Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 12

Engaging Consumers Where It Matters Most

How to Win Fans and Influence People In Todays Social Customer Lifecycle

Contents
Introduction.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Traditional Customer Journey ............................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Evolved Social Customer Journey . . ........................................................................................ . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Discover.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Spotlight: H&M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Evaluate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Spotlight: Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau.......................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Buy . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Spotlight: So Delicious.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Access.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Spotlight: Rokenbok. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Use . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Spotlight: Mashable.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Get Support.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Spotlight: Wildfire (Thats Us!) .. . . ...................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Off the Path: Persistent Threats and Opportunities within the Social Customer Lifecycle. . . . . . 7 Re-Engage.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Leave.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Conclusion.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Whitepaper | E  ngaging Consumers Where It Matters Most: How to Win Fans and Influence People In Todays Social Customer Lifecycle

Introduction
According to global study of 28,000 consumers in 56 countries conducted by Nielsen, online consumer recommendations are the second most trusted source of brand advertising, second only to recommendations from people I know.1 This means that consumers are looking to information from their peers and networked connections, offline and online, to assist in evaluating and choosing between options while making purchase decisions. In sales and marketing education, we read about the customers journey through a funnel of brand interactions that lead to the moment of purchase. Visuals show a sales funnel that is wide at top, narrowing as customers evaluate different purchase options, strip away choices, make changes, absorb information, and finally buy. This funnel is outdated with respect to todays social consumers: those deeply plugged into social networks, absorbing information from news feeds full of commentary and opinions from their extended networks. Todays consumer creates reviews for his social networks, reads critiques created by his peers, and changes his purchasing decisions based on these conversations. Many times, the brand isnt involved in any stage of the decision-making process. How can this be changed? In this report, we explore the evolved social customer lifecycle. By referencing a new social customer journey framework developed by Forrester Research, Inc., we will: take a look at key customer interactions with social media at every step leading to purchase, recommend strategies for brands to capitalize on these consumer touchpoint opportunities, and learn from the successful practices of a variety of current brands making the most of social media marketing.

To reframe the journey and understand consumer touchpoints, decision-making processes, and interactions that lead to (or away from) a purchase decision, we need to factor in the impact of social media on consumer behavior. In 2012, Forrester Research introduced an evolved model of the customer experience journey in the paper How Does Social Media Contribute to Customer Experience? Let Us Count the Ways. The model, consisting of eight distinct phases, introduces opportunities for brands to invigorate user activity, encourage discovery, and create engaging touchpoints for consumer interaction through a new marketing funnel.

The Evolved Social Customer Journey

Source 1: Framework adapted from : Forrester Research Inc., How Does Social Media Contribute to Customer Experience, January 2012

The new social customer goes through a distinct six-step journey, spanning pre- and post- purchase decision timelines. The model also accounts for the potential that a customer could drop-off at any point in the timeline, as well as the opportunity for brands to re-engage consumers at every turn, potentially activating loyal brand advocates. Lets take a deep dive into this new framework.

Discover

The Traditional Customer Journey


The traditional customer journey, or sales funnel, is one directional. As prospective customers make their way through the funnel, they pass through stages: Awareness, Interest, Evaluation, Commitment, Referral, and (hopefully) Repetition. The framework doesnt account for any type of outside influence, like influence resulting from social media interactions.

Source 1

In the Discovery stage, the consumer is noticing relevant content that exists within social media channels from peers, or produced by brands. Consider this phase of the lifecycle a clean slate the consumer may not have ever heard of your brand, let alone considered buying from you to fulfill a need. Discovery is a very logical piece of the lifecycle journey that is facilitated by social media. For example, photos, commentary, reviews, blog posts, and videos created by friends and members of the consumers network, as well as by brands themselves, each create opportunities for consumers to discover new brands.

1 Nielsen, Consumer Trust in Online, Social, and Mobile Advertising Grows, 2012

US consumers create over 500 billion online media impressions about products and services

account, discovery is further facilitated for new consumers when they see social signals incorporated into their search results. As a result of adding social extensions to their existing search ads, H&M reported a 22% lift in click-thru rates.

In fact, according to Forrester Research Inc, US consumers create over 500 billion online media impressions about products and services!2 At an even more granular level, 76% of the Worlds population is connected to not only each other, but also information sources (like brands and websites) through mobile devices.3 The opportunity for your brand to be discovered by a consumer while casually consuming content, across multiple screens is huge, and not to be ignored.

