Humans are risk averse. We’re cautious about making decisions that make us feel stupid or that make us look bad in front of others. Knowing that others have made a similar choice signals to us that we’re ok to make the same one.

Social proof de-risks our decision-making. If something feels less risky, it makes us more willing to buy something. That’s why every website, email or has some form of social proof plastered to it.

But The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs applies not only to marketing channels, but to marketing patterns too. If we just do the same as everyone else - throw up some logos and a few text-based testimonials - then it has less impact. That means it doesn’t serve the purpose we want it to, which is to persuade somebody to buy from us.

So we need to upgrade our social proof. How do we do it?

First, we need to understand what type of social proof works best. The best social proof:

• feels real. Do we know for a fact this person exists? Does it feel like they were paid to give it? Does it feel like they were prompted or that they they spontaneously gave it?
• is from people we know. A logo from a business we recognise is more powerful than one we don’t. A testimonial from a friend or an influencer we follow is more powerful than one we don’t.
• is specific and result-focused. ‘[Brand] is great’ isn’t as powerful as ‘[Brand] is great because they achieved x for me’

Second, we need to understand how social proof works in the context of somebody scanning something online. Social proof hits hardest when:

• there’s a lot of it. With social proof, we want to knock people over the head with it. More is more.
• it’s easily scannable. We get maybe 5 seconds of somebody scanning our landing page or email, if we’re lucky. Social proof has to do stand out as somebody skims our assets.

Now we understand what type of social proof works best and how it works online, upgrading it becomes a matter of simply answering these five questions.

1. How do we make it real?

Lot of ways to do this.

• Combine written testimonials with profile photos and link to their social media profile(s). Bonus points for designing them so they mimic the design of a social media post.
• Record case study videos. Hard to argue it’s fake when a real person is talking to a camera. Raw is better than slick here.
• Embed a tweet, LinkedIn post or a Slack message. An embed works better than the same testimonial written as text.
• Show your product or service’s output. A website you designed for a customer, a video a customer created with your video creation software. Actual outputs showcase your product and the fact others are using it.

2. How do we get social proof from people others recognise?

No shortcuts or easy wins with this one.

• Build relationships with recognisable people. Be interesting, have something of value you can offer them.
• Offer your product or service for free to them. Reduce the barrier to entry for them trying it.
• Financially incentivise them. Greyer territory here, but you can always give them money.

3. How do we make it specific and results-focused?

Again, no shortcuts. You have to be delivering actual value for your customers.

• Talk to them and ask them questions about your product. Sometimes this will come umprompted, sometimes you have to make it happen. In-person is best, Slack or email can work too.
• Quantify things. Numbers of clients, amount of revenue you’ve generated for them, amount of minutes people spent on your product. Numbers are a great way to show results.

4. How do we show lots of it?

• Create a system for prompting and collecting social proof. Easy to let this slide in a busy startup. But showcasing social proof makes everything convert better, so it’s worth making this happen
• Infuse it across your whole website. Rather than having a social proof section, try and make every section include some form of social proof.

5. How do we make it easily scannable?

A few ideas:

• Include it above the fold. Everybody who visits your website will see your hero. Make sure it has social proof.
• Include a thumbnail with video case studies. You want a photo of the testimonial giver, their name / business, and the result they achieved working with you in a few words.
• Avoid large blocks of text. Five one line testimonials > one five line testimonial.

Sidenote - what to do when you have no customers, users or social proof

Two things.

First, use adjacent social proof. Starting your own consultancy and don’t have any clients yet? Well, you had a job before right? Get a testimonial from your old boss. Product with no users? Get somebody to go on record saying they think the idea is cool. These aren’t as powerful, but they’re a temporary placeholder before you get the real stuff.

Second, offer it for free. Yeah yeah, know your value, don’t do free work. But when you have no social proof, nobody trusts you. So you do it for free, so there’s no risk in them trying you. Collect the social proof, now start charging.