Lessons From the Bazaarvoice Conference
Customer reviews are a classic form of social media. And they can help you in more ways than you think.
Customer reviews are a classic form of social media. And they can help you in more ways than you think.
Last week my colleague Shane Atchison and I attended the Bazaarvoice user conference in Austin, Texas. Bazaarvoice started as a company offering ratings and reviews technology for Web sites, but it now has other offerings and helps clients evolve in other key uses of social media to connect to customers and prospects.
Bazaarvoice was founded by Brett Hurt (a founder from Web analytics tool Coremetrics) and quickly added industry expert Sam Decker (formerly with Dell). Both men understand what it takes to successfully maximize an online e-commerce site.
People shared some interesting stories about leveraging ratings and reviews from customers to maximize their conversion, online and offline. The key to each application is its potential to increase conversion rates and better communicate with customers and prospects. While not all applications are for every company, there are potential lessons in each.
A review’s natural impact (and it’s significant) is that having one next to a product online will help prospects make a selection they will be happy with. Some of the other applications people shared last week deliver a significant, measureable impact to their businesses. Here are some of those applications:
As you can see, there’s much more to reviews on your site than simply getting other online visitors to convert online. Sure, a lot of social media initiatives can be considered failures. But when you step back and define goals and identify a strategy based on impact to you and your customers and prospects, the rewards can be significant and often have benefits that are far greater and more expansive than what you may initially consider.
Don’t get caught up in every new technology or fad, but dig into what will really help your customers and prospects based on your business goals. Then determine the best way to tackle that opportunity: set targets, goals, and a strategy to accomplish!
Join us for a one-day Online Marketing Summit in a city near you from May 5, 2009, to July 1, 2009. Choose from one of 11 one-day events designed to help interactive marketers do their jobs more effectively. All sessions are new this year and cover such topics as social media, e-mail marketing, search, and integrated marketing. Register 30 days in advance and get a $40 discount!