Today’s consumer has access to an abundance of information from the Internet and social media, making them the most informed they have ever been. So, this poses an important question: Which information is the most influential? Is it the customer reviews, the social media campaigns, the endless types of advertising, or possibly expert content? The Nielsen Company recently posed this question and was able to discover the impact of content in the consumer decision-making process.
The Experiment
The Nielsen Company recruited 900 respondents from casino floors in Las Vegas and took them to the Nielsen MediaLabs. Next, they placed each respondent in one of the nine product categories (i.e., auto insurance, child seat, digital camera, video game, etc.) and exposed them to three types of content. The content presented was expert content, user reviews, and branded content.
The effect that each type of content had on the consumer would be measured in three stages. The first, familiarity with a new product; the second, affinity toward a brand or product; and lastly, purchase consideration of a brand or product.
The Results
Overall, each type of content showed improvement among the three categories: product familiarity, affinity and purchase intent. But which had the strongest showing? This is when PR professionals can chime in with an “I told you so.” Expert content was the most effective and consistent across all three content types.
Expert content provided the most familiarity lift for seven of the nine products, the most affinity lift for five of the nine products, and the most purchase intent lift for six of the nine products. “On average,” said Nielsen, “expert content lifted familiarity 88 percent more than branded content and 50 percent more than user reviews; they lifted affinity 50 percent more than branded content and 20 percent more than user reviews; finally, they lifted purchase consideration 38 percent more than branded content and 83 percent more than user reviews.”
Now what?
Numbers don’t lie. Expert content is effective. The next step is to capitalize on this information and secure expert content. This can be done by finding the right contact and placing it in the right publication. Spending time to find the publication that reaches your target audience is critical. In order for expert content, or any content, to serve its purpose and be effective, the consumers have to read it. Be sure to consider the audience when reaching out to a journalist or expert.
The other important aspect is making sure you are contacting the correct people. Contact someone who is interested in sharing his or her thoughts about your product. Without the right contact, your product won’t be given a second glance.
Generally, all forms of content have the ability to influence the consumer. However, the results of this study are clear: Customers want the opinion of a credible third party. An objective opinion is going to build trust and be more effective in convincing the consumer your product is the right product.
If you’d like to see more results from the Nielsen Company study, use the link here.