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Online Business Systems Ep. 8: How To Get More Sales And Clients With Social Proof
How To Use Social Proof To Increase Sales & Revenues
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Summary – Online Business Systems Ep. 8: How To Get More Sales And Clients With Social Proof
In episode 8 of Online Business Systems on Zeilhan’s Podcast, we will learn how to use the power of social proof to increase revenues in your business. We will learn what social proof is, why it matters, and how to leverage it to bring more clients and customers into your business.
Introduction – Online Business Systems Ep. 8: How To Get More Sales And Clients With Social Proof
Welcome to Zeilhan’s Podcast where we believe in the power of using the internet, software, and technology to achieve online business success.
Today you are listening to episode 8 of Online Business Systems where we will be looking at the topic “ How to Get more sales and clients with social proof “.
“Whether we realize it or not, humans are pack animals.
We need one another, we need to feel a sense of belonging, and we need socialization. And because of this, our decisions are consciously or subconsciously influenced by the choices, opinions, and actions of the people around us.
When making a purchase decision, our brain looks for a mental shortcut that will allow us to make a decision, pass judgment, or solve a problem quickly and with the least amount of mental effort.
In other words, to learn what is correct, we look at what others are doing or have done in the past.
Not only do we look to others for buying decisions, but we also depend on it for almost everything else we do.”- Optin Monster”
Imagine you’re shopping for a new bedside table.
You’ve found three that you love, based on the pictures alone. One has over 500 reviews with an average rating of 4.8 stars.
The second has 140 reviews and a 2-star rating. The third has no reviews. Which do you buy?
Of course, you’re drawn to the bedside table with over 500 satisfied customers.
Why is this? It’s due to a psychological phenomenon called social proof.”- Sprout SocialIn today’s episode, we are going to do a deep dive into the psychological phenomenon and marketing concept that is social proof.
We are going to learn what it is and why it matters so much in getting your next lead, sale, or client.
We are going to deep-dive into what role social proof plays in conversions – i.e getting leads, clients, sales, etc, and how it influences your everyday life.
From minor decisions such as which cereal you eat in the morning or beer you drink at the bar with your friends to more extreme ones where it influences how you are likely to react if you were the victim or witness of a violent crime.
Very quickly before we get started I’d like to introduce myself. I am your host today, Jabez Roberts, and I am also the Founder and CEO of Zeilhan Systems Limited. I will be your guide for this episode of the Online Business System.
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Transcript (To Be Edited)
Welcome to Zelhans podcast, where we believe in using the power of the Internet, software and technology to achieve online business success. Today you are listening to Episodes code eight of Online business Systems, where we will be looking at the topic how to get more sales and clients with social proof. Very quickly, we are going to dive into an excerpt by Optin Monster on Social Proof. It says here that whether we realize it or not, humans are pack animals. We need one another, we need to feel a sense of belonging and we need socialization. And because of this, our decisions are consciously or subconsciously influenced by the choices, opinions and actions of the people around us. When making a purchase decision, our brain looks for a mental shortcut that will allow us to make a decision, pass judgment, or solve a problem quickly and with the least amount of mental effort. In other words, to learn what is correct, we look at what others are doing or have done in the past. Not only do we look to others for buying decisions, but we also depend on it for almost everything else we do. And that was by Optin Monster. Now we’re going to look at some things Proud Social wrote that I’m very intrigued by and I’d like to share with you. It says here that imagine this scenario. Imagine you’re shopping for a new bedside table. You found three that you love based on the pictures alone. One has over 500 reviews with an average rating of 4.8 stars. The second has 140 reviews and a two star rating. The third has no reviews. Which do you buy? Of course, you’re drawn to the bedside table with over 500 satisfied customers. Why is this? It’s due to a psychological phenomenon called social proof. In today’s episode, we are going to deep dive into the psychological phenomenon and marketing concept that is social proof. We are going to learn what it is and why it matters so much in getting your next lead, sale or client. We are going to deep dive into the role social proof plays in conversions that is, getting leads, clients, sales, et cetera and how it influences your everyday life from manner decisions such as which cereal you eat in the morning or beer you drink at the bar with your friends to more extreme ones where it influences how you are likely to react if you were the victim or witness of a violent crime very quickly. Before we get started, I’d like to introduce myself. I am your host today, JBZ. Roberts and I am also the founder and CEO of Zelen Systems Limited. I will be your guide for this episode of Online Business Systems. How would you like to increase your revenues by 10% to 30% over the next twelve months while we increase your revenues? Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could increase your profits by 10% to 30% as well? Then, while we increase your revenues and profits. How about we take away all the stress, anxiety and frustration of setting up and running a successful online version of your business? We’ll keep it open. 24/7 manage and market your amazing new online business so that you never have to worry about getting your next lead, sale or client again. Introducing the Zelen Online Business Suite, where we take your business online with a website that turns out more leads, more clients, and more sales for your business. 24/7 added to your conversion. Optimized Online business is a twelve month online marketing strategy to help your business reach its goals, whether it’s more leads, more profits, or even to expand in the next twelve months. Managing marketing and helping to scale your online business is your team of website development experts, experienced online marketing professionals, and accomplished online business development strategists Working for you 2004 seven so you have more time to do the things you love and spend with people you care about. Zilland Online Business Suite works for every business of ever size and niche and was designed and engineered to help you and your business succeed. We are so confident we can help you that we are giving you a 30 minutes Online Business Success Strategy Session valued at $1,000 for free so that we can show you what your business needs to succeed online. During this session, you will meet with an online business strategist from our team to discuss the problems holding your business back from success, the phrase you have around taking the next step forward, frustrations you feel with getting your next sale or client, and the goals you would like to achieve in the next twelve months. Your online business strategist will take everything from there in helping you set up a successful online business version of your business that is fully managed, marketed and secured by our team working for you. Visit onlinebusiness zelhand.com to learn more or go to Zelhand.com and schedule your free 30 minutes Online Business Success Strategy Session and our team will take care of the rest for you. Our first ten sign ups will get a chance to save 10% on the entire year of their subscription. That’s a minimum of $6,000 saved for the entire year and more than one month free. Set up a free consultation@zelhan.com