Consumer content contributes to buying intent and frequency

Website and social media content improve knowledge and engagement

Recently, research has been carried into the consumer content created by the Flower Council of Holland. This research was done by Return on Content - an agency that specialises in content research. The result proves that our content marketing activities have a positive impact on consumers’ long-term buying intent and buying frequency.

Content and research design

The Flower Council of Holland offers inspirational and informative content, such as articles and social media posts to boost consumer engagement with flowers and plants. We do this through our websites and social media channels, jointly called ‘platforms’. To assess how well our content performs, Return on Content performed quantitative and qualitative research in our four core countries: Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. They surveyed 4,460 respondents within our key segments to assess multiple factors that are important for content, such as relevance, differentiation, creditability, and call to action. Next, they compared the results to a benchmark.

General benchmark and our results
To understand how well our content performs, a comparison had to be made with the content of others. It was compared to a general benchmark that is based on the input of over 17,000 respondents (consumers). They assessed content of over 100 cases from more than 10 different sectors. These sectors include health insurers, banks, energy brands, supermarkets, charities and so on. The benchmark has a generic average score of 100. Any scores above this mark are ‘above average’, whilst scores below the 100 mark are considered ‘below average’. Compared to this benchmark, the flower and plant platforms scored considerably high. Flower platforms achieved a score of 161, while plants scored 150.

Indicators of performance
To further understand how well our content performs, Return on Content looked at three so-called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These are indicators of progress towards intended results, which were defined by us. KPIs answer questions we ask ourselves regarding the content we create. The first question was whether people find our content informative and if it makes them feel inspired. Those who visit our platforms show on average a 12% increase in knowledge and an 8% increase in inspiration regarding flowers and plants. The survey also shows that 50% of the target audience think more positively about flowers and plants after seeing our content than they did before.

Buying intent and frequency
The second KPI is an increase in buying intent. This is more of a long-term goal, which grows over time through prolonged exposure to stimulating content. Within five to six months, the buying intent for flowers and plants is about 4% to 10% higher with those exposed to our content than those who aren’t. This also shows in the third and final KPI that was measured: buying frequency. The number of consumers who expect to buy flowers and plants five or more times in the coming six months is higher in the group that is exposed to our content. Here, we see a clear shift in the expected buying frequency from infrequent to frequent within this same time span.

Conclusion and follow-up
The outcome of this research shows that our content contributes significantly to our KPIs. It shows a clear uplift in the level of interest consumers have in flowers and plants, and the degree to which they feel informed about them. By exposing consumers to our content, we see an increase in both buying intent and buying frequency. Moreover, the content matter is also greatly appreciated. Of course, the research also offered learning points, which we will apply to improve the content.

More information
If you’d like to know more about this research and its outcome, please contact Tessa Triesscheijn, Content Marketing Manager, via ttriesscheijn@bloemenbureauholland.nl.

                  
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