The impact of user generated content on buying homes. How can brands counter?

A decade ago, consumers had few resources for researching experience goods. Aside from asking personal acquaintances, consumers were mostly limited to reading or watching critics' reviews in newspapers or on television

With the rise of the Internet, consumers increasingly have access to opinions from other consumers outside their immediate circle in real life. Several studies have documented the fact that online users are motivated to write reviews for a number of reasons; in online communities, users often write reviews to increase their influence and status or to provide useful input to other members of the community. There is also evidence that online community members are more likely to adopt opinions and decisions similar to other members, thereby increasing the impact of user-generated content. Some studies have gone further and shown that consumers often prefer recommendations from other consumers over professional reviews by critics especially in the case of “hedonic goods” such as movies, music, and books.

What happens when it comes to buying a life time value, are they really influenced with user generated contents. Every day consumers  and audience are exposed to more than thousands of messages out of them a common human being can remember  only a few which connects with their decisions. When a consumer is opted to buy a home he gets influenced by many psychological entities, economic state; beyond that he is exposed to lot of messages on internet which is termed as user generated content or UGC. The maximum impact of UGC is on pre purchase stage that to investments like house.

How can Brands counter them?

It was a serious concern for the brands to stop that negatively published user generated content but now it has become so simple with the rise of digital marketing platforms. What you need to do?

Monitor digital platforms:

Monitor all the digital platforms like FB, twitter, LinkedIn and video sites weather any content which is going viral against the brand. Check all the possible blogs which relates your brand portfolio. Keep a close eye on who is watching it, what is the chance of reaching these texts and videos to your target segment and customers.  

Respond them:

Instead of countering them or producing articles against them try to see the links and check the content and the links corresponding to that. Minimise the impact to go viral by good customer support. A good brand always does this and makes the same user to produce content for the brand. Normally many brands try to vanish the links which generally deepens the problems.

 Use PR strategies:

Use different PR strategies as quick as possible to monitor their attacks

Have UGC’S for your own brand:

Take a chance of creating content which is of high quality to impress your buyers or to create awareness. 

How can you bring life to a placebo with interactive messages.

A brand is a highly sophisticates attribute of all the product lines. People have tendency to recollect products with their brands name, If a brand fell short of customer interaction or lacks engagement then the brand is just termed as placebo in digital world. Engagement process varies from product to product in online world. Customer engagement usually depends on the attributes of the product. Ultimately for any product line in the universe to hail, Brand needs engagement. Customer engagement can be achieved with customer communities and digital marketing methodologies.

When a business lacks interactivity, then it is hard to control the colours of your Brand in the neurons of audience; in fact one cannot mix that brand physique to .Online world is an area where high interactivity can be achieved by mobilising your customers from a single set through different online channels.

Different type of Interactivities in online world:

Emails: greetings, ceremonial wishes

Gaming: interactive gaming by announcing winners on the leader boards and publishing them through mails and social networking sites will create a game or a brand with continuous engagement

Social networking:  Mobilising customer communities and reading the value added posts on brands television will make your audience involve in engagement.

Pursuit in the competition can be achieved by developing a strategic plan by slight inhibition of your competitors after good customer engagement

 ‘’If a brand cannot mobilize customer communities then the brand is just a placebo. Interactive messages helps in communicating with your customers.

How content management helps to increase the brand value on websites

How content management helps to increase the brand value on websites

A week back when I and Sam were discussing on the content that has to be pumped for the client’s website we came across several ideas. During the research we have done for the client in building the website, we come across several in puts from the audience who took part in the survey.

 For a brand new Market which is trying to penetrate in the adults and children market to feel that it has to grab the market with full of flashy images and colours on the website which brands always do to abnegate content for colours, will it succeed? It’s still a giant question whether content or images. What most of the digital marketing agencies think is that they can renounce content for images but from the online marketers perception they feel that you cannot convey the message with images

and videos and sometimes they were misunderstood. Whereas the content rich site gives the Full assumptions and vision of the brand and audience feel that the brand itself is communicating with them which will have a magnanimous or munificent approach for the brand.

While content always helps in better way of communication with the readers, to the loyal customers on the web, pictures and videos give further interactivity. Content on the web is not always a one day job, it is a mixture of out puts and in puts for months. Content management is same as driving a car for days with lot of obstacles and you try to overcome those obstacles with all your expertise and thinking without damaging the car. Think car as your web site and obstacles as your market, types of obstacles as different type of audience and crossing the obstacle as putting the right content on right place.

Is your content targeted for brand building, or lead generation or is it attention seeker or sales driven?

Content on the website depends on the market a brand is targeting which reciprocates the brand image they had. Lot of the digital and content writers feel that you cannot satisfy all your readers with the same content, yes they do think in a right way, your content always has to be managed for the loyal customers, high reach and bigger segment. Many of the digital agencies try to influx the content with key words which were on top of the rankings, which may or may not stick to the brand and that are completely degrading the brand. You go to sports shop with big brand name and if you end up finding irrelevant products, what your feeling is? Same with the content. Your content has to represent the brand, drive attention and build loyalty.

Digital marketing strengthens the Brand offline

The reality is…Marketers reported an average improvement of close to 50% for personalized multichannel campaigns over traditional campaigns.62% of online campaigns are seeing an increase in return on investment when combined with offline marketing such as direct mail. Integrating Traditional & Digital Marketing for Maximum Impact (Nielson 2010).

Clear visual connection between channels helps to drive prospects to respond online. Integrating Traditional & Digital Marketing for Maximum Impact.

Amazon is one of the largest ecommerce on mother earth, which is strategically high in digital marketing technologies and full of online in few parts of Asia but customers still believe Amazon as an offline brand which was achieved by digital media. All the new markets and completely new line of products are using digital platforms to strengthen brands offline.

Most of the marketers have sound knowledge on how to strengthen the brand; they follow different methods of digital marketing methods to build the brand online. In day to day life and with the changing landscapes in digital marketing methodology one can communicate the effect of brand reputation in online environment to offline. There are few organizations where they are carrying the effect cross channels without diluting the message and reach on proper act like Apple and Lush.

Why do want to carry the effect cross channel if you are ruling the market online. You are a marketer who has presence online, how can you carry the effect of your brand to direct marketing with high influence of online presence.

Word of mouth is a common term as digital technology has mixed with social media platforms for better incumbency. Brand texts and videos online is spread as viral, in social sites to create an impact and for recollection, if the video or a text appears to be new or astonishing or filled with humour or an offer then the WOM is carried to offline channels and the Brand image of the product gets increased. All the digital marketing platforms and tools helps the business to get engaged with the customers for long time and make them loyal to their brands which is highly appreciated part of digital marketing, but from the direct marketing point of view these brands use digital as a vehicle or as an adherent to strengthen their markets offline.