Discover how to utilize the psychological influence of social validation (social proof marketing) and scarcity communication to boost sales and conversion rates.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Social proof can have a significant impact on customer decision-making and conversion rates.
- Showing how many people viewed a product, added it to their shopping basket, or bought it at a specific time can demonstrate customer interest and help build trust with potential buyers.
- One effective strategy is to build a sense of community using product badges or overlays that show a user’s location.
- You can foster trust and minimize customer resistance by strategically displaying positive customer testimonials.
- Conducting A/B testing on various social proof strategies is vital. This will help you identify the versions that resonate most powerfully with your target demographics.
There’s an initiative to save energy in your community, encouraging people to use fans instead of air conditioning. 4 signs, each with a persuasive message, have been randomly distributed to hundreds of houses in your neighbourhood:
- You could save as much as $54 a month on your electricity bill.
- You could prevent 262 pounds of GHGs from getting released every month.
- Saving energy is the most socially responsible thing you can do.
- 77% of individuals in your vicinity prefer fans over air conditioning. It’s the popular choice in your community.
What type of signage do you believe would be most successful in convincing individuals to refrain from using the air conditioning? If your answer is number 4, you are right, and with good reason.
What is Social Proof Marketing?
This situation is based on a real scientific study that shows how group influence affects decision-making. The first three reasons were reasonable, but I realized a simple idea: if others are doing it, I should too.
Psychologists refer to this phenomenon as ‘social proof’, and it’s particularly prevalent in the realm of online shopping. Today, eCommerce brands are using the influence of others to motivate shoppers and turn uncertain visitors into confident buyers. To find out more about how Social Proof works, click here to learn more.
Social Proof Marketing Theory
We often believe that our actions are consistently driven by our unique personal thought processes. But the truth is that our final decisions are often conditioned by those around us.
This concept is especially common in scenarios where individuals struggle to identify the correct conduct. It is based on the assumption that the people around them have more knowledge about the situation (source).
Even with a flawless unique value proposition, a brand may still struggle to secure a purchase. A study by Expo (source) reveals that consumers trust reviews nearly 12 times more than descriptions provided by the manufacturer.
If you’re an e-commerce brand, using social proof can help build customer confidence. It can reduce the concerns that stop people from clicking the buy button. Here are two effective social proofing strategies that can help you do just that – and more.
Social Proof Marketing Examples for eCommerce
Showing that many customers want a product can help increase sales. You can do this by displaying how many people have viewed the product, added it to their cart, or made a purchase within a certain time. Telling customers that “157 people have bought this product in the last 24 hours” makes them feel a sense of urgency and fear of missing out on the opportunity to buy.
Knowing that other people have already bought an item helps a customer feel good about their decision to buy it. Uncertain customers naturally find comfort in a larger collective. If you can make it seem like everyone else is buying your product, they’re more likely to.
Consider how one of Africa’s largest online retailers responded. To boost social proof messaging and create urgency, they triggered product availability messages on product pages.
The Principle of Community
Individuals often seek advice from others with similar backgrounds or interests when making decisions. eCommerce businesses can capitalize on this behavior by invoking a sense of belonging while presenting their products to their clientele.
One way to achieve this is by adding a product badge or overlay that directly shows the user’s location. If a customer is from New York, saying “98 other visitors are now viewing this item in New York” shows that the product is popular and makes it more relatable. Making the user feel at home in the shopping environment is a real way to increase conversion rates.
To reduce friction and reassure customers, building trust is key. This can be achieved by displaying positive customer testimonials in the right context.
Don’t Forget to Test!
One of the best ways to calm anxious customers and encourage them to buy is through social proof marketing. Understanding why consumers make choices is important for boosting conversion rates, add-to-cart rates, and sales. In today’s world, simply offering the right value isn’t always enough.
When you use social proofing tactics in your marketing, make sure to test different ideas. A/B testing helps you find out which variations work best for your audience. Ongoing optimisation can be the difference between success and failure in persuading visitors through the power of social proof.
The Power of Social Proof Marketing
I’ve seen a worrying trend in business-to-business marketing: advertisers often make product claims without providing enough supporting information. For instance, in the IT industry, the most prevalent marketing material is the white paper. Many white papers do a good job of explaining how a product works. But because their purpose is educational, not sales, they do not do a good job of proving their performance claims.
