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Why adding social proof to your website helps



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Why adding social proof to your website helps

With new and old businesses out there, they're all asking how they can gain new clients through their websites and turn them into loyal lifetime buyers. You could have a great product, and amazing website and even have the best product packaging in the world. You could have all of this, but if you don't have something that shows what other people are saying about your website, you're losing sales.

There's no secret when it comes to social proof being a selling factor. There are plenty of websites that are actually implementing schema markup and also showing a star rating on their search engine listings in order to convince people to buy even before they land on the website itself. Someone needs to see that another person purchased before them and had a good experience before they will open up their wallets. For this reason it's tough for new companies to get started, but it's so rewarding when you start to get your own positive reviews Why adding social proof to your website helps


Why is it so important?
Not as many websites as you would think actually harness the power of testimonials on their websites, which results in a missed opportunity in the long run. Whenever I'm working with a new client, I will always set something up that will help capture those positive reviews and add them to the clients website. This helps in many ways, such as:

  • Testimonials add credibility to your website and what you're selling
  • People look for online reviews prior to making an purchasing decision
  • Social proof is good for branding (usually) because it adds great text around your brand name
  • You strengthen the relationship between you and your buyer by asking them their experience with your product or service and how you can make it better.


What kinds of testimonials should you get from your buyers?
When it comes to gathering testimonials and reviews from your current clients and buyers, the one liners such as "Great Service!" won't help a whole lot, but they do work on a small scale. What you'll want to do is...
  1. Surveys: About 3 days after your buyer recieves their product or service, send them a survey that covers everything. If they were happy with the product, they will usually fill out the short survey and this is where you get your content Why adding social proof to your website helps You can also give out coupon codes in order to encourage a person to fill out the survey ;)
  2. Social Media Posts/Shares: You can ask your clients and buyers to share on their social media profiles. The best trick I can give you for this is to have them add a specific tag to the post that will link back to your business, for tracking purposes. Of course before you use one of these testimonials or shares, you will need to get permission from the person before adding it to your website.
  3. Send out free products or services: This is a great way to get influencers reviewing your product or service. You're basically giving them a free item or service in exchange for a review (usually positive) and this helps on a couple levels. Of course the positive content for your website but it also helps gain a few more sales from the influencers already large following Why adding social proof to your website helps
  4. Pull from other websites: This is the most common practice of getting social proof added to your website. People will go to websites like Yelp and SuperPages in order to pull positive reviews from actual people and then add these snippets to their websites.



In Conclusion:
You will always need positive testimonials on your website in order to increase your sales and return sales. People want to know that others have already made a purchasing decision and that they had a good time with your website or company. If you don't have testimonials on your website, you're just going to give sales away to your competitors.


Remember to follow me!
https://www.seoclerks.com/user/Razzy


Thanks!

Razzy

Comments

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zeedollar
I totally agree with you, as social media has begin to play greater roles in the success of businesses, it is important that whatever you add to achieve greater value will be great. In the case of social proof, it is important because most people need to see proof that a product or system works before putting out money for it. Social proof is and will continue to be an important part for business success.



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JackDan
Building trust with your subscribers or customers for a long run is very important in any business. Social proof is one of the best ways to gain the trust of your customers. Social media always helps to reach wider audiences and also helps to grow more targeted audiences.



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JoeMilford
JackDan,

Good points here, and this is a good reminder to us all that building a good solid customer base does take time, patience, and perseverance. The key word you mentioned in your post was "trust"--as return customers can provide testimonials to comfort and win over new customers, it is important for us to work hard, even if it is slow and takes time to really develop good customer relations, in order to procure a lasting business.



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Corzhens
That is the advantage of businesses that have thrived for years because they have already established a sort of track record with their customers. One friend who has a retailing business for 5 years now never fails to get a good testimonial from his long-time clients maybe because of the good service that he had provided aside from the quality of products that he is selling.



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overcast
I think social media shares work a lot. For this I think promoting through the social media account is necessary. often you may find that not a lot of people can click on share on social media. But yeah that would be required for sure. I have seen some people making use of the social signals for getting more likes and signals. It may not be easy though. Some of the people may have to experiment with their niche though.



