At some point in your life, chances are you’ve heard the question, “Are you a leader or a follower?” Well, when it comes to choosing a product or service, more of us are followers than we might realize.
A phenomenon called “social proof” is a way for marketers to capitalize on our inherent tendency to look to others for approval. Today, we pull some of the most effective social proof examples to find out why they work and how you can use them in your marketing to boost conversions.
What is social proof?
In marketing, social proof is a way for businesses to show their offer is valuable by drawing on data from the people who have claimed it. When a business uses testimonials, or counters that show how many people have bought a product (think McDonald’s “billions served”), or claim a celebrity or expert has used their service, these are all examples of social proof. Social proof gives prospects more confidence in claiming an offer because they’ve seen its value to past customers.
Why is social proof effective?
Psychologist Robert Cialdini extensively studied social proof, and shared his findings in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. He said, “We view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.”
In other words, when we’re not sure what to do, we often take cues from others. We assume people around us know something we don’t, and we model our behavior after theirs. If you’ve ever seen a long line outside a restaurant and thought, “They must serve good food,” you’ve felt the effects of social proof.
According to Alfred Lua, there are six types of social proof:
- Expert: Expert social proof is when an authority in your industry recommends your products or services or publicly associates themselves with your brand. Examples: a Twitter shoutout from an industry professional or having a reputable guest on your Twitter chat.
- Celebrity: Celebrity social proof is when a celebrity endorses your products. Examples: an Instagram post or tweet about your product by a celebrity or influencer.
- User: User social proof is when your current users recommend your products and services based on their experiences with your brand. Examples: praise on social media or positive ratings on review sites.
- Wisdom of the crowd: This type of social proof is when a large group of people endorses your brand. Examples: having thousands of customers or millions of followers on your social media profiles.
- Wisdom of your friends: This type of social proof is when people notice their friends approve of your product. Examples: seeing their friends use your product or follow you on social media.
- Certification: This type of social proof is when you receive a stamp of approval from an authoritative figure in your industry. Examples: the blue checkmark on Twitter or Facebook.
Social proof examples to inspire your post-click design
From DTC and ecommerce brands to financial apps and technology solutions, we’ve compiled 13 social proof examples across 9 different landing pages. Let them inspire your next post-click landing page design.
HelloFresh
This HelloFresh landing page welcomes users who have clicked a search ad for meal delivery kits.
These are testimonials from happy customers, which are powerful because they quote real people. When a website features prominent endorsem*nts, users are likely to be skeptical about their authenticity. To combat this, use real photos and full names of actual customers, if possible.
The other aspect of these that make them particularly powerful is that they’re overwhelmingly positive reviews. These testimonials aren’t only from users—they’re from loyal advocates. They also include elements of the company’s value proposition: “The recipes are delicious and easy to follow,” “The food is delivered to my doorstep,” “Now dinner means preparing fantastic and healthy meals.”
Fender
This post-click landing page from Fender is where users will land when they click through a search ad for guitar lessons.
It offers visitors a free trial of the online product. Further down the page, you’ll find an example of social proof. “It worked,” says a review from Vice.
This social proof is so effective because it comes from a recognizable brand. Though it’s not the most glowing testimonial, like some of the other examples here, it does speak to the product’s effectiveness, listing the skills, chords, songs, and riffs the user learned from the course. Below that, further social proof from recognizable brands adds to the page’s persuasiveness.
Here’s a different Fender post-click landing page that uses social proof equally well, but with a distinctive approach.
Instead of names and quotes, this page uses the wisdom of the crowd to persuade visitors to claim the offer.
The high count of lessons taken, 5-star reviews given, hours spent studying, and number of lessons communicates to visitors that the product must be good because so many people are using it and rating it highly.
Chime
Users arrive at this Chime post-click landing page after clicking a search ad.
The page offers visitors an opportunity to apply for a bank account with Chime. Below the fold, users will see an example of social proof:
For apps, an excellent source of social proof is reviews on the app store. With a high number of 5-star reviews and a few glowing ones highlighted by the designer, Chime does a great job of proving how valuable the app is to its customers. And when a visitor can tell that a product is beneficial to others, it makes them want to become a customer.
