How To Win Over Your Site Visitors With Social Proof

StrikinglyAugust 31, 2015  3 Comments

Do you have a healthy flow of site visitors, yet only a few of them stick around to become customers? Your analytics aren’t lying to you – according to a Hubspot study, 55% of your site visitors will leave within the first 15 seconds. That means you’ve got mere seconds to impress your site visitors enough to keep them around. Can it be done? Absolutely!
Have you heard of the term social proof? Here’s the gist of it: People trust opinions, reviews, and validation from others. When someone endorses a brand, it helps justify one’s own purchase. That’s because people are influenced by what others do and believe. If you’ve ever looked at the reviews on Amazon or Yelp before making a purchase or visiting a local restaurant – that’s social proof in action. A SearchEngineLand study found that a whopping63% of customers are more likely to buy from a site that features social proof. Businesses, especially early stage ones, can live or die based on whether they can present social proof quickly and effectively enough.
So, what does this mean for you? Simply put, social proof is a powerful motivator that snowballs credibility for your brand and business. It persuades new people to trust you and try you, because you have recommendations from others who’ve done so.

How To Incorporate Social Proof On Your Site

Here are three of the most effective ways to incorporate social proof on your site:

Headshot Testimonials

Share the best and brightest reviews of your brand or product/ service, and don’t forget to include a clean, smiley headshot photograph for positive association. Remember, people trust other happy people.

Affiliations

In addition to headshot testimonials, show off who you’ve partnered with, been sponsored by, and employed by. Include a cluster of logos of brands that you’ve worked with or been featured by, and links to press and other outlets that have featured you.

Press Kit

A press kit is a package of promotional materials that basically functions as your brand’s resume – it includes your press coverage, list of clients and partners, project, case studies and more. Including a press kit on your website makes it easy and appealing for journalists, bloggers and other influencers to do anything from a simple social sharing to a full story on you.

Best Practices For Social Proof

Before you run wild, let’s go over a few best practices to abide by when it comes to including social proof on your site –
Use photos. Whether for testimonials, affiliations, or press kits materials, you should always include some photos. Without that graphic element to liven it up, your social proof may look like random words you could have pulled from anywhere. Using photos – especially of people – plays to our innate curiosity, drawing attention and adding appeal to your content.
Cater to your target audience. It should be no surprise that people respond and relate best to others they can closely identify with. If your target audience is middle-aged soccer moms, then don’t gather a bunch of testimonials and chase after press from teenage skateboarders, because the two aren’t relatable. It’s good to show some variety, but still focus on people and publications that mirror your ideal customer.
Keep it highly focused. While there are plenty of great things to know and show about your brand, cherry-pick only the best. No one has the time to read testimonials longer than a few sentences, or press kits forty pages long. What is the one feeling, idea, or product that you want your business to be instantly recognized and loved for? Focus on highlighting the core value of your business.

 

 

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How To Ask For Social Proof

Apart from asking individual friends or emailing early adopters to get recommendations and so on, here are a few highly effective and even creative ways to gather social proof. Whoever you ask, don’t forget to also ask for a professional-looking photo to accompany their review.
Ask your email list periodically. With your content or newsletter list, it doesn’t have to be all give, no take. Ask your subscribers to help you out with a sentence or two of recommendation. If your audience includes businesses or business individuals, you can sweeten the deal by offering to list their site along with their review.
Follow up a sale or signup by asking for a review. Within the first 24 hours after the conversion is a great time to ask for a review. Your customer will generally be highly engaged with and optimistic about your brand at this point.
Reach out for press. Whether you have some existing testimonials and reviews or not, why not try going after the next level of social proof by getting press? It’s not as hard as you may think. Answer some queries on a sourcing service site like Help A Reporter Out, or look for influencers in your field using a tool like Buzzsumo. Getting active through these kinds of channels increases the likelihood of getting press exposure for your venture press.
Create a contest that leverages user-generated content. Running and promoting a contest, with some kind of prize giveaway, is not only a great way to appeal to new and existing customers, but also to draw in lots of high-quality social proof. Design a contest that leverages the power of user-generated content – for example, ask them to upload photos on social media of them wearing your brand apparel or drinking your coffee. By essentially inviting people to endorse your brand and act as “ambassadors”, you’ll be drawing in a highly creative pool of social proof to use for your website.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve got a great business or product, then getting social proof from your fans and customers should be an easy and rewarding process. Now that you know how to win over your site visitors with social proof, why not get started? If you don’t have one already, create a free site now in less time than it took you to read this article!

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