Establish social proof

Social proof is a key ingredient for a high converting landing page.

Your audience will judge your propositions as being more true and acceptable if you succeed to establish your credibility. Especially if your product is new, it’s critical to establish credibility with potential customers. Displaying the most recognizable and successful customers you have is a quick and easy way to do this.

6 ways to use Social Proof

You can play on social proof in a large variety of ways. Here’s just a few for inspiration.

• Expert social proof. Approval from a credible expert, like a magazine or blogger, can have incredible digital influence.

• Celebrity social proof. A strong identification with celebrities effectively drives decisions.

• Customer social proof. Simply displaying the logos of your most prominent and recognisable customers will let potential customers know that they are in good company.

• User social proof. Testimonials and proof of user action help guide users into making a decision.

• Wisdom of crowds. Highlighting popularity or large numbers of users implies “they can’t all be wrong.”

• Wisdom of friends. We prefer to say yes to the requests of someone we know and like.

Getting social proof right

Even though social proof is one of the most effective means of persuasion, you do need to keep a couple of things in mind for it to be effective.

• Negative social proof can backfire. The message “Many past visitors have removed the petrified wood from the park, destroying the natural state of the Petrified Forest.” lead to park visitors stealing more, not less.

• Social proof works better with pictures. Testimonials is one of the most effective ways to use social proof. Furthermore, displaying faces alongside them increased trust even more - even when the photos were “nonsensical.”

• We are influenced more by people similar to us. We’re more likely to be influenced by people we know or like. The closer you can hit to home, the more effective your efforts will be. Being from the same town connects more than being from the same country. Liking the same band connects more than liking the same style of music.

• Authority rules. We’re more likely to act on information, if it’s communicated by an expert - or at least a credible and authoritative source. Authority in itself influences behavior through credibility, and is as such an extension of social proof.\

How Social Proof works

If you walk by two restaurants, where one is completely packed and the other isn’t, which one do you choose?

If you’re like most other people, you choose the one that is packed. There’s got to be something wrong, with the kitchen of the empty one, right? We think like this, because we rely on Social proof to make decisions.

Especially under conditions of uncertainty, we tend to look to others, like us, or in a similar situation, to help us decide what to do. We often look for other people, for proof.