How to Increase Your Conversion Rates by 26%
This is a guest post by Megan Eckman.
Almost as easy as this stuff.
We humans crave social proof. We want to buy the shoes Lady Gaga says are awesome. We want to read the book Stephen King reviewed favorably. And we definitely want to buy what our best friends are buying.
In fact, in a study done by Marketance, adding social proof helped one hotel increase the behavior they wanted their guests to take by 26%.
So the big question is:
Are you harnessing the power of social proof on your website?
It doesn’t matter if you’re selling a product or a service; social proof will up your sales and conversion rates. It also portrays you as an authority figure in your field (since so many people are buying from you) and it increases trust from your customer.
What better way to prove you’re not a scam than to have rave reviews from real people? That’s the one thing infomercials get right.
So, first off:
What is social proof? How do you get it?
It can take lots of forms. Tweets, likes, reviews, interview, photos, etc. But it has to come from your fans. You can’t create it yourself. (Well, you can but it will come back to bite you.) What you CAN do though, is ask for it.
Honestly, there’s no easier way to get social proof than to put out the call to your customers and fans. Send out a single email asking for a one sentence review. You can throw in a nice coupon or incentive if you feel you need to make it worth their while.) Look through the recent tweets talking about you for some 140 character gems. Ask people to send in a photo of them using your product. In the end, there’s no better love than customer love when it comes to your business.
Okay, once you have the social proof, how do you use it effectively on your site?
Again there are lots of ways to go about this. It all depends on your brand and how you connect with your customers.
You could:
- Create a fan page where you post a gallery of customer photos.
Paloma’s Nest uses Pinterest to display customer photos – http://palomasnest.com/
- Add photos/icon to your sidebar of major blogs, sites, or magazines in which you’ve been featured.
Megan Auman’s collection of As Seen In logos on her website – http://www.meganauman.com
- Add reviews to your product descriptions. (If your product is a physical book, put the reviews on the back cover.)
Testimonial for Danielle LaPorte’s Fire Starter Sessions – http://www.daniellelaporte.com
- Or a testimonial page. Just remember to edit them to 1-3 sentences. Any longer and people won’t read them. [note from Liz: or bold the good parts!]
The Praise for My Prose page from Alexandra Franzen – http://www.alexandrafranzen.com
- Have a rotating widget in your sidebar that displays what people are tweeting about you.
The LKR “Tweets-timonials” on the blog sidebar – http://lkrsocialmedia.com/
There are endless possibilities!
In this time of constant sharing and limitless connectivity, social proof allows you to eliminate obstacles to buying when someone comes to your site. It builds trust and also shows them that you’re a rising star.
Remember, the more social proof you have, the more credible, exciting, and enticing you are to your customers. So go out there and get some great proof from the people who are already gushing about you. And don’t forget to dream big for social proof. There’s no shame in contacting your idols to see if they’ll review your work.
Your Turn
[from Liz] Do you have a favorite example of social proof? Have you use it on your own site? How has it worked for you? Find any of this helpful? Let us know in the comments!
photo credit: Vita Arina via photopin cc
About the Author
Megan Eckman is the community coordinator for Create Hype, a site that helps female entrepreneurs learn how to market their creative businesses. She loves meeting new creative entrepreneurs and sharing their knowledge with others.
She also runs an illustration business, Studio MME, which helps people rekindle their wonder.
