According to Salesforce’s “State of Marketing” report during the pandemic, advertising spending was reduced, but the development of helpful and insightful content was significantly increased.
Consequently, companies who emphasise building their library of social proof to provide education and build trust with their customers are likely to influence product purchases successfully. We’re social creatures, so we still rely on the crowd’s thoughts and behaviour patterns to some degree. When in doubt, we seek approval and counsel from the group and our trust in others’ experiences is well-placed in the case of products and services.
So, when researching new products or services, social proof content helps present a realistic picture of their benefits and drawbacks.
As a result, social proof is an important part of any content marketing plan. But how can your company leverage social proof to increase sales? We’ll go over all of them with you and show you some instances of how to express social evidence effectively.
What is Social Proof?
Initially coined in 1984, social proof essentially means that people will copy the actions of others to be liked by or approved by the influencer.
Social proof is used in many aspects of marketing, both offline and online, but in this article, we will specifically look at how social proof can make for a better online customer experience and enhance the effects of digital marketing services.
A testimonial from a respected industry expert or recent customer is a social proof tactic for marketing.
In fact, before making a purchase, 91% of shoppers examine online reviews. Reviews and testimonials are excellent methods to demonstrate the value of your product or service while also proving the positive impacts your business has had on people’s lives.
In other words, social proof uses third-party influence to persuade potential buyers to purchase.
It’s less about determining whether or not to employ social proof and more about deciding how and when to do so. So here are our three
easy steps to utilise social proof tactics in your digital marketing campaigns and improve the online customer experience for your business.
Just make sure you stay authentic! Simply ensure that when you obtain testimonials and reviews, you do so in an ethical and non-annoying manner. However, a negative review can be more damaging to your company than no reviews at all.
Step One: Experiment with all Six Types of Social Proof Tactics
Experiment with the six classic varieties, three new spins, and dozens of unique options. Social evidence is effective, but the way you deliver can be improved for more lift.
i. Case Studies
Utilising a satisfied customer’s experience as a long-form case study is an excellent way to show their positive feedback. Identify one or more clients you’ve had substantial success with and ask whether they’d be interested in participating in a case study and answering some preliminary questions. Typically, these are in-depth examinations of how you and the customer collaborated successfully, so ensuring their active participation is critical. You can present your case studies in various ways, including providing downloadable PDFs or hosting them on your blog.
ii. Testimonials
The archetypal example of social proof is simple testimonials and short-form recommendations from happy current customers. Sharing stuff like this attracts new clients. You’ll have many more posts in your arsenal after figuring out how to ask for reviews.
iii. Reviews
Consider reviews to be more casual than testimonials. Use these for products that are too technical or in crowded and competitive industries. For example, customers aren’t waiting for an invitation to leave a review for your product or service. As a business owner, you must regularly check forums and review sites (such as Yelp and Google) to see what’s being said about you.
iv. Accomplishments and Awards
Does your business have any awards or been named to any industry best-of lists? Show off your skills! It’s an excellent approach to let people know that your company is well-known for its quality. Most awards will provide you with a badge image that you can display in your website’s footer, homepage and email footer to highlight your brand’s achievements.
v. Social Media and User-Generated Content (UGC)
When you share user-generated material on your own social accounts, people will notice that you have satisfied consumers. Instagram is a great place to do this. Create a branded hashtag, include it in your bio, and allow users to be featured. Tweets, Facebook posts, Instagram comments, and other forms of praise from current consumers and brand champions. Save every good comment made on social media about your product or service.
vi. Trust icons from existing customers and clients
If you partner with well-known brands, publicising that information is another excellent strategy to pique interest in your product or service. Obviously, if large brands like Google like your company, you must be doing something right, right?
Step Two: Always Source New Social Proof Content
Once you’ve acquired a few social proof content, never get the hunt a rest. Instead, always be on the lookout for it so you can cycle content and test for the best outcomes. Testimonials that answer issues, testimonials that discuss the benefits, testimonials that include your primary keywords, etc.
Customers who are satisfied with their purchases are more likely to leave a good review. It is your job to make that voyage as smooth as possible. As a business owner, a straightforward and quick process for sending review requests allows you to focus on more critical business choices. Here are three effective techniques which can help you gather more social proof content:
- Ideally, provide a free version of your product or service to your community or sector influencers. After that, enquire about their opinions.
- Request product or service reviews from bloggers or journalists.
- Sending email requests is a user-friendly and straightforward technique to collect additional reviews. For example, you may save time as a business owner and make it easy for satisfied consumers to leave you a positive review by employing review request emails.
Step Three: Vary the Delivery of the Social Proof Content
Businesses frequently include some form of social proof on their websites. A few will go one step further and include them in commercial campaigns, social media posts, and email signatures.
It’s less about whether or not to employ social proof and more about how and when to do so. However, there are various sorts of social proof that you may utilise to help you stand out from the crowd. Here are four effective examples:
i. At the shopping cart
Even if a customer is in the middle of the checkout process, a testimonial on the checkout page gives them more trust in their purchase. Conversions might be killed by friction during the checkout process. Perhaps the snag is an expired discount or a higher-than-expected delivery price. A testimonial could help you avoid abandoning your purchasing cart. Positive user reviews from previous customers who purchased the same item perform well for eCommerce checkout pages because user social proof shifts the focus away from the price and towards the product’s value.
ii. On your blog
Social proof is an integral part of any content marketing strategy if you’re a blogger. To gain more social proof (more shares and comments), show off the quantity of social shares and comments on your most popular posts.
iii. Your sidebar
Sidebars are normally used for advertisements, but you may forego the small amount of money you’ll get by showing many ads and instead use some of that valuable real estate to market your own product.
iv. Where is the best placement on website landing pages?
Your testimonials should come at the appropriate point on the landing page, not just whenever your designer feels like throwing in a speech bubble or two. Instead, they should be treated as very believable witnesses in your case, with images, full names, professions, and instances of what you’ve done for them, rather than just marketing material in quotation marks.
The best testimonials use future pacing—that is, helping the prospect imagine their better life after purchasing—are best placed near a call to action. On long-form sales pages, testimonial groups are very effective. Testimonials don’t outperform conventional content in headlines; therefore, we don’t use social proof to replace critical copy; instead, we test and advocate using social proof as supporting copy.
Ready to Use Social Proof in Your Own Marketing Plan?
Your business must instil trust in your potential customers with social proof tactics to enhance conversion rates. We hope this easy 3 step guide to utilising social proof can help your business succeed.
However, if you want to take the stress out of your marketing campaigns, you should contact a digital marketing agency. Rather than recruiting your own personnel, you can save a lot of money by collaborating with an agency. Plus, since agencies have a team of individuals working on your projects, even if one person leaves, it will have little impact on the overall performance of your company.
Working with an agency allows you to acquire expert assistance from individuals who are knowledgeable in specific fields. Digital marketers are typically well-versed in various abilities, and an agency’s comprehensive team of professionals will guarantee that every area of your digital marketing is handled appropriately. This will benefit your company by helping you to optimise every area of your digital marketing to get optimum ROI in your target market.
Angela Spearman is a journalist at EzineMark who enjoys writing about the latest trending technology and business news.