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Tronia
Really nicely written article and I couldn't agree more. I always valued any sort of proofs, reviews or ratings extremely high and always spoke in favor for site owners to implement such features. What's better for business than another customer writing ''I loved this shop. Amazing products'' or something similar?? Nothing! People will be less hesitant to buy from you if you have proof that backs up your quality Why adding social proof to your website helps



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thart
That's right, nowaday social media play an important role in business. And about social proof i think it's so important to make your customer trust you and to know that they are dealing with a real someone.



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TsuyoyRival
I must agree with you. Social proof is an undeniable way to provide feedback about your products and also giving a sense of security to new customers in order to make more and better investments on your business. By the way, amazing article, keep the good work!



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itommy
Social Media Posts/Shares: You can ask your clients and buyers to share on their social media profiles. The best trick I can give you for this is to have them add a specific tag to the post that will link back to your business, for tracking purposes. Of course before you use one of these testimonials or shares, you will need to get permission from the person before adding it to your website.
I think this point will not work for normal users who didn't sell social network services as selling social signals on websites.
But have to agree that, it is better for sellers who selling the type of this service because anyways customers will like seeing more posts/shares/followers on a website than empty things there.



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thart
The more well known the person giving the testimonia, the better it will perform. He or she needs to be an influential person in your industry to impress your audience.



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goldlady
You're right. People feel more confident to buy whatever the site offers them when there are comments from other real people. It totally happens to me. A few days ago I was abut buying my next cellphone on a website, and I went directly to the ones wich has comments of people that have bought it before.



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JoeMilford
Razzy,

Great post here, and great idea about sending out customer surveys--that never even occurred to me. In my teaching and administrative careers, I have often used surveys with faculty and students. We used suveymonkey a lot--I wonder if that would be a good tool to use in my freelancing and blogging ventures?



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amazingsteven
Social media is changing the world. It is now easier for Companies to reach their target audience and build trust with them. And what better way to do this than Social proofs? Having real people providing feedback about your products and services, make more customers feel comfortable with your products.



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Meg24
Very informative post, everything said is true. Adding social media to your websites is a must nowadays. It's one of the first places people will go to see if it's worth their time. Besides, you can get reviews from actual people that have visited it. People will likely listen to other people, so having a positive online presence is important.



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jeiss
Social proofing aid a website with good health. It is an avenue for website/product owners and users to exchange ideas, opinions and testimonial. It helps bringing users and content provider closer by breaching the gap between them. Testimonies and positive comments written on say a Facebook page has an influence on anyone who stumbles upon that page. If you sell an item and someone wants to buy and is confused as to buying your item or not when such a person sees good comments about your product on your fan page he/she gets convinced that using your product is going to be worth it.



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cmoneyspinner
On LinkedIn you have the opportunity to endorse and to be endorsed. I have taken advantage of this feature and it does help build your reputation. This gives your professional credentials a boost.

Regards your website, a good thing to do is put the Facebook plugin on your site that shows how many “Recommend” or “Like” your page, along with the “Share” button.

Both LinkedIn endorsements and Facebook recommendations or likes are fantastic “social proofs”.



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augusta
Learning in progress, as a blogger I think we need all this postive reviews and rating to be able to pull the kind of traffic that would be profitable in the long run.

social proofs are always needed to pull this off.Especially if it is based on all the positives.



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fishmonk
Social proof is a factor which might sway a potential client over the finishing line to complete a transaction. When it comes to online purchases, most people have a lack of trust. How we manage this lack of trust is key to securing a business. Therefore, having social proof creates an assurance for customers instead of them having more doubts and going to another vendor.



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Sunnier
Google is only trying to detect how much manual efforts and your time you are investing into the main website and your business. The more social activities you show the higher your trust rate



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Barida
This is where many have made the mistake thinking that once sales are going, there is no need for creating an avenue for clients to rate the products that they bought. If there is a feedback, I think there is going to be an improvement in sales, if it is more of positive reviews.



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Corzhens
My husband and I are frequent travelers abroad and we always stay in hotels. Some of the hotel staff would ask us if we have the time to post in Tripadvisor or Booking.com a comment regarding their hotel service and facilities. If not then they would appreciate if we can post something about them in Facebook. Truly, the social media is now a part of everyday life especially in the business world.



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