The digital age has changed a lot of things in our lives – and the way we shop is one of them. Technology has made it easier than ever for people to shop and buy with brands from all over the world, making competition tough.
There’s just so much noise online that breaking through can be an incredibly difficult and seemingly impossible task.
That’s where social proof comes in. Social proof is a way to build trust, get your business seen, and ultimately increase your sales.
So, to give your business the tools to succeed, let’s dive straight into the answer to why is social proof important for small UK businesses and reveal insights on how to grow yours right now.
The facts behind social proof
Coined by psychologist Robert Cialdini in 1984, social proof is a psychological principle that reveals that people will look at the behaviour of others to guide their own decisions. The thinking behind this principle goes back decades, with experiments as early as 1935 by Muzafer Sherif and the 1950s by psychologist Solomon Asch.
These experiments showed that as human beings, we want to fit in and follow the crowd. If many people are doing something, we reason that it must be the right choice and thus want to follow suit.
In marketing terms, this principle works by showing evidence that others have already bought, used, and benefited from your product or service, prompting others to join in and purchase from you.
In a nutshell, social proof is a way to get people to buy things they know will work because others have already bought them.
The different types of social proof
Social proof comes in all different formats and sizes. These lend themselves naturally to certain types of businesses, so it’s likely that you won’t need to use all of these strategies to benefit from social proof.
| Social Proof | What It Is | Best For | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reviews & Ratings | Star ratings and written feedback on Google, Trustpilot, or Facebook. | All local businesses and e-commerce stores. | Shows real-life purchases and comments from those who have gone with your brand, while high ratings will boost your trustworthiness and show at a glance that people are satisfied with your product. |
| Testimonials and case studies | Formal, direct quotes praising your business, or detailed, in-depth stories of how you solved a specific client problem. | B2B companies, services, local trades, freelancers, and high-ticket service providers. | Provides more detailed insights than regular reviews and ratings might provide, as well as finer details about the work you have completed or the service that you offered. It also indicates the type of customer you work with and will encourage others to want to be part of that crowd. 53% of marketers say these deliver their best results. |
| Social media reach and engagement | Public metrics on your social media pages, such as follows, post likes, comments, or shares. | E-commerce stores and online services | Gives a good indicator of how many people like and trust your brand enough to follow and engage with your posts. |
| Popularity Indicators | Badges like “best-selling” or banners that show how many people have purchased or viewed the item recently. | Online stores and physical retail displays. | Shows people that others are actively looking at and interested in the item, while giving them a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) as the only person not to purchase. |
| User-Generated Content (UGC) | Photos or videos of real people unboxing or using your items. | Retail brands, restaurants, and visual products. | Showcases your business or product in a natural way that doesn’t look like a paid advertisement. Can make your business feel more authentic and transparent. |
| Influencer Endorsements | Recommendations from trusted industry figures or creators. | Brands looking to scale or attract new markets. | Getting a recommendation from someone that people already trust and listen to will pass on this trustworthiness to your own business. |
Later in this blog, we’ll share more tips and guides on the best way to build social proof for your business.
The top benefits of social proof for small UK businesses
Social proof shows people that others are buying from your brand, which brings a number of transformative benefits to your business. To showcase just how powerful it can be, we’ve outlined the top 5.
1. It builds trust and credibility
If people use your business and buy your products, you are to be trusted. That’s the core principle of social proof, and so it makes sense that the biggest benefit it offers is trustworthiness and credibility.
An easy way to visualize this is to imagine trying to find a spot for lunch in a city center. There are two cafés next to each other – one is full of people enjoying plates full of food. The other is empty. You will be naturally drawn to the busier one as the crowd has already proven that it’s a good place to eat.
You can see the food and people enjoying it. Subconsciously, you realise that these people have already chosen this café over the other, so this one must be the best. It’s built trustworthiness and credibility just by having people there.
2. It reduces buyer anxiety
No one wants to waste money. This has always been true, but its effects are even more pronounced when consumers are dealing with rising living costs. We have less money to spend – so we must be really careful about where it goes.
Social proof is a great way to overcome buyer anxiety. When they see that others have bought from you before and had a good experience, customers can feel more confident about their decision and finally pull the purchase trigger.
3. It boosts your sales and conversion rates
Social proof builds higher trust and credibility and reduces buyer anxiety. The direct result is that customers are more likely to buy from your business, boosting your sales and conversion rates.
The impact social proof has here is massive. One study showed that a product with just five online reviews can boost sales conversions by up to 270%.
