How to leverage social proof in your landing pages

People tend to trust brands more when they see others like them using their products or services. 

This is social proof. It encourages people to follow what others are doing. When you put it on landing pages, social proof psychologically influences visitors’ decisions and motivates them to take action. They get the logic that others are doing it, making it a safe option for them to explore. 

In this article, we’ll understand how to collect and use social proof on landing pages and increase conversions. But before we go any further, do you know if all landing pages can benefit from social proof?

Do all landing pages need social proof? 

Landing pages are standalone pages that encourage users to take a single action. Wherever there’s a call to action, social proof supports it. It means all landing pages can benefit from social proof and should ideally have it. 

Social proof on landing pages helps you turn your investment in attracting traffic into ROI. It gives people logical reasoning to take the action you expect from them. For example, if you want them to purchase a nose ring, showing how many people are currently checking it out or buying it helps. 

Similarly, you can use social proof to sell different products or services in e-commerce. However, its use isn’t limited to e-commerce only; any landing page expecting people to take an action in their favor will benefit from social proof because: 

• It builds trust: Social proof shows that other people are interested or have already taken the action suggested on the landing page. This makes it safe for the shopper to trust a brand and make purchasing decisions. It removes the uncertainty and doubts when they see other people trusting the business for their needs. 
• It creates a sense of urgency: Social proof shows that other people are interested or have already taken the action suggested on the landing page. This makes it safe for the shopper to trust a brand and make purchasing decisions. It removes the uncertainty and doubts when they see other people trusting the business for their needs. 
• It influences buying decisions: Trust built by social proof transforms buyers’ decisions from a “maybe” to a “yes” when purchasing or taking action. However, various things work parallelly to influence these decisions, and social proof is one of them.
• It increases sales. Social proof through website user activity, expert endorsements, or trust badges builds credibility for your website visitors. The higher they trust your brand, the higher their chance of exchanging money for your products or services. Research shows that reviews on websites increase sales by 18%. ‍‍

Types of social proof to show on landing pages

Below are the types of social proof you can show your visitors on landing pages. 

• Customer testimonials: They are short snippets of your customer's experiences with your brand and its products or services. 
• User-generated content: It’s text or visual content that your customers create about your products. For example, GoPro shows its social media feed with customer stories on its landing pages to add social proof.
• Expert and celebrity endorsement: It’s the positive feedback you get about your products from experts, celebrities, and influencers in your industry.
• Trust badges and certificationsIf you have received awards or recognition, showing them on your website with your products builds credibility and adds social proof. 
• Social media mentions: When your customers share their love for you on social channels, it’s a great source of social proof. You can embed these mentions on landing pages to show your customer's love to people considering your offerings.‍‍

6 surefire ways to collect social proof

You can collect social proof to display on your landing pages in various ways: 

1. Post-purchase follow-up emails

You can send personalized emails a few days after the product is delivered. This ensures that customers’ experience is still fresh. Give them a direct link to leave a review while ensuring their UI is mobile-friendly. 

Make these emails more interesting by: 

• Including discounts and offers on their next purchases
• Loyalty points that customers will get post reviewing the product
• Exclusive coupons that they can share with their friends and family

Many people struggle with writing. To make it easier for customers to send reviews, show them a few examples of how other customers write them. There is a chance that you might not get the feedback promptly, so keep your patience and politely follow up with them after some time. 

Here’s an example of how Decathlon collects social proof: 

2. Incentivized reviews

Incentivized reviews motivate users to share their experiences in exchange for a discount code, coupon, or complimentary service access. When customers see an incentive, they’re more likely to take the time to leave a review. This helps you gather a higher volume of feedback quickly. 

Here’s an example of SignWell seeking incentivized reviews from its users. We liked its tone: It doesn’t pressurize the user but encourages them to give feedback in the form of a review.

The example here clearly showcases that the company is open to constructive criticism and is committed to improving. This strengthens your credibility, encouraging customers to review your offerings while building social proof for your brand. 

3. Surveys and feedback forms

Surveys and feedback forms provide a structured way to gather detailed customer insights. You can customize them according to the touchpoint where you engage the customers. 

