Archive for December, 2008

Community, Culture

A Different Gift from Bazaarvoice Sales

December 31st, 2008 by Michael Osborne Chief Revenue Officer

Every year I give my team something small at holiday time as a token of my personal appreciation for great work done all year long – a gift card or something like that. This year, keeping with the same idea, I loaded up excel and after hours of formulae, realized the team’s total gift would be about $1,000 – nothing to sneeze at.

$1,000 split among everyone was little. $1,000 by itself was large. So I decided this year we would do something different. I called one of our investors, Julie Constantin, and asked her for a recommendation of where to donate the money. Julie and her husband are very involved with charities – helping the V foundation and many others. She immediately suggested The Grace Family Vineyard Foundation, and gave me Dick Grace’s phone number. What happened next was unbelievable.
(more…)

Tags: Bazaarvoice, bazaarvoice foundation, Dick Grace, Giving, grace family foundation, Grace Family Vineyards, jimmy v foundation, julie constantin, Napa Valley, philanthropy

Interviews, Marketing Strategy, Multichannel, Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content, Word of Mouth

Mighty Leaf Tea lets word of mouth drive email marketing efforts

December 31st, 2008 by Heather Brunner Chief Operations Officer

This blog post was guest written by Audrey Warren, Bazaarvoice Community Manager.

I recently sat down with Brian Witchel, Internet Marketing Manager for Mighty Leaf Tea, to learn more about their philosophy for incorporating UGC into email marketing campaigns

Bazaarvoice: You seem to have really embraced the idea of incorporating UGC into your email campaigns – so many of your regular emails contain review snippets and your “five leaf” ratings. What helped you make this decision?
Mighty Leaf: We’ve incorporated ratings and reviews into our emails for a couple of reasons. First, we wanted to raise the awareness that we have reviews on our site. We did some research on the subject and it all pointed to the fact that products with more reviews and higher ratings sell better, so we want to continue to gather more reviews on all of our products. Also, a lot of companies will call out a product or products as a “customer favorite,” but they don’t really have the numbers to back it up. Saying “over 1,000 units sold” sounds too TV-kitschy for us. We want to highlight how much our customers love our products, not just which products sell best. It’s much more compelling to say that 40 people have rated this product five stars, and pull out a review snippet to back that up.

Bazaarvoice: Have you increased your use of UGC in emails lately? Why?
Mighty Leaf: We really wanted to ramp up our number of reviews because we recently launched a brand new site design. It seems like the more reviews you have on your site, the more reviews you get. It snowballs. On our site, reviewers leave comments in response to other comments, almost like a dialog: “I agree with Josie in Chicago. This tea is perfect in the morning…” – things like that.

Bazaarvoice: When you’re talking internally at Mighty Leaf about using UGC in marketing campaigns what does that discussion sound like?
Mighty Leaf: Reviews are really helpful in supporting our email campaigns. With each new promotion we have to decide what we want to promote, what’s the angle of the promotion, and how can we fit in a user review. We look for reviews that support our marketing angle. If we want to spotlight the flavor of a spicy tea, we use the workbench to search reviews on that product that include the word “spice.” That’s tremendous! It saves a lot of time reading through reviews and we get really fantastic copy.

Bazaarvoice: What has been your most successful email with UGC and what do you think made it so successful?
Mighty Leaf: (laugh) I might have to go back and look through them all! I like the promotions where we can pull in full reviews or longer comments. I try to pick reviews that are written recently so that when the customers go to the product page, the review from the email campaign shows up on the first page of reviews.

Check out Mighty Leaf’s beautiful new website to see how they incorporate ratings and reviews throughout their online store.

Tags: email, food, Multichannel

Community, Culture, New at Bazaarvoice

Bazaarvoice Foundation: 2008 in Numbers

December 22nd, 2008 by Brett Hurt Founder and CEO

As I have written about on this blog and in interviews (like the one I did recently with Thom Singer on our culture), I strongly believe in nourishing the soul of our company. Although the economy is very tough right now, we are very blessed to live in the wealthiest nation, to work at one of the most innovative companies, and to live in some of the greatest cities (our offices are in Austin, London, Paris, and Singapore). One of the primary ways we nourish the soul is through charity. The way I see it, we have an obligation to help those that are less fortunate. Human potential is an amazing force; I recently read the book Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, which hammers home the potential that each person has given the right set of circumstances (this is a brilliant read for you over the holiday break). I am also a sincere believer in karma, and I believe our company’s performance is tied to our involvement in charity.