to get started and claim one of ten discounted spots. No obligation to buy. Just tell us where you’re struggling and our team will show you what you need to change to be successful. That’s like we are paying you $1,000 to sit down with us for 30 minutes so that we can help your business succeed and help you achieve your dream life. Visit onlinebusiness zelhan.com to learn more or go to zelhand.com with the link in the description or show notes and schedule your free 30 minutes Online Business Success Strategy Session and our team will take care of the rest for you. Conditions Apply the first part of this episode. We’re going to look at what is social proof very quickly, very succinctly to the point what is social proof and how does it work? Psychologist Robert Cialdini amazing book he wrote, writes in his best selling book, Influence the Psychology of Persuasion. Whether the question is what to do with an empty popcorn box in a movie theater, how fast to drive on a certain stretch of highway, or how to eat the chicken at a dinner party, the actions of those around us will be important in defining the answer. Robert Saldini wrote two books. Let us say that Robert Cialdini is a social scientist. He specializes in pop psychology. As he said, he wrote two books. One is called influence. The psychology of persuasion. And that’s the one we just read this quote from and the other is called Persuasion. And persuasion is all about preparing someone to be persuaded to do the thing that you want them to do. All right. One of the examples and this is also a form of we could say it’s not really social proof but I’ll give the example is that we are trained, programmed to trust a person that’s wearing a jacket, a tie, a nice suit, nice groomed looking, professional looking, very confident. So if you were to go to anywhere at all and you see two people one is dressed like a bank executive. He has a nice tie, a nice suit, white shirt, nice pants, perhaps a briefcase or some book filing thing by his side looking very well cut and groomed versus someone who is wearing a torn jeans, washed out shirt. It’s a raggedy hat and doesn’t smell the best. And there is a line to get into the building which person is most likely to get a favor from the security to skip the line or wear at this stage to be even admitted entry into the building and that is the person wearing the suit. Why is that? That’s because we are programmed psychologically to look for these cues. And these cues send us a message that this person is of a certain stature, account and as such, not must be trusted, but is trustable. And because of that we are more likely to trust that person from that example. We are more likely to trust a person who was wearing a suit well groomed, very nice jacket and tie, well put together. And the reason that I made this example is because social proof works in the same way. We are programmed psychologically to look for cues in our environment and on the faces and body languages of those around us to tell us how to act. And they say evolutionary, we were pack animals. I don’t believe in evolution science but it does hold some credence to explain at least what’s happening here. All the links for these quotes will be in the show notes on it and the description so you can read entire articles and research and statistics and everything for yourself. Optimizer here says that social proof in marketing context is evidence that other people have purchased and found value in a product or service offered by a business because people are more likely to purchase a product that others are already purchasing. The Bandwagon Effect social proof can be a way to increase conversions by showing customers how popular a product or service is. And Sprouts Social gives us another definition, which I like as well. It says here from Sprouts Social that social proof is a term that was coined back in 1984 by author and scientist Dr. Robert Cialdini in his book Influence the Psychology of Persuasion. This phenomenon is also called informational social influence and essentially it’s the idea that people copy the actions of others in an attempt to emulate behavior in certain situations. For example, if someone isn’t sure how to act in a social situation they may not have encountered before, they take cues from the people around them. If someone is at a gala for the first time, it’s natural for them to observe their surroundings to ensure they’re fitting in and acting the way everyone would expect them to act. In this same book influence there is a part of the book that speaks about crime in the city, in the crowded area where everyone is and two very interesting things happen witness to the crime and the victim of a crime. So a woman was killed in broad daylight in a city? No, she was raped and killed, I believe don’t quote me exactly because I read the book over a year ago, but if I remember correctly, she was raped and killed in public in a city space and her body left and while the act was happening, people heard her crying for help. But the way that she cried for help, it was very timid and almost reserved and because of that most people who heard the cry didn’t pay attention to it. So when others looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to it, especially if they were new in that area because city they tended to do the same as what everyone else was doing act as if nothing was happening, that actually happened. That’s in the book. So that’s a witness to the violent crime and being the victim of the violent crime. He’s saying that let’s say that someone is mugging you in public so you’ve gone to Chicago I’m sorry Chicago guys, but let’s say you’ve gone to Chicago. Don’t tell Chicago. Someone is mugging you in the middle of the street. The thing that you need to do is you need to make eye contact with someone. You see, if you just scream and say help, a lot of people will hear. But if the majority of people don’t jump in and offer help, then no one will offer help. People have to move in to offer help. If you just scream for help. But if you look someone in the eye, make eye contact with them and you tell you signal to that person that you’re in danger. You’re getting hurt and you’re asking that person for help. You create a one on one situation with them that is more likely to end in them actually taking action to help you. Now, when that person takes action to help you, you’ve established a connection with that person by establishing eye contact and you signal to them that you’re in danger, you need help. This is not a normal situation. This is weird. You need help and they start to take action. Other people will look at that person taking action as a strong form of social let’s say it’s a social cue that said it’s okay to go in and help you because this is a threatening situation for your safety and then you can get help. He literally says the worst thing that you can do is scream for help and not look at anyone because people will walk by. And it’s not that they don’t care about you, it’s just that they have been programmed by social science to do what the masses do. And in that situation, the masses might not pay attention to your call. That’s just how it works. Moving on. In marketing, social proof covers a similar idea. When people shop, they look for reviews, recommendations and ways that others have used a product before making their decision. And from the example just now, you can see why this would work. Because if someone is getting mugged in public and it takes one of two things that mean either the mass is moving into offer help or someone making eye contact with the person. The person who is being mugged or being hurt or being robbed making eye contact with someone to establish a personal connection and say I need help and that person taking action. Then it shows how even in a simpler situation, we would be looking for the help of others. Because remember, in those violent situations, being a witness and a victim, the reason why someone does or does not take action is all the same. You’re doing what everyone else does. And this is why making an eye connection works. When you make an eye connection, eliminates