User-Generated Content: Influencing the Influencers Rich Beattie Executive Digital Editor, Travel + Leisure
Smelly, Hot, Shabby & Dirty. Otherwise OK Go and sleep on the subway, it s cleaner Perfect for a six inch tall Indiana Jones The neighborhood is filled with aggressive mimes, including one sitting on a toilet bowl (how creative).
75 million reviews 60 contributions per minute 60 million+ monthly uniques Market cap of $6 billion 53% Travelers who will not book a hotel that does not have any reviews on TripAdvisor. * * Source: PhoCusWright
UGC: DEFINITION FOR THIS PRESENTATION The production of non-social-media-based reviews, ratings, and comments by the general public rather than by paid professionals and experts in the field.
WHY DO WE CARE? 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 millions UGC creators (U.S.) UGC consumers (U.S.) 2008 2013 Source: emarketer
WHY DO WE CARE? 88% Travelers who consult UGC reviews before booking. * 50% Reviews are the greatest influence on their booking choice. * 125% Higher conversion rate based on customer reviews. ** 157% How much longer visitors who read customer reviews spent on sites. ** 12X How much more consumer reviews are trusted than product descriptions by the company. *** Sources: * EyeforTravel ** MarketingSherpa *** emarketer
WHY DO WE CARE? 49% UGC has some influence on purchase decisions (59% for Millennials). 21% UGC has a lot of influence on purchases (25% for Milliennials). Source: BazaarVoice/MarketingProfs
WHY DO WE CARE? 42% of the global population but contribute 45% oftotal online product opinions. They tend to leave more positivesentiment, assigninga higher proportionoffive-star ratings than other generations by 3 percentage points. Source: BazaarVoice/MarketingProfs
WHY DO WE CARE? Many marketers focus on social networks. After all: = = Boomers: 69% Trust opinions from family and friends (56% for Millennials). 34% Strangers feedback is more important than the opinions of their family and friends (51% for Millennials). Source: BazaarVoice/MarketingProfs
WHY DO WE CARE? There s now hard data. A 2011 study from Cornell University s Center for Hospitality Research showed that a one-point increase in a hotel s 100- point Global Review Index (from ReviewPro) leads up to: 0.89% increase in price 0.54% increase in occupancy 1.42% increase in revenue per available room Positive online reputation doesn t merely provide higher pricing power for online sales. It is correlated to higher group booking rates and corporate negotiated rates in addition to reservations made over the phone. --Chris Anderson, study lead
WHY DO WE CARE? How a hotel is positioned is entirely driven by the consumer. --Gareth Gaston, SVP of Global ecommerce, Wyndham Hotels
HOW TO CAPITALIZE Your customer is now your marketer. Positive feedback? Ask customers to post their review. Print share your review on employee business cards include QR code. Read a positive comment on another site or via e-mail? E-mail them back and thank them. Blog about it and/or put the comment on your site. Put these comments into your e-mail marketing and ask for more feedback. Multimedia opportunities? Remember when people are looking for/contributing UGC: inspiration, research, experience-sharing.
HOW TO CAPITALIZE: SEARCH 66% / 59% Leisure/business travelers use search engines to help research and make purchase decisions.* 10% Lift in organic search traffic from UGC ** 25% Search results that return UGC (review sites, blogs, and social media updates) for the world s biggest brands. *** * Travelport ** MarketingSherpa *** Socialnomics
HOW TO CAPITALIZE: SEARCH Commerce sites are becoming publishers; your customers are your writers. Context becoming more important as we move more into semantic search. Publish reviews with tools from companies like Revinateor Customer Alliance. Hire an SEO guru to optimize content and maximize UGC exposure.
HOW TO CAPITALIZE: VIDEO How important is UGC video? 35% Lift in featured product sales when professional video and UGC video were used in conjunction. 25% When professional video used alone 19% When UGC video used alone Source: comscore
LISTENING TO REVIEWS
NEGATIVE REVIEWS I've been surprised to see how negative reviews increase sales. It's great to have people talking about your product, even if everything they say is not stellar. --PanosIpeirotis, professor at New --PanosIpeirotis, professor at New York University
NEGATIVE REVIEWS 74% Write reviews because they want to share a good experience with other travellers. 78% Write reviews because they feel good about sharing useful information with other travellers. 71% Like to see basic information (i.e., number of reviews written) about contributors as they browse through reviews. 67% When available, they look at traveler-submitted photos to help them make hotel choices. 59% Ignore extreme comments. 5% Focus more on negative reviews. Source: PhoCusWright
NEGATIVE REVIEWS: RESPONDING 57% Agree that seeing hotel management responses to reviews generally "makes me more likely to book it (versus a comparable hotel that didn't respond to travelers)" 84% Agree that an appropriate management response to a bad review "improves my impression of the hotel" 78% Agree that seeing a hotel management response to reviews "makes me believe that it cares more about its guests" 64% Agree that an aggressive/defensive management response to a bad review "makes me less likely to book that hotel". Source: PhoCusWright
NEGATIVE REVIEWS: RESPONDING I make no apologies for the lilac colourin the room...after all the room is called "The lilac room" so what colourdo you expect... I have checked the paint tin and it definitely says lilac not 'terrible lilac'. To avoid further disappointments, please note that "The red room" is red and "The coral room" is coral. If you want luminous we suggest you book the 'Mark Rothko room' which is painted in bright orange.
NEGATIVE REVIEWS: RESPONDING 18% Customers with resolved issues who made repeat purchases of the same product. 34% Those who deleted their negative reviews after complaint was handled efficiently. 33% Those who posted positive reviews Source: Retail Consumer Report
HOW TO RESPOND Respond to all negative reviews quickly, with as personal a message as possible, in as public a forum as possible. Respond to some positive reviews. Don t respond to average reviews. Responding an appropriate amount can lift number of incoming reviews by 35%. Responding too often, though, can be seen as dominating the conversation and drive users away. * Don t edit. Having an agency respond on your behalf is better than not responding at all, but a far cry from someone directly associated with your brand. * Source: Digital Marketing Works
Can software really identify the fakes? FAKE REVIEWS Industry moving toward verified reviews (Expedia, Amazon); HotelMe from USA Today is latest effort. But is that the silver bullet? There s truth in volume. Users getting better at ferreting out the fakes. The future of reviews is not in the con-sumer but the pro-sumer. --Panos Ipeirotis
NEXT STEPS Make it easy. 53% of Boomers say companies should offer more ways to share their opinions online in the future(64% of Millennialssay the same), per PhoCusWright. Be proactive. Be a resource. Monitor your reputation; respond appropriately. Hire experienced SEO, social/ugc communications managers. Incorporate comments and requests for comments onto your site and into your e-mail marketing campaigns. Use UGC to learn about customers interests target messages accordingly. Be the consumer. Experience your brand the way your customers do.
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