as well as control who can access the information they post. Imagine the effect of hundreds and thousands of users all building connections with each other and promoting the product on their own. According to a January 2005 Internet Retailer article titled, “Where Everyone Becomes An Advertiser,” the Friends network has been growing by about 15 percent per day.
Some statistics from Europe reveal a good deal about the enthusiasm shown toward reviews of all kinds. According to the June/July 2005 edition of online newsletter Trendwatching.com (www.trendwatching.com/trends/twinsumer.htm), “Forrester Research found that in Europe, more than 50 percent of online consumer electronics buyers have checked product reviews from other customers, and that 30 percent of buyers have actually bought a product online based on someone else’s online rating. Fifteen percent have written a review themselves.”
Marketing Via Social Networking Sites
Web sites devoted to social networking are evolving to address the public’s thirst for product knowledge. The key is that they enable people with similar interests and values to find each other. Users actively seek out forums where their favorite topics are discussed. Many systems use collaborative filtering to match people with reviewers who have similar profiles, helping to ensure that each shopper reads reviews relevant to his interests.
Yub.com (www.yub.com), a property of Buy.com (www.buy.com), is a true marketing-oriented social networking site and an exciting prototype for this newest marketing channel. Its sole purpose is to gather consumers and get them talking about the products they buy, love and hate. And of course, it provides a convenient buy button.
Yub.com actually provides a monetary incentive for people to post their reviews. Any time a shopper buys something through a review, both the reviewer and the buyer get a coupon for a discount on future purchases. Coupons typically are for a discount between 2 percent to 5 percent. This directly drives sales to Buy.com partner stores, promotes customer loyalty and encourages further reviews.
Yub.com enables people to build their own online profiles, as do other social networking sites, with their basic demographic information. They can post news and comments about special products and deals they have discovered, driving others to buy and generating more discounts for themselves. Many users solicit product recommendations from others.
Though not true social networking sites, CNET Reviews (reviews.cnet.com) and Epinions.com (www.epinions.com) are morphing into such by adding tools that help users interact with each other. Their strength is in soliciting product reviews and organizing them online for easy browsing. Individual consumers can post reviews and, as with Amazon, the sites provide easy purchasing from the review page. Both sites provide reviewer profiles and enable other shoppers to comment on posted reviews.
Marketing sites like these show great value for niche marketers. They can reach people who actively search for information on niche products, introducing new buyers to niche specialists.
Prep for Success
In the long run, online social network marketing will affect virtually every online marketer. There was a time when BillyBob could tell a few friends about a great deal he got, but now his online alter-ego can tell millions. With this in mind, here are some tips to help you prepare for the inevitable influence of social network marketing.
* Scan shopping-oriented network sites. See what people talk about. See what they say about products related to yours. If your product categories show up on these sites, think about how you can capture these potential sales.
* Polish your product presentation. Make sure your product images are big and clear, and that the product page tells the whole story. Your product presentation and brand have to stand on their own, because someone coming directly to your product page from another site will not necessarily know anything else about your business.
* Find out what shoppers like and dislike about your products and services, through surveys and polls on your own site, and by looking for your products and company on networking sites. Act quickly to capitalize on the good and to remediate the bad.
* Build tools into your site that involve customers with your business, e.g., wishlists, tell-a-friend, customer comments, a star-based rating system, simple reviews.
* Consider an advanced review system, with profiles for reviewers and links to product detail pages.
* Build out your customer service section. Develop and post a comprehensive return policy, spell out your shipping terms and put a strict privacy policy in place. Concentrate on great customer service to avoid negative comments from the network.
* Join a few prominent marketing-oriented network sites as a partner to encourage visits and reviews from the network’s consumer members.
* If you’re a niche marketer, identify networking sites that tend to focus on areas related to your business.
A final word of caution: Reviewers can be ruthless. Poor customer service or product support are sure to generate a thumbs down from more than one reviewer. As these networking sites grow in popularity, merchants who do not measure up are sure to feel it.
Ken Burke is founder and CEO of MarketLive, an e-commerce technology and development company based in Petaluma, Calif. He can be reached at (707) 773-3434 or by e-mail at ken@mmlive.com.
At first, a consumer’s desire to spread his or her opinions across the electronic universe seems very narcissistic. After all, who cares what BillyBob1634 in Sheboygan thinks about the latest iPod?
Actually, millions of his online shopping peers do. They care a lot. They care more about his opinion than they care about yours. They’ve become numb to TV commercials, ads and e-mails, and they’re jaded by marketers’ promises. They know that they will discover the real truth about a product the hard way—after they buy. So nowadays, before clicking “Buy,” they muster the collective wisdom of their online social network, put their purchase up for a vote, and let the majority rule.
Drive Sales Through Online Social Networks
Savvy marketers are playing along in the social network game to get the world talking about their products and services. They’re using a number of viral marketing tools on their own sites and on sites specifically built for social network marketing to attract new buyers and spread the word about their products.
An online social network is a loose affiliation of people who interact through Web sites. The Web enables any person to build a vast number of relationships with others, regardless of geographical distance. It also makes it possible for people with similar interests to find each other and to contribute their comments and ideas in diverse forums. It’s the number and diversity of possible relationships that is the key to online social network marketing.
Network Within Your Own Site
At their most basic, online social networks may grow around tell-a-friend and wishlist features, which allow people to communicate product information to other individuals they know. However, everyone’s product knowledge and personal information is kept from the outside world, and strangers can’t interact with them or benefit from their experience.
