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Social proof effects everyone.
We all look to others to get recommendations and reassurance. It also suggests conformity and that most people follow the opinion and behavior of the majority when they feel unsure. In other words, we are psychologically wired to seek social proof.
For example, would you rather buy a hot dog from the hot dog cart swarming with people or from the almost empty one nearby? The answer is obvious, and the same applies to businesses and their digital presence.
The more proof leads have to trust a brand, the more likely they’ll engage with it, convert and make purchase decisions. Businesses that managed to understand social proof and use it accordingly can skyrocket their sales, significantly raise brand awareness, or increase their market share.
Social proof in the digital world
There are many ways to build & use social proof on websites, and it is important to choose those that best fit your business objectives. It also depends on the technology your website uses and your business activity. Today, one of the most popular content management platforms to easily build an array of websites in a versatile way is certainly WordPress. More than 40% of all websites are powered by WordPress currently, and the numbers are constantly surging.
We will soon delve into how to use social proof on WordPress websites and why it is important. But first, let’s see the types of social proof you can use on your WordPress website:
- Social proof plugins — Many social proof plugins help you collect and showcase your success statistics. E.g. “More than 100 000+ satisfied customers”
- Case studies — Thorough, data-driven studies that go in-depth to analyze your product or service.
- Reviews — Mostly used for technical products where the customers tell about their satisfaction with your product and their experience using it, e.g. “Kitchen appliance reviews.”
- Customer testimonials — Testimonials are proof of the quality of your products & services from your customers’ perspective. Prospects want to hear how your business solved problems not from you but from your customers who were having those problems in the first place.
We’ll focus on video testimonials to showcase social proof on WordPress websites because video content is one of the latest trends that drives success.
Nonetheless, you cannot accomplish this with just the success numbers paired with a few images of satisfied customers. Creating video testimonials to build social proof on your WordPress website can significantly level up your business by:
- Ramping up your conversions
- Ranking your site better (Search Engines prioritize video over other content formats)
- Building brand trust and awareness and increasing customer loyalty rate
- Leveraging purchase intent using third-parties
A word of warning: it’s easy to make a testimonial video come off as cold, sterile, and somewhat rehearsed. Consider having your customer unbox your product on video, discuss a single feature in great detail, or speak about exactly how they use your product. Specificity breeds trust.
How to use video testimonials on a WordPress website
You can enable your WordPress site for video testimonials through:
- WordPress testimonial plugins
- WP themes
- Embedding video testimonials hosted outside (e.g. from YouTube)
- Widgets
Deciding which way to showcase your social proof can depend on your budgeting, setup difficulty, and personal preferences. We will focus on WP themes and testimonial plugins as the most optimal way to showcase social proof.
WP themes
Most WP themes are crafted for text and images, and very few are compatible with video. Nevertheless, using WP themes that support video is a cost-effective and versatile method to showcase social proof on your website. WP themes offer great customizability and are a seamless way to showcase video social proof on your website.
With WP themes, your videos will feel intuitive and will naturally fit the rest of your site. That means that embedded testimonial design and positioning will be tailored to the rest of the theme’s element and will not jut out.
Testimonial plugins are also a good way to share proof of the quality of your business using your customers’ experiences. Plugins are a great way to manage an array of customer testimonials across multiple places where you have an online presence. Many great plugins can be found at WordPress Plugin Directory. Keep an eye for these traits when choosing a plugin:
- Flexibility
- Versatility
- Simplicity with additional options for the experts
- Customizability
- Impressive design
Don’t forget to back up your site before installing any plugin!
When you set up a plugin, you can add various information about the testimonial like the customer’s website, name, and company coupled with their images. This will provide some exposure for your client’s business and add depth to the video testimonial itself.
Finally, when all of this is set up, you will have many options to style up your testimonial visually. You can add an effect, choose how they’ll appear, etc.
Final words
Many businesses greatly benefited and leveraged their success by using social proof.
Particularly, using video testimonials as social proof is one of the best ways to do that. As you start to expand the library of testimonials on your WordPress website, the trustworthiness and positive perception of your brand & business will likely start to grow as well.
That can result in a noticeably higher conversion rate since your leads will have a lot of legit proof to make purchase decisions or start working with you.
WP powers many websites, and there is a lot of competition in almost any niche. Taking the time to build strong social proof and properly showcase it can get you closer to setting the bar high in your niche.