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Expert Content Is Best Influencer in Purchase Funnel
by Jack Loechner, Thursday, October 2, 2014 6:15 AM
According to a new study by Nielsen, commissioned by inPowered and entitled The Role of the Consumer in the Decision Making Process, consumers report an increase in usage
across all sources of information in the past five years, including sources such as brand websites, user reviews, and third party expert content, when learning more about new products and services.
The ability to easily access information from a variety of sources has fundamentally changed the way consumers research products and, ultimately, make purchase decisions. Results of the study show that expert content (credible, third-party articles and reviews) is the most effective source of information in impacting consumers along all stages of the
purchase process, across product categories. Information Source Usage In
The Consumer Decision ProcessInformation Source% of Respondents Using Use LessUse More Social
media 10% 54% User reviews 11 52 Online advertising 11 51
Expert reviews 11 46 Word of mouth 10 45 Official brand websites 13
44 TV advertising 15 40 Radio advertising
24 29 Source:
Nielsen/inPowered study, March 2014 To evaluate the impact of expert content and branded content online and its role in the purchase
process, an experimental design was used to expose consumers to content and then measure the impact of that content in creating product awareness/familiarity, influencing perceptions and increasing
purchase consideration. A controlled-lab setting was critical, says the report, as the amount of information to be digested was such that it introduced the possibility that
respondents would not fully read the content or information provided if exposed in an unsupervised testing environment. The Nielsen MediaLabs facility draws from a nationally-representative
population, and is the only lab facility to offer in-lab testing without relying only on locally recruited respondents. These advantages were conducive to increasing the reliability and projectability
of the research findings. Content was classified as one of three content types: expert content, user reviews, and branded content.
- Expert content
includes reviews and articles selected from third-party websites and blogs dedicated to the relevant product category.
- User reviews were selected from the reviews portion of major
online retailers or forums.
- Branded content was content taken directly from the official websites for each product.
An at-a-glance summary of
the experiment results shows that, while each content type had some success at increasing product familiarity, affinity, and purchase intent, content written by credible experts performed best
overall. Expert content was the only content type to exhibit a strong lift in all 3 areas of the purchase cycle. It provided the most familiarity lift for 7 out of the 9
products, the most affinity lift for 5 of the 9 products, and the most purchase intent lift for 6 of the 9 products. On average, expert content lifted familiarity 88% more
than branded content and 50% more than user reviews; they lifted affinity 50% more than branded content and 20% more than user reviews; finally, they lifted purchase consideration 38% more than
branded content and 83% more than user reviews.
Positive Lift Percentage From Exposure to
Expert Content LiftProductFamiliarity Affinity Purchase Consideration Smartphone 22% 13% 16% Smart TV 8 6 7 Video Game 30
22 11 Car Seat 28 19 14 Electric Toothbrush
3 12 9 Dryer
18 10 16 New
Automobile 6 4 15 Auto Insurance 3 6 5
Camera 19 12 6
Source: Nielsen/inPowered study, March 2014 Positive Lift Percentage From Exposure to User ReviewsProductLift Familiarity AffinityPurchase Consideration Smartphone 9% 6%
2% Smart TV 1 9 4 Video
Game 25 28 20 Car Seat 11 16 19 Electric Toothbrush
2 16 0
Dryer 21 9 0 New Automobile 4 0 8 Auto Insurance 0 1
2 Camera 11 6 6
Source: Nielsen/inPowered study, March 2014 Positive Lift Percentage From Exposure to Branded ContentProductLift Familiarity Affinity Purchase Consideration Smartphone 7% 10% 13%
Smart TV 0 7
0 Video Game 17 3 12
Car Seat 19 15
16 Electric Toothbrush 11
10 7 Dryer 10 12 9 New Automobile 6 2 4 Auto
Insurance 0 4 1 Camera 16 12 12
Source:
Nielsen/inPowered study, March 2014 Two key differentiators help to explain why expert content was the only type that exhibited
this strong lift across all three areas of the purchase funnel, says the report. The perceived partiality of the source was especially critical in setting expert content and branded
content apart. The third-party element was important to consumers: 50% indicated that they wouldn’t trust a product’s branded website for an unbiased assessment of a
product, and 61% were less likely to trust product reviews paid for by the company selling the product. The other key differentiator was how informative
the respondents perceived the content to be. Consumers perceived expert content to be 10% and 8% more informative than both user content and branded content respectively. Thus, expert
content’s ability to provide the greatest breadth and variety of information compared to branded and user content, combined with a perspective that it was perceived as unbiased,
appears to be driving its consistently high performance in all areas of the purchase process.
Impact Of Content Types Across Purchase Process Information SourcePurchase
ConsiderationAffinityFamiliarity User
reviews 6% 10% 10% Branded content 8% 8% 8%
Expert content 11% 12% 15%
Source: Nielsen/inPowered study, March 2014Expert
Content Effectiveness Purchase Consideration + 83% Vs. User Reviews +38% Vs.
Branded Content
Affinity +20% Vs. User Reviews +50% Vs. Branded Content
Familiarity +50% Vs. User Reviews +88% Vs. Branded Content
Source: Nielsen/inPowered study, March 2014 While user reviews and branded content did not exhibit the same pattern of consistency in performance
across all categories and phases of the purchase cycle that was observed with expert content, there were instances where their impact was strongest. With branded content, for example,
lift was strongest with categories where product specs were a critical part of the part of the decision making process. And, user reviews were found to be successful in categories where
users tend to have a higher degree of product expertise. Expert content was most effective at influencing high price point purchases (i.e. $1,000+). It is
important to note that branded content was effective at driving familiarity and affinity for big ticket purchases, but it was not as effective at persuading purchase consideration. User
reviews had even less relevance for these types of purchases. Ultimately, expert content influenced all three phases and was most effective at driving final purchase consideration. The
higher the price point, the more efficient expert content was in educating and persuading consumers.
Content Impact On High-Priced Items Brand Impact: High-Priced Items (Index) Expert Content User Reviews Branded content Familiarity Lift 122 33 144
Affinity Lift 153 47 127 Purchase Intent Lift 186 57
57
Source: Nielsen/inPowered study, March 2014
Concluding, the report pointed out that, overall, the research indicates that there is a higher degree of trust from consumers when they are reading content
from credible, third party experts. This trust is demonstrated by the higher lift scores with regard to product familiarity, affinity and purchase intent and its perception of being highly informative
and unbiased. This trust further suggests that expert content is more efficient at pushing consumers along the consumer decision-making process because it is more effective at consistently lifting
these measures across each phase of the purchase process. In the end, says the report, the impact of expert content on consumer decision making demonstrates the important
role that objective and credible information from trusted sources play in the purchase process. For
additional information about the study from Nielsen in PDF format, please visit here.