Social proofs have become an excellent tool to win the trust of the potential audience and turn them into customers. The big eCommerce brands, such as Amazon, MailChimp, Canva, WordPress, etc., are leveraging the power of social proof on their websites and social profiles to increase website traffic and boost online store conversions.
In today’s article, we have gathered 15 proven ways to use social proof to boost your online conversions.
Before we proceed, let us understand social proof and its type.
Social proof is the concept that a person will follow the actions of the crowd. He or she will be influenced by the actions of others, as people generally believe that how masses behave is generally the correct behavior.
Let us take an example here, imagine you are walking on the road and you come across two shops. Shop A is buzzing with customers, and there is a long queue at the checkout counter. On the other hand, shop B is empty and doesn’t have any customers. Now, if you have to go to one of the shops, which one would you select? Shop A or B? You would be inclined to enter shop A, due to the crowd inside the shop, it would make you feel that shop A has better products and services than shop B.
The crowd inside the shop influenced your decision. This psychological phenomenon is called social proof.
The following are the six types of social proof that can be used for building social proof and boosting your online store conversions.
Existing Customers
Current buyers are the most significant social proof for any brand. If a company has a vast customer base or clientele, it influences the targeted audience or prospects to try its products.
Celebrities And Experts
If your company has collaborated with renowned experts of the industry or prominent celebrities, or if they’ve purchased from you, endorsed your brand, it can help you in building social proof.
Crowds
A massive crowd of people is another type of social type. Consider the example that we shared above; a person will generally select the crowded place over a deserted or empty place. For example, restaurants that are busy and have lots of diners always convince the passerby to visit them.
As stated above, people trust their friends and family members; they will trust a brand if the people in their social circle do the same.
3rd Party Certifications
A certification from a reliable 3rd party can also help in building social proof. For instance, verified social accounts signify that your brand is authentic and trustworthy.
1. Real-Time Stats
Showing the real-time stats of a business’s website activity is a powerful tool for building social proof. You can show the statistics of how many visitors are present on your website, how many people are looking at a product, the number of subscribers for your newsletter, etc.
When prospects visit the website and view the real-time stats, they become eager to learn more about the business. If your company has physical shops in different areas, cities, or countries, mention that too as it leaves a positive impression on the audience.
For instance, you can use the following phrases:
- Serving 50,000 customers since 2001.
- We are operating in 15 cities across the country.
- We fulfill 5000 orders daily.
2. Customer Reviews And Testimonials
Never ignore the power of positive customer reviews. Placing testimonials and reviews strategically on your website can do wonders to attract new customers and boost your conversions and sales.
Did you know that 88% of customers trust online reviews and ratings? When a user reads a positive review about a brand or views a video testimonial, he is tempted to try out the products or services and enjoy the benefits that other customers have derived.
Encourage your customers to leave reviews on your social media pages and the landing page of your website to build solid social proof.
3. Celebrity Endorsements
Prominent celebrities or renowned industry experts are of great value when it comes to establishing authority and brand value in the market.
Celebrity endorsements can either be paid or natural. A business can approach the celebrity, create a formal contract with him to endorse the brand on his social channels and represent it on other printed media.
Natural endorsement is when the celebrity uses your products or services and talks about them on his/her social platform.
When people see their favorite celebrity using a product or endorsing it, they are tempted to try the products.
4. Host Experts
Inviting key speakers or experts of your niche is an excellent way to attract prospects’ attention and leave a good impression of the business on them.
A business can invite guest speakers to conduct a live session on its social accounts and share their informative knowledge with the audience. For instance, if the company deals with skincare products, it can invite a dermatologist on a live session to educate its social media followers on how to take proper care of the skin, etc.
You can also welcome guest blog posts from the experts and publish them on your blog page. It also helps in building social proof.
How can we leave a social media marketing strategy when emphasizing building social proof for your business?
A company’s social media accounts can be a powerful tool to establish authority and credibility. Social media takeovers mean that a business invites influencers or other key figures to post on its social networking profiles and engage with its audience.
The influencer’s followers will also follow the company’s account and engage with the content posted by their favorite influencer. They will also learn more about the company and its products.
