AUSTIN, Texas - (Business Wire) Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today released a new whitepaper, “Participation Chains Connect Customers to Your Brand.” Co-authored by Bazaarvoice CMO Sam Decker and community building expert Ze Frank, the new whitepaper introduces brands to a whole new way of marketing that cultivates user involvement so that each action builds upon the one before, creating value along the way. This “participation chain” of user engagement increases the user’s relationship with a brand and leaves behind a trail of content which draws in other customers. By lengthening and deepening customers’ participation on a brand site, participation chains improve brand opinion, increase sales, and make customers more likely to recommend a brand to their friends. The full whitepaper is available here.
“Harvard marketing researcher Michael I. Norton has found that labor undertaken in association with a brand—such as self-assembly of Ikea furniture or building a teddy at Build-a-Bear—increases people’s positive feelings about the results of that labor,” said Frank. “Participation chains allow marketers to take these findings online to engage customers in the brand experience in a way that creates value for themselves and others. By creating a path for people to become invested in their brand experience, participation chains create a ripple effect of value that drives brand affinity, sales, and loyalty, while reducing return rates and hesitation.”
Combining academic studies with real world examples, Decker and Frank make a case for all site owners to understand the implications of the participation chain. Marketers also benefit from detailed insight into the steps to create a highly effective participation chain, including how to:
- Pinpoint customers’ motivation for participation: People’s original motivations for contributing are to help others (90%, according to a Keller Fay and Bazaarvoice study) or to help the brand (80%). Their motivations for further participation can include these factors, as well as their need for self-expression, standing out, expressing their creativity, gaining “ego capital” or simply looking good in front of their friends. Marketers who understand their customers’ motivations can pinpoint and present new opportunities to fulfill these needs, building longer chains of participation.
- Identify the best links in the participation chain: After an initial act of participation (posting a picture, writing a review), marketers can lead the person to another act, and to another and so on. The links in online participation chains can take a variety of forms. Some opportunities for participation are effectively private, or shared among a small group of people. Examples include building wishlists, creating gift registries, sending a friend an e-mail, or filling out a survey. Other links are more public, such as posting a publicly-viewable photo, writing a product review, or answering a question posted by another visitor to the web site.
- Map the participation chain to measurable business goals: Brand platforms and websites represent a world with many possibilities, so marketers need to provide clear paths so that users can achieve specific goals defined by the marketer. Once those goals are achieved, a new goal should be presented, leading the user forward. Marketers also need to be constantly aware of participation chain “dead ends.” For example, when a person uploads a picture, rather than a dead-end “success” notification, the site should suggest that he share the picture with his friends, post the picture to Facebook, or look at other people’s pictures.
“In the current explosion of social interactions, it’s time to rethink marketing assets and to compete on influencers and customer conversations,” said Decker. “There is an exponential impact from your customers’ engagement and influence. Their participation is the key to unlocking value. The participation chain concept addresses one of the key considerations involved in conversation marketing – once you begin a dialogue with your potential customer, how do you keep it going and make the value exchange deeper and more meaningful? Begin by asking for participation, even if it’s only the online equivalent of ‘How are you feeling this evening?’ A seemingly-banal response like ‘fine’ could be the first link in a strong and lengthy participation chain.”
About the Authors
Bazaarvoice CMO Sam Decker is a recognized expert in eCommerce, word of mouth marketing, and direct marketing. He frequently speaks at marketing and eCommerce events and authors the award-winning marketing blog at www.deckermarketing.com. Prior to Bazaarvoice, Decker helped build Dell.com into the largest consumer eCommerce site, established their global best practices in merchandising, analytics, product management, and operations, and pioneered Dell’s customer-centricity and customer segmentation strategies. He has led marketing at B2C and B2B startups, helped develop loyalty marketing strategies for Apple and Adobe, and written two marketing books. He serves on the Board of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.
Ze Frank (pronounced “Zay”), a designer, speaker and popular video blogger, brings an entertaining and insightful look at how technology and creativity intersect, especially in web design, marketing and new forms of media. He rose to Internet fame in 2001 with his viral video “How to Dance Properly,” and has been making online comedy and web toys ever since. His most recent hit, “The Show with Ze Frank,” drew press, praise, and thousands of viewers daily during its year-long run ending March 2007. The podcast earned him a Vloggie at the inaugural 2006 award show and a Web Award at SXSW 2007. His most brilliant move: calling on fans to write the show for him. Using collaborative tools, online viewers collectively put words in his mouth (and props in his lap); he faithfully performed this wiki-comedy each week for his “Fabuloso Friday” show.
About Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice’s Software as a Service (SaaS) social commerce solutions have served more than 70 billion pieces of customer-generated content on more than 650 brand web sites like Best Buy, Costco, Dell, Macy’s, Overstock, P&G, Panasonic, QVC, and USAA in 36 countries. The company connects organizations to their influencers through a unique network that reaches hundreds of millions of consumers around the globe, enabling authentic customer-powered marketing. Through syndication, analytics, partnerships, and consulting, Bazaarvoice brings the voice of the customer to the center of their clients’ business strategy, proving “social” can drive measured revenue growth and cost savings for manufacturing, retail, travel, and financial services companies. Headquartered in Austin, the company has offices in London, Paris, and Singapore. For more information and access to client success stories, visit www.bazaarvoice.com, read the blog at www.bazaarblog.com, and follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bazaarvoice.
for Bazaarvoice: ?Renee Newby, 757-651-6554 ?renee@bradypr.com