So, it is with great pleasure that I introduce you to Snowflake (Snow) Rosen, our Sales Director who leads our Bazaarvoice Foundation (in the spirit of Tribes, by Seth Godin, you don’t have to be a manager at Bazaarvoice to lead an important initiative or group). I believe this is Snow’s first post to our blog, even though we have been significantly involved in charity ever since we started the company.

Written by Snowflake Rosen:

At Bazaarvoice, we give thanks for our collective abundance by weaving service and charity into our corporate culture. We created the Bazaarvoice Foundation to build structure around this core value of service by providing leadership and organization of at least two service events per quarter. Team members across the company propose the events we sponsor; the activities reflect both our individual and company passions.

In 2008, as a company, we made an impact to service organizations and charities locally and nationally.

Together, we contributed to 10 events for 10 different local and national organizations, including:

1 rack of professional clothing for The Salvation Army’s Employment Services and Employment Counseling

21 “Wishpacks” for Make a Wish Foundation of Central and South Texas to accompany Wishkids who have been granted a trip

40 towels for Emancipet to help stray dogs and cats recovering from spay and neuter surgery

60 teddy bears for Center for Child Protection to reduce the trauma for children during the investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases

40 trees planted, exterior walls painted and an irrigation system installed at Govalle Elementary in East Austin through Entrepreneurs Foundation Fall Service Day

1 pro bono Bazaarvoice Stories implementation for the Jimmy V Foundation

100+ ceramic mugs for “Greening the Bazaarvoice kitchen”- staff members cleaned out their cabinets and brought in 100 ceramic mugs to end our use of disposal coffee cups

125 – Average bowling score of 8th Annual Austin Cup Bazaarvoice bowling team – we are bad bowlers with good hearts

421 person hours donated in total

Financial contributions to Jimmy V Foundation, Grace Family Foundation, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation LIVESTRONG Challenge

It is an honor to chair the Bazaarvoice Foundation, and I am consistently touched and impressed by our efforts.

Blessings in 2009,
Snowflake Rosen

Ask & Answer, Case Studies, Marketing Strategy, Ratings & Reviews, Research, User-Generated Content, eCommerce

Mistergooddeal.com continue de s’impliquer fortement dans le commerce social et lance Ask&Answer, les Questions et Réponses.

December 19th, 2008 by Heather Brunner Chief Operations Officer

This blog post was guest written by Emilie Rose, Bazaarvoice CM for European clients. Look for the same post in English!

Récemment, notre présence en France a vu de grandes arrivées et a continué à connaitre une grande réussite. En tant que Community Manager pour la France, je suis très fière de voir Bazaarvoice lancer et signer autant de grandes marques françaises.

Un de plus beaux accomplissements et dont je suis très fière également, est le succès de Ratings & Reviews (les notes et commentaires) et le lancement tout récent d’Ask & Answer (les questions et réponses) sur le site de notre client français historique – Mistergooddeal.com. Mistergooddeal.com est un des leaders e-Commerce de l’équipement de la maison et était notre tout premier magasin en ligne en France à lancer Ratings and Reviews. Quand Ask & Answer a été lancé, Mistergooddeal.com en a profité pour développer davantage la présence du commerce social sur ses pages avec de nouvelles fonctionnalités.

Par exemple, Mistergooddeal.com a lancé une nouvelle landing page d’information.

Cette nouvelle landing page d’information comprend des conseils d’utilisation et d’écriture pour Ratings and Reviews ainsi que pour Ask & Answer permettant ainsi aux internautes de pouvoir contribuer à chacun de ces types de contenu. Par ailleurs, la nouvelle landing page fait aussi la promotion des produits actuellement les mieux notés. Cette nouvelle page est visible depuis un lien situé sur la page d’accueil du site, dans la première moitié de la page, ainsi que dans le pied de page de toutes les pages du site.

En simultanée, sur sa page d’accueil, Mistergooddeal.com a aussi commencé à promouvoir les produits les mieux notés du moment ainsi qu’une bannière très visible permettant de visiter la nouvelle landing page d’information.

La promotion de produits sur la page d’accueil est un moyen très performant pour attirer l’attention sur vos produits qui ont le plus le succès et contribuent à l’amélioration des ventes. Nous encourageons toujours nos clients à mettre en avant leur produits les mieux notés car notre recherche a montré que les internautes achètent davantage de produits qui sont répertoriés comme produits les mieux notés comparé à toute autre catégorie, y compris les meilleures ventes.
Enfin, et avec beaucoup de succès également dans la course contre la montre pour les campagnes de Noël, Mistergooddeal.com a envoyé des emails promotionnels contenant des avis consommateurs pour les produits phares de ces emails.

