The IT industry is increasingly open to crowdsourcing in marketing

An increasing number of companies are deciding to include clients in the process of building their brand and introducing new products to the market. From the marketer’s point of view, such solutions are not only more effective than one-way communication, but also bring more benefits to the client.

Due to the rapidly growing popularity of social media and big data, an increasingly important role in marketing communication is played by listening to the client and establishing a dialogue with him. As John McKean says in his book about the approach to customers: “70% of purchasing decisions are based on how we are treated as people.” Listening to the customer and responding to his suggestions, as well as further product development on this basis makes his relationship with the brand go to an even higher level and are more suited to his expectations. Although this model has been on the market for many years, it was not until 2006 that it was used for the first time in the magazine Wired by Jeff Howe and called crowdsourcing.

Increased awareness model

The idea for using the knowledge of the crowd to create a product is not only to take into account the needs and requirements of customers, but above all to reduce the cost of implementation and continuous product optimization. The bond built in this way allows not only to present the new product in an attractive way, but also to engage in the entire user process. – “Thanks to crowdsourcing we have the opportunity to reach knowledge and skills and experience of hundreds of people who voluntarily become testers and ambassadors of our products in their environments. We gain not only the first customers, but also people who forward information about our product. ” – says Tomasz Zamarlik, co-founder of the Brandoo Group interactive agency. Nokia has been following this idea for many years, creating the “Invent with Nokia” website where users can test new solutions and share opinions. The Nokia platform includes an extensive system for testing customer satisfaction and exchange of experiences and suggestions for changes. A similar system is used by the BZ WBK bank, which aggregates feedback from customers on the functioning of banking services on the “Bank of Ideas” platform. Home.pl did it as well, which by introducing develop.home.pl was able to optimize and accelerate the development of products based on the suggestions of its customers.

The solution is increasingly chosen by agencies

Agencies have been recommending crowdsourcing solutions to clients for some time, paying attention to their effectiveness and complementarity. One of the last examples is Unizeto Technologies’ implementation of a new PaaS platform on the Polish market – UniCloud.pl (“Platform as a Service” – a virtual environment for programmers), whose teaser resembled a user introduction to a “RPG” game. Internet users who joined the “game” in the first stage had the opportunity to earn points for recommending the service and joining beta testing as the first, but registration is still open so those interested can see in person what crowdsourcing is about. During beta testing, participants can actively participate in testing the new platform using gamification. A suggestion sharing platform has also been made available, called the “Chamber of Confessions”. Thanks to this, users can add their comments and vote for change suggestions added by other users, thus determining the development priorities of the platform. – “Thanks to feedback from over 5,000 users are able to effectively reduce the cost of testing, and better tailor the service to their real needs and is a key element in implementing the UniCloud platform to the market. The number of users is constantly growing despite the complete termination of paid advertising activities. “- sums up Ilona Miziewicz-Groszczyk, Product Manager at Unizeto Technologies.

The use of gamification and crowdsourcing can give very spectacular results

in marketing – “Gamification means injecting fun elements into activities that have never been fun. This is usually done using mechanisms known from games – points, leaderboards, challenges or levels.” – says Paweł Tkaczyk, author of the book “Gamification”, owner of the MIDEA agency. This solution gives the company a competitive advantage through cost reductions and a fresh adaptation to customer expectations relative to beta testing, which in themselves are not always seen as an attractive process.

Wisdom of the crowd as the future of marketing?

Due to continuous network development and two-way communication, not only the largest companies but also smaller players from the SME sector should reach for the wisdom of the crowd. The tool that was once reserved for companies with large budgets becomes something that all marketing specialists should remember who recommend the most optimal solutions to their clients.

We should always keep in mind that the most important thing when introducing a new product is to build a small group of users who will love it and tell friends about it. And how best to make others fall in love with yourself? Conducting an open, honest and inspiring dialogue with them.