Social proof has been around for a long time. Nowadays, marketers use this psychological phenomenon in marketing, and it has proven to be one of the most effective strategies.
Whatever you plan to buy, whether it is a new car or you want to see a new show on TV, social proof would likely play a huge part in your decision.
Social proof is why you may choose a crowded coffee shop over one closeby without anyone in it even though you have never tasted any of their coffees before.
You simply trust that the coffee shop with more people probably has the superior product and is ‘better’. Hence, the behaviour of other people has influenced you. This happens in other ways, like a word of mouth recommendation from your family and friend.
Human beings generally have a desire to fit in with the rest of the crowd. This can affect our lives in different ways, including our buying decisions.
The psychological phenomenon of making decisions based on what other people have done is known as social proof.
Social proof marketing is leveraging the psychological tendency of humans to be influenced by their peers and other people to behave in a certain manner. In this case, to purchase a particular product or become a conversion.
With social proof marketing, you will create urgency in potential customers. This is done by showing them various information that can give them the confidence to make informed buying decisions.
How Do You Integrate Social Proof Into Your Business
If you own an online business with a website or have your products and services on eCommerce platforms like Shopify and the likes, it is very easy to integrate social proof popups.
With Leadforza, you can create more than 20 different types of social proof notifications that will appear from time to time on your web pages in an attempt to encourage web visitors to convert.
You can also display your total conversions, random review or testimonial from your other customers, creating social proof. Another social proof marketing notification that can be very effective is a countdown collector bar which is a timer that helps you create urgency and FOMO in web visitors.
Why Does Social Proof Work?
Social proof has been referred to as herd behaviour, mass conformity, or public acceptance in the past. It is such an effective marketing strategy that draws power from four basic principles.
These four principles help us understand why social proof works and is very potent and why many marketers use this marketing strategy in their businesses.
They are:
Uncertainty
Purchasing a product, especially from a brand you may not have patronised before, is a risk. You are paying and hoping you will be satisfied by the service or product.
To overcome the uncertainty, we usually look to others around us to see the choices they have made or if they have made them.
Sometimes when people go to the car dealership, their decision-making process started before they walked in, and in other cases, it started with a recommendation from a friend.
This is the same way you ask your friend what they ordered at a restaurant before deciding.
Similarity
Humans tend to behave like people who are like us – in the same demographics like age, gender, etc. When you look at some age groups today, you will realise most people under that age group do similar things like their fashion, for instance.
Expertise
Experts also influence social proof. We are more likely to trust and follow the behaviour of our boss or people who are more experienced than us in a particular industry.
Number/Crowd
This simply means when most people have made a decision, it most likely feels like a good decision to us.
Social proof marketing has become a powerful marketing tool, and many marketers nowadays are beginning to leverage it to harness massive sales and conversions.
Thankfully, with Leadforza, you can create highly effective social proof popups in minutes, integrate them into your platform and yield results in minutes.