Je suis très satisfaite de ces deniers développements sur le site de Mistergooddeal.com: la période avant Noël est traditionnellement celle qui conduit le plus de trafic sur les sites marchands. Il était donc clé d’utiliser le contenu généré par les utilisateurs autant que possible pour conduire davantage de ventes et dynamiser la croissance et la voix de la communauté en ligne de Mistergooddeal.com. Avec non seulement Ratings and Reviews mais aussi Ask & Answer derrière l’implication forte en commerce social, Mistergooddeal.com se positionne comme un des leaders sur le marché français pour les idées et expériences innovantes avec l’utilisation du contenu généré par les utilisateurs.

Tags: customer-reviews, europe, France, landing page, splash page

Ask & Answer, Case Studies, Marketing Strategy, Ratings & Reviews, Research, User-Generated Content

Mistergooddeal.com drives great engagement and launches Ask & Answer

December 19th, 2008 by Heather Brunner Chief Operations Officer

This blog post was guest written by Emilie Rose, Bazaarvoice CM for European clients. This is the English version of the blog post – look next for the same post in French!

Our French client roster has had some great additions and accomplishments in the past few weeks, and as the Community Manager for France, I am very proud to see us launch and sign so many of the top French brands.

One of the most recent accomplishments, and the one I am most proud off, is the success of Ratings & Reviews, and the launch of Ask & Answer, on our premier French site – Mistergooddeal.com. Mistergooddeal.com is one of the leading online sellers of home equipment and furniture, and was our very first retail client to launch in France with Ratings & Reviews. When Ask & Answer was launched, Mistergooddeal.com took the opportunity to spread the word further on their pages, and created new social commerce features on their site.

For instance, Mistergooddeal.com revamped their informational splash page to include guidelines on both Ratings & Reviews and Ask & Answer, making it easier for their customers to contribute both types of content. In addition, the new splash page also promotes the current top rated products. This splash page receives visibility from some “customer reviews” links above the fold on the homepage and in the footer of all site pages.

Simultaneously, Mistergooddeal have also started promoting the top-rated products on their homepage with a banner that redirects to the splash page as well.

Showcasing products on the home page is a great way to call attention to your most successful items, usually driving additional sales. We always encourage retailers to highlight their Top Rated Products are research shows that customers buy more from Top Rated Categories than any other category, including Best Sellers.
Finally, and very successfully too, in the run-up to Christmas, Mistergooddeal.com sent regular email promotions to their users that included customer reviews alongside discounted products.

I am very proud of all these latest developments on Mistergooddeal.com’s side: the run up to Christmas has traditionally generated so much traffic on retailer’s sites, it was key to make as much use as possible of the UGC content to drive more sales and energize the community growth and voice. With both Ratings and Reviews and Ask & Answer driving this sort of engagement, look to Mistergooddeal.com as the leader in the French market for innovative user generated ideas and experiences.

Tags: europe, France, q&A, splash page, top-rated

Research

81% of Holiday Shoppers Using Reviews

December 19th, 2008 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

Nielsen recently reported the results of a study that found 81% of online holiday shoppers are using reviews. This is higher than Jupiter/Forrester had found over a year ago, where over 70% of online shoppers sought out reviews. We also know from Jupiter that over 60% of offline purchases (some studies suggest more) are affected by online research. So, it’s quite possible that two-thirds of total retail sales are affected by reviews. We served 1.2B impressions of UGC on Cybermonday, and now serving 2 billion impressions of UGC per month on average.

Of course, if you aren’t leveraging the power of customer contributiosn right now, this news comes a little too late for this holiday season. However, it’s never too late. The impact of user generated content is the gift that keeps on giving throughout the entire year! Get started just after the holidays.

Tags: Bazaarvoice, nielsen, Research, reviews, study

Social Commerce Summit

Gearing up for the ’09 Social Commerce Summit!

December 16th, 2008 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

Back for its second year, the Social Commerce Summit will be held April 27th -29th at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center at The University of Texas at Austin. This year’s agenda is razor-focused on how regular consumers can drive measurable results to fuel your business. We want to welcome you to the NEW ROI: Return on Influentials. We’ll share what works, what’s next, and how customers who share their thoughts and opinions – the Influentials – can improve business. The metrics prove it.

The Social Commerce Summit gathers companies at all levels of social commerce adoption. You’ll have many opportunities to network with peers, analysts, and Bazaarvoice Community Managers and executives.