Evaluate

Source 1

Spotlight: H&M H&M engages its social communities while simultaneously creating opportunities for driving discovery. In the example below, the fashion brand supplied a steady stream of interactive content tailored specifically to G+. Each post was crafted to stimulate response posts and re-shares from users. These engagements, while valuable for the brand, also serve to create discovery opportunities for new consumers, when they see friends and networked connections posting about and reposting H&Ms content in their own feeds. Additionally, because H&M turned on social annotations for its search advertising Adwords

In the Evaluation 36% of US online adults stage, the consumer is interacting with are Critics, or users who communities and contribute to ratings, reviews, utilizing user-generated blogs, and other social channels content to inform to voice their opinion decisions. Forums, discussion boards, groups, and branded pages are all places that a consumer explores at this stage, observing others conversations and jumping in with questions or feedback of his own when he requires clarification on a topic. The opinions and commentary recorded by real product users in forums and social media channels are both plentiful and carry significant weight. According to a survey done by the Deloitte Consumer Products group, 36% of US online adults are Critics, or users who contribute to ratings, reviews, blogs, and other social channels to voice their opinion.4 While that only accounts for one of every three internet users, the other two are actively absorbing and internalizing these critiques when asked if user reviews had ever impacted their purchase decisions, 58% of consumers say sometimes, and 25% say often. 5

2 Forrester Research Inc., Competitive Strategy in the Age of the Customer, June 2011 3 Ibid. 4 Deloitte Consumer Products Group, Global Social Media Adoption, June 2012 5 AYTM Research, Product Reviews, May 2012

Whitepaper | E  ngaging Consumers Where It Matters Most: How to Win Fans and Influence People In Todays Social Customer Lifecycle

Spotlight: Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to promote the Hawaiian islands to travelers throughout North America. The bureau uses its active and sizable social media communities to drive users through the evaluation stage by running campaigns like user-generated-content contests. For example, a recent photo contest encouraged users to share their Perfect Hawaii Moment for a chance to win a trip to Hawaii. In sharing photos of real user moments (real consumer moments, in this case, since visitors to Hawaii are customers of the organization) these contests serve as evaluation tools for consumers thinking about taking a (or another) trip to the Hawaiian islands.

17% of users have bought something based on a friends post about it using social media

The three-week Perfect Hawaii Moment campaign generated a 25% jump in engaged users on the organizations Facebook page and more than 500 contestants actively opted-in to further email contact with the convention bureau outside of the social initiative.

Buy

Source 1

In the Buying stage, consumers are converting with social commerce features built into branded profiles and sites, and can also share promotions with social networks. In the case of big-ticket items or products that require a longer consideration period before purchase, users can convert in other ways, for example by filling out lead-generation forms, and electing to sign-up for communication with a brand. A recent study by Forrester cites a selection of statistics supporting the influence of social media on user buying decisions:6 17% of users have bought something based on a friends post about it using social media 40% of online buyers think that social content created by friends about brands is a great way to discover sales and promotions 48% of consumers think that posts created by others in their networks are a great way to discover new products, brands, trends, or retailers

Spotlight: So Delicious So Delicious, a dairy-free dessert and milk alternative brand, executed a well integrated marketing plan over 100 days in 2011. The theme was 100 days of change, promoting healthful lifestyles and nutritional choices, with celebrity fitness guru Jillian Michaels as the spokesperson for the campaign. So

Forrester Research Inc., The Purchase Path of Online Buyers in 2012, September 2012

Delicious deployed the integrated campaign in a consistent manner across traditional, digital, and social marketing. The company appealed to the social consumer by collaborating with Sterling-Rice Group to design its 100 Days of Change Wildfire giveaway on Facebook. So Delicious wanted to encourage users to embrace and celebrate positive personal change, create new brand advocates, and expand its fan base.

