So, you’re going to start your digital marketingBusiness-to-business (B2B), also known as B-to-B, is a form of transaction between businesses, such ... More journey? You have come to the right website. If you are reading this blog post, chances are you are looking for great ways to improve your digital marketing strategy. In this article, we will discuss whether or not you can use crowdsourcing for an effective digital marketing strategy.
Digital Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing
What makes digital marketing different from traditional marketing? Well, basically, there is no basic difference between both types of marketing – they are the same, except for the fact that the other is done digitally.
Marketing Goals
Why do you need to do marketing for your brand or your company? The goal is to find customers, keep them and stimulate sales in the future. Marketing does all of these for you.
In today’s world, advanced technology makes it possible to connect with your audience easily. It is also now more convenient for you, as a marketer, to build a long-term relationship with your customers.
The power of the interconnected and interactive web combined with a great digital marketing strategy helps create consumer demand. There are two fundamental ways in which digital marketing proves to be powerful.
First, you, as a marketer, can segment the audience in a precise manner. You can even segment the audience based on their current location and their recent brand interactions.
Next, the digital sphere is almost completely measurable. This means that every minute a customer spends on the interweb, and every activity they do can be accounted for. Through digital marketing, you can watch and see exactly how different campaigns are performing at the same time.
For Effective Digital Marketing, Can You Use Crowdsourcing?
The answer to that, my friends, is a big, fat yes. In fact, crowdsourcing is one of the most powerful examples of the way digital tools have enabled certain ways of thinking.
So, what is crowdsourcing? This is a method of marketing that relies heavily on an active community to find solutions to problems. For instance, you distribute problem-solving and production models to an active community and watch the members of the said community create solutions to the problem.
This marketing model also relies heavily on the tools and communication forms that are made possible by various software on the internet. Now that the internet can now connect billions of people from all over the globe through different publishing tools and technologies, the data and idea on these given channels have now become basic commodities in themselves.
LOOKING FOR A ONE-STOP SOLUTION TO YOUR GROWTH NEEDS?
In traditional marketing, marketers had to gather together physically in able to create crowds. Today’s technology makes it easy for marketers to connect crowds even when everyone is miles apart.
Marketers and organizations can now gain first-hand knowledge and insight into their customer’s needs and desires through listening to the crowd and sometimes even asking for their contributions. After that, organizations can now design and build their products and services to meet the said needs and desires based on crowdsourcing data.
Additionally, if you use crowdsourcing, the communities may feel a brand-building kinship with others by means of collaboration and contribution. Technologically savvy organizations can tap into a wider range of talent and knowledge using the internet instead of just being contained in their own resources. Now, this can be done in one of the three ways listed below.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding usually involves asking a lot of people in a large crowd to donate a little amount of money. If a lot of people donates even just a small amount, you will be able to gather a large sum in able to fund a specific project or venture.
A great example of this is the website Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) and GoFundMe (www.gofundme.com) where people who want to donate to projects and/or charities can do so. Usually, the process starts with startups ask for backers to fund them.
Crowdsourcing
In crowdsourcing, companies ask and enable people to share their ideas or creations. In return, the people who participated will get an emotional or monetary reward. Crowdsourcing is the most commonly-used strategy for marketing and idea generation. You can see prime examples of crowdsourcing in websites such as Idea Bounty (www.ideabounty.com), Threadless (www.threadless.com) or the most common, Wikipedia (en.wikipidea.org)
Microtasking
Lastly, we have microtasking which usually involves breaking a big task or a big project down into tiny components. After that, the organization asks a lot of people to complete a number of these components. They receive a monetary payment in exchange.
A great example of a company that uses microtasking is BrandsEye (www.brandseye.com). The company pays members of its crowd to evaluate the sentiment behind mentions in social media.
In Conclusion
There are plenty of companies that use crowdsourcing for different reasons. Digital marketing is one of those reasons. Some use crowdsourcing because of their keen interest and affinity for the brands. Their participation in the community helps improve the products or services that they receive.
On the other hand, we have those that use crowdsourcing to gain a monetary reward. Some even do it for the prestige of devising the winning solution.
Whatever the case may be, it just goes to show how powerful the Internet and crowdsourcing is. This method does not only helps connect people, but it also builds communities and spread messages. Additionally, it taps into a global source of ideas and inspiration.
Yes, crowdsourcing does help organizations and companies all over the world to create an effective digital marketing strategy. The people help the organizations out, and they get better products and services on return.
It is a give and takes a process that helps create billions of profits for different brands and organizations and they give rewards for their audience in return. In the end, everybody gets something, and everybody wins!
How about you? Will you be using crowdsourcing for your digital marketing strategy anytime soon? Check out more blog posts from our website to find out more about digital marketing and the different ways you can strategize for your businessBusiness-to-business (B2B), also known as B-to-B, is a form of transaction between businesses, such ... More.
© Image credits to Nick Collins
LOOKING FOR A ONE-STOP SOLUTION TO YOUR GROWTH NEEDS?
