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According to Monica Ho, CMO of SOCi, a marketing platform for multi-location B2C brands, it’s hard for companies to develop a global/local mindset, especially because there hasn’t been a lot of technology to support the different levels of management.
But they need to do it, especially in this increasingly digital world. Often, national brands have smaller marketing teams and limited resources, and they rely on local funds from franchisees. So they have to show these local locations what their dollars are getting them.
The SOCi platform lets them look at the company as a whole, monitoring things like ratings and reviews across locations, social engagement, and search visibility. But it also provides location-based access to dashboards to track how they are doing locally and provide guidance on next steps (e.g., responding to new reviews), including features such as:
A scoring tool that provides guidance on what content to write about or repost
Content reviews are rated, and editable responses are recommended to follow brand guidelines.
The platform also finds user-generated content the brand might want to use and helps them reach out to get permission to use the content.
Here’s the interesting thing. These are great tools to help B2C brands, but many still need to improve digital engagement. Ho said a lot of brands are trying to catch up. Social, ratings and reviews unlocked a consumer power many brands still don’t get, especially on a local level. She explained that many retailers and other B2C companies think they have a great brand and are well-known, so they don’t need to worry about the local experience.
But COVID drove people online and made them more comfortable with digital interactions. They have no problem leaving comments, asking questions online, or leaving reviews and feedback, but brands are doing nothing. You wouldn’t go into a retail store and stand at the cash and be ignored, Ho argues, but online, brands still aren’t paying attention:
I think…
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