So why not take it a step further and utilize customer generated content in the form of product reviews in advertising?

Advertising has become so ubiquitous that it is mostly ignored and consumers don’t trust the messages that companies send them. But the customer’s voice is as powerful offline as it is online, so why not take advantage of it?

Best Buy recently featured their customers’ voices – actual snippets from online product reviews along with product ratings – in their nationwide Sunday newspaper circular. They utilized a clear call to action to drive consumers directly to their “Top Rated Cameras” page, giving shoppers quick and easy access to top rated cameras. This not only provides a great way for Best Buy to advertise their top cameras, but it allows them to easily measure the success of this advertisement by measuring traffic to this page and sales conversion of these products.

This is another example of a Bazaarvoice best practice developed by our team of Community Managers – use your customers’ words to fuel your entire marketing mix. We strongly encourage our clients to use their customer reviews (along with other valuable user generated content such as from our Ask & Answer, BrandVoice and Stories products) in all forms of advertising: email marketing, online ads, store signage, print ads, Facebook groups, etc.

There is no more effective way to get customers to listen than to let them hear from other customers just like them. This is the future of advertising or should I say “effective" advertising!