The way people shop online is highly affected by what other people are already saying about your products or services. We know this now to be the science of social proof— something that has existed for as long as commerce itself.
For as long as we can remember, people have depended on the word of peers and other communities when determining whether to buy something or not. While the expression of that behavior has changed, the core reason remains— people want social proof.
Today, one of the most common ways we get social proof is through customer reviews. 88% of customers trust customer reviews just as much as personal recommendations.
Using social proof strategies, your business can leverage this strong psychological phenomenon.
Here are 10 helpful social proof tips to help you generate greater marketing outcomes for your business.
1. Add Social Proof to Your Product Pages
The first one might sound super intuitive, but there are many businesses that fall short in this aspect. With social proof plugins, one can now add social proof to product pages.
At the bare minimum, your online store should have a space for people to leave customer reviews. This practice should be of greater urgency if you have a website of your own.
Using a social proof platform, you can make it easy for customers to leave customer reviews and read those that past customers have already left. Make the reviews as visible as possible.
2. Use Social Proof Notifications
Use social proof tool you should be using on your website is something called a social proof notifications tool. This tool adds a small pop-up on your website that gives people the impression that someone had just purchased or booked with your business at the moment they’re on the website.
For example, if you’re a hotel and you have a booking page on your site. You can use social proof software to add a pop-up that says that someone just booked a room with you.
By doing that, you give visitors the impression that people are booking from your site as people are visiting to give a mob mentality effect to the experience.
Must Read: How to Create Review Notifications on Your Website?
3. Create Social Media Posts from Your Reviews
For a business that has social media channels, review and testimonial posts should be a bare minimum when creating social media content. People on social media have to know what people are saying about their experience with your brand, products, or services.
You can take reviews from Google, your website, or anywhere else people leave reviews and turn them into beautiful graphics and posts that your social media followers will be able to see. You can learn how to display social media posts and reviews on your store.
Try creating these social proof and testimonial graphics in batches so it saves time and effort. You can also utilize social media marketing tools to schedule out those posts over a period of time so you’re not exhausting your pool of social proof content in one go.
4. Check Your Comment Sections
What a lot of brands don’t realize is that review boards and websites aren’t the only places where people leave testimonials (whether good or bad). Some might revert to your comment section on a social media channel or blog post. So you want to be able to check those out as well.
However, handling the comment section of multiple platforms can be a lot of tedious work. So you should use a social media management tool that aggregates all comments left on your accounts.
5. Respond to Your Review-Givers
People don’t just want to leave reviews. Many of them actually expect to get a response. 57% of users do not want to engage with a company that doesn’t respond to reviews. So when you receive a review from your customers, make it a point to respond to them.
If you receive a negative review, don’t resort to removing it (if you even can, as some sites might not allow that). Treat it as an opportunity to reach out, thank the person for their feedback, and resolve it. If you receive a raving review, express your gratitude to that customer. You can also use it as an opportunity to reward them with a discount or freebie to prompt a repeat visit or purchase.
6. Get New Reviews
Have you ever visited a website or Google page that had reviews from over a year ago? If that gave you an uneasy feeling, you’re not alone. 85% of consumers believe that reviews older than three months are no longer relevant.
So, it’s crucial that your brand or business also focus on getting new and fresh reviews from new clients.
Make it extremely obvious for people to give comments by using a social proof app. You can also run email automation that asks for a customer review from your new clients a few days or so after purchasing from your site.
7. Use Social Proof in Your Email Marketing
Another way to maximize your testimonials and customer reviews are to include them in an email marketing campaign. Tell people on your email list or abandoned cart about the wonderful experiences that people have had with your product or service.
When adding social proof to an email marketing automation, make sure that you also give people the opportunity to leave a review if they want to do so. Add a button that will redirect them to your review page.
8. Write Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Review Articles
Another way to maximize your reviews and other social proof is to turn them into evergreen content that Google can catch, crawl, and index. These content pieces can be in the form of case studies, listicles, or other blogs that you can then optimize for SEO.
Use a tool like Ahrefs to research high-intent keywords that people are searching for in your niche or category. It takes a while to get indexed for certain keywords, so be patient with this process. The beauty of having an SEO strategy is that it will be very low-maintenance once you start ranking for certain keywords.
Make sure that your blogs and case studies give value to the reader to improve conversion rates. Tell a story and entertain people through the blog so that you retain readers longer.
9. Get on Review Websites and Platforms
There are tons of review websites and platforms that you can get on to gain people’s trust. Check out websites in your category. You can also check out influencers in your niche that could create a sponsored post, video, or review of your product.
Studies show that 87% of people made a purchase because they saw a product on an influencer’s post or content. You can either opt to do an affiliate program with them or pay for a shout-out.
For more influential content creators, you might have to do both. Track conversions on these arrangements to see if it provide a return on investment.
10. Maximizing Social Proof
There’s no denying that social proof marketing is a powerful way to drive sales and brand-building. Thankfully there are many strategies and tools that will help you do that.
Try as many of them as you can and see which strategies provide the best results. You could be one campaign away from breaking out in the market and becoming a highly-profitable business.
Best Social Proof Tool To Drive Better Marketing Results
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Conclusion
The science of social proof remains a powerful and enduring force in the world of marketing. By implementing these nine tools and tips, businesses can maximize their social proof marketing efforts, foster greater customer trust, and achieve higher levels of success in today’s dynamic business landscape.
Remember, each business is unique, so experiment with different strategies to find the best fit for your brand, and with dedication, your company could soon emerge as a thriving and highly profitable force in the market.