the need to look for everyone else’s approval. Because now you’re saying to this person I need your help, I am in danger versus someone help. And everyone is saying we are not someone, I am the ad. This is normal based on what everyone else is doing because everyone is looking to the next person. He says this is why online stores work so hard to get people to review their products. It’s a form of social proof that works wonders for increasing the number of people making purchases. And that’s true. You go to Amazon or let’s not use Amazon. Let’s say you go to a regular ecommerce store bikes.com, for example. I don’t know if it’s a website, but let’s say it’s there and they sell bicycles and you do not know if this store is legit or not. You don’t know if it’s real business. They have a website, but it could be a scam. If the bikes have a few thousand reviews or any one bank has a few hundred thousand reviews, you’re more likely to buy from that store and that bag versus if products are listed. And no reviews, no star ratings whatsoever. No reviews, no ratings, no testimonials anywhere on the set of happy customers buy their products. Now we know what social proof is, and we also have an understanding of how it works based on people looking for cues from others to understand what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. Behavior and action in such a situation that they’re faced with. We’re going to have to look at some social proof statistics. And I curated these statistics from all over the Internet, mainly from OptinMonster and finances online. Like I said, the links will be in the description and in the show notes, so you can read for yourself and you can get the full sources. So all these are researched, and I’m just going to go ahead and start. Number 187 percent of buying decisions begin with research conducted online before the purchase is made. 87% of buying decisions begin with research conducted online before the purchase is made. Number two, the average consumer reads ten reviews before making a purchasing decision or before making a purchase decision. The average consumer reads ten reviews, gets the opinion of ten people online before they make a purchase decision. So this is number 388 percent of consumers trust user reviews as much as personal recommendations. 88% of consumers trust user reviews as much as personal recommendations. That’s like saying that if someone refers something, let’s say my brother and I go to the store, ask my brother, Bro, which of these shoes do you like more? Which one should I get? The red one or the blue one? He says the red one. For 88% of consumers, users reviews are just as powerful as that recommendation, that personal recommendation from my brother. Number 470 percent of people will trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know. And 92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer. So the review online is left there. You don’t know the person, but 70% of people will trust that recommendation because, oh, I bought this camera. It works really well for me. You should try to they would trust that. 70% of people would trust that, and they don’t even know the person who left the review. And 92% of people will trust recommendation from a peer, for example, my brother or a best friend or close friend. Number five buyers require an average of 40 online reviews before believing a business star rating is accurate. And this is because most businesses at times do fake reviews and fake feedback and testimonials and everything. So it’s like I say, when it’s about 40 reviews that gave them that four or five star review, then I’m pretty sure that it’s not skewed by Holden say it’s malpractice, but it’s definitely a shaded practice, you can put it that way. 85% of consumers think that online reviews this is number six, by the way. 85% of consumers think that online reviews older than three months aren’t relevant. And I believe that this is more of like a bias for recently. A recent bias is the term I’ve heard around. And you can understand why because reputation comes and go just like that. And you really want to understand that you are getting the best version of the business. And if a review is from two years ago, god only knows how many changes could have gone on in that business since then. Not only are reviews important or testimonials, but it’s important to have recent reviews and testimonials number seven, testimonials can increase conversions on sales pages by 34%. Now, when we’re doing a landing page so a landing page is similar to a sales page. And we would like you to know that let’s say you’re doing a Facebook ad, a Google ad, or any kind of PPC campaign. Do not, for the love of your bank account, send the traffic from your campaign, your PPC campaign, to your homepage. Do a sales page or a landing page. And like it says here in number seven, testimonials can increase conversions on sales pages by 34% on your sales page. Have at least six testimonials, six reviews, three at the top, before you make the first call to action. So you want them to buy something, three before you ask them to buy, and three more at the bottom of the page where you are putting the final call to action. And that’s where we’re going to put your guarantee as well. Guarantees we discussed in episode seven. Absolutely amazing episode, guys. I enjoyed it. I’d like you to listen to it as well. It’s titled how to increase your Sales and Revenues with how to craft a portfolio guarantee to increase conversions, lead sales and revenues or something like that. It’s a previous episode because this is episode eight, number eight for 50% of all consumers, their very next step after reading a positive review about a company is to visit their website, which is one step closer to the checkout or even getting them on your email list. So just to get them to your website, it’s good to have positive reviews all over Internet about you. Because when someone reads a positive review, 50% of all of all consumers are going to visit your website and guess what you’re going to need on your website? More reviews. And like we said, 34% increase on sales pages with just testimonials. Add the testimonials, add the reviews to your website, then ask them to make a purchase. Then ask them to join your email list. And we’ve discussed email marketing. We’re not going to get back into that, but I believe it’s episode five. We discuss the power of email marketing and growing your business. In a quick summary, you put in a dollar, you get back $44. Very good. ROI return on investment. Number 957 percent of consumers will only buy or use a business service if it has at least a four star rating. That means that not only do you have to get 40 online reviews, but those 40 online reviews have to be an average of four stars in rating for 57% of consumers to buy from your business. Quality and quantity in your reviews and recency. Because remember, it also says that if your reviews are older than three months, then 85% of consumers think they’re irrelevant. Number 1090 7% of consumers say online reviews impact their purchasing decisions. 97% of consumers say online reviews impact their purchasing decisions. That’s like saying everyone is impacted. Number eleven between similar products online, 35% of consumers said better reviews have driven them to spring for the higher priced option. So you have two products. One is $30.01 is $35. By having reviews, 35% of consumers are more likely to go with a higher priced option. That’s powerful because they’re eliminating a cheaper option for the more expensive one just because people say that’s the best one. Number twelve customers are willing to spend 31% more on a business with excellent reviews. 