We have an outstanding list of speakers, including Ed Keller, Jonah Peretti, Ze Frank, Jeffrey Graham, Jill Griffin, and Shane Atchison.

In addition, a select group of Bazaarvoice clients exemplifying best practices in social commerce will share advice strategy and tips. Check in often on our summit website for updates on topics and client speakers.

We’re gathering client feedback to determine what’s relevant and timely for our breakout sessions. Here’s a list of what we currently have on tap:

Beyond Customer Reviews: Implementing the Next Phase of Social Commerce
Retailing Panel: How to Successfully Use UGC Throughout the Channel
Rapid Fire: Live Examples of Social Initiatives that Work
Extending the Voice: 10 Winning Syndication and Integration Practices
What It All Means: Real-World Strategies for Measuring UGC
Creating Customer Oxygen: How Contributions, Content, and Data Transform the Organization

Plus…

Complimentary copy of Jill Griffin’s new book, Taming the Search and Switch Customer
See and contribute to Bazaarvoice’s Social Commerce roadmap, reporting, and services
Discover untapped capabilities with Bazaarvoice workbench, features, and services
Meet and learn from the entire Bazaarvoice executive team, analysts, and Community Managers
The “Just Ask” session where Bazaarvoice executives are on stage to answer any remaining questions
And, most importantly, lots of networking opportunities with your peers

We know you have to budget your time and travel for next year, so please take a moment to pencil this event into your schedule. We are limiting attendance to 300 for this event to keep it intimate, increasing your opportunities for quality learning and networking, so reserve your space now.

Event location and rooms available at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, Austin, TX.
Special Holiday Deal! Register before January 9 and receive 50% off the regular registration fee of $795.

Questions? Email us at summit@bazaarvoice.com.

Bazaarvoice Stories, Culture, New at Bazaarvoice

Can Social Media Help Cure Cancer?

December 13th, 2008 by Brett Hurt Founder and CEO

It was a big week for basketball, as the Jimmy V Men’s Basketball Classic ended in Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. And it was a big week for Bazaarvoice because we’re supporters of the V Foundation for Cancer Research, founded by friends of legendary coach Jim Valvano, which worked with ESPN to stage this college basketball showdown.

The V Foundation launched a major website upgrade, and the Classic event drives traffic (and donations) to their new site. We donated our Stories product to them, giving friends of Jimmy and donors a place to share their own experiences. We hope the stories help engage the community and inspire even more donations; the stories being shared are incredibly touching.

My wife, Debra, and I became personal donors this year when we attended the V Foundation’s Wine Celebration in Napa Valley. Julie Constantin, one of our investors and Advisory Board member, and her team of other donors, such as 24 Hour Fitness, led the effort for the new site. Julie and her husband, Andrew, founded the Wine Celebration and are “total leaders”, as defined by Stew Friedman’s Total Leadership (a book I deployed throughout Bazaarvoice this year).

I highly recommend watching Valvano’s 1993 ESPY speech on the V Foundation’s YouTube channel or just below.

I saw it for the first time at the Wine Celebration this year. It is incredibly moving and motivating. I watched it again on a recent trip to San Francisco to visit clients, during a quick lunch at a diner, and got some concerned looks as I had tears well up, just like the first time. On a personal note, I lost my grandmother to cancer when I was 18, and my hope is that we eradicate all forms of this cruel disease in our lifetimes. Just today we were at a 4-year old’s birthday party and one of the mothers that we expected to see there was not – her father is in the last day’s of his life due to cancer and she is by his side.

Even in tough economic times, it is important to “nourish the soul” of our company – and ourselves – and give back when we can. Culture and charity are a very important part of what Bazaarvoice is about. We are very proud to be supporters of the V Foundation.

In the powerful words of Jimmy Valvano: “Don’t Give Up… Don’t Ever Give Up!”

Tags: andrew constantin, Bazaarvoice, espn, espy, jim valvano, jimmy v, julie constantin, v foundation, wine celebration

BazaarblogIdeas to Help Customers Build Your Business

Archive for December, 2008

A Different Gift from Bazaarvoice Sales

Mighty Leaf Tea lets word of mouth drive email marketing efforts

Bazaarvoice Foundation: 2008 in Numbers

Mistergooddeal.com continue de s’impliquer fortement dans le commerce social et lance Ask&Answer, les Questions et Réponses.

Mistergooddeal.com drives great engagement and launches Ask & Answer

81% of Holiday Shoppers Using Reviews

Can Social Media Help Cure Cancer?

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