The definition of crowd marketing

The simple definition of the word crowd is “a large number of people”, Crowd marketing aims to increase revenue or interest in a company by involving a large number of individuals. What makes it such an interesting marketing technique is the use of a crowd for marketing. The purpose of this article is to in depth explain what it is and why it is efficient.

What is crowd marketing?

Crowd marketing is a digital promotion technique that offers an opportunity for you to narrate your company’s story and engage in a broader dialogue on multiple media networks using real people. Crowd marketing as a strategy also includes content creation, SEO (search engine optimization) and social media marketing in order to boost sales. A popular strategy is reaching customers through individuals who already have established a following, influencers. The technique provides for a complex of events aimed at increasing sales of a particular product, based on recommendations. By borrowing the following of the influencer, a company can reach the target audience faster. Satisfied customers equals loyal customers and this will favour your brand in the form of repeated sales, referrals and word-of-mouth ads. If a company is on a lower budget, this marketing strategy can be especially useful.

“An influencer can be anyone who has a broad audience or online following that they engage with.”

An influencer can be anyone who has a broad audience or online following that they engage with. It can be a singer, celebrity, athlete or any other person that through their large following is able to influence sales of products or services. This technique is particularly effective because of the large number of existing influencers, the existing diversity within them and the niche of individuals.

Digital crowd marketing

The internet has created many advantages, one of them being a constant flow of information and in marketing, the internet is an excellent tool to make use of. Information can spread from one corner of the world to the other in just a couple of seconds. With a broad online crowd, the marketing efficiency is multiplied and a company can save both money and time.

Platforms

What makes crowd marketing so unique is that it can be applied using a variety of different platforms. For ultimate success when using crowd marketing, it can be useful to apply it to one or more of the following online resources: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo. There exists many more but it is crucial that a company themselves makes research on which platforms to use. For example, a company selling sports cars might reach greater success with an exciting, upbeat short film displaying the latest updates instead of only posting a written update. When you have found out what you want to tell the world, then is the time to decide how to do it and which platforms that help you deliver the “purpose” of your brand.

Finding an influencer

As previously mentioned, an influencer can be anyone making an impact on or affecting people. This makes the task of finding the perfect person for it both easier and harder since choosing the right influencer is an essential part of building a strong brand. The purpose behind using an influencer is to choose someone that can help build trust for your brand. Choose a person that people look up to and whom they will trust because of the influencers knowledge of using the product or service.

Example of successful crowd marketing

A successful example of crowd marketing is when car brand Volvo made Zlatan Ibrahimovic the face of the “Made by Sweden” campaign. Volvo knew that the decision behind buying a car is more than just technical details, it is about the image you want to display to the world. By gathering core values and choosing a world recognized influencer that matches their interests, they produced probably their most successful campaigns ever.

Step by step guide

1. Be Genuine

Transparency is encouraged when working with crowd marketing. Be real and be honest when you are delivering your message. The impact of what you are writing is going to be even bigger when there is a face to the name so including a picture is one way of making an honest approach.

2. Practice being concise

Practicing being concise is an important tool to make use of when working with crowd marketing. Be direct and deliver your message as clearly as possible. Depending on the occasion and audience, picking certain facts or points to highlight or de-emphasize can be helpful. Always make sure that whatever you are presenting is appealing to the audience.

3. Be a part of the community

To understand what people want or need, make yourself a part of the community. Finding questions that are asked about your product or service and writing the answers to them is simple, but to gain an understanding of how to expose your product is more important. Be active and interact in the community of the target customer, whether it be a Facebook group or Google reviews. This will build trust for your brand as customers are aware that their opinions are heard and that you are actively working on improving their experience of your product or service.