31% more right up there with the previous statistic that says that 35% of consumers would buy the more expensive price option just because they’re reviews. So you can see why we’ve looked at this episode, this topic sorry, of using social proof in your business because we’re here to not only help you make more money, but help you understand what is necessary for you to make money. Just in case you don’t want to go with our services or you can’t afford us, there are things that you can do that will help you to start making more money in your business. And social proof works for generating leads and converting leads. Start using it for number 13. It’s a two part statistic. We’re going to dive right into it and you understand why. The first part of the statistic says that 79.9% of customers admit that their trust in a brand increases when a brand responds to negative reviews or comments. And that’s from emarket. In 2019 I’m going to go again. 79.9% or 80%, basically of customers admit that their trust in a brand increases when a brand responds to negative reviews or comments. And I’ve said it over and over again in various episodes that we’ve done. Whenever you have a bad review, it is an opportunity for you to win a lifetime customer just by going in and replying to that negative review and doing everything that you can in public to try to make it right. You win the respect of that person. And then whoever is looking to buy will say, well, if things go bad, as they often tend to do, I’m sorry, but that’s how it goes. If things go bad, as they often tend to do, then I can expect this level of service and dedication from the company, from the business, from the team to make it right. And that goes hand in hand with guarantees as well. Part two of that statistic says, meanwhile, the trust of 95% of consumers decreases when brands remove negative comments instead of addressing them. So just having the negative review and responding to it means that 79.9% of customers will trust you more, but 95% of customers will trust you less if you remove the negative review. So that’s telling you that whenever you have a negative review, you have 80% chance of winning more customers or increasing your trust just by responding to it and trying to make things right. And I gave you the formula, I’ll give it again. You go in, you show empathy, you ask the question, please explain to me what happened and what can I do to make it right? Then you try to offer they’re going to explain, and they’re going to explain, and you let them explain and explain some more, then you’re going to offer them a solution that they think would be right. So a refund replacement product, three months if it’s a service like with Zelda, a free month, for example, or a free period, or a free trial, or an upgrade. I don’t know your business or your business model, or your products or your services, but offer them something that they would have to pay more for than they paid for currently, that they had a bad experience with. I said that jumbled let me explain. So if they bought something for $30, it was poor. You ask them, what’s the best solution to resolve this? And you offer them in the same sentence, you offer them, let’s say, another product that’s for $50, for free, just to make it right. Something like that. Number 14 influencer marketing has been considered the fastest growing consumer acquisition channel. And why do I add influencer marketing here? Influencer marketing is when I follow a celebrity on so I Kabil. Everyone knows Kabila. He has millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok and across social media. He’s an influencer because he’s popular. If he endorses product or service, let’s say he endorses a new Nike shoes for football players or soccer players. Because he’s an influencer, it means that a lot more people are going to listen to him and it goes hand in hand with the next statistics. So I spoke about how influencer marketing has been considered the fastest growing consumer acquisition channel. Remember, these statistics are in the links in the description. Now that it’s the fastest growing, we know that influence in the book by Robert Dr, robert Saldina is called influence the power of persuasion, right? We know that influence in people matters. And influencer marketing is about using other people’s social status to enhance reputation of your brand. That’s statistic 14 statistics 15 tells us that 40% of people say they’ve purchased a product online after seeing it used by an influencer on social media. So not only is influence on marketing the fastest growing consumer acquisition channel, 40% of people also are making purchases of products online after seeing an influencer user. And you can see these videos all over TikTok and Instagram of blenders and hair trimmers. And I don’t use social media that much on mobile, so a lot of ads don’t get shown to me. But you get the point, right? Number 16 businesses are averaging $6.50 for every dollar spent on influencer marketing, with the top 13% earning $20 or more. That means that not only are businesses making $6.50 or 6.5 x the return on their investment or ROI based on just by using influencer marketing, but you also realize that the top 13%, not the top 1%, are the top 5%. The top 13% of businesses are earning $20 or more. That’s powerful. That’s influence right there. That’s social proof. Number 17 says that content from influencers earn more than eight times the engagement rate of content shared directly from brands, especially among younger influencers. So if you’re trying to reach influencers sorry, if you’re trying to reach Millennials, your product being shared by an influencer will get you eight times the engagement rate instead done if it was shared by your brand. And engagement is like lag shares comments and acknowledgment of your post. It’s very good for brand recognition. Number 18 says that positive reviews make 68% of buyers more likely to use local businesses. So we’re here to help entrepreneurs and business owners. So local business owners, plumbers, electricians, tylers, bakers, contractors, roofers, dentists, doctors, lawyers using social proof will make 68% of buyers more likely to use your business. So that’s it for local businesses. The Trust so this is number 19. The trust of 93.7% of digital shoppers in a brand increases because of positive reviews. A trust of 93.7% of digital shoppers in a brand increases because of positive reviews. And that’s emarket 2019. Number 20. This is the final one. There are more statistics in the link in the description below. 88.8% of consumers say that their trust in a brand decreases if it has negative reviews. But we also remember that 79.9% of consumers will trust you more if you reply to the negative review, and 95% of consumers will trust you less if you remove the negative review. So this is showing what happens at the three stages. If you have the review and don’t reply to it, 88.8% of consumers will not trust you as much. But if you reply to it, 79.9% of consumers will trust you more. But if you remove it, 95% more of your consumers will not trust you. So I’m starting to think that negative reviews are a good thing to have in your business. It also gives you a bit of accountability and tells you how to improve. And that can only be good for you right at Zelahan, we believe in the power of the Internet, software and technology to make it easier to start and run a successful business online. We know that it takes more than running Facebook or Google Ads for two or three months to attract the right clients or customers for your business. We also know that as a business owner, you don’t want to be bogged down with learning the latest online marketing trends, the best way to set up a Facebook ad, or deciding what to do before or after your newest Google ad campaign goes live. For it to be successful, we want to make it easier for you to attract more clients and customers, increase revenues, build a brand that your added client knows, loves and trusts, and ultimately live your dream life. That is why we have removed the guesswork out of marketing your business online by designing and engineering a twelve month marketing strategy tailored for your online businesses success. Introducing Zelhan’s Online Marketing System over the next twelve months, our Online Marketing and Business Development strategy teams will work together with you to help your business succeed. We do this by settling on smart goals to achieve over the next twelve months of your business. A smart goal can be as simple as increasing revenues by 15% in the next twelve months, getting 