These surveys ensure a consistent supply of feedback from customers, making continuous improvement easier than before. When you use them to refresh customers' testimonials with collected insights, they drive consistent social proof for your website. Here’s an example of a customer satisfaction survey brands send to their customers to gather their feedback and calculate the net promoter score (NPS).  

4. Review platforms

Review platforms are centralized spaces where customers can share their experiences with your products or services. Platforms like G2, Capterra, Google Reviews, or Shopify present unbiased opinions of users. 

Most review platforms have a quality assurance team that checks whether a review is from a genuine user. This ensures that businesses don’t need to deal with fake reviews on their review pages. 

If you’re a software business, review platforms provide ample social proof through: 

• Real user feedback. Reviews are verified for quality while they voice feedback of real users of the product. 
• Awards. Most review platforms perform assessments two times a year to identify and recognize software with more quality reviews. These awards build credibility among people, helping establish that others are also relying on the product and liking it.

You can leverage the review widget and embed it on your website, showcasing real customer feedback. It will allow you to build trust with potential customers when they’re making purchasing decisions. 

5. Case studies

In-depth case studies deliver granular insights into how your product or service improves the buyer’s experience. They usually start with customers' problems and end with how a product or service solves them. Ultimately, they contain data and analytics related to the changes or improvements observed after using the product.

Case studies are detailed forms of social proof. They’re led by brands and suitable for products with complex implementation. Businesses often use case studies to establish social proof when deal sizes are large.

Here’s an example of a case study from Fomo.

6. User-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) comes directly from real users, making it more authentic and trustworthy for potential customers. It serves are a powerful endorsement for the brand and encourages other users to participate in the community. 

Usually, users create UGC and post it on their social media while mentioning your brand. You can easily show this mention on your website while making sure your feed is consistently updated with new customer stories.  This approach not only adds authenticity but also helps customers visualize how the products might fit into their own lives.

Here’s an example of how GoPro uses UGC on its website. 

Learn how to embed social media feeds on a website.

Displaying social proof on landing pages with Fomo

Fomo is a social-proof marketing software that offers real-time notifications to people on your website’s landing pages to take action. It helped companies like SingleSwag increase sales by $100K through social proof push notifications. 

It comes with a range of valuable features like: 

• Customizable push notifications: The software allows you to customize and personalize push notifications with several parameters, making it easier to meet the needs of your target audience. 
• Readymade templates: Fomo offers you set templates to show social proof notifications about new subscriptions, limited stock availability, the number of people checking out a product, and various other notification types.
• Page rules: You can hide or show notifications on a certain page to meet your needs. For example, if you want to hide push notifications on the About page, Fomo makes it easy to do so.
• Language translations: Fomo translates push notifications to 29+ languages and delivers social proof in the language your website visitors are comfortable with.
• Language translations: Fomo translates push notifications to 29+ languages and delivers social proof in the language your website visitors are comfortable with.
• Integrations: Fomo integrates with more than 106 products to offer a seamless customer experience on your website. Checkout Fomo integrations.

Strategic locations to display social proof

With Fomo, you can automate social proof push notifications on landing pages, but there are many other places to show social proof. For example: 

• Put social proof on any lead generation page: Place it above the fold to capture maximum attention and establish trust among the visitors when they enter the page. 
• Display it on external review websites: Add social proof on external websites like Tripadvisor, Yelp, G2, Google reviews, etc. When people check your competitors' alternatives, you’ll be able to stand out with more trust and credibility of your products or services.
• Display it on external review websites: Add social proof on external websites like Tripadvisor, Yelp, G2, Google reviews, etc. When people check your competitors' alternatives, you’ll be able to stand out with more trust and credibility of your products or services.
• Use social proof on checkout pages: Checkout pages bring in revenue for your business. If they’re not on your website, and you redirect prospects to a payments page powered by platforms like Stripe, put your social proof there. It will help you minimize customer drop-offs.

From trust to traction: How to leverage social proof in landing pages

Use these tactics to collect social proof and use it in relevant places on your landing pages and website. It will encourage visitors to trust products and services, increasing traction in your revenue pipeline when they purchase. 

It’s advisable to start with a reliable tool to collect and automate showing social proof notifications on your website. Look for a tool that offers excellent customer service and can help you make the most of the technology you onboard. 

Fomo’s customers love it for its fast and effective customer service. Check out Fomo reviews.