ClearVoice
This ClearVoice post-click landing page draws users who have clicked a search ad.
The page offers visitors an opportunity to learn more about content writing services. Just below the fold, it offers its first form of social proof:
According to the page, these are the “companies who love ClearVoice.” And they’re not just any companies. They’re widely recognizable brands that will have most visitors thinking, “If the service is good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.”
Further down is a more detailed form of social proof in testimonials:
Like the social proof above, these are all from widely recognized brands. However, in contrast, these testimonials humanize well-known companies with photos and names of people who’ve worked with ClearVoice. They also provide context and detail about the offer.
SEMrush
This SEMrush landing page is where users will land after clicking a search ad for SEO tools.
It offers visitors the opportunity to try the tool for free. Below the fold, you’ll see the first example of social proof on the page:
Like ClearVoice, SEMrush uses well-known brands to tout its service’s popularity. Quora, eBay, Philips, and HP are all brands recognizable by the average user.
But just because major companies use a tool doesn’t necessarily indicate it’s beneficial. That’s why, below this, the company uses authority indicators to prove SEMrush’s value even further.
These awards for best digital tool, best SEO software suite, etc., show the visitor that the tool is so useful that it’s award-winning.
And finally, at the very bottom of the page, SEMrush uses social proof one more time:
The copy “Join 6,000,000 users who have improved their SEO” is the most effective “wisdom-of-the-crowd” social proof example from any of these pages. If your business boasts 6 million users, this alone is a powerful way to make visitors comfortable becoming a customer.
Talech
This post-click landing page from Talech is where users land after clicking a search ad for POS software.
It offers visitors a demo of their POS software. Scroll down and you’ll find an example of social proof:
For businesses that haven’t collected feedback or aren’t on a marketplace like the app store, review sites are an ideal source of social proof for your landing page. For Talech, Capterra provided 289 4-star reviews that they could showcase on this landing page. But it doesn’t have to stop there. To make the page even more effective, it’s worth considering a few glowing testimonials as an addition to this social proof.
Rex Homes
Users arrive at this post-click landing page from Rex Homes after clicking a search ad for “real estate search tool.”
It offers visitors an opportunity to compare home values. Just below the fold, you’ll find the first social proof example on this page:
For B2C businesses that can’t tout recognizable brands as clients, there are still ways to associate with authoritative companies. Rex Homes does it here by featuring logos of well-known media outlets that have featured them, like the Wall Street Journal, NBC, and Bloomberg. Earning nationwide publicity boosts the brand’s perceived trust.
Below this is another social proof example:
Here, Zillow works for Rex Homes the way Capterra does for Talech. With over a 4.5-star rating from reviewers, the business shows that it’s done more than earn a featured placement in popular news publications. It’s also delighted the customers who use it.
UCSC Silicon Valley
This post-click landing page from UCSC Silicon Valley is where visitors land after clicking a search ad for digital marketing courses.
It offers visitors the opportunity to view a sample course or begin the enrollment process. Though it’s not a true post-click landing page because it features an imbalanced conversion ratio, it’s filling the same role as one, and it does feature an ideal social proof example:
This social proof example is a creative way to show UCSC’s value while aligning the school with authoritative brands. These aren’t only brands that the company has worked with, or been featured by—they’re ones where former students now work.
This page effectively says, “Our comprehensive program will prepare you to work with some of the world’s most widely respected companies.” Visitors can now envision themselves working for a well-established company and earning the reputation, salary, and benefits that come with it.
On top of that, there’s a video testimonial to the right, which visitors can watch if they want to get more details on the course. If they’d rather not watch, the designer has pulled a quote from the video to make it easily accessible to page-skimmers.
Pump up your post-click landing pages with social proof
Considering the way consumers are psychologically wired to mirror their peers, social proof is an incredibly valuable element on any post-click landing page. Don’t overlook this marketing asset.
Of the six types of social proof, every business has at least one they can use to make their post-click landing page more persuasive. And if you don’t, it’s easy to collect. Checking review sites, exploring marketplaces, and sending out surveys are excellent ways to gather social proof.
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