Blog Post: Why Polls Work
Polls Platform: Tap Into Existing Organic Behavior
Whether you’re picking out a new dress or just choosing what to eat for dinner, it’s easier to make a decision when you have access to data and feedback you trust.
The right information allows customers to better understand their choices, assess positives and negatives, and ultimately feel more confident in their decision-making process.
Polling friends and family is an easy way for customers to gather the information that drives their purchase-making decisions.
Polls connect your customers to insights they need
Polls are a research tool that focuses on collecting the answer to a single question, often asking respondents to choose from a closed-ended list of options or to reply with a “yes” or “no” answer. They’re a relatively quick and simple way to gather opinions and preferences, and they take a low amount of effort to respond to. They help users hear from a group of people and make choices based on what they say.
Think of connecting your customers with polls as a way to harness the power of social proof (the idea that people’s decisions are influenced by the actions and opinions of others).
When the group being polled is people your customers know and trust (like friends and family), you’re tapping into something that plays a big role in the way people shop:
82% of Americans ask for referrals and recommendations from family and friends before making any kind of purchase.
77% of people say it’s important to get advice or recommendations from people you know when shopping for something you haven't purchased before.
With stats like this, your customer is likely already using some form of this research tool whether they realize it or not.
But what does this organic, user-guided polling look like?
Your customers are already polling
When a purchase moves from brick-and-mortar to online stores, our shopping behaviors move with it. And the way we shop has always been influenced by the people closest to us. Enter social shopping. Social shopping is part of online shopping where users engage others in their shopping experience, and it happens in group chats, in comment sections, in the sharing of posts, and more.
An example of these interactions is the way that customers are prone to building a cart and sharing it with their group chat. Essentially, they’re polling their friends.
Think about it: you’re trying to decide on a new pair of shoes. You’ve narrowed it down to three different pairs, and now you want the opinion of your friends and family. So you send a few links of the shoes you’re looking at to a group chat with your friends, with “Which is your fave?” texted after.
Congratulations–you’ve just created and sent a poll!
✔ It’s a single question
✔ The answer format is multiple-choice
✔ It gathers the opinions of a group
And it’s this exact action that helps uncertain people get the positive feedback they need to convert at a higher rate.
But polling like this isn’t perfect. It can involve lots of scrolling and searching in busy group chats–not to mention navigating messy links and multiple pages. Information gets lost, communications get confusing and go unfinished, and short user attention spans strike again.
So how can you facilitate this polling process, tap into that trusted input, and drive more customers to complete their purchases?
Integrate shareable polls into your site’s shopping experience with Polls Platform
Your customers are already building carts and sharing their options in group chats; you just need a way to curate that experience and optimize its results.
And that’s where Polls Platform comes in.
An e-commerce solution that's already been validated by 6 million users, Polls Platform encourages your website visitors to share your products with their friends in the group chat.
When someone is undecided about what to buy, they can create a poll and send it to their friends in only one click, and without leaving the page. From there, friends vote on which products should be purchased, and your potential customers quickly and easily get the input and validation they need for decision-making, all while driving new users to your site.
You can also use the redirect screen to acquire new customers. Use it to offer discounts to voters and bring them into your ecosystem to create new customers, surface new products, promotions, or sales, and qualify cold leads or collect emails.
Polls Platform is…
A great way to convert your undecided customers: Customers convert from cart to checkout with a 45% boost over standard cart conversions with the help of feedback from friends.
Incredible for your organic acquisition efforts: Each poll sent acquires 2 new customers as your products are naturally shared with untapped audiences of like-minded people.
Easy to implement: Setting up Polls only takes one click for Shopify customers, or one day (and custom onboarding) for everyone else.
And Polls fit within your checkout experience without slowing down your site. Polls Platform works with all different types of carts, allowing you to customize details like color (and more) to match your branding.
The best part? It never feels like marketing because you’re simply helping customers do something they want to do anyway-get opinions on their choices.
Conclusion
Tapping into the power of polls can mean the difference between a completed sale and another abandoned cart. The information polls collect drive decisions, and when they’re combined with the people your customers trust the most, they can be an even more powerful tool for increasing conversions and accessing new audiences.