What is crowd marketing and how is it useful for your business?

Crowd marketing is a method of brand promotion in order to attract potential customers, increase interest in a product or a manufacturing company.
For example, thematic links are posted on forums, blogs or social networks, which describe the benefits of the product, the positive practice of its use. This information is presented in the form of a positive comment or customer feedback.
In a favorable scenario, such recommendations are made directly by the buyer who was satisfied with the product. The task of this type of marketing is to increase the number of interested users and to notify about new, still little-known products.

There are three variations of this marketing method applied:

• Direct product recommendation with a valid link, which can be used to immediately view and purchase the product;
• An informative answer to the user on a question of interest with a link to a useful article or product information. At the same time, the product is not directly discussed or imposed;
• Specifying the name of the product or manufacturer without placing a valid link. Despite having a negligible impact on sales and search engine promotion, this approach increases the number of brand searches;

Crowd marketing process for business and client

Compared to other types of advertising, crowd marketing is less costly for a business, since it is enough to create accounts and use them to post links on popular resources, while in the case of advertising, each ad demonstration or a certain number of demonstrations need to be paid for.

From a business standpoint, this marketing tactic consists of the following elements:

• Search for suitable platforms, with ongoing discussions on relevant topics;
• An account is created, taking into account the characteristics of a typical representative of the target audience;
• Participation in thematic discussions followed by product offer;

If there are no suitable discussions, experts themselves build a dialogue using several accounts, in which they promote the desired product in different ways. The marketer's actions help the user choose between several manufacturers and find a solution that meets his need.

For the user, this marketing process consists of the following stages:

• Search for a solution or an answer to his question on a web resource known to him;
• Receiving a suitable offer, and further interest in it;
• Search for product information and get positive reviews on other web resources;
• Buying goods on the site;

Although this marketing tactic has been criticized for serving as a disguised ad, this method can be considered fair if the user receives objective information about the product, rather than describing exaggerated or non-existent product properties.

How to use crowd marketing effectively

The competent use of this type of marketing is determined by the following indicators:

• Variety of resources related to the relevant product, which contains information;
• Division of online resources into categories;
• Developing a clear plan for sending out the right information and post content;
• Determination of the number of messages separately for each web resource;
• Equal distribution of messages across online platforms of different types;
• Natural as possible, presentation of information;
• Availability of information in published messages for inexperienced users;
• Sufficient popularity of the account from which messages are sent or information is published;

What are the benefits of crowd marketing?

• Improves confidence in the manufacturer. Customers receive more information about the product and, if satisfied, recommend it to others;
• Promotes the popularity of the website. Users follow the indicated links, study the manufacturer's website in detail. As a result, such activity helps the site to reach high positions in search results;
• Helps to increase sales. Customers receive information about the product they need, purchase it and, if it suits them, are interested in other products on the manufacturer's website;
• Increases the number of links to the manufacturer's website, which also increases its ranking among search results;

This type of marketing is used as an auxiliary tool to increase user interest in the site, to analyze the target audience. This method increases the number of items sold. However, it is worth considering that the use of exclusively crowd marketing will not bring the desired results. Also, it is a mistake to use advertising messages to increase user loyalty. Instead, you should present information in an unobtrusive and natural way and select the resources that are most likely to be visited by the target audience.