In your business-to-business marketing communications, don’t make this mistake. If you say your product is the fastest or the most reliable, potential customers are immediately sceptical. Everyone claims the same thing.
All claims made in marketing copy and content should be substantiated. Here are some of the ways you can convince a wary buyer that what you are saying is true:
Comparisons
The reader’s interest is seized by contrasting – demonstrating how your product stands out and excels compared to others. You can do a before and after comparison showing the change before and after using the product, e.g. dirty water discharged versus clean water treated by your cartridge. You can create a side-by-side comparison to show how your product is doing compared to the competition.
A table enumerating all potential features of your product category is a highly efficient method. One column displays your product, marked with a YES or a check symbol. This indicates that you have all the features.
In the other columns, you can see that competing products have only a few features checked. Most boxes are either left blank or marked NO, indicating that those features are not included.
Tests.
One of the best ways to show how it works is to let the customer try it out, especially at their location. For example, a pelletiser is a machine that pelletizes powdered material. The primary concern is how effectively the pelletiser will function with the client’s material.
You can help potential buyers by saying: “We would be happy to examine a random 5-gallon sample of your material.” We’ll have a look at it. We’ll get back to you with our equipment recommendations. We can conduct an exploratory pelletisation test, run a full-day test, or rent you a production machine with an option to buy.
Samples.
Give prospects a sample of your product. This is a time-honoured tactic. In shopping mall food courts, restaurants often have someone standing in front of their counter. This person holds a tray of free samples of their food, like Chinese dishes or chicken nuggets.
Tempur-Pedic advertises a complimentary kit in its commercials. The child contains a sample of its mattress material. You can validate their assertion that the mattress material adapts to your body’s shape by applying pressure and compressing it.
One company makes mist eliminators that remove entrained liquids from industrial chimney gases. Their eliminator is a wire grid that flexes and coils similar to a Slinky. A direct mail campaign sent small mesh samples to process engineers. The sales letter was imprinted on cream-colored card stock and affixed to the wire grid, giving it the appearance of a shipping label.
Visualization.
People are more likely to believe something works if they can see how it works. The mist eliminator company described above also made trays. These improved the efficiency of distillation towers. One of the things that happens is that the liquid rises through the capped holes in the tray and starts to bubble on its surface.
Normally, it is not possible to see how the trays work because distillation towers are made of brick or metal. To show process engineers the bubbling action, the company built a simple Plexiglas model of a distillation tower for the stand.
One of Gore-Tex’s products is a putty-like sealant. It is used to prevent leaks in pipe connections. A picture of a pipe flange was on the cover of its sales brochure.
An actual specimen of Gore-Tex sealant was affixed to the flange. Not only could people visualise how to apply it correctly. They also have the option to take it out of the brochure to touch, experience, and interact with it.
Dramatization.
A few years ago, U.S. West sent an audio cassette to telecommunications managers to help sell its disaster recovery systems and services. Upon playing the cassette, the recipient was met with the ambient noise of a bustling telecommunications hub.
Suddenly, the CD fell silent and the noise vanished. “This is the precursor to a looming telecommunications catastrophe,” stated a voice-over narrator. Without actually shutting down the prospect’s telecommunications system, they dramatised the danger in a meaningful way.
Description.
A manufacturer of wireless digital switches aimed to persuade telecom managers of their switch’s superior reliability. They stated in their product brochure: “The XYZ switch ranks among the most dependable wireless digital switches on the market.
The XYZ Switch has the least downtime of any switch used in US networks. It meets Bellcore’s reliability standards and exceeds them by 200%, according to the FCC’s ARMIS report. At present, the XYZ switch caters to more than 72 million lines across 49 nations, with an established base of over 2,300 switches.
Demonstration.
We understand from numerous direct-response TV commercials for cleaning items that demonstrations are effective. And they work in the B2B world too.
An ad from a company that made a fireproofing compound was my favourite of all time.
The advertisement was published on paper processed with the compound. It was bound into a magazine and included a coupon for a brochure. “Try burning this coupon!” was the headline of the ad.
The policeman told the reader to take the advertisement out of the magazine and to hold a lighted match up to it. As long as the match was present, the paper was ablaze. However, the flame extinguished once someone took away the match.
2 Responses