Smart marketers today know that integrating social proof can insanely increase their conversion rate. That’s why big brands like Amazon, WordPress, MailChimp, and just about every other company, use social proof on their site.
To increase sales, you must find a way to rid your customer of the fear that it’s a mistake to buy what you’re selling.
Their fears usually have something to do with:
- buying something that doesn’t work
- buying something that’s not very good
- paying too much for it
A great way to reduce this fear in your customer’s mind is to use “social proof,”
In today’s guide… I will show you powerful ways to use social proof to increase your customer conversions.
We’ll jump into the USE PROOF review and 33 social proof samples in just a bit, but first let’s explain what is social proof, and what are the different types of social proof that you can leverage to boost your website conversions?
What is Social Proof?
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people adapt to the behaviours of others under the assumption that those behaviours are reflective of the correct action.
Marketers use social proof as a tactic for conversion rate optimization by relieving the minds of concerned customers.
There’s no doubting the power of social proof.
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In fact, studies show nearly 70 percent of online consumers look at a product review prior to making a purchase.
Even more, telling is the fact that product reviews are 12-times more trusted than product descriptions and sales copy from manufacturers.
In other words, consumers want proof from their peers and unbiased 3rd parties and not the brands selling the products.
Use Proof – A Great Social Proof Marketing Tool
Use Proof is no joke when it comes to social proof marketing and that’s why you will find it on Digital Marketing Skill Institute‘s website. It’s simple to use and most likely integrate nicely into your website. I love a tool that once it’s up, your pretty much good.
CLICK HERE TO TRY USE PROOF free for 14 days.
Use Proof Features
Social Proof Notifications
Live Visitor Count
Visitor Profiles
Integrate with Countless Existing Platforms
Mobile optimized
Everybody is searching your site on a mobile device. And well, Use Proof made sure their software is there too. Big plus.
Customer Journeys
Watch visitors travel across your site and see which steps they take to convert.
Custom Timing
Control when, how long and how fast notifications display on your site.
Custom Rules
Granular control over how and when notifications display on your pages.
Language translation
I find this nice that you can convert to another language when needed. Great feature.
Use Proof Pricing
Use Proof offer 3 different pricing plans.
They do consult with you too though if these 3 plans don’t fit your needs
- The basic pricing plan costs $29/Monthly which includes up to 1,000 unique visitors.
- The pro plan costs $79/Monthly which includes up to 10,000 unique visitors. This plan to me seems to be the best option for quite a few websites because it fits a very successful range of visitors to your site.
- The business plan costs $129/Monehtly which includes up to 50,000 unique visitors.
You can also Try Use Proof Free for 14 days too which is nice
Installing Useproof
Proof easily connects to your website – no coding required!
- Install – Install the simple marketing pixel on your pages. Copy and paste in under 42 seconds.
- Connect – Connect Proof to your existing landing page software, CRM or website platform.
- Launch – Launch targeted social proof notifications on your site in minutes.
30 Social Proof That Can Help You To Sell More Online
1. Testimonials
Specific results based testimonials from customers are some of the strongest proof you can provide. Most testimonials are not specific enough and are just there because of no good reason.
You should actively get testimonials that address specific objections your visitors have.
2. Celebrity endorsements
These could be major experts gurus or authors basically anyone that your audience already connects with. The key is to connect your offers to a known celebrity, piggyback on the emotional feelings your audience has towards them.
3. Case studies
These are basically just testimonials but more in-depth. TO use a case study as a proof point to sell more online you should share specific details of exactly what happened, the more details and specific the better. You can even test a video-case study to see if your visitors resonate with more auditory and visual modalities.
4. On-site reviews
This is the perfect form of social proof, amazon.com is the best example of this. This is simply showing reviews of your product or positioning your testimonials as reviews. Be sure to also test a one to five rating for each review as a quick way for your visitors to see what other people think without reading too much.
5. Achievements
What are your accomplishments, awards you won or achievements you’ve earned directly related to the offer that you’re making? Essentially you’re implying the answer to this direct question: What makes you or this product qualified to be the best?
6. Publicity
Media appearances provide a halo effect. Include logos of places where you where mentioned front covers of magazines, pictures of your appearances or products. Things like featured articles all become imployed endorsement for what you’re offering. Creating a halo around your product from being associated with those other brands. The best example of this is the as seen in…
7. Demonstrations
The best example of demo is a late night infomercial on TV. How can you show what your product does in action? This does not have to be a video but some point of proof that demonstrates it’s value.
8. Scientific studies
Is your product part of a double-blind study? Are there any studies out there proving of the ingredients or parts of your product? Dig deep to find specific facts that you can pull in as short blurbs for proof points.
9. The reason why
Is proof most often overlook. Telling your visitor why (Why they should believe you, why they should buy) is another reassurance people who are looking for proof need. Why did you create this product? Why are you making this offer? Why do you even care? If you’re having a sale there needs to be a reason why. A lot of marketers will use scarcity as a method of increasing sales but you need to be able to explain why your product is scarce, and it needs to make sense in order to maximize sales.
10. A Human face
If you can show a face behind your product or services preferably very early on in your sales page that tells the story about that person that’s selling, your visitors will start to get to know them before they buy to build trust and adds in an element of authority.
