How to get the most of the social proof?

Turning social proof into a powerful tool to boost your conversion rate

We all know that we need social proof on the landing page. But what kind of proof? And how efficient can it actually be? Do we need to post testimonials provided by the real people or generic “Andy N. likes it” will do?

If you’re asking yourself these questions — you might not like the answer.

Gialdini’s experiment

If you ask “what social proof is about” anyone who is worth something in marketing will shoot a name at you: Robert Cialdini. One of the top experts in the science of persuasion, an author of the books “Influence: the psycology of persuasion” and “Pre-suasion”.

In early 2000-s he set an actual experiment to quantify the value of social proof.

He worked as a consultant with a hotel.

The goal was to convince more guests to reuse their towels. Cialdini came up with two versions of a note that was left in the room. Both based on social proof (mentioning other quests).

But the first talked about other guests of the hotel which led to 40% increase in compliance

The second referred to specifically guests of this room which resulted in 70% increase in compliance