Today’s customers don’t trust ads.
Instead, they turn to their inner circle of peers when they need recommendations on new products or services. Nielsen’s “Consumer Trust in Advertising” study shows that, ‘recommendations from people I know’ remains the most trusted form of brand discovery, and ‘consumer opinions posted online’ comes in at third most trusted.
But exactly how great of an influence do peer recommendations have on your business? Does mobilizing your customers, fans and evangelists to advocate on your brand’s behalf really help drive sales?
G2 Crowd – in partnership with Influitive – studied how advocate marketing can influence customer reviews. The Impact of Advocate Marketing on Product Reviews and Leads study analyzed hundreds of thousands of G2 Crowd’s site visitors and reviewers. It then compared how products perform when companies have an advocate marketing program versus when they don’t.
The study found that companies with advocate marketing programs can receive up to 17.5 times more product reviews than the average product on G2 Crowd.
Ray Lau, Customer Advocacy Marketing Manager at PowerDMS, has experienced firsthand the power of advocacy on reviews for his company:
“We had 0 reviews before, and now have over 300 in the 1.5 years we’ve had our advocate marketing program.”
– Ray Lau, Customer Advocacy Marketing Manager, PowerDMS
The study also discovered that, compared to other products, companies with advocate marketing programs:
- Receive 3.5 times more page views to their product listings
- Generate 200% more leads through the G2 Crowd website
- Achieve better G2 Crowd Grid℠ placements
- Rank higher in user satisfaction and market presence
Advocate marketing programs invite a brand’s best customers to create and share relevant content with their colleagues, social media followers, and on review sites. Advocates then receive rewards and incentives for their contributions. This helps brands sustain long-term, mutually-beneficial relationships with their biggest fans. As a result, business can call on their devoted advocates to help bolster marketing campaigns when needed.
“Since launching our campaign, we’ve generated over 200 QuickBase reviews across several review sites. These reviews are used by the marketing team in email campaigns, landing pages, eBooks, and social media campaigns, and by the sales team as validation for QuickBase during sales cycles.”
– Davin Wilfrid, Sr. Marketing Manager, Customer Advocacy, Intuit
Related Resources:
- How Increased Customer Reviews Landed QuickBase as #1 in Rapid Application
- How BMC Software Mobilized Its Advocates And Moved To The Top Of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant
- How Advocates Made Monetate the Leader on Software Review Sites
This blog was originally posted on April 7th, 2015, and was updated on February 22nd, 2018.