4. It makes your business more visible
Search engines like Google will always reward businesses that prove they are active and trustworthy. The calculations behind their page rankings (the SERP algorithms) priortise these businesses, making sure that they are shown at the top of their results pages.
So, the more social proof and reviews that you are getting online, the more websites like Google notice and use it as a signal that your business is active and trusted, boosting your rankings (particularly for local searches!).
This means that you’re more likely to get noticed online, which brings in more potential customers to your business.
Pst, if you’re interested in other ways to increase your rankings and get noticed online, why not check out our ultimate guide to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
5. It builds engagement and strengthens your community
No one wants to feel left out. When people see others actively interacting with your brand on social media (whether it’s sharing photos, commenting on posts, or joining discussions), they want to be part of the same club.
The more social proof you generate, the more people will want to provide their own and share their own experiences. This is a great way to turn your customers into a community – fostering better brand loyalty while generating a steady stream of User-Generated Content (UGC) that you can use to promote your business even wider.
A good way to think of this is to recall the time people loved sharing photos of their names on Starbucks cups. The more people did it, the more people went to buy coffee just to get a photo to join in on. Starbucks could then just watch all the pictures come in, enjoy the benefits, and cherry-pick the best ones to reshare, keeping the momentum going.
How to build your social proof and reap the benefits
As we’ve shown, social proof can have a massive impact on your business. The good news is that you don’t need a massive marketing budget to take advantage of this strategy. There are easy, free ways you can start capturing this information right now.
Let’s start with 3 of the best ones.
1. Build your customer reviews
Customer reviews are an amazing form of social proof. They show you exactly what real customers think about your business, building trust and enticing others to buy. In fact, data shows that 98% of consumers always read reviews for a local business, and 85% are more likely to use a business after reading positive reviews.
There are multiple ways that you can collect and build customer reviews, including easy, automated ways like sending post-purchase emails that simply asks for feedback after customers buy from you.
When it comes to building customer reviews, there’s no better place to turn. Get detailed, step-by-step insights with the following guides:
- The ultimate guide to asking customers for feedback
- How to get real customer reviews for your business
- How to get 5-star reviews for your business
2. Harness User-Generated Content (UGC)
We briefly mentioned User-Generated Content earlier in our talks about building a community. This is basically any photo, video, or social post created by your customers that features or mentions your brand. Essentially, as the name suggests, it’s content generated by users.
You can encourage these moments by staging a naturally ‘shareable’ moment. Think about Starbucks writing names on cups, or Coke printing names on the bottles. Although you don’t have to personalize on this scale, you could consider creating unique packaging for your product or installing a photo wall in a store that people will love to photograph. Or you can simply ask your customers to share stories or pictures of them using your product.
And as we mentioned earlier, the more you share these moments, the more people will want to be a part of the club. Which means more people generating content for you to use and share. What a win-win!
3. Use behind-the-scenes stories
Behind-the-scenes stories and content is great for social proof as it shows the real, human side of your business. By seeing that you are not a faceless organisation, your users will build more trust and familiarity with your business.
Some ideas of behind-the-scenes content could be video tours around a workshop, insights into how a product is made, or a ‘day-in-the-life’ of you or your employees. These don’t need to be professionally made. In fact, the more real they are, the more down-to-earth and authentic your brand will seem.
Some brands will also take advantage of mistakes or bad feedback they’ve received and make content out of this – showing the humorous and very real side of running a business.
Build it, share it: Achieving long-term success with social proof
Building this social proof is amazing. But, it’s also only one step of the process. To get real results, you need ot make sure that you showcase and share the proof. It won’t do you any good if it’s hidden away in the dark.
There are a few easy ways to bring this social proof to the forefront. This includes:
- Putting some of your best reviews or testimonials on your home page
- Displaying any badges or certification logos on product photos
- Sharing reviews and user content on your own social media
- Including reviews, customer stories, and quotes within your newsletters
If that sounds like hard work, there are tools that you can use to automatically collect and promote your social proof for you. Our favourite is Senja, which comes with a vast array of features like:
- Website widgets to promote reviews and quotes in a variety of different ways on your pages
- A ‘Wall of Love’ display that provides a feed of all of our testimonials and reviews
- Easy templates that allow you to create shareable images for your social media feed
- Branded submission pages to collect testimonials, as well as a prize wheel that can be used as a reward.
Read more about our experience with Senja and how you can get started with a 100% Free Forever plan in our review here.
For all other news, tips, and advice, read all our latest posts here.
