Newsflash, most people don't trust you.
It's not because you did anything wrong, or because of your values, beliefs, business, or anything else. This is due to the fact that we're constantly bombarded by information, messages, chances, ideas and opportunities on the daily. It's just a fact of our society. But how do you filter out the nonsense, or white noise, from the important stuff?
As a business or brand, your job is to build up trust and loyalty. You want consumers to feel comfortable buying from you. But today, that's hard to do. That's where social proof like reviews and user generated content steps up to the bat.
Basics of Social Proof Marketing
While you can't just tell people things and have them immediately trust you, you can have other people say nice things, as we tend to trust what other people have to say.
The statistics show that we trust online reviews on the internet from perfect strangers more than we'll ever trust anything a brand says about itself!
So here are a few tips and tricks to build trust so that your shoppers trust buying from you.
1. Use Product Reviews to Build Trust
First and foremost, when shoppers land on your site say from an ad or a TikTok video, they are subconsciously looking for reasons why they should (or shouldn't) trust you.
Showing off product reviews from your past customers is an excellent way to build trust on the product or home page.
When your customers say things like:
- We just bought this - it's awesome!
- I attended this concert/conference/webinar and was there for the whole thing
- I downloaded this game/guide/document.
This is the easy, base step. Build trust on this and you can start to snowball your social proof from here.
Ways to leverage customer reviews
Showcase your product reviews prominently on your website
Integrate product reviews directly onto your product pages and homepage. Use a review app like Fera to collect and display reviews in a visually appealing way.
Highlight positive reviews in marketing materials
Include quotes from positive reviews in your email marketing campaigns, social media posts, and website content.
Respond to all reviews, positive and negative
Responding to reviews and addressing concerns and showing appreciation demonstrates that you value your customers' feedback.
Leverage video reviews
Encourage customers to submit video testimonials about their positive experiences with your products. Video reviews are highly engaging and can be even more impactful than written reviews.
Fera is the perfect tool to help you manage your product reviews and video testimonials.
With Fera, you can:
- Easily collect reviews: Create customized review forms and request reviews via email, SMS, or QR code.
- Showcase reviews beautifully: Customize the look and feel of your review widgets to match your brand.
- Automate review reminders: Send automated email and SMS reminders to encourage customers to leave reviews.
- Generate social proof: Display your best reviews on social media and other key marketing channels.
By showcasing your customer reviews and video testimonials with Fera, you can build trust, increase conversions, and drive long-term success for your eCommerce business.
2. Build trust online with testimonials
You've seen these a million times before. Maybe an 'Influencer' posted about this new product you have just "got to try" because they "absolutely swear by it".
When you use social proof from testimonials, you're basically building authority through associating yourself with someone else, hopefully, someone people innately trust
Types of Testimonials:
- "This is the only product I trust enough to ever use on my skin"
- "I was really impressed with how easy this was to use"
- "Thank you so much to Company X for making my party absolutely amazing. We love Product X/Service Y so much!"
Tips for leveraging testimonials
- Select individuals whose values and audience align with your brand.
- Avoid scripted testimonials that seem forced.
- Encourage influencers to share their genuine experience with your product.
- Place testimonials on your website, social media, and marketing materials to reach a wider audience.
Here is a helpful how to add testimonials to Shopify and another post on how to add product reviews to Wix post
Add Verified Testimonials To Your Store Today!
Easily collect, show & grow customer reviews, photos & videos for your business.3. Leverage Authoritative Proof
Prove you're someone worth listening to. Show that other authority figures/brands are backing you, using your product or talking about you. Utilize these types of authoritative social proof:
- "Voted the #1 Product by Company X"
- New York Times Bestselling author
- Featured on Ellen
You could simply add a few logos of brands or people using your product if you can. It'll elevate you to a certain level of trust, even if you can't create long-term trust.
4. Get Social Proof from Social Media
Probably one of the most influential ways of gaining trust in today's market. Focus on how many followers you have, the like to comment ratio of your posts, and whether or not you're a 'verified' profile.
You're creating immediate, tangible results. You're proving a bunch of other people are interacting with your brand or business. They're liking, sharing and commenting and showing others why they're loyal or trusting to you!
These also tend to be harder to manipulate or fake, whereas, the others are easier to do so. It definitely helps up the trust factor if you can't fabricate these results.
Social media offers a powerful platform for showcasing your social proof and building trust with potential customers.
Here are some specific strategies for each major platform
- Showcase high-quality product photos and videos
- Engage with your audience
- Partner with influencers
- Utilize Instagram Stories
- Run contests and giveaways
- Create engaging Facebook groups
- Run targeted ads
- Live stream Q&A sessions and product demos
- Share user-generated content
TikTok
- Create engaging and entertaining short-form videos
- Partner with TikTok influencers
- Utilize TikTok trends and challenges
- Respond to comments and questions
By consistently implementing these strategies across social media platforms, you can effectively leverage social proof to build trust, attract new customers, and drive business growth. Remember, authenticity and transparency are key to building genuine trust on social media.
Focus on creating valuable content, engaging with your audience, and showcasing the positive experiences your customers have with your brand
