As an online marketer you have mere seconds to convince a visitor to engage with your landing page post-click.
Think about your own experiences when clicking on an ad. You land, scan the page, and immediately determine whether it is worthy of your time or not. But really, it’s not the page that is or is not worthy of your time, it’s the company behind the page that is or isn’t. Every company has to establish credibility (worthiness of being considered) in seconds flat or risk losing clicks to competitors.
Big brands are often able to rely on name recognition to grab visitor attention, but what about brands that aren’t household names? To stay competitive, emerging brands can use social proof to their advantage.
What is social proof?
Social proof is the influence of others in a social situation. It means if you see other people doing something, you are also likely to try it. Especially if those people are similar to how you perceive yourself.
Social proof on the landing page can be used in a variety of different ways:
- Case studies
- Customer logos
- Press logos (“as seen on…” or “as featured in…”)
- Testimonials
- Social widget
- Member statistics (“50,000 new members this week”)
Social proof works great for building online trust because it shows visitors that others are already using and liking your solution.
Example of social proof on a landing page
Here we see zoosk does a fantastic job of using social proof on the landing page. They tell us how many people are using the service, which press outlets found it newsworthy, and they even provide testimonials from happy, successful customers. Additionally, they allow the visitor to log in with Facebook, making sign up simple and quick. However, while social proof is important, it’s more important that it works to enhance your call-to-action, not overpower or distract from it.
In the case of this landing page, I would want to run a few tests to see if conversion rates would improve if the sign up button were larger and more noticeable. It’s also just a great idea to experiment with different types of social proof, and their locations on the landing page.
When you have mere seconds to grab a visitor’s attention and engage them or risk losing them to a competitor, you want to be sure that your landing page is continuously tested and optimized. Your visitors are not just clicks, they’re real people with real concerns. Are your landing pages reassuring? Are you sure that they’re reassuring? Do you test them?
For more information on how to use social proof on the landing page, and how to test your pages, check out this webinar.