20 new clients in the next year, or even growing top line revenue to $500,000 in the next twelve months. After we set and agree on the smart goals to achieve, our team will design and engineer a unique and helpful marketing system that will give you the highest chance of success in achieving your goals. Every month, we will have a consultation with you to let you know our progress on helping you achieve your goals. We will help you understand what we worked on last month and the results, what worked, what didn’t work, what our conclusions are, and how to best move forward strategically in the next month. By doing this, we ensure that our goals are always aligned with yours and that of your business. Your business is getting the results it needs and you know that your sale and marketing team is working 24/7 doing meaningful work to support your businesses success. After twelve months, we will have our final consultation where we see our goal, set in January 2023, was to increase their revenues by 15%. It is now January 2024 and we have successfully increased your revenues not by 15%, but by 25%. Our approach removes the guesswork out of getting your next sale or client and makes your online business success inevitable. As a result of a marketing strategy tailored for your businesses success, prices start at $3,000 per month at as low as $100 per day for your own professional and experienced marketing and business strategy teams working twenty four seven to ensure your business succeeds. But for a limited time, our first ten sign ups will get a chance to save 10% on the entire year of their subscription. That’s more than $3,500 in savings for the year or more than one month free. Set up a free consultation@zellhand.com and click Get Free Consultation to get started and claim one of ten discounted spots. The link will be posted in the description of the video. If you are watching on YouTube and show notes. If you are listening to our podcast, go to zelhand.com and click Get Free Consultation to set up a free consultation with our team to get started and our team will handle the rest for you. Set up your free consultation today and be one of our first ten signups who will get a chance to save 10% on the entire year of their subscription. That’s more than $3,500 in savings for the year and more than one month free. Conditions apply. Let us look at the types of social Proof this information comes to you from HubSpot Wonderful software they have, wonderful company, very good for sales and marketing and lead generation. You should check them out. No, I’m not an affiliate or an influencer. Now, according to HubSpot, just before we go into the types of social proof, I like what Ospot wrote on social proof because according to HubSpot, they say that social proof is the idea that it’s an idea. Well, it’s the idea that consumers will adapt their behavior according to what other people are doing. It makes sense, right? When we see a line of customers waiting to eat at a restaurant or a photo of a celebrity drinking a certain brand of coffee, it leaves an air of gravitas and quality to the product, doesn’t it? But there is more to it than that. In fact, according to business coach Bailey Richard, there are as many as a dozen different types of social proof with some logical overlap among them. Here’s how social proof can manifest itself. We’re going to look at the types of social proof. We have a list of them, there are about eight of them and I’m just going to touch on them a little bit just to give you an idea. Because ultimately what we want to happen is that at the end of this episode you are able to start using social proof in your business and use it to get more leads, clients, sales, revenues, all the good stuff and profits, of course. Number one expert stamp of approval. Expert social proof is when an industry thought leader or influencer approves of your product. This can take the form of them blogging, posted on social media or being quoted or photographed as a product user. Very simple, much like we see with the example of the celebrity drinking the coffee from a specific brand. Correct. And we see this all over the TV. Celebrity endorsement. This is the one that’s going to be a little bit of an overlap with expert stamp of approval. It says that a celebrity social proof typically takes the form of a celebrity. And I’m wondering if this can be with influencers as well, given how well influence the marketing is growing. But add aggress. Celebrity social proof typically takes the form of a celebrity using a product and promoting it on social media or in public. This form of social proof is especially meaningful if the endorsement is unpaid. So if the celebrity just randomly. For example, Kylie Jenner recently posted a picture of how much she loves her Casper mattress. She wasn’t paid for it, but she was excited. She loved it. She shared a picture on Instagram. I will not quote how much money they made because I don’t remember. But it was a lot. You can google it. And that was one of those examples where the celebrity was unpaid as well. So it’s like it’s more genuine at that stage. The third type is user testimonials. Very popular one as well. There’s a reason businesses create case studies about the successes their customers have had using their product. It’s a vote of confidence in the product’s value. All kinds of testimonials can have the same impact. Whether it’s a customer review on a business’s website, a review on a third party website, a star based rating, or a full blown case study, this content creates positive feedback from actual users. One of the most powerful forms of social proof is having someone who loves your product tell others why they love your product. Very powerful. It’s more powerful than you say in our amazing it is. You might as well shut up, really just have people speak about it. Number four business credentials. While user testimonials can add value to a product, business credentials can add trust to the product. Businesses can promote credentials like how many customers it has, what well known businesses are their customers, or the awards and certifications it has received. Sole proprietorships might even use their education or degrees as a credential their customers should care about. And this is what happens with me at Zelda, because a lot of times I call in prospects or we’re in a meeting, and I have to say to them, all right, I am a qualified UX designer. I am Google certified as a marketer. I am pursuing an MBA. I am a full stack engineer, and these are the projects I’ve done. You would think that just by doing it, by being able to code a website or software or set up a powerful Google Ad that’s been successful. But no, you have to show your credentials and your degree as well. And that’s social proof specifically to business credentials as a social proof. Number five earned media. If the press has published any positive reporting about your brand, this earned media is a great way to build brand awareness backlinks to your website and social proof that your business is worth paying attention to. And that is well out of our people paid journalists to write reviews about them and everything like that because a lot of people trust the Media News and the Glena. We have a Glena company in Jamaica to give them valuable information because they are thinking that the news agency would have done their due diligence to ensure that you are qualified and you are all that you say you are. Number six social media shares. And this one is so deceptive. The importance of website traffic from social media can vary greatly from company to company. But one thing no business should undervalue is the influence social media posts about your brand can have on potential customers. Enough positive shares of your content on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram can be all the proof one needs to invest in your product or service. And this is true because you see a lot of posts on Instagram and Facebook that has like a million likes of a product, you automatically want to buy it. I’m talking about you Magic Blender. It’s crazy. You see this product, it’s been used, a