33% of users want to follow a brand on social media channels because theyre current customers

Access

Source 1

In the Access stage, users are interacting within support communities, branded social profiles, and forums. Theyre consuming content created by the brand for its customers in an effort to become better informed. Consumers accessing information in forums and support communities are ripe for brands to impress. Because the consumer has already purchased the brands product, the Access stage is a chance for the brand to reinforce the customers decision, and to reassure the customer that he made the right purchase choice. If brands do not execute accessoriented strategies correctly, they may inadvertently trigger buyers remorse, causing the consumer to feel regret for having purchased items from the brand. For example, LL Bean recently found itself in a social media situation wherein a large set of customers that had bought a specific sheet set had taken to social media channels to complain that the sheets were unraveling.7 LL Bean immediately launched an investigation and found that a manufacturing contractor had added wrinkle-resistance treatment to the sheets by mistake, which was causing the cotton fabric to unravel. LL Bean promptly pulled the sheets from its website, offered new sheets to the affected customers, and destroyed the rest of the ruined batch. According to an interview by the Wall Street Journal with Steve Fuller, L.L. Beans chief marketing officer, before [social media], it would have taken us months and months to figure out if something was wrong with the product through returns, if we ever would have known at all.

The 100 Days of Change giveaway was an incredible success. Over the three-month promotion period, So Delicious saw a significant return on its investment: it experienced two of its most successful sales days ever, and ultimately increased its category share by 60% and sales units by 74%. So Delicious also enjoyed a sizable growth in its Facebook fan base which grew by more than 1,000%. In total, 100 Days of Change received 322,664 entries, averaging 3,226 entries per day.

Wall Street Journal, Firms Take Online Reviews to Heart, 2012

Whitepaper | E  ngaging Consumers Where It Matters Most: How to Win Fans and Influence People In Todays Social Customer Lifecycle

A key reason users follow brands on social media channels is to get access to information (and give it, like the LL Bean customers). According to a 2012 study conducted by Get Satisfaction: 33% of users want to follow a brand on social media channels because theyre current customers 18% follow a brand for interesting or entertaining content 5% want to follow a brand for service, support, or product news

Use

Source 1

Spotlight: Rokenbok Rokenbok is a San Diego-based high-end robotic and construction toy company that wanted to find a new platform and hub for children and families to engage with its brand, learn about products, watch product demos, and drive online sales. Rokenbok determined that video is the most effective way to demonstrate products and create access points for children and their families, so the company created a Mr. Rokenbok YouTube channel to host and target productrelated videos. The brand shoots and edits all videos inhouse, and content ranges from education to product demos. Rokenbok used YouTube in-search, in-display, and in-stream ads. These ad capabilities allow Rokenbok to refine ad campaigns to target the right customers with each video. As a result of Rokenboks successful video strategy, YouTube is quickly becoming the companys most important advertising vehicle. Rokenbok estimates that half of its customers come from YouTube.

In the Use phase, consumers are participating in social offerings that are baked into the product-related experience. While this sounds like a mouthful, examples of sociallypowered brand experiences pervade the internet. For example, you can read stories on popular news sites such as Mashable and the Huffington Post while logged in to your social network accounts. This feature not only makes for a simpler login process that saves the user from having to remember another set of credentials, but also serves as a way for the publisher brands to access the publicly available information provided by users in their social accounts for better targeting (by demographic or psychographic interests). Having social features like this baked into the product experience can be uplifting for user interaction. In fact, according to Facebook, 22% more pages are seen (and for 8 minutes longer) by Huffington Post users that log into the site using their Facebook credentials.8 Including a social experience, such as social annotations in your digital advertising, also increases clickthrough rates. Social annotations are basically text notations that let you know if someone in your social circle also endorses the web content youre looking at. If youre signed out of Google+, or there are people who arent in your circle whove endorsed the content, youll see less detailed annotations. Adding social annotations to Google search ads can lead to increases in click-thru rates by 5-10%.9

8 9

Search Engine Land, By The Numbers: How Facebook Says Likes & Social Plugins Help Websites, 2011 Google Inc, 2012s

Social customers will tell an average of 42 people about a good customer experience, and 53 people about a bad customer experience!

Get Support

Source 1

Spotlight: Mashable Mashable, the largest independent news site, likes to keep its finger on the pulse of how people connect online. In addition to hosting a slew of engaging hangouts and posting fresh content daily, Mashable encourages its consumers to use social from within the sites pages.

