5 Easy Ways to Implement Visual Social Proof in eCommerce

What Is Visual Social Proof?

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that makes us people seek reference for our behavior from our peers. We want to be part of the crowd.

Marketers have noticed how useful social proof is in marketing efforts.

When people see that other people are using products or following certain brands, they will also feel compelled to do so.

This is a gold mine for marketers! With social proof, you can increase conversions, get more sales, and acquire new customers.

Visual social proof refers to ways of showcasing social proof with visual elements, like images, graphs, badges and logos.

The visual social proof elements often work better than others: they are attention-grabbing features that make potential customers stop scrolling and take a look.

Types of Social Proof

There are at least six sources of social proof:

1. Family and friends
2. Expert social proof
3. Celebrity social proof
4. Customer and user social proof
5. Wisdom of the crowd
6. Certification

This means that we are affected by the above mentioned people and groups. 

You are likely to buy a product that your friend recommends, or a well-known expert enforses. 

You probably also trust a brand that has many people on its side or has official certifications about great quality products or ecological materials.

As an ecommerce business owner and marketer, you should try to target several of these social proof types.

In this article, we focus on visual social proof, but you can read tips on social proof in advertisements, social proof strategies in B2B, and overall social proof strategy for eCommerce.

Charm Prospective Customers with Easy Visual Social Proof

You could turn to influencer marketing and celebrity endorsements, but paid social media sponsorships might be too heavy means for smaller businesses.

Also, influencers don’t come across as authentic, at least not for me. People know that they are paid to endorse products and services.

I want to highlight authentic, easy, and cost-effective tools that you can start implementing right away.

These include e.g. user generated content, widgets on your landing pages, and social media posts.

Let’s get to it.

1. Customer Testimonials

Your happy customers are your best advocates.

Let them tell you and others how much they enjoy your products and services in the form of testimonials.

Read more about how to get testimonials from customers, and we can move on to how you can make the testimonials visually appealing and truly catch the attention of potential customers.

Trustmary’s widgets make it possible to showcase testimonials on your website.

Dynamic and impressive testimonial widgets like testimonial wall (below) will not go unnoticed.

The widget editor enables you to personalize the element as much as you would like: go as crazy with colors and fonts as you dare! 😈

Pro tip: import existing reviews from review sites to your own website and showcase them with the same widgets!

Another great way to make the testimonials look super visually appealing is to make them into quotes.

Include a picture of your customer (or any suitable photo) and highlight a quote from their written testimonial as a quote.

Finish with beautiful colors and fonts, and publish on your website and social media.

Here’s a great example of a quote testimonial from Louise Cornish Fitness:

2. Video Testimonials

What could be more visual than video?

Trustmary allows you to gather video testimonials remotely from your satisfied customers.

They can also be featured on your website with stylish widgets, or exported to your social media channels.

Video testimonials truly work. One of our clients reached a 32% increase in sales after showcasing just one video testimonial on the checkout page!

3. User Generated Social Media Posts

User generated images and videos in social media platforms are authentic social proof and a brand’s greatest asset.

They are extremely effective like the statistics below show: 

Encourage customers to post their own content and tag your business to it, or use a specific hashtag to increase visibility. 

Share the picture on your own social media as well, maybe even on your ecommerce site.

What kind of content do you want from your customers?

Ask them to post about their positive experience and say something about the product or service. 

Possibly offer an incentive, like a discount for the next order.

However, if your customers are truly happy and blown away by your product, they don’t even need any extra incentive to endorse you publicly!

If you are selling products, it is good to have the product in the picture as well. If the content created by the customer is completely irrelevant for your business, it is just weird and spammy.

Check out this example:

A consumer published an image of herself with a knitter sweater. She endorsed the shop where she purchased the yarn as well as the source of the model.

The sweater is in the spotlight in the post. Had it been a regular selfie without any reference to the brands, the post would have just appeared like spam with random hashtags.

4. Beautiful Pop Ups

Pop ups are an easy way to implement visual proof to your ecommerce sites. 

You don’t even have to touch the website itself, you can just program a pop up to appear on specific sites and modify it to say pretty much anything you want.

Social proof pop ups can for example:

• Showcase testimonials and reviews
• Highlight online shopper’s activity
• Feature the number of your social media followers
• Highlight popular products and create urgency for purchasing decisions
• Showcase any custom content like your return or shipping policies
• Mimic personal recommendations
• Prevent shopping cart abandonment by providing a discount code (exit intent, example below)

The right placement and timing for pop ups is important for getting the best results and most conversions.

Exit-intent pop-ups are especially effective in saving customers who were already about to leave. Read how our clients achieved a 37% increase in sales and a 62% increase in new leads.

5. Numbers Build Credibility

Showcasing customer data in numbers is always a good idea.

Tell potential buyers how many people have purchased a product before them.

Show how many social media followers you have already.

Conduct NPS surveys and shout from the rooftops about your great results!

These things are easy to add to your website right away. Use suitable large fonts and beautiful colors to attract attention.

But bear in mind that there is a thing called negative social proof. If you only have a few current customers or low social media follower counts, it is not the best idea to highlight those facts.

Remember that people want to be part of the crowd. Few people are ready to be pioneers and one of the early birds.

Conclusion on Visual Social Proof

Visual social proof means visual content that highlights that there are many people who trust your brand and ecommerce store.

This blog introduced 6 easy ways to implement visual social proof in your ecommerce store. You can implement them right away.

A helpful tool for starting the process is Trustmary. It helps you increase visual social proof on your landing page.

With Trustmary’s software you can

• Import positive reviews from review sites to your website
• Showcase reviews and testimonials with stylish widgets
• Send requests for new testimonials and video testimonials
• Set up beautiful pop ups that increase visual social proof

Start a free trial and see for yourself!

Further Reading

• The Definitive Guide for Understanding the Power of Social Proof
• 6 Examples of Using Social Proof in Advertising
• Social Proof Popup Examples That Improve Conversion Rate

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