lot of people have commented on it, a lot of people like it and you’re seeing how much it changed their life. And it’s a lot of people, it’s like hundreds of thousands of people with a post that has millions of views and likes. You are persuaded, it has happened to me. I didn’t buy, but it does work. Number seven wisdom of the crowds as is social Proof 101 wisdom of the crowds. Social proof appears to our sense of fear of missing out. When lots of people are using or buying a product, others want to follow suit. What can I think of that is like that? Oh yes, the iPhone or the new Android, the phone just came out, but your friend has it and your other friend has it and no, you want it. Or a new car, or a bigger house or in this case you can talk about anything that is seemingly limited. Fear of missing out. Phone wisdom of the crowds. A lot of people have it, I want it to wisdom of your friends. Now this is very similar to wisdom of the crowds. Wisdom of your friends. Social proof refers to the phenomenon I described previously. The recommendations from people we know and trust carry far more weight than other types of promotions or advertising. And I believe there was a statistic that says that 92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer. This is statistic number two, while 70% of people will trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know. So that goes back into wisdom of friends and wisdom of crowd. We’re going to look at some examples. Let me review first. So reviewing the types of Social Proof expert Stamp of Approval celebrity Endorsement user testimonials business Credentials Earned Media Social Media shares, wisdom of the crowds and wisdom of your friends. We’re going to look at examples of social proof that have been curated by HubSpot. The link for this article is also in the description and the show notes, so you can go ahead and read. And of course all the rights and everything go to the author and all of that, not trying to plagiarize. It says here that Nature Made uses the expert certification of the USB or US former Copial convention to speak for their vitamins, instead of describing their quality themselves. The image of the seal of approval also echoes the text in their Facebook post. And it’s a picture of a vitamin from Nature Made. It says here we’d vote for their purity and potency. But an independent party already has. And you see the seal, the seal of approval from USB under their ad copy. Well, it’s a picture of the ad that says Nature made the first gummy vitamin USB certified for purity and potency. And no, we are not doing ads workday and this is one that says Workday’s Newsroom features an article in the Harvard Business Review about the company culture, which is a smart use of social proof. And remember, this is like Earned Media by featuring a well known university name and publication with expertise in business, they impress site visitors from the moment they try to learn more about the company. And the ad basically is a landing page. People in the background and the text says build a great company culture with help from technology. It says here Workday’s Chief People Officer and its SVP of products discuss how tech can fuel company culture. And there is a small button, it’s a link that says read that. Harvard Business Review it would be nice if I could show you what I’m looking at. But don’t worry, very shortly we’re going to have a video podcast and I think I’m thinking of doing live streams for the podcast as well, but we’ll see how that goes. For now, we’re just trying to get equipment and everything. Fitbit. Everybody knows fitbit. It says here that Fitbit lets health and tech industry experts speak to the quality of their products in the Buzz section of their website. It has a lot of weight to claims of Fitbit’s success when multiple publications are seeing the same positive things they are. That could be why Fitbit is often rated as a top fitness tracker on the market. There are six reviews here. One by Fast Company, one by Mobile Health News, one by us. I don’t know, it says US. I don’t know the logo. One by android authority, one by ZDNet and one by mobile health news. And they are all from April 2016, February 2016 and March 2016. So about three months apart, which is what we said in the statistic that says that the reviews have to be within three months recently for them to hold any weight. I won’t read the reviews because they’re like six of them and the link is in the description. We’re going to do one. This is the last one we’re going to do is by Tracy Anderson Method gwyneth Paltrow is a longtime fan, is a longtime fan and friend of Tracy Anderson under exercise program, which she frequently posts about on social media. This isn’t an official celebrity endorsement and its authenticity helps drive more people to Anderson’s program. The Tracy Anderson Method is now a multi studio DVD and live streaming fitness empire. And it’s a Facebook post of I assume one is Tracy Anderson and Gwyneth Paltrow. I’m not sure, but they are in a gym, they are taking pictures in the mirror. And Gwynett Paltrow says the head of this hashtag family taught us spunky leggings, made the class feel easier. Isn’t that right? At Tracy Anderson method. And she tags some more people, tags some more, some more hashtags. And now there are like 217 comments on the Post 23,200 likes and it’s 45 weeks old. So this works. And this is something that you can do because it’s literally just a customer or a client satisfied with your product, taking a picture of them using your product or service, sharing it on social media and given your $0.02 on it. Not a celebrity, but definitely more authentic because yet again, they are not paid for it. So it’s genuine and people will love to trust it and use it more. This episode of online business systems is brought to you by none other than Zelan Systems Limited. Zelahan is a company I founded in 2018 because I believe the Internet, technology and software has the ability to make your business successful. Over the years, Zelen has helped many businesses and entrepreneurs get their businesses set up online with a website and marketing strategy tailored for their success. Today, Zelen has an offer to help startups and businesses low on a marketing budget get an online presence that is optimized for their success, as well as large corporations looking to stamp their footprint as a leader in their industry, market, or the world. Today we’d like to introduce the Zelhan startup kit. For a starting price of $49 per day, our team will design and develop a conversion optimized website for your business, complete with lead generation tools to grow your email list and revenues. You’re also given a PPC campaign from Google, Meta, or any other platform that is best suited for your business and goals that is completely designed, optimized, and managed by our team. Once every month, we sit down in a meeting and update you on our progress of helping you achieve the twelve month smart goal we set when we started working. This can be as simple as a 20% increase in revenues or an additional 20 clients in the next twelve months. By doing this, our team and your business goals are always aligned so that at the end of our twelve months of working together, your business achieve its goals and we have another happy client. Your website will be hosted, managed, designed, developed and kept functioning at 100% by our development team. While our marketers ensure that it is taking you closer to your goals, our partnership with global website security giants Curry ensures that your website is always safe and protected. 