- Crowdsourcing projects tend to go faster than ones with traditional fundraising.
- Crowdsourcing has been in use for a while, with Pillsbury creating notable campaigns in the 1950’s, but it’s fairly new to the internet.
- Crowdsourcing is an effective method of getting content for your brand.
Crowdsourcing is in use on many platforms these days. People like to run crowdsourcing campaigns on social media as well as through more traditional methods. The type of content you get from crowdsourcing can be unique and new to you, so it’s a great way to break out of a content rut at your company.
Crowdsourcing is a little bit counter intuitive in one aspect. You might think that with a full crowd involved, people would take more time to come up with the content. That isn’t necessarily true. Many times, the crowd beats the small team time-wise.
Here are six ways digital marketing strategies benefit from crowdsourcing.
The Customer Has a Voice
Don’t all customers want a voice at their favorite brands? With crowdsourcing, customers actually get rewarded for their voice. It’s a great way to show that you are listening and want some input.
While brands tend to have strong design teams, sometimes the relationship with your customers is as important as the professional designs you achieve with your team.
Using your customers’ ideas once in a while can inspire your team in new ways and breathe new life into your campaigns.
Speedy Completion
Usually there are smaller teams within the crowd, so the teams might be more “agile” than they seem. Besides the obvious benefits of an agile team, there is extra enthusiasm that adds value..
Crowdsourced ideas come from people who really love the brand, and they may have thought about the direction of the content for a while. The project may be completed quicker if people have been thinking about their ideas for a while, even if they weren’t doing so professionally.
Since you don’t know if people actually are randomly coming up with ideas for your brand, you don’t always want to bet on a super-fast completion. But based on the track record of crowdsourcing in general, you can expect that there are a few good ideas out in that crowed just waiting for someone to pick them up.
Novel Ideas
Whether you are working with customers, freelancers, or a combination of the two, you will find ideas that are unexpected and rare when you crowdsource. It’s always a good idea for brands to consider new ideas for their content. Staying edgy keeps things interesting.
You don’t have to deviate from your brand norms necessarily (although that may be why you are crowdsourcing in the first place), but you always have the option! Options are good.
Small Pieces
At first, you might not realize how general you are when you post the outline for your project. People naturally make a lot of assumptions when they start working with a new brief. But after you get a few submissions that are nothing like what you are looking for, you will realize that you need to break things down.
Itemize each detail. It may seem like it’s too much, but it’s not. This process can really help you develop your brand and refine things.
Market Research and Development Opportunities
You may find before you start a crowdsourcing project that people who use your product will send you their thoughts unexpectedly. This can even happen on social media these days.
When you choose to interact and develop a conversation with them either before or during a crowdsourcing effort, you can discover new things about your market.
Customer ideas can be developed, and you may learn more about your market than you ever knew when people know they can come to you with ideas. It’s all about how you respond.
Crowdsourcing Is Modern
Brands are always striving to stay in the moment, and the internet version of crowdsourcing offers a lot to companies that want to keep a competitive edge. If you have no other reasons for crowdsourcing, it might be time to try it just because the way we do it now is fairly new.
Customers have more options than ever when it comes to interacting with brands. Making use of the energy and interest they have to discover more about your market is a smart choice.
But ideally, you will take on a crowdsourcing project to have some fun too! If you can keep an open mind and realize that it’s a bit of a stretch creatively, you will likely enjoy the chance to connect with customers in this way.