Imagine yourself on vacation in a country which you have never visited before, looking for a hotel in the city center. There are many options and you are debating which to choose. One of the first steps you take is to scroll down to the bottom of the hotels page to read comments and recommendations of users/ customers.
If their feedback is bad and the hotel’s general score is less than 8, you will move on to the next one. This is very much like the way we used to do things for years in the past when we came to a new place and looked for a restaurant for dinner. We never went into an empty restaurant, preferring to stand in line for a table in the restaurant next door which looks full and busy.
This is the meaning of the very significant term: Social Proof Of Quality – SPOQ.
In the digital age, “social density”, on a positive side, is worth more than any advertising campaign. It is an indicator of quality.
Research shows that 77% of users read customer’s recommendations before making their purchase decision. This figure crosses all categories and characterizes most worldwide locations.
Digital stores should address this data and add users’ feedback as a main vehicle in their ongoing marketing plan.
A good product and service could entice buyers to recommend it to others. It is also possible to send an email to the satisfied buyer and ask him to leave a positive feedback or offer an incentive to those buyers who agree to share their good experiences with potential customers. You want to use structured and friendly programs such as: Shopify Discount Code. This simple tool allows digital storeowners to provide customers with these types of benefits:
– Percentage discount
– Shipment discount
Tools such as these are highly effective for triggering (experiences, recommendations, brand-supporting social activities) as well as for the setting up and maintaining digital stores loyalty programs and customer member clubs.
One of the most effective ways to support your SPOQ Index – social proof of quality – is to take ownership of a particular domain by launching and maintaining a professional blog written by the store owner, encouraging customers (preferably in the Passionates’ segment) to read, respond, share and produce the signals of social proof of quality.
SPOQ has become important for every digital marketing move:
90% of consumers read customer reviews before visiting the store or the service provider’s website
31% reported that they tend to buy more from a site with good reviews
72% will make a buying decision only after reading users feedback.
What is the impact of SPOQ on the business / brand marketing activity?
- It essentially creates user content in the most authentic and original way. This type of content is famous for attracting a higher level of attention and enjoys better results on organic search engine promotion. Google favors original, dynamic, and authentic content.
- It boosts long tail key word traffic – users who share their buying experience generally use the same words as potential consumers do in their search (the pre-buying one). The overlap between the words ensures improved organic promotion activity.
- A community scene of this type triggers talk about the brand, products and experience.
- A lively and positive conversation about the brand and its products produces a signal of relevance, authenticity and above all reliability which is expressed in terms such as: Authority & Trusted.
- A discussion on the brand and the service improves its perceived ranking compared to the competitors.
Work plan for upgrading Brand’s SPOQ
- Encourage users to be involved and share their shopping experience with you. This can be done by direct contact or by encouraging sharing on social. First invite them to be your friends or followers, then encourage them to be part of your responders group.
- Maintain continuous communication with those who have already shared and written. Maintain a public and personal dialog about their feelings and experiences about the brand, including ways to improve it.
- Initiate a compensation plan for consumers who become active. For those who write and share their experiences about your brand, on your site and on other platforms. Loyalty programs or compensation programs could be part of the strategic plan of any digital site or stores.
SPOQ measurement components:
Sentiment – Go over all relevant digital arenas to understand whether the public supports your brand or whether the general sentiment is negative. There could be differences in sentiment between different platforms. For example, brand sentiment may be positive on the brand’s destination site while social sentiment (on social networks) is negative.
- In this case, you should examine the differences in usage and depth of familiarity with the brand, between customers who entered your store or site, and those exposed to your brand through social.
- Emotions Volume – to what extend are the negative feedbacks, for example, extreme and decisive. This component can be tested by assimilating semantic tracking technologies that examine words used by users. There is a difference between words such as: “I was not happy” or “did not meet expectations” compared to words such as: “disappointment”, “crooks” or “poor product”.
- Quantity – The number of respondents and feedbacks. You can simply count the number of responses and responders during a relevant period (usually once a month or a quarter). Examine the number of responses and responders on the various digital platforms. It will certainly be interesting to see the differences between the brand’s home page, app, social and external digital channels. A small number of comments and reviews means that the Engagement Index of the brand is not sufficient.
Numerous measurement tools are available on the market with entrepreneurs who develop smart tools to meet this specific goal.
In any case, I recommend that companies and brands invest in developing such an efficient tool. In the coming years, SPOQ will become an increasingly significant signal domain for quality based on user experiences.
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