Word of Mouth: Joining the Movement to
Measurably Improve Your Business
Bazaarvoice and Andy Sernovitz

Welcome!
Brett Hurt
Founder & CEO, Bazaarvoice
CEO
» Also founded Coremetrics
» Served on Board of Directors at
Shop.org for two years
» Holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton
School at the University of Pennsylvania
» Consultant and Inventor
2

Our Guest Speaker
Andy Sernovitz
Author Word of Mouth Marketing: How
Smart Companies Get People Talking
» Word of mouth marketing g
g guru
» Founder & CEO, GasPedal
» President Emeritus of WOMMA (Word of
(
Mouth Marketing Association)
» Taught at Wharton School of Business
and currently t
d tl teaching at N th
hi t Northwestern
t
3

What Is Word of Mouth Marketing?
» Giving people a reason to talk about YOUR stuff
» Making it eas e for that conversation to take p ace
a g easier o a co e sa o o a e place
4

Reality Check: Consumers Control Your Brand
» People like me
» UR the UE
» The Permanent Record
5

Some Current Word of Mouth Trends
12 million adult American Internet users (8%) maintain
Blogs a blog and 57 million users (37%) read blogs
33 million (26%) h
have rated a product, service, or person
td dt i
Ratings & R i
R ti Reviews using an online rating system
Myspace has 185 million registered users and
between 39 and 45 billion page views per month
YouTube delivers more than 100 million video views
every day with 65,000 new videos uploaded daily
65 000
Facebook has 22 million registered users who generate
40 billion page views a month
Yahoo! Answers had 160 million answers posted in its
first 12 months
36% of online American adults consult Wikipedia
6
Confidential and Proprietary. © 2006 Bazaarvoice, Inc.

Product Ratings & Reviews

Ratings & Reviews Highly Valued
» 77% of online shoppers seek product reviews
before purchasing
» 80% of online shopping time is spent
researching products rather than buying them
» 59% of their users considered
customer reviews to be more
valuable t a e pe t reviews
a uab e than expert e e s
» Online-influenced sales will
reach 40% of total U.S. retail
sales, or $1 trillion, by 2011
1. JupiterResearch 2006, 2. TechCrunch, 3. JupiterResearch 2007
8
Confidential and Proprietary. © 2006 Bazaarvoice, Inc.
8

Dell’s IdeaStorm
“IdeaStorm is our way of building an online community that brings all of
us closer to the creative side of technology by allowing you to share
ideas and interact with other customers and Dell experts ”
experts.
- Dell IdeaStorm
Key Statistics
• 135 News Stories
• 2,400 Blog posts
• 275 000 mentions on
275,000
independent sites
9
Confidential and Proprietary. © 2006 Bazaarvoice, Inc.

The 5 T’s of Word of Mouth Marketing
1. Talkers: Who will tell their friends about you?
2.
2 Topics: What will they talk about?
3. Tools: How can you help the message travel?
4.
4 Taking Part: How can you join the conversation?
5. Tracking: What are people saying about you?
10

1. Talkers: Find people who will talk
» *Half of advocates write about their purchases online,
with the large majority writing something p
g jy g g positive
» Advocates have *2x more IM contacts and people in
their online community, plus interact 55% more with
blogs
bl
Average = 4.3 out of 5
*Source: Yahoo! Engaging Advocates with Search and Social Media | December 2006
11

2. Topics: Give people a reason to talk
12

3. Tools: Help the message spread
5x click through rate
54% increase in
revenue per email
13

Word of Mouth Spreads via Natural Search
CompUSA’s customer reviews
attract tens of thousands of
new and highly qualified visitors
each week:
• 60% higher conversion
• 50% higher order value
g
• 82% more page views per
visitor
14 14
Confidential and Proprietary. © 2006 Bazaarvoice, Inc.

4. Taking Part: Join the conversation
» Product improvement
opportunities based on customer
feedback
» Build opportunities to address
users’ questions directly
» Provide opportunities for
customers to communicate with
one another
» Share negative customer
feedback with Customer Service
to improve loyalty
15

Negative Reviews Can Be Positive
» “Consumers expect to see both good and bad reviews.
The good reviews validate seller p
g product information;
the bad provide the caveat emptor that retailers cannot
provide themselves.\" (Patti Freeman Evans,
JupiterResearch)
» Customers know we don’t live in a 5-star world.
» Negative reviews not only help customers make
purchase decisions, they also help the retailer in several
ways.
» But remember, positive reviews outweigh negative
reviews 7 to 1!
16

5. Tracking: Measure and listen

5. Tracking: Measure and listen
18

How do you get executive buy-in?
19

Q&A and Webinar Survey
» To ask a question, just type it directly into the area
labeled “Enter a question for the staff”
q
» Please also fill out our webinar survey as you exit the
webinar
» Thank you!

Thank you!
» Brett Hurt – Brett@bazaarvoice.com or
http://www.bazaarblog.com
p g
» Andy Sernovitz – Andy@sernovitz.com or
y y@
http://www.damniwish.com/