24/7 by AI and an expert website security team. For the price of a Facebook ad marketer or $1,500 per month, you will have an expert team of web developers, website security specialists, online marketers and business development strategists working to ensure your business succeeds. Visit startup Zelhan.com with a link in episode notes or description if you are listening on YouTube to find out how you can get started. Today, the first twelve customers will get up to a jaw dropping 20% off the entire year subscription to their Zelahan Startup Kit. So hurry and sign up before the discounted spaces fill up. Just visit the link in the description and click Get Startup Kit to get one of twelve discounted spots. In this segment of the episode, I’m going to share a story with you of how social proof helped me. Social proof and guarantees really helped me to get a client for Zelda. So what happened was that I was cold calling and I called a particular business, introduced myself, asked for the manager. When I got the manager on the phone, thankfully I explained to him what we do, we help businesses like yours make more money online. This particular prospect was interested, but he was burned before he said to me, I’m having lunch, send me an email just to ensure that it’s forwarded to him. So put in the subject attention, his name, send him an email, he’ll look it over and get back to me. You know what that normally means, right? Buzz off, I don’t have time for you, I’m busy. I don’t care being a callable fool that I am, or just confident. I sent over the email, sent a link in the email to my calendar and basically in the email what I was saying was that this is who we are. I don’t want to say much about who I am, but this is who we are. Thank you for your time on the phone recently. This is what we can do for you and I went into talking about our success system. I sent over a link to a promotional video that we have that just introduces you to Zelhan and how we help businesses grow online, methodology and all. Send it over, call back within three days. I think, I think I called back like three days or a week and I said to him, we spoke last time you were busy having lunch and I just wanted to ensure that you got the email. He says to me that it doesn’t matter, because a lot of people will say that they can do something when you hire them, they can’t do it. And this is a prime indicator that this person has been through disappointing experience before. So what I said to him was that I am a Google Ad certified marketer. I am working with other clients, improving their Google Ads. This is what is wrong with your platform, with your specific case, because I could look and see what was wrong. I was giving him some pointers, and I basically told him about my credentials. I told him about how I’ve helped others, and I basically told him what was wrong with his well, not his business per se, but his overall structure online, why it wasn’t working. He said to me that this is what I should have sent in the email, because a lot of people reach out to him and they’re all saying the same thing. And when I send an email with a link to my calendar without saying all this, the social proof, then it doesn’t matter because he’s just going to gloss over it, said to me, send another email with this information that we just discussed. Here’s what I did in that email. I again thanked him for his time on the phone, reminded him of what we spoke about, just to ensure that he remembers who is really talking to him in the email. And then I said, these are the clients we’ve worked with. I listed a few banks, one of my longest clients on longest serving clients or longest served clients. I listed reviews. I gave referrals to three different clients, happy clients that have helped with similar problems that he has. This is the interesting part. So not only did I give all of that information, I also added links to different websites that we’ve built. So his website was really bad, and that was a huge problem. So I linked to different websites that we’ve built. I linked to some testimonials that I have from clients. I linked to clients. So I gave contact numbers for clients. I gave where they work, their position, their names and numbers. I also linked to websites that we made. This is what I think the game changer is, because what I did was I linked to the certificates. I added the certificates that I had from Google as a certified Google Ads marketer. I linked to my UX design certificate. I think I even added one of my certificates from quote, caliber full stack engineering certificate and what that did. And I think this is what really the game changer is that instead of me talking about what we could do and what I’ve personally done is I gave evidence of what was done and allowed him to do his due diligence to find out if what I said was true. So I gave ample proof, reviews, testimonials, contact numbers, actual work that I’ve done certificates and qualifications, like over five social proof or proof of competency I could put it because it’s not all social proof was attached in that email. He called me the very next day and we spoke for about 45 minutes. I’m going to go on a little bit more because I said that it took social proof and a guarantee. And remember, in episode seven, we discussed the guarantee. So after that, spoke for about 35 minutes, even introduced me to a new business is going to start and he’s going to want some marketing help, even offered a part of his company. We had a meeting at his office, discussed what exactly is it that I’m trying to do for them, why is it we’re trying to do that, the goals that he wants to achieve and everything like that? Because at that stage we would have spoken on the phone for about 35 minutes and we would have established a goal, which is a lot of money, a couple of hundred million actually, to make in the next twelve months and everything. And then at his meeting he said to me, and this is something that is important because you have to find the reasons why they wouldn’t do business. And he asked me, what happens if he pays me and the work doesn’t get done? What happens if he pays me and he doesn’t hear from me anymore? What happens if he pays me and the work is not done at an acceptable level? And this is coming from the fact that he would have worked with bigger companies than Zelle. And at the time we’re very young, there are more established companies. And the performance, the treatment was poor. And he gave example of poor customer service experiences that he got from different businesses and banks and so on, for example. And that’s when I popped out the guarantee that we discussed in episode seven. Briefly, a gloss over it here. You can go and listen to episode seven where it says that if we don’t work, then if you pay us for like two months, $10,000 per month, and at the end of two weeks, two months, that’s $20,000 paid. We don’t deliver the website as we promise you would have to deliver, then we’re going to give you all of your $20,000. We’re going to work for free for the third month, and we are also going to pay you another $20,000 for wasting your time until that point. So we’re losing $50,000. And where we lose $50,000, he would gain $50,000. In theory. Well, he gains it literally because he worked for free. Give him back $40,000. And that guarantee, those social proof helped to seal the deal because I had to give them like three more. So he wasn’t the only one in the meeting. I ended up giving them three more clients to call or referrals, past clients, happy clients to call. And we had a meeting afterward and he said to me that he called referrals, an assistant called the referrals or the referred clients, and none of them had anything bad to say about me. Signed the check, signed the contract, and now we’re working together, looking to knock this one out of the park. And that’s just one example. Like I said in episode seven, I can’t think of a situation or a scenario where I’ve been in a consultation, been in a meeting with a prospective client, and in need of a guarantee doesn’t work. And most times we would have gotten to that point because of social proof, because no one is just going to trust you if you say you can do it. We know that social proof works. It works for others, it works for Zelham. We know the psychological phenomenon that it is. How can we have it work for you? Well, these are examples of social proof that you can use in your business. And then we’ll go into how to get them from your customers. This is the type of social proof that you can get to use in your business, and I’ll tell you how to get them. So we have photos and testimonials from customers. That’s one. We also