There is a lot of buzz around B2C crowdsourced advertising campaigns. The likes of Pepsi and Unilever have stolen the web bylines with marketing concepts suckled from diverse crowds of video producers and other creatives using cash prizes and social networks. Crowdsourcing is being adopted to gather anything from concepts for viral videos through to Superbowl ads.
But crowdsourcing is even better suited to B2B brands. After all, they have a more direct relationship with their customers, a better understanding of networking and have more linked up partnering and distribution models. Each of these attributes play well into the phenomenon of crowdsourcing.
So in what instances can B2B brands use crowdsourcing? Here’s the crib sheet.
Crowdsourcing product development
Companies such as Dell and BMW are getting pretty good at using crowdsourcing to brainstorm and develop ideas about how to improve their products. Clients and partners are a great place to start. Dell has gone as far as launching its own platform, called Ideastorm, to develop product features and innovations, as well as to garner feedback on new initiatives. B2B brands often have quite advanced distribution and partnership models that they could use to seed such initiatives. Either develop your own innovation crowdsourcing platform, like Dell, or work with specialist expert sourcers.
Crowdsourcing research and opinions
Crowdsourcing is a great way to engage in cost effective market research and opinion nurturing through social media-style conversations. Garner views and opinions on product or service improvements, market directions, competitive analysis or pricing sensitivities. B2B brands can work with specialist B2B crowdsourcing agencies to target the crowd, design the most effective questions and get relevant responses. Crowdsourced market research is more conversational and emotional but a valuable addition to the traditional, statistical research methods.
Crowdsourced corporate venturing
Corporate venturing is great for both social responsibility and PR. It used to be the sole preserve for multi-billion pound brands. Now it’s realistic for any B2B brand to do corporate venturing irrespective of size. You can invest in tomorrow’s ventures and start-ups for as little as a few hundred pounds at emerging platforms such as Kiva and Innovatrs.
Crowdsourcing select projects
Many B2B brands are strong at project and process management. Their businesses depend on it. But too many B2B brands rely solely on internal resources or expensive consultants to deliver the projects. Now there is a great new flexible, hybrid solution – crowdsourced projects and project resources garnered from open crowds of volunteers rewarded solely on successful project deliverables. NetFlix got this ball rolling with their $1 million crowdsourced technology project. It expanded on the already established practice of open source development.
Projects that would benefit from crowdsourcing could include IT, customer service, logistics, manufacturing and channel management. In fact, most projects that center on business process improvements would benefit whether the business is a product or service provider.
Crowdsourcing clients
There are a few platforms out there that use crowdsourcing to gather leads, business owners or entrepreneurs. Used correctly they can be a great way to prospect and partner. From lower cost lead generation and prospect database platforms, such as Jigsaw, to crowdsourced platforms for leading entrepreneurs such as Innovatrs.
Contest-driven crowdsourced marketing campaigns
Just because your customers are businesses does not mean they have any less ability to be creative. In fact some young marketing talent at an SME client or partner may be even more adept at flinging a creative concept over to you. Make sure that they get the support of their bosses, as the reward will have to be given over to the company in many instances, so they will need to see the benefits of entering as well. A bunch of positive press for the victor may be enough. Use crowds to help develop advertising copy, video production or creative imagery.
Crowdsourcing for part-time workers
All B2B brands utilise increasingly flexible working practices – particularly given the last couple of economically challenging years. There are a range of advanced web platforms that will help you to recruit the best part timer or freelancer for those more definable, repetitive tasks. Leaders of the pack include Freelancer.com, eLance and Guru.
There are multiple, tangible ways in which B2B businesses can benefit from the growing crowdsourcing revolution. Each can bring direct and measurable benefits. But crowdsourcing is a fundamentally different way of doing business and connecting with individuals or teams. Done right, crowdsourcing can make a sizable impact to your brand and bottom line; done wrong it can be expensive and messy. My advice is to make sure that you work with the right partners. And start developing a crowdsourcing strategy before your competitors do.
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