Product ratings and reviews collect the buying experience of your community of shoppers and place it on your product page to support sales. The communication is one-way, but it does get your shoppers listening to each other. Rating systems invite users to rate products on a simple scale, usually from one to five stars. Product reviews permit the writing of extended comments. Sharper Image (www.sharperimage.com) and Norm Thompson (www.normthompson.com) both provide good examples of simple product reviews.
As positive a feature as product reviews are, in their simplest form they only support sales of the reviewed product. Amazon.com takes the product review paradigm further and adds some significant twists that introduce shoppers to new products. Each review includes a link to the reviewer’s other product reviews, and each review has its own “Add to Cart” button. This technique builds up a community of independent reviewers whose opinions will drive additional sales to Amazon and its partners as time passes.
Netflix (www.netflix.com), a pioneer in online DVD rental, goes further still and actively seeks to hook up individuals with similar tastes. Netflix “Friends” enables site users to create a list of other users with whom they can share comments about movies, ask for recommendations and reviews from others, as well as control who can access the information they post. Imagine the effect of hundreds and thousands of users all building connections with each other and promoting the product on their own. According to a January 2005 Internet Retailer article titled, “Where Everyone Becomes An Advertiser,” the Friends network has been growing by about 15 percent per day.
Some statistics from Europe reveal a good deal about the enthusiasm shown toward reviews of all kinds. According to the June/July 2005 edition of online newsletter Trendwatching.com (www.trendwatching.com/trends/twinsumer.htm), “Forrester Research found that in Europe, more than 50 percent of online consumer electronics buyers have checked product reviews from other customers, and that 30 percent of buyers have actually bought a product online based on someone else’s online rating. Fifteen percent have written a review themselves.”
Marketing Via Social Networking Sites
Web sites devoted to social networking are evolving to address the public’s thirst for product knowledge. The key is that they enable people with similar interests and values to find each other. Users actively seek out forums where their favorite topics are discussed. Many systems use collaborative filtering to match people with reviewers who have similar profiles, helping to ensure that each shopper reads reviews relevant to his interests.
Yub.com (www.yub.com), a property of Buy.com (www.buy.com), is a true marketing-oriented social networking site and an exciting prototype for this newest marketing channel. Its sole purpose is to gather consumers and get them talking about the products they buy, love and hate. And of course, it provides a convenient buy button.
Yub.com actually provides a monetary incentive for people to post their reviews. Any time a shopper buys something through a review, both the reviewer and the buyer get a coupon for a discount on future purchases. Coupons typically are for a discount between 2 percent to 5 percent. This directly drives sales to Buy.com partner stores, promotes customer loyalty and encourages further reviews.
Yub.com enables people to build their own online profiles, as do other social networking sites, with their basic demographic information. They can post news and comments about special products and deals they have discovered, driving others to buy and generating more discounts for themselves. Many users solicit product recommendations from others.
Though not true social networking sites, CNET Reviews (reviews.cnet.com) and Epinions.com (www.epinions.com) are morphing into such by adding tools that help users interact with each other. Their strength is in soliciting product reviews and organizing them online for easy browsing. Individual consumers can post reviews and, as with Amazon, the sites provide easy purchasing from the review page. Both sites provide reviewer profiles and enable other shoppers to comment on posted reviews.
Marketing sites like these show great value for niche marketers. They can reach people who actively search for information on niche products, introducing new buyers to niche specialists.
Prep for Success
In the long run, online social network marketing will affect virtually every online marketer. There was a time when BillyBob could tell a few friends about a great deal he got, but now his online alter-ego can tell millions. With this in mind, here are some tips to help you prepare for the inevitable influence of social network marketing.
* Scan shopping-oriented network sites. See what people talk about. See what they say about products related to yours. If your product categories show up on these sites, think about how you can capture these potential sales.
* Polish your product presentation. Make sure your product images are big and clear, and that the product page tells the whole story. Your product presentation and brand have to stand on their own, because someone coming directly to your product page from another site will not necessarily know anything else about your business.
* Find out what shoppers like and dislike about your products and services, through surveys and polls on your own site, and by looking for your products and company on networking sites. Act quickly to capitalize on the good and to remediate the bad.
* Build tools into your site that involve customers with your business, e.g., wishlists, tell-a-friend, customer comments, a star-based rating system, simple reviews.
* Consider an advanced review system, with profiles for reviewers and links to product detail pages.
* Build out your customer service section. Develop and post a comprehensive return policy, spell out your shipping terms and put a strict privacy policy in place. Concentrate on great customer service to avoid negative comments from the network.
* Join a few prominent marketing-oriented network sites as a partner to encourage visits and reviews from the network’s consumer members.
* If you’re a niche marketer, identify networking sites that tend to focus on areas related to your business.
A final word of caution: Reviewers can be ruthless. Poor customer service or product support are sure to generate a thumbs down from more than one reviewer. As these networking sites grow in popularity, merchants who do not measure up are sure to feel it.
Ken Burke is founder and CEO of MarketLive, an e-commerce technology and development company based in Petaluma, Calif. He can be reached at (707) 773-3434 or by e-mail at ken@mmlive.com.
Companies Mentioned:
 |
|
Social Media ROI
Email Marketing that Works (2nd Edition)