6 Social Proof Examples That Will Make Your Website Copy More Powerful
People are more suspicious of businesses than they’ve ever been. With outlandish claims, fake reviews, and tight budgets making people wary of where they spend their money, you have to make sure your copy is working double time on the trust & transparency front. And the best way to do that is by leveraging social proof. In this post, I’m going to share 6 social proof examples small businesses can leverage to make their website copy pack a Heavyweight Champion punch.
What Is Social Proof?
Social proof is any external validator of your credibility. It helps people make decisions when they’re unsure of what to do — to buy or not to buy? That is the question.
But you need to use the right social proof to validate whatever claim you’re making. Because with 39.8 million small businesses operating in Canada, the U.S., and the UK, your website needs all the help it can get to compete in the market.
Used strategically, social proof can prove you’re good at what you do, an authority worth trusting, that you make great stuff people love, and more. And where you put that social proof on your website can make your copy even more powerful.
There a few factors that will play into this — one of them being the type of decision maker your reader is, and where they’re reading your copy. I go into detail about this in this blog post, so review that on your time.
But for now, let’s dive into 6 social proof examples you can use right now on your website that’ll help convince readers you’re legit and THE SH*T.
6 Social Proof Examples Small Businesses Can Use
#1) Customer Testimonials
Also known as reviews, testimonials are a treasure trove of information that comes straight from your customers’ mouth. Almost 95% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase.
Why are they so important? Well, they work for a couple reasons:
- When your reader sees from someone else that yes, your offer is amazing, you are good at what you do and worth the investment — it makes you more trustworthy
- The power of the many! When people see people like them doing something — and a lot of them, at that — it’ll convince them that following through (ahem: buying your thing) is a smart thing to do
- They appeal to everybody. Whether they’re a methodical decision maker, competitive, humanistic or spontaneous, they will appreciate seeing testimonials from people who have taken action and tried your thing
* There’s one caveat with using testimonials. If you’re collecting reviews publicly from a place like Google, you can’t sensor them and only showcase the good reviews. According to the FTC, you have to show all of your testimonials — good and bad.
How to collect good testimonials
Suppose you don’t already have a system in place to collect impactful testimonials. In that case, I’d recommend adding a quick questionnaire to your off-boarding process. If you’re a product-based business, that would mean sending an email with the questionnaire shortly after the customer has gotten their product. If you’re a service-based business, that would mean sending an off-boarding email to your client after their project has finished, asking for their testimonial of the experience they had.
Asking the right questions will help you get the best testimonials, which you can use to validate a bunch of different claims — like here, where I used a client testimonial to prove that Atabey & Co.’s WOC Podcasters Community was worth joining.
Or here, where I validated Day to Day Assist’s Operations Advisory would be super supportive, and help get businesses out of their stagnant rut.
I highly recommend using the Testimonials That Convert resource from Reveal Studio Co. — it has all the best questions you can ask when getting testimonials.
Once you’ve gotten the testimonial, you can figure out the best place to put them on your website!
Where to put testimonials on your website
If the person is talking about how worth the price the product is, you’d put the testimonial below the product & price description to validate the product’s value.
If they’re talking about how supportive you were, you’d put it after your ‘About Me’ section — specifically where you showcase your process, so people can see that they won’t be left alone during the project.
Depending on what the person is talking about, the testimonial can go on different web pages and different sections of the page. But no matter what, it will always go after the claim you make.
I dive into where to put testimonials with each claim you make in my free Social Proof Calculator, which you can download here.
#2) Success Statistics
This could be anything from average income increases you’ve gotten for your clients and the number of 5-star ratings to media logos of your press features and video content of the inner workings of your program.
People love numbers — especially methodical and competitive decision makers — because they trust facts, and numbers show a measurable ROI. So you want to leverage success statistics to make yourself look more credible.
Like on the Atabey & Co. website, we used a social proof bar with oodles of success statistics to prove that everything we said above the fold was valid — that their full-service podcast production is legit, that their community is popular, and that their network gets results.
But your success data isn’t just a numbers game — it can also tell a compelling story.
For the 6 Figure Chick Consulting website, we used the success statistics of their beefy client portfolio and average income increases to connect to the transformation they’ve been able to help working women achieve. Paired with 3 tear-jerking testimonials, it tells a short but mighty story.
So, remember that even data can be heartwarming when used the right way.
#3) Experience and Expertise
People trust credible authority figures, and there are a couple of ways you can display that you are one:
- Your credentials
- Years of experience — individual & combined (if you have a team)
- Logos of certifications
- Your unique process
- Awards you’ve won
When people trust you and see you as an expert, you’ll increase your chances of converting them and getting future attention from other people they recommend you to.
