The Blitz Is On – Insightful Facts on Viral Marketing Campaigns

Not all people tell the truth, so it’s unlikely that everything you read on the web is going to be fact. To counter that, especially when in connection with something as ethereal as word of mouth information, listed here are a number of statistic’s and sources that you (if you so desire) can check for accuracy at your leisure.

1. Family and friend recommendations are more infuential when giving out word of mouth information (AdAge).

2. Visitors to a site that post commentary will typically visit a site nine times, and are twice as likely to purchase from that site than others (McKinsey and Co./Jupiter Media Metrix).

3. Consumers trust friends more than experts or celebrity endorsements (65%, 27% and 8%, respectively; Yankelovich).

4. A Nielsen worldwide study of some 26,000 users in over 40 markets reported that consumer recommendations were the most credible form of word of mouth information advertising within the 70% plus of respondents.

5. Over 116 million user generated comments were made in the U.S. in 2008 alone, with an additional creators of content totaling 82 million. With the extended influence of Web 2.0 and social networking, these figures are set to climb (eMarketer).

6. Social network users are three times more likely to purchase a product on the strength of recommendation from a peer rather than any form of advertising. (the source: Jupiter Research).

7. 86% of people asked said they would trust a friend’s recommendation over an experts, with 83% saying they would trust user generated comments over a critic’s (Marketing Sherpa).

8. 66% of social networkers are more inclined to purchase because of a recommendation, as opposed to 52% that aren’t social networkers (Royal Mail home shipping tracker).

9. 81% of holiday shoppers read user generated reviews before purchasing (Nielsen Online).

10. Consumers totaling 86% read reviews on businesses before buying, with over 90% saying that they trust those reviews (Kudzu.com).

11. 49% of shoppers stated that they have made many of their purchases based solely on the strength of consumer reviews. Of these 53% decided on the strength of user reviews;48% due to comparison charts;41% due to editorial reviews and comments;58% was from shared shopping lists.

12. Nearly two thirds (62%) of home-based consumers browsed on line user generated product reviews before making a purchase (Deloitte and Touche) with 62% stating that they would also browse sites with user reviews in order to make entertainment purchases (Marketing Sherpa).

13. 7 out of 10 people who read consumer generated reviews are more likely to share those opinions, which amplifies the impact they have (Deloitte and Touche).

14. 74% of surveyed consumers state they base purchasing on user generated reviews of their customer rating for a product or company (Society of New Communication Research).

As you can see, word of mouth information coming from trusted sources such as friends, consumers, etc. is one of the most powerful form of advertising.