How to turn user-generated content into profits

Researcher Daniel J. Howard conducted a study to see if small personal interactions make a difference in phone sales. Dallas residents were called and asked if they would let a nonprofit representative come to their homes and sell them cookies, with the proceeds to be used to buy meals for the needy. Only 18 percent agreed.

But when the caller started by asking, "How are you feeling this evening?" and waited for a reply, almost double the number of residents -- 32 percent -- agreed to a visit from the cookie seller. Even more astounding? Once someone followed up by paying a visit, nearly everyone (89 percent) made a cookie purchase.

This is a simple example of what I call a "participation chain" -- building involvement so that each action builds upon the one before, creating value along the way. An online "chain" of user engagement not only increases someone's relationship with your brand and potentially leads to a purchase, but can also leave behind a trail of content that can lead other site visitors to increase their own engagement.

As we marketers know, the person most likely to respond to an offer is someone who has previously responded to another offer, and researchers know that people who participate in surveys or focus groups are likely to change their behavior based on their experiences. In short, time and money are two sides of the same coin; the more time consumers spend with you, assuming it's a positive experience, the more likely they are to spend money with you.

Online, people who contribute content -- reviews, answers, stories, wishlists, etc. -- have, in effect, invested themselves in your site. And many of these contributions are meant to help others. A 2007 study by Keller Fay and Bazaarvoice showed 90 percent of people who write product reviews do it to help others, and 80 percent do it to help the brand.

John Lazarchic, PETCO's VP of ecommerce, says letting consumers review products, answer questions, and share stories at PETCO.com increased engagement and loyalty. "Customers who write reviews are more engaged with the site and come back to the site more often," he said. "Our goals are twofold: one, to increase the content on the website, which adds value to the website; and two, to build loyalty. If they take the time to write, people tend to come back and see what others say. They now 'own' part of the website."

These public contributions -- ratings, reviews, stories, answers, photos, videos, etc. -- can be used to market to, and draw in participation from, other visitors to the website. In a way, each contribution has a chance to help others, and they, in turn, want to return the favor. Each piece of content is a building block to creating a sense of community and amplifies the authentic value of user-generated content.

Plus, this content helps brands. We've done a ton of analysis on review-enabled sites and found that reviews help increase sales conversion and search traffic while lowering product return rates. Retailer Canadian Tire found that, once it introduced a community Q&A on its site, customer support calls about products dropped by up to 81 percent.

So, where do you start in building participation chains?

First, put yourself in the user's shoes and consider what he hopes to accomplish at that particular moment, and create an opportunity to move closer to that goal.

Motivate users to participate by focusing on:

• The contributor's need for self expression: Can you make them stand out or gain "ego capital"?
• Sharing with friends: Can you make them look good in front of people they know?
• Helping strangers: As mentioned earlier, 90 percent of people write reviews to help others.
• Helping you (the brand): As mentioned earlier, 80 percent also write product reviews to help the brand.

Participation chains should be made up of simple responses that flow into logical next steps for consumers, thereby keeping them engaged longer. The details here depend on the context of your brand, your site, and the user. On a retail site, for example, you could ask a user to review a product, take a poll or survey, share a story, or "like" or vote up someone else's contribution.

One strategy I like is to enable users to easily, without registration, contribute tiny micro-bits of content. The success of the "Like" thumbs-up button on Facebook may be due to the sheer ease of participating. Once you have the user engaged with a micro-action, you can move on to asking them for a more robust action, such as writing a review for a product or service.

From there, think of logical, easy ways to keep them engaged; don't just create a dead-end "thank you" page. You could ask the user to write another review, ask them to rate other reviews on the same product, or ask them if they want to share the review they just wrote with their friends or colleagues. You could also present an opportunity for an action that is completely unrelated to reviews -- ask them to submit an entry to a contest or call for overall feedback on the brand. Always think about next steps that are valuable to the user in his or her context.

We all know engagement is key to brands, and we all have heard that marketing is really about conversations, but few brands have found ways to authentically create these conversations. Thinking about participation in a "chain" helps you think about the dialogue you have with a customer, how to keep it going, and help it go deeper with time.

Begin by asking for participation, even if it's only the online equivalent of "How are you feeling this evening?" A seemingly banal response like "fine" could be the first link in a strong, lengthy, and profitable participation chain.

Download the full presentation here.

Sam Decker is CMO of Bazaarvoice.

On Twitter? Follow Decker at @samdecker. Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.