On the Day to Day Assist website, we showed not only the dynamic duo’s job titles but also their years of experience and the industries their clients come from — a success statistic, which pairs seamlessly with their expertise proof point!
#4) Client/Customer Base
Influencer marketing and celebrity brands like Savage X Fenty are popular for a reason — people are impressed with notable people. So when your client/customer base has a few notable people worth mentioning… DO IT!
A number like this shows readers that people buy your stuff and, if the number is high enough, that a lot of people buy your stuff. Proving that your offer is worth the investment and legit!
So use this social proof strategically in places like:
- Right after introducing your service
- Below the product description
- On the contact/checkout page
On Atabey & Co.’s services page, after introducing their signature package, we spoke to the dozens of podcasts they’ve launched. Then, to amplify the power of that social proof, we combined it with a moving carousel of all their client’s podcast cover art so people could visualize it. Then, we took it even further by really speaking to the value of the package!
#5) Project/Sales Milestones
Again with the numbers! Showing how many products you’ve sold, or how many projects you’ve completed, can prove that the thing you’re selling is popular — which implies it MUST be legit if a lot of people invested in it.
You can show this a few different ways, with various kinds of visual devices like visual counters or raphic illustrations.
On the Atabey & Co. website, we started from 0 and had an animation that counted all the way to the current amount of members in their WOC Podcasters Community.
#6: Your Impressive Catalogue
And when I say catalogue, that could really be anything from:
- The tools you specialize in
- The tutorials and demos in your library
- The platforms you have experience working with.
And you can showcase this both visually and with numbers. On the Day to Day Assist services page, we used a rolling carousel of software logos to show all the tools they have experience setting up for their clients.
On a website like Mobbin, they used this both visually and numerically to showcase their extensive library of UX & UI design interfaces.
This kind of social proof does a couple of things, which makes it such a powerful social proof point. It validates the value of your offer, your expertise, and the level of support your reader can get!
Social Proof Implementation Strategy
Okay, we’ve reviewed 6 social proof examples! Now, let’s get down to brass tacks:
Where to place each type of social proof
A general rule of thumb for all kinds of social proof is that it goes after a claim you make. Whether that be beside or below the copy where you make the claim doesn’t matter — the only thing that matters is that it never comes before your claim.
It’s like trying to cook an egg without a frying pan. Sure, you can still make a fried egg on the stovetop, but it just makes more sense to use the frying pan.
One thing should always come before the other. And in this case, your claim comes before the social proof.
“But where do I put each kind of social proof exactly?”
Good question! I go into which social proof to use for each claim you make in my Social Proof Calculator, but to break down the basic proof points for you, claim by claim:
- Claim about value, support, or expertise → Testimonial, Project/Sales Milestones, or Expertise & Experience
- The popularity of your thing → Success Statistic, Client/Customer Base, or Project/Sales Milestones
- How good you are at what you do, and how much of a trusted authority you are → Expertise & Experience or Your Impressive Catalogue
How to combine multiple forms
As you saw with my client examples above, combining different social proof points that validate the same claims can make your website copy even more powerful.
In the Social Proof Calculator, you’ll see which social proof points can validate a single claim, and you can decide which are the best to combine for that section of your web page.
For example, I chose to combine (a sucess statistic) + (their client base) + (3 testimonials) to prove that when it comes to 6 Figure Chick’s The Optimizer service:
✅ People like this service
✅ A LOT of people like this service
✅ The Optimizer gets results
✅ This service is valuable
A/B testing recommendations
No website is ever done doing its job — it’s your 24/7 employee! But, in order for it to keep doing a good job, it needs to continually improve itself. And that means testing different things to see what works better. Otherwise known as A/B testing.
You can A/B test social proof by:
- Trying different social proof points
- Testing new social proof combinations
- Moving things around to see what resonates better with your reader.
Let’s use my own website as an example. I originally had a brief description of my different packages on the home page with 3 testimonials from past clients.
When I rebranded my website this summer, I instead chose to:
- List out the different deliverables I can offer
- Used success statistics to prove the value I can bring
- Showed my top 3 portfolio projects so people could visualize the end product
- Moved the testimonials below my mini ‘About Me’ section to prove my expertise
Wrapping it Up
Well there you have it! 6 social proof examples, where to put them on your website, and how to combine them. I hope you found this post helpful! Because it’s not enough to say your brand and the things you sell are great — you need to prove it. And not just with random testimonials sprinkled on your page hoping something sticks. No, you need to strategically use social proof and put them in the right places.
Now, done wondering which proof points to use where? Grab my free Social Proof Calculator and know exactly what evidence to show for any claim you make.
With dozens of social proof examples and which claim to pair them with, this free tool helps you:
🤙🏾 back up your promises
💀 kill objections
🛍️ guide buying decisions
👀 ➡️ 🛒 turn browsers into buyers