have company names and logos, particularly from recognizable and well respected brands. And that was one that helped me as well, because Zelen has done some work with Scotiabank, which is a very large bank in Jamaica, also in Canada. So that helped a lot. Customer case studies ratings or feedback from customers. Reviews on third party sites such as Yelp or Google. Fields of approval from well respected organizations. Number of followers on social media platforms. Sharing buttons with share counts and like counts, download and purchase counts, listing the number of customers. Celebrity endorsements and shoutouts from influencers. Testimonials from industry experts and experts. Social proof. I did not list any social proof software because the ones I use are all WordPress native and the ones I checked out are like $50 a month and $60 a month. I could not pay that money just to review their products to recommend to you. So in the future, we’ll review some social proof software. How do you get social proof? Here’s what you’re going to do for photos and testimonials from customers, it’s very easy. For all the social proof that we listed previously or recently, there are steps that you can take to get them. It follows this process, really. You’re going to call, email. You can even set up email automation to run like a day or two or three days after the product or service has been given to the customer client, and it’s all to past clients or customers. You’re going to call past customers or clients, email them, set up email automation to contact them, and you’re going to also have instant feedback forms. And you’re also going to engage unhappy or disgruntled past customers or clients. When you call, email or use. Email automation to pass clients or customers or instant feedback forms. This is what you’re going to see. Hi, John. Hi, Paul. Hi. First name. Thank you for buying X product x Product y Product z product. Or thank you for trusting us to deliver X service, Y service, Z service. How was your experience with us and what could we have done to make it better? They are going to feel loved, appreciated, and important. They’re going to feel hurt. They will share with you. They will say, I love the product. I love the service. Nothing could have been better. Or you could have been a bit more prompt. Whatever the case may be at that stage, you’re going to say, thank you for the feedback. I’ve added this to the list of things we should improve on. I would love to ask if you could share this review of your experience with others so that other prospects like you in the same position will know that we can help them too, or that we can’t help them. Because not every client is your client, not every customer is your customer. And at this stage, it might not be the perfect review that says, oh, beautiful business, gorgeous. They’re just wonderful. No, it might be, I loved what JBIS and the team at Zillhand did, but I would have loved for them to have reached out sooner after I delivered my website. I would have loved for the design on my website to be a little bit more professional. Whatever the case may be, you’re going to have reviews like those. And then what you can do this is a powerful one you’re going to reply to them that this is something that we’re going to be working on in the future. You’re going to have a review that says, the website was awesome. You can even showcase the work because someone might look at the website that you delivered or that we delivered in this example and say, well, I’m okay with the design like this. But you see, because they were authentic and saying that I love the service or the product, this is what I would change. That’s adding authenticity right there. And as we’ve found in the statistics, that negative reviews have huge weight in increasing trust. And if it’s a perfect review, go ahead and add it. Ask them for the name, business, logo, professional headshot, and you’re going to add these reviews on your website, in your email marketing campaigns, in your social media, use them in your PPC campaigns, the whole work. And that’s how you get social proof. You can use social proof to increase not only your client count, but also your leads, even your profits. Because if you have a client and you’ve sold to them, you can use that client’s own words to sell them something more expensive. They might say how they love working with your prompt, your respectful, excellent customer service. You have a new product or service comes in a little bit, priced a little bit higher. Remember that social proof helps to sell higher priced products. This is a current customer. Reach out to them. I remember you said this, so I remember you said that our service was good, this product just came in, the service just came in. I would love to help you have a crack at this. Or I think this is something you should try based on so and so on. And that’s how you’re going to get by with social proof. It’s like one of the easiest things, the only thing easier than social proof to improve your leads and conversions and clients and customers and revenues and profits. The only thing easier is a guarantee. And the reason why a guarantee is easy is because with a guarantee, you can do everything without external input, right? With social proof, you need to have at least offer the product or service. And here’s a nice trick. Use a guarantee to get in your first two or three clients. Use those two or three clients with a powerful, amazing guarantee to get your first reviews or testimonials or forms of social proof. And then from that, use those social proof and the guarantee to propel the business and get high ticket clients and everything like that. Absolutely awesome. I never touched on social media likes and shares because you can literally go on Facebook and Instagram and set up an engagement campaign and pay for those. It happens. You can get followers as well. So not so much what we’re going to worry about. And that is how you’re going to get social proof in your business. I’d like to thank you for listening to episode eight of Online Business Systems on Zelahan’s podcast brought to you by Zelhan Systems Limited and our online business suite where we build and optimize your business for online success. Your optimized online business comes with a conversion optimized online business from our expert development team, a strategic and systematic online marketing system for short and long term success, and a team of certified and experienced developers, marketers, website security specialists, and business strategists that are working twenty four seven to ensure your business succeeds. Get started with our microplan that comes complete with website developers. You are UX designers, email marketers, SEO specialists, premium hosting and website security, your personal account manager, a business development strategist, and a PPC campaign from Facebook. Our microplan starts at $5,000 per month, or less than $165 per day or less than $7 per hour. Our first ten clients will get a 10% discount each month, totaling $6,000 saved for a year. Go to onlinebusiness zelen.com and set up a free consultation to get your 10% discount. Remember to share our episodes with your friends and family who you think would find this episode and others helpful. Hit the subscribe button on YouTube or where you listen to your podcast to get notified when we bring more amazing content tailored for your online business success. Visit Podcast@zellhand.com for a complete list of our podcast episodes. You can also visit Watch Zelhan.com or our YouTube channel to watch our most recent content. Most importantly, earn up to $500 in commission for every client you refer to us by sign up to become an affiliate at Affiliates Zelhan.com. You can find all the resources mentioned in this episode in the show notes or episode description. If you’re listening on YouTube. On the next episode of Online Business Systems, we will discuss the topic Why your business isn’t making money from your website. This has been episode eight of online business systems brought to you by Zelhan Podcast. I’ve been your host, JBZ Roberts. Take care until next time you.