11. Specifics
The more specific you can get the better. Where can you can and more specificity? For example, does it take 30 days to get results or 34 days? Did you generate $50,000 revenue form this powerful new tool or did you generate $49,365.63? DO you have 12,000 satisfied customers or 12,456? You get the idea.
12. Explain how
How does your product do that? How do you deliver on that claim? You can’t use this all the time but when you can it gives you a way to eliminate fear and prove your product works.
13. Disbelief
Use testimonials or case studies talking about not believing your claim or product at first or when a customer first was introduced to your solution or product but then saw results. This type of approach connects with this visitors who also don’t believe you or your product and need a bit more proof.
14. Guarantee
Money back guarantees are becoming more and more common. So you need to be more specific, give your guarantee name, brand it. (The Pain-Free Guarantee.)
You can also amplify your guarantee by going over 100% get your money back plus $x with the 110% Money Back Guarantee. It does not have to be 10% in additional cash, what about 10% store credit through a discount code?
15. Logical progression
This method of adding proof works because you start with the problem and emotions your prospect is feeling you then move them from point A to B to C in a logical progression. This is what a trial lawyer would do to convince a jury. You’re basically building your case with proof along the way. This can be adapted to a sales letter or even a video sales letter.
16. Admit a fault
What’s a minor fault with your product that does not affect its results? If your claim is hard to believe than simply admit it. Often times telling what you can’t do makes some trust and believe you more.
17. Specialize
In our expert everything world you sometimes need to just specialize in your one specific thing as proof that you’re good at it.
18. Connect with symbols and a location
If you are part of any groups or associations, those are also points of proof. Show where your office is with a picture of the building or a map to show that you’re real. Who have you work for or with? Who have you helped or partnered with?
19. Tell the truth
Don’t exaggerate. People are just looking for a fault or looking to not believe you. Their lie detector is on all the time online. If you’re using words like the best, the greatest, unlimited, you won’t get past their BS detector. You always need proof to qualify each claim you make.
20. Comparison
Use a side by side comparison chart to show how your product compares to the competition. What does your product have that others don’t? Don’t badmouth the competition but demonstrate why your product is clearly superior.
21. Contest
Run a contest for people post a comment or shoot a video about you or your product. Get your users to promote your own stuff.
22. Social media proof
Comments, Facebook likes, Twitter re-tweets are all forms of proof. Take a screenshot and collect them all together and use them on your site.
23. Valuable content
Valuable content is proof you are an authority based on its value alone. To be valuable though, it must be different and deliver results, but not fully solve the problem which is solved by your product.
24. Professional design
Design matters a lot. Your credibility goes hand in hand with how something looks.
25. Terms of use and privacy policies
This is often overlooked. People do check to see if you have a privacy policy put the link near the subscription form or place that makes the most sense like where you’re asking for e-mail but people also look for disclaimers in common locations like the footer, people are always on guard to find “the catch“.
26. Certified logos or Trust marks
If you have any certifications they also serve as points of proof. Or a security seal or statement of trust. The key here with all of these is that it has to be a third party, like an endorsement.
27. Contact information
Nothing makes people feel more comfortable than knowing they are buying from a real person/place. The more specific you can make the contact information, beyond just a submission form or an info at email address, but by adding a physical mailing address and a phone number the more comfortable a visitor will feel.
CLICK HERE TO TRY USE PROOF free for 14 Days.
28. Challenge them to put to the test
This is the put it to the test offer, usually in the form of a free trial, where the buyer pays only shipping now and then pays for the item several days later only after trying it out for themselves. This is really another type of guarantee.
29. Personal tidbits
Adding a bit about your self-makes people feel more comfortable about buying from you. Remember people always buy from people not websites.
30. Create a picture with words
Use as many of the five senses as possible to get your reader interested to take action. Make them feel it. The more specific you are here with a vivid picture of the problem and the results, the more powerful this will be. But… Only if they can really imagine it. Then it becomes real to them.
One really simple form of social proof that you can display on your site is the raw number of social shares. Social share counts are most often used to provide social proof on blog posts.
However, you can also add social share counts to any page on your website, including landing pages and product pages.
32. Subscriber/User/Customer Count
Your subscriber, user or customer count is another valuable statistic that brings credibility to your brand.
MailChimp highlights that over 10 million people use MailChimp to send 600 million emails every day.
WordPress.com highlights that WordPress powers 25% of the internet. How can you say no to using WordPress after that! (Related: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.)
Similarly, you can use any relevant statistics to get your point across.
Akismet, a popular comment spam filter for WordPress, highlights that they block over 7.5 million spam comments per hour.
Raw numbers simply convert!
33. Get the verification badge on Twitter and Instagram
A verified badge is a check that appears next to an Instagram, Facebook and Twitter account’s name in search and on the profile.
Getting an account verified can have a great influence on social proof thus, will increase trust and sales if you are a business.
In conclusion:
I used to wonder if there was a way of increasing my conversion rates on my website, even though it was already a profitable source of income, I decided to scale it even more and tried Use Proof…
The numbers for me went even higher, didn’t believe it first but yep – months and months after the numbers didn’t drop, they are still going up, must say it was definitely a good idea to invest in this thing.
I believe this guide gives you a little more understanding how you can increase your social proof and grow your sales rapidly.