Recently, study after study from leading marketers has shown a growing shift in focus on word-of-mouth marketing from influencers to customer advocacy. Customer advocacy is authentic word-of-mouth from your enthusiastic and loyal customers, recommending your brand to their friends and family. Different than influencers, customer advocates aren’t paid or incentivized, making their recommendations that much more trustworthy and effective.
Here are 10 stats that make the case for brands to lean in to customer advocacy:
1. Recommendations from people you know are the highest ranked source for trustworthiness.
“According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over any other type of advertising,” (Nielsen, Global Trust in Advertising Report).
2. 47% of consumers feel ‘influencer fatigue.’
“47% of consumers reported that they’re feeling influencer fatigue due to an excess of repetitive sponsored content,” (BazaarVoice, Consumer Survey).
3. Consumers are 50x more likely to buy from a friend’s recommendation than an influencer’s.
“Our research shows that a high-impact recommendation—from a trusted friend conveying a relevant message, for example—is up to 50 times more likely to trigger a purchase than is a low-impact recommendation,” (McKinsey, A New Way to Measure Word-of-Mouth Marketing).
4. More than half of millennials don’t trust influencers anymore.
“..(52% of) Millennials say they trust influencers less these days,” (Dealspotr, The 2017 Millennial Shopper Survey).
5. Instagram Influencer engagement hits all-time low.
“Instagram influencers have seen their engagement rates hover near all-time lows as the Facebook-owned app becomes over-crowded with sponsored posts.” “The engagement rate for sponsored posts fell to 2.4% in Q1 2019 from 4% three years earlier.” (Mobile Marketer, InfluencerDb Consumer Survey).
6. Consumers value recommendations from friends and family 41% more than social media recommendations.
“Americans value word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family 41% more than social media recommendations,” (Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin, 2018 Chatter Matters Word of Mouth Report).
7. 76% of consumers trust content from “normal” people.
“76% of individuals surveyed say that they’re more likely to trust content shared by “normal” people than content shared by brands,” (Olapic, Consumer Survey).
8. Consumers find user-generated content 85% more influential than brand-generated content.
“85% of users find visual UGC more influential than brand photos or videos,” (Offerpop, Consumer Survey).
9. Half of consumers account friends and family as their #1 source of brand awareness.
“49% of U.S. consumers say friends and family are their top source of brand awareness,” (Jack Morton, 2012 New Realities Study).
10. Authenticity is key to consumers’ decisions.
“86% of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support,” (Stackla, 2017 Consumer Content Report).
Evaluating Word-of-Mouth options? Download our free comprehensive Summer ’19 Landscape Report White Paper, or email us to learn more.