Start free trial Share this post 6 Social Proof Strategies That Can Increase The Success Of Your Conversion Funnel Home Blog Digital Marketing 6 Social Proof Strategies That Can Increase The Success Of Your Conversion Funnel Updated on November 7th 2024 Rebecca Barnett-Smith | 9 min read Many people believe that if others do it, they should be doing it, too. This is why a robust social proof strategy can increase the success of a brand’s conversion funnel. Social proof is the psychological concept that people’s decisions are influenced by others, compelling them to do what they think is normal or expected. In the marketing industry, social proof proves that other people have been satisfied with a brand’s products or services. Whether your brand gains mentions on social media, on the web, or in a local review forum, every mention with positive sentiment could encourage a new lead to complete their conversion. With this in mind, this article will explore six ways you can display social proof to increase the success of your conversion funnel. What Is A Conversion Funnel? Before jumping into social proof’s benefits, let’s first learn about a business’s conversion funnel. In the eCommerce industry, the conversion funnel is the journey a consumer takes, from discovering your brand or a specific product or service through advertising and marketing content to abandoning the process of “converting” into a paying customer. Most conversion funnels are divided into stages: TOFU The top-of-funnel (TOFU) stage is the broadest because every brand gets more website visitors than paying customers. At the top of the funnel, consumers research products, services, or brands as they determine what they need or whether a company is right for their purposes. MOFU The middle-of-funnel (MOFU) stage includes most elements of the consumer’s journey as they consider whether to make a purchase. BOFU The bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) describes the endpoint of the journey when a website visitor either finally converts into a paying customer or abandons the funnel. It’s the narrowest part of the funnel because it’s the section that the fewest visitors reach. Source A conversion funnel is a commonly used marketing analysis tool because: It can help your marketing team analyze how effective their strategies are and adapt accordingly It illustrates the customer journey so you can understand how visitors navigate your website It can break down which stage of the customer journey has the most failures by seeing where visitors abandon the funnel When it comes to sending your leads through the conversion funnel, social proof can change the game. At integral stages of the conversion process, such as the consideration stage, ‘MOFU,’ leads are specifically looking for social proof that your brand performs the way that it claims it does. Thus, adding some examples of testimonials and reviews throughout your conversion strategy could speed up your funnel’s success. 6 Social Proof Strategies That Can Increase The Success Of Your Conversion Funnel 88% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations, so it is essential to display these throughout your conversion funnel. Social mentions increase consumer trust, validate purchasing decisions, build brand credibility, and enhance brand presence. How To Hunt For Social Proof Using Mention The question is, how do you find social proof? While many forums, review sites, and social feeds are full of reviews of your brand and its products, it can be difficult to hunt for them without a dedicated tool. Mention helps you to monitor, analyze, and engage with your mentions across the web, making it easier to spot social proof that positively describes a customer’s experience with your brand. Using Mention, you can collect mentions over the web in real-time, fetch mentions from up to two years in the past, and even analyze the sentiment behind each one. Whether this is a positive social comment or a review on a forum, these can all be used as social proof. Here are six social proof strategies that will increase the success of your conversion funnel: Display Customer Reviews and Testimonials On Your Landing Pages If you want to launch your own eCommerce website and want it to perform well, have in mind that gathering social proof and adding it to your landing pages is essential. Potential customers who see positive reviews or high star ratings are more likely to trust your products or services. This is because a review is a customer’s honest opinion, often shared spontaneously. If a customer has written a review about your brand or offerings on a third-party site such as TrustPilot, consider featuring this as a quote somewhere along the conversion funnel. It would be even more effective to include their real name and a photo of them, but remember to ask for permission. In addition, you can also embed third-party review sites such as Google Reviews directly on your website or display internal reviews for each product. For example, Argos displays customer reviews and star ratings for each product. Potential buyers can filter through the reviews and see how different product features have been rated. Source In addition, your marketing team could collect testimonials from satisfied customers. A testimonial is a positive customer success story collected specifically for marketing purposes. Video testimonials, in particular, add more authenticity since an actual person is reviewing the product or service in their own words, and there is less chance of it being fake. Increased trust enhances the likelihood of a consumer buying from your brand and making it through the conversion funnel. Show Off The Facts and Figures Showing off your brand’s success through facts and figures is a great way to guide consumers through the conversion funnel. An insurance company could include the number of members it has, a retailer could display the number of products it has sold, a food delivery platform could show off the number of people who order from it each week, and a finance company could present the amount of money it has helped its customers save. For example, Vitality Insurance’s website states, “Join over 1.7 million Vitality UK members”. This indicates to the customer that they purchase cover from a trusted brand, used by more than a million people like them. Collaborate With Influencers There is no denying the power of social media influencers in 2024. 40% of people say they’ve bought a product online after seeing it used by a social media influencer. Send an influencer in your niche a free product or offer to encourage them to speak positively about your brand on their accounts. Ensure you collaborate with influencers who align with your brand ethos and have a loyal following relevant to your niche. For example, a bikini brand might choose a travel influencer, while a protein shake company might choose a fitness influencer. Leveraging the power of influencer endorsements will improve engagement rates and brand visibility, increasing the success of your conversion funnel. Build Some Case Studies Reviews and testimonials only have one customer vouching for your product. Case studies allow your brand to compare the experiences of multiple customers. Case studies go in-depth about your products or services’ practical benefits and real-world results. They share information about the value and versatility of your product or service for the needs of several customers. Remember, a case study does not always need to be in text form. You could have multimedia packets with video interviews for even more engagement and trust – both of which will increase the success of your conversion funnel. Display Your Certificates and Awards In Your Email Content Displaying your certificates or awards is a powerful way to increase your brand’s credibility and trustworthiness. It also distinguishes your brand from the competition, which will convince those in the conversion funnel to buy your products or services. While we commonly find these on a brand’s website, it’s important to include them in your email content and communications, especially when reaching out to cold leads. You can display a certificate or award for sustainability, customer service, product quality, or something more specific like “retailer of the year” or “local business of the year” in your email content, but ensure that you choose an HTML template that enables you to add images of well-known reward badges. Source To gain this form of social proof, have your abilities, services, and products certified by an independent third party, enter your brand into certified business awards, or have employees undergo additional training that leads to certification. Show Off Your Customers If you are a business-to-business (B2B) company, you should display the logos or names of the top industry players that use your products or services. Customers feel better about online purchases when they know they’re buying from a brand with a good reputation. A business in the conversion funnel will be more likely to trust your brand if it knows its industry competitors are using your products or services. This makes you look credible by association. Are You Ready To Increase The Success Of Your Conversion Funnel? There’s no denying that social proof is an indispensable tool in today’s competitive digital marketing landscape. In fact, implementing social proof can boost conversions by up to 15%. Remember, people trust people. Not showing signs of your products or services being approved and used by satisfied customers will cause online shoppers to abandon the conversion funnel. Implement these six forms of social proof and let satisfied customers, influencers, success stories, and awards convert browsers into buyers. If you want to find social proof online that you can use to increase your conversion, start using Mention for free! Rebecca Barnett-Smith Rebecca is a freelance journalist and multi-media marketing executive, specialising in the future of SEO marketing and user experience in business. Guest Blogger @Mention