6. Media Mentions
If your brand has been mentioned in the media, do not keep the great news with you. Share it with your followers and prospects to establish the authority of your brand.
You can share the snippets of the blogs, reviews, or podcast interviews where your brand has been praised or recognized on any other media platform, on your social media profiles, and homepage of the website.
The brand influences people if it is mentioned or talked about in a famous magazine, blog post, or interview.
7. Use Clients’ Logos
One of the easiest and most effective strategies for building social proof is using your renowned clients’ logos on your website.
Using the names and logos of your famous customers, you denote the prospects that your products are impeccable; and hence, chosen by many successful companies in the market.
Your prospects will be able to trust you quickly by viewing the logos of the reputed companies as your customers.
WordPress has mentioned the names of highly reputed brands such as New York Times, IBM, TED, Time, Quartz, etc., on its featured page. By looking at the names of these brands, a prospect won’t hesitate to try WordPress for building his website.
Similarly, Shopify has also displayed the logos of its popular customers on its homepage.
8. Certifications And Badges
Another way to build social proof is to proudly display the certificates and accreditations earned by your company on the website.
Certifying and accrediting organizations have logos or badges which can be used on the business’s website. These certifications can boost the conversion rate by 30%.
Flaunt the badges that your business has earned on your website to establish the credibility of your online business.
Social shares can also be used for building social proof. You can integrate social sharing buttons on your blog posts and product pages.
These sharing buttons will display how many times your blog posts or product images have been shared on different platforms. Blog posts or products with a large number of shares attract the audience to learn more about them and explore the rest of the website.
10. Repost User Generated Content
Reposting or re-sharing user-generated content on your business profile is an effective social media marketing strategy to increase your followers, engage with your audience, and create social proof for the targeted audience.
Leveraging user-created content can help a brand grow its followers’ list and engagements on Instagram quickly.
When the prospects view that other people are using the product and posting about it on their profiles, it becomes easy for them to trust the brand and get their hands on its products.
Having a sound social media marketing strategy has become crucial for the business to increase brand awareness, build an audience, and boost its conversions.
Building social proof becomes a lot easier if the business has an active social media presence. The number of followers, type of content, engagements on posts, reviews posted by the customers, etc., all contribute to building social proof for business.
12. Ratings
If your customers are reluctant to write a review or record a video testimonial, no problem. You can use the star rating method for building social proof.
Provide the option of rating the product, blog posts, or the service provided by the company. By simply clicking on the stars or numbers, your customers will rate you, and your prospects will learn about the quality of your products or services.
13. Highlighting Bestsellers
Sometimes your prospects need a little push to become your customers and add the products they have been eyeing to their carts.
By highlighting the bestselling articles or creating a ‘customers also bought’ section, you can make a social proof and quicken up the decision process of your targeted audience to buy the products.
14. Number Of Orders
Remember the example of shops A and B we mentioned earlier? You can use the same strategy on your eCommerce website to build social proof and boost your conversions. Simply mention the number of products that you have sold or people have ordered from you. When people view that thousands of people order the goods, they believe that they are beneficial and trusted by so many customers.
A simple example to give in this regard is how writers and experts mention downloads or the number of copies sold of their eBooks or paperback books — for instance, over 10 million copies sold across the world.
15. Run Facebook Ads
People like the pages on Facebook and Instagram much faster if their friends or people they know have liked and interacted with the page.
Use the power of Facebook ads to target the friends of your followers on Facebook. The ads will display the names of the friends who have liked the page. It will encourage the targeted audience to trust the authenticity of the page and like it.
Final Words…
To wrap this up, leveraging social proof on your social networking profiles and websites is essential for your business’s survival, growth, and success.
Failure to implement compelling social proof on your website can render all the efforts of producing excellent goods and services an absolute failure. If prospects do not see people talking about your brand or its products, it makes them believe that your products are not worth talking about; and hence, they will dismiss the idea of learning more about your brand.
We hope that the tips and tricks mentioned above to build social proof will help you widen your customer base and boost online store conversions.
Ricky Hayes is the Co-Founder and Head of Marketing at Debutify – free Shopify theme, helping dropshippers build high-converting stores in minutes. He is a passionate entrepreneur running multiple businesses, marketing agencies, and mentoring programs.
