Social Proof: 3 Highly Effective Best Practices
1. Testimonials
Customer testimonials can be powerful because a potential customer will probably believe a third person praising your product more than you praising your own product. Therefore, reach out to your customers (preferably the ones who were satisfied with your product or service) and ask for a short testimonial. You can find these people by going through your customer support emails or your social media posts and comments. Having the writer include his/her name, photo, job title, and company name makes the testimonial even more credible.
2. Experts
Having an expert or a famous person endorse your product or service can increase your conversions tremendously. Of course, celebrities can be expensive but hearing a professional chef talk about a new restaurant, which has the best pasta in town, will probably make you want to try it rather than when your neighbor recommends it, right? Look for experts and leaders in your industry and win them over to cheer for your brand.
3. Followers
Displaying the number of followers who trust your brand can aid in having new customers sign up. Nobody wants to be the first one to subscribe for your newsletter. However, if you share a number and state something like “50,000 followers counting”, people know that they are not the only ones who like your brand and that there are 50,000 happy customers who trust your products. If you don’t have that many followers, just combine the numbers of followers from your different platforms.
Have you ever heard somebody say “I only buy XYZ shoes”? Sure there can be many reasons for this statement like great price, high quality, and friendly customer support. Another reason is trust. Making a purchase from a company you don’t know can be risky. However, the best practices described above can help you to close the deal.