When consumers are in the Get Support phase, they are starting conversations and directing feedback/complaints through social media channels. The proliferation of social media use has also led to an evolution in the social customer mindset. Todays social consumer is empowered, and often feels entitled. In fact, 50% of all Facebook users and 80% of Twitter users expect a response to a customer support inquiry in 24 hours or less.10 The days of writing a letter about product dissatisfaction, or attaching a paper receipt via snail mail are starting to feel like ancient history. It is critical for brands to respond to users support requests. Not providing satisfactory customer service can come with a steep price. According to a Global Customer Service Barometer conducted by American Express in 2012, social customers will tell an average of 42 people about a good customer experience, and 53 people about a bad customer experience! Dissatisfied customers who stay that way have stronger voices and further reach, two factors that can quickly unwind all your hard won brand successes.

Mashable experienced a huge surge in community growth after it installed the Google+ badge on its homepage, increasing its Google+ page audience by 38%. Mashable also uses the +1 button on articles and across the site to empower user sharing to Google+.

10

Oracle, Consumer Views of Live Help Online, 2012

Whitepaper | E  ngaging Consumers Where It Matters Most: How to Win Fans and Influence People In Todays Social Customer Lifecycle

Spotlight: Wildfire (Thats Us!) Here at Wildfire, we sell social media marketing software to brands of all sizes, across industries and geographies. We know that customer inquiries can come in through any of our social channel brand pages, and make it a practice to respond to every request in a timely manner, no matter where its coming from.

the purchase decision or dismissing your brand from among a list of options. This is a persistent threat not only because of the loss of business, but because of the potential of lost consumers to negatively influence others in their social networks, by creating negative earned media.

Re-Engage

Source 1

To call re-engagement a phase is a bit of a misnomer. Brands have the opportunity to re-engage fans throughout the duration of the customer lifecycle. In fact, successfully reengaging fans throughout their journey with a brand can lead to increased awareness and affinity, turning out loyal brand advocates. These types of users are of incredibly high value to a brand. Wildfire did a study to attempt to quantify this value in 2012 the Brand Advocate study was conducted to understand the impact on engagement that brands with significantly higher advocate populations saw as compared to brands with average advocate populations. The study found that over one year, brands with high advocate populations got 264% more earned media impressions than average brands.11

Off the Path: Persistent Threats and Opportunities within the Social Customer Lifecycle
While the path of the consumer as he travels through Discovery, Evaluation, Buying, Access, Use, and Getting Support is usually linear, there are also two persistent phases that a consumer can fall into at any point in time. Re-Engagement builds up loyal brand advocates ready to spread the (positive) word about the brand. Consumers can also leave at any point, disengaging from

11 Wildfire, The Brand Advocate Factor: How Best in Class Brands Breed Communities of Brand Advocates that Supercharge Social Media Campaigns. 2012

Leave

Conclusion
Social media has made the traditional customer lifecycle model obsolete. The classic sales funnel moving prospects from awareness to purchase no longer applies in a marketplace where earned media referrals and consumer evangelism have serious impact on purchase decisions. Marketers need to look at new ways to engage with consumers that take into account all the new sources of information consumers access. We presented a new framework, adapted from a model created by Forrester Research Inc, that illustrates the eight phases of the social customer journey, with examples for your brand to emulate in each phase. In order to stay current and enable consumers to make successful purchase decisions, your social brands needs to adapt marketing plans to account for the new social customer journey.

Source 1

Brands are in danger of users leaving the customer journey while publicly voicing grievances with the brand using social media channels, thereby disconnecting from the community and customer base. Naturally, not every customer who begins her path on the social customer journey will stay until purchase, however, it is important for brands to focus efforts on minimizing the impact of a customer dropping off the journey, especially in those instances that he is leaving due to a negative experience.

80% of consumers said that they changed their mind about buying a product after reading a negative review they found online

Mitigating the impact of a negative user experience can have a huge impact, as 80% of consumers said that they changed their mind about buying a product after reading a negative review they found online.12

12 Cone Inc.

Mountain View Chicago London Los Angeles Munich New York City Paris Singapore

Wildfire is a powerful, easy-to-use social marketing platform that enables brands to grow, engage, and monetize their audience across social networks.

Learn how we can help you today!

888.274.0929 ext. 2

www.wildfireapp.com

Wildfire, a division of Google | 323 Fairchild Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043 | 888.274.0929 | www.wildfireapp.com | wildfire@google.com

11/12

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi