Word of Mouth and User Generated Content @ Scale

(marketingmagazine.com.my) – By: Asit Gupta

Despite the explosion of paid Influencer Marketing, Word of Mouth (WOM) recommendations of friends, family and colleagues is the most trusted touch point, according to the Nielsen Global Trust study. 92% of consumers trust it completely

This form of authentic WOM and User Generated Content (UGC) has become even more powerful now that Facebook has changed its algorithm to prioritise content posted by the friends and family, over publisher and brand content

However 99% of media spend is still on Brand Content and Paid media. The opportunity to improve Marketing ROI by adding User Content (UGC) and Word of mouth (WOM), to the mix is crystal clear.

Here is a simple 5 step guide on how to generate and measure UGC & WOM .

1. INVEST IN FINDING YOUR SATISFIED USERS AND POTENTIAL ADVOCATES
Most brands tend to chase new users and spend little time engaging existing users, who are easily identifiable nowadays.

Just asking 1 simple question of your users, “How likely are you to recommend this product or service to a friend” is a proven way to identify potential Advocates

2. ENGAGE POTENTIAL ADVOCATES IN A STRUCTURED MANNER, USING A PLATFORM
Engaging potential advocates properly is critical to getting high quality UGC and authentic WOM.

While a user may be satisfied, he or she may not know all key features, which are delivering that satisfaction.

By making them aware of this, a brand can not only make the user feel happier about his purchase decision but also get higher quality reviews and stronger recommendations.

Such structured engagement with users requires a platform so that engagement and profiling data can be captured and the results can be optimized.

Journy, a platform created by Advocacy, is one of the few proven offerings in the market, custom designed for such engagement.

Over 500,000 users have been engaged and over 5mn peer recommendations have been created in over 12+ countries covering US, Europe and Asia.

In Malaysia, Journy has been used by 30+ brands across 10+ categories. More details can be found at www.journy.global

3. MAKE IT AN ALWAYS ON ENGAGEMENT AND NOT A ONE OFF CAMPAIGN
The process of identifying satisfied users and engaging them should be an on going one and not a 1 off campaign to get a few testimonials.

New consumers are buying brands every day, so brands should be getting new advocates everyday.

When a prospect sees two of his friends advocating the same brand albeit in their own words, it creates far stronger purchase intent than watching the same TV ad two times.

4. WORK WITH SPECIALIST ORGANIZATIONS, AND NOT TRADITIONAL AGENCIES
Most brands are using social agencies or PR agencies for their WOM & UGC efforts. It is not surprising that the results are sub-optimal. The DNA of a PR agency is very different from specialist companies…..

To read the full article get your hands on MARKETING Magazine’s September-October 2016 issue.

Asit Gupta is the CEO and co-founder of Advocacy. You can reach him at [email protected]