What is social proof?
People tend to imitate other people’s behaviour and attitudes so they can fit in and act as they deem to be the socially accepted norm, which is a notion referred to as “social proof”.
This phrase was created by Robert Cialdini, the same individual who introduced his six principles of convincing.
When viewing a landing page, you may encounter a testimonial from somebody respected in their field, which is considered evidence of the page’s quality.
When you are checking the pricing page and you see that a major company in the field is already using the tool, that is evidence that it is reliable.
When you decide to try a demonstration of a tool that has solved the exact same problem for another comparable company, this serves as an affirmation of its effectiveness.
Essentially, it’s borrowing third-party influence to sway potential customers.
Does social proof work? The opinion of growth experts
I inquired of a group of specialists in generating conversions and furthering development whether they believed that social validation was efficacious. Here’s what they had to say…
The importance of having the backing of others is a crucial part of developing a plan for your landing page. We make purchases of goods that make us proud of ourselves, items that transform us and enable us to improve. By leveraging social proof such as endorsements, critiques, and symbols of dependability, you can aid your clients in deciding, develop confidence in their selection, and become part of an interconnected community.
The type of social validation you select can stir up diverse emotional reactions. Giving diligent consideration to your strategies can spark certain psychological triggers that will affect shoppers’ sentiment regarding their acquisition and your organization.
Talia Wolf , GetUplift.co :
I never miss out on the chance to put social proof of some kind on the landing pages I construct and test, such as product ratings, customer testimonies, and even links to my social media profiles. It is a straightforward decision for me.
A study conducted by the Wall Street Journal discovered that social confirmation is certainly worth the effort invested in it, as it produces tangible results. This specific study explored ways to get customers to cut down on their energy usage in summer months by switching from air conditioners to fans. Customers were informed they could save $54 a month, that it was an eco-friendly option, that it could keep away 262 pounds of noxious greenhouse gases monthly, and that 77% of their fellow citizens had already switched to fans.
Most of the people who decided to replace their air conditioners with fans said that the reason for this was because the people living near them had already done so. This serves as a powerful demonstration of the effects of social proof, especially when it is given special attention on your main pages and checkout page.
Mat Carpenter , ShipYourEnemiesGlitter:
The evidence of social proof is so necessary for sales pages, it’s one of the few things I never found to decrease finalizing rates during my personal experiments. Third party verification gets a lot done at once-it lets people know what to expect, gives leads a reference point to compare themselves to, strengthens your communication and confirms your affirmations.
Is it always a good idea? I am certain that CRO does not always exist, but I am certain it will always be included in the control versions of the experiments I conduct. It can be done badly – for example, picking sources that don’t fit the interests of your clients, or selecting social proof that looks unreal/ weak.
Joel Klettke , Business Casual Copywriting:
Ryan Holiday, who wrote The Obstacle Is The Way, expresses this idea perfectly: “What the outcome of the landing page is and what its purpose is should be taken into consideration. A different way to look at it would be: When would humans not be interested in seeing evidence of agreement or acceptance?
Since the most elite are still adhering to this methodology, let’s investigate how it is typically applied.
6 types of social proof (with examples)
Six distinct varieties of social proof can be observed in many places. Choose one type to use in your baseline variant. You should pick the kind of type to be utilized according to your business sector and aim.
1. Case studies
Investigating your product or service in depth through data collected from a current customer. If you are selling software to other businesses, providing agency service, etc., this would be beneficial.
In a very meta way, this short-form case study is one of the main ways that folks behind Case Study Buddy showcase the results of their work:
2. Testimonials
Simple, short-form recommendations from happy current customers. These are fairly universally applicable. They can be just as useful on a landing page for a complimentary eBook as they can be when used on a landing page for a $49/month SaaS package.
Picture, name, company, role! Don’t forget to legitimize your testimonials. Ensure the trustworthiness of those you are utilizing to confer credibility to your product or service.
Testimonials are an effective form of social proof that has proved reliable time and time again. Every time I have implemented videos or written content on my clients’ landing pages, their rate of conversion has risen.
When constructing a homepage, you may explain your offer in any way you want, but how can you confirm the accuracy of what you are indicating? True reviews, preferably with a photo of the reviewer, will resolve that for you. Test it, and I’m sure you won’t regret it.
Raphael Paulin-Daigle , SplitBase.io:
3. Reviews
Think of reviews as testimonials’ more objective cousin. These should be employed for goods that are excessively complicated or in markets that have a lot of competitors and/or are highly competitive.
Don’t forget: Your customers don’t need to be asked to rate your product or service. Take a look at message boards and review services (including Yelp and Google) regularly to keep an eye out for what people might be saying in regards to you (and use it as content suitable for your landing page).
Save all positive remarks people make concerning your product or service on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Collecting praise from current customers and product advocates is a great way to bolster your brand reputation. This type of proof of customer satisfaction is most efficient when used for business-to-consumer products and services, but it can still be effective for business-to-business too.
The social media platform Social Media Examiner deploys visual evidence on the page dedicated to their conference to depict the degree to which people discuss the happening throughout the year.
5. Trust icons
If I was to inquire about any particular type of social verification, this would be the one. Did TechCrunch write about the announcement of your Series A funding four years ago, thus prompting you to place their logo on your website’s home page? Did you join the Better Business Bureau, so you included their logo on your homepage?
