5 Ways to Build Social Proof for More Effective Marketing

Social proof is a part of marketing psychology, which is essentially the practice of using psychological cues and triggers to shape the mindsets of the customers, and even entire consumer markets by influencing trends and shifting the tides of the industry. Concretely, social proof aims to encourage potential customers and even existing ones to put their trust in your brand, and choose you in a sea of competitors because you seem more authoritative and trustworthy – an opinion that stems from the fact that others have already put their trust in your brand before.

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There are numerous tactics that can help you build social proof around your brand and attract quality leads, and you need to employ all of them if your goal is to truly stand out from the competition and become an authority figure in your industry. With that in mind, let's take a look at the five best ways you can build social proof for a more effective marketing approach.

1. 1. Reviews and product ratings

   People aren't just going to buy a product they're interested in from the first online store they come across after typing the keywords into the search box, instead, they are going to take their sweet time researching brands and online stores in order to check if the seller can be trusted, and ultimately to validate their decision to make a purchase. This means that it doesn't really matter that you're selling an awesome product if there are no reviews to speak praise about it.

   To that end, it's important that you incorporate product reviews and ratings into your website and in your print marketing materials such as product catalogs so that people can review them and form an opinion of your brand.

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   The ratings (stars, bees, unicorns, take your pick) are there to give first-time visitors a quick overview of your most popular products, while the product reviews reel the customers in with detailed customer feedback and opinions. This will show the potential customer that someone already bought from you and thus help build social proof.

2. 2. Celebrity endorsements and shout-outs

   We live in a world where online celebrities have become more popular than Hollywood actors and late-night TV hosts, which means that the opinions of these online gurus carries more weight and thus has the power to shape the mindset of an entire demographic.

   If you have prominent social media celebrities in your industry that your target demographic trusts, then you have to find a way to get in touch with them and work out a sponsorship deal. Why?

   Just imagine the increase in website traffic and conversions you're going to experience if social media influencers start publishing links to your site along with their daily posts. This is one of those marketing strategies that fuel business growth and also build trust and brand authority. Simply put, if the influencer trusts you, so do their followers.

3. 3. Website cues and real-time notifications

   When a customer lands on your site, you have a very limited window of opportunity to spark their interest and incentivize them to stick around, not to mention that they will form an opinion of your brand pretty quickly, so you need to engage with them immediately.

   One way to do this would be to open up a chat window, but a better way would be to build social proof immediately through cues and notifications.

   

   When they land on your site, it's important that they see that people are actually interacting with your brand, which is something that the innovative Cue social proof tool aims to achieve by displaying real-time notifications whenever someone buys a product, signs up for your newsletter, or makes any positive action that builds a trustworthy brand image.

   This is a powerful incentive that makes a potential customer form a positive opinion from the start, so be sure to integrate the right social proof tools into your site to improve conversions and inspire brand loyalty.

4. 4. User-generated content

   Of course, nowadays it seems that you can't have a successful online presence without user-generated content. Simply put, people want to see that others are satisfied with your company enough to create a picture or a video using your products or enjoying your services.

   You need to capitalize on that by posting user-generated content on your website and social media pages, and then engaging your customers in the comments section to generate quality leads.

5. 5. Brand visibility and reach

   And finally, remember that simply improving brand visibility is a powerful way to build social proof. It's important that you make your brand as visible as possible in the online realm, and that means employing various digital marketing tactics as well as some offline tactics in order to appear first in the search results and drive traffic to your website.

   Be sure to combine SEO with paid advertising, and make sure to grow your social media presence in order to become a well-known figure across the online realm.

Wrapping up

Social proof should be the foundation of your marketing strategy, as well as your brand growth strategy. Be sure to use these tips to build social proof around your brand and make your every marketing strategy that much more effective.

Until next time, Be creative! - Pix'sTory made by Jolene Rutherford

Jolene is a marketing specialist - turned blogger, currently writing for technivorz.com. Interested in digital marketing and new technology trends. Love sharing content that can help and mean to people.