Logos and icons might count as evidence that other people are using a product or service, but there is a severe absence of them in terms of social media. What did TechCrunch say about you? What are your BBB reviewers saying? See what movie and book landing pages do, they usually contain portions of critiques rather than just logos or the names of journals.
6. Data / numbers
The amount of customers dealt with, how many invites are still being distributed, etc. can all be expressed in a single figure, which says more than a thousand words could. Combine this type of social proof with another. By doing this, you are communicating that not only have X individuals purchased your product or service, but that they have had absolutely positive experiences with it.
Buffer employs the “X customers served” variety of social proof to motivate people to buy, along with some impressive quantities such as blog subscribers and social media followers.
10 Types of Social Proof for Marketing
1) Social Media Mentions
Checking up on your accounts on a regular basis is a good strategy for obtaining User Social Proof on a constant and continuous basis. Include strategies to bring attention to some of the examples of social verification in your regular inspection tasks. If you employ an outside source such as HootSuite or HubSpot’s social media check-up, you can keep tabs on notices of your products or services and pull out any praiseworthy mentions you locate.
The HubSpot social media marketing team marks any positive remarks about HubSpot or its products on Twitter as favourites, which can be seen in the company’s Twitter profile’s list of ‘Favorites.’
2) Embedded Tweets
Have you tried out the new embedded tweets option that Twitter has available? If someone posts a complimentary tweet about you, you can include it on the pages of your product/case study as a mean of building trustworthiness and to highlight the impact external people have on you.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to using Twitter’s embeddable tweets feature to help you get started, and below is what an embedded tweet looks like:
Tom Brady is arguably the greatest thing to have come out of New England, however HubSpot is a close second.
— Ted Engel (@iamtedE)
April 6, 2012
3) Social Plugins
4) Social Media Sharing/Follow Buttons
Allow your audience – be they followers, fans, subscribers, etc. – to exemplify the concept of ‘social proof’ by making it possible for them to easily share your materials.
Make sure to incorporate social media sharing and “follow” buttons onto everything you create — posts, landing pages, and e-book pages. Don’t forget to put them anywhere and everywhere! When it is simple for people to spread the content they are passionate about, there’s a greater possibility they will do so, increasing the coverage of your material and boosting public validation for your company. For illustrations, the social game service provider Zynga saw immense success in just one year going from 3 million to 41 million users each day because their friend’s invitations to play through diverse social networks.
5) Case Studies & Testimonials
Publishing customer case studies and testimonials will demonstrate to others the positive feedback from those who are satisfied with your services or products. Select stories from your most dedicated, successful, and passionate customers to highlight on your page.
Take the time to think about the different methods of recognizing and highlighting your top customers. Reach out to your customer service team and request that they let you know when they encounter a particularly enthusiastic customer.
6) User-Generated Content
Generated by users, blogging, pictures, and even clips can be an amazing type of social evidence from users. Often created by the most devoted members of your brand, this material has a tendency to be sincere, overflowing with enthusiasm, and optimistic. By including video user testimonials on YouTube, Beachbody – the creators of P90x fitness – experienced a threefold increase in conversion rate compared to usual organic visitors.
Hold a competition for user-made content and showcase the finest submissions on your website, blog and across your social media accounts.
7) User Reviews & Ratings
Public opinions and scoring systems can be discovered on analysis websites like Yelp, included inside social media networks (LinkedIn Reviews is an outstanding model), or particularly in the case of ecommerce businesses, incorporated right into the website. According to a Harvard Business Review study, when a business’ Yelp rating rises by one star, its sales will increase in the range of 5-9%.
This helpful guide can help you receive great reviews on third-party review websites to motivate more people to be positive.
8) Social Advertising
One of the most up-to-date ways of utilizing social validation is through social advertising, or ads that consider the social context of the person seeing them. Essentially, when it comes to social advertising, marketers aim to reach individuals based on their familiarity with the person’s circle of friends. Social advertising, such as Promoted Tweets and Facebook Engagement and Sponsored Stories ads, can offer marketers improved targeting capabilities and the opportunity to use ‘Wisdom of Your Friends’ or ‘Wisdom of the Crowd’ Social Proof. An example of this can be found as pictured.
Try out Facebook’s social advertising features by downloading our free e-book about building successful Facebook advertisements–no entry form needed!
9) User Statistics
Which type of social proof from the wisdom of the crowd do you use to boost your business? What are some of the most impressive statistics you can boast of? Do you possess an extensive customer base (like in the illustration of McDonald’s)? Is your blog subscribership something to brag about? Have you been in business for decades? Have your customers collectively accomplished something impressive?
An illustration of how successful HubSpot software is, customers had achieved a cumulative of 12.4 million leads in 2011. That’s why we wanted to add it to the HubSpot Year in Review of 2011.
10) Media & Blog Mentions
It is correct that referencing press coverage is a way to prove expertise, so make sure to prioritize this kind of public relations! Keep your press room current and make it more interactive so that individuals can quickly locate and share your positive press with their connections.
Discover this blog post to find out how to increase your media and blogger relations initiatives to gain more publicity.
