6 Ways To Add Social Proof To Your Website [+ 17 Examples]

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Are you looking for ways to boost the credibility and trustworthiness of your brand? Look no further than social proof. Why? A staggering 95% of buyers look at reviews before purchasing a product and 58% of them will pay more if the products have great reviews, according to Globe Newswire’s survey.

By incorporating social proof on your website, you can increase conversions, build stronger relationships with your customers, and ultimately elevate your brand.

In this blog post, we'll cover the top 6 ways to add social proof to your website. From customer testimonials to social media mentions, we'll show you how to showcase the trust and loyalty of your customers to attract new ones.

So, whether you're just starting out or looking to take your website to the next level, keep reading to learn how social proof can benefit your brand.

Before we dive into the examples, here’s a look at the primarily used types of social proof:

User Reviews: They are one of the most common forms of social proof found on websites. By displaying positive feedback from real customers, you can build trust with your audience and demonstrate the value of your products or services. This can be done by adding a reviews section on your website, featuring customer testimonials in your marketing materials, or by displaying customer ratings and reviews on your product pages. The key is to make sure that the reviews are authentic and diverse, and also prominently display them on your website.

Expert Recommendations: Another powerful form of social proof is expert recommendations. By featuring endorsements from industry leaders, experts, or influencers, you can position yourself as a trusted authority in your field. This can be done by including quotes or testimonials from experts on your website, or by displaying badges or logos of organizations that have recognized your company or products.

Celebrity Endorsement: This is another effective form of social proof. By featuring a well-known personality in your marketing materials or on your website, you can tap into the trust and credibility that they have built with their audience. You can do this by featuring a celebrity in a video testimonial, or by displaying a quote from them on your website.

Certifications: Certifications are another form of social proof that can help build trust with your audience. By displaying badges or logos of organizations that have recognized your company or products, you can convey a sense of authority and expertise. This can be done by including certifications on your website, or by showcasing them in your marketing materials.

Crowd Ratings: Crowd ratings are a great way to show the popularity of your products or services. When you display the number of people who have bought your products or services, or the number of people who have liked or shared your content on social media, you basically highlight that many people trust your brand.

Word of Mouth: The last type but super impactful, word of mouth is the most powerful form of social proof. By encouraging happy customers to share their positive experiences with others, you can tap into the trust and credibility they have built with their own network. The ideal way of doing this is by creating referral programs, or by encouraging customers to leave reviews on third-party sites like Yelp or Google.

These types of social proof can increase conversions and build trust with your audience. By incorporating them into your website and also your marketing materials, you can create an impactful and engaging online presence that builds your brand and drives business growth.

1. Wall of Love

One of the best ways to build social proof is to add a properly designed wall of love to your website. It is a dedicated digital page of your site where you can showcase the positive experiences of your clients through testimonials.

Don’t make your Wall of Love page unidimensional. To give your audience different perspectives, you can add:

Text-based reviews

Video testimonials

Social media comments and shoutouts

Reviews on external websites

To give you a clearer idea, why not start with us (Testimonial.to)!

At Testimonial, we believe that our client’s testimonials are the best social proof we can get. So we make the best of it on our Wall of Love.

From video testimonials to ratings on external websites, we centralize different customer reviews on our Wall of Love. It keeps the page balanced and gives the audience a serious idea of Testimonial’s impact on customers. We also highlight the most appealing parts of textual reviews to attract the audience’s attention.

Even screenshot tools like Xnapper have a dedicated Wall of Love that boasts passionate testimonials from their many clients.

2. Trust badges

A trust badge does exactly what it says. They are symbols indicating other reputed brands verify your services and trust your brand. Companies add trust badges to their website to instill confidence in their potential customers.

Small businesses can have a tough time persuading new customers that they’re a safe place to do business. And not only will the orders be honored and delivered as promised, but the site itself will be safe.

A proper trust badge is not a mere image; it has to be earned by round-the-clock website vulnerability scanning. There are several trust badges you can add to your site, such as Norton, McAfee, Better Business Bureau, etc. Alternatively, adding a PayPal badge also makes your customer trust the payment process on your site.

For example, SiteLock boasts various trust badges to show you that your data is safe with the website.

Below are some of the popular trust badges that help increase conversion rates.

3. Case studies

As a more formal format of social proof, case studies offer in-depth analysis and act as high-authority social proof. These show a brand’s best qualities from an expert’s point of view.

If done right, a few high-quality case studies can close the gap between a lead and conversion. Adding these neatly packaged analysis help your website show your business’s value and establishes your expertise in the field.

Modern customers want to know everything about your products and services. According to reports, 94% of brands are more likely to be loyal to transparent brands. When you conduct and market case studies for your brand, you offer your customers transparency around your products and establish your credibility.

For example, OptinMonster has a dedicated case studies section to showcase various in-depth analyses of their services by experts. These studies are mostly explanatory and back their statements with proper numbers and detailed explanations of the results. It helps the brand’s audience visualize what could happen if they also bought its products.

4. Press coverage

If your business gets mentioned in the news, you can use it as major social proof on your website. Media coverage gives you a “big deal” persona in your space.

Ads on popular publications can help you spread brand awareness. But if you focus on organic media coverage, it brings finesse to your marketing efforts without sounding sales-y.

For example, Cision creates a sponsored placement using your press release headline and an image or video. On their website, they showcase different media coverages for partner brands like Ford, Adobe, and other leading brands.

Social media has become the first point of contact for many businesses. In a digital world, they are often the most valuable customer acquisition channels.

Integrating popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be an excellent traffic source for your content. But that’s not the only value social media integration adds to your brand. They prompt your website’s audience to visit your social media channels and allow them to see what your existing customers say about you.

For example, Fenty Beauty’s website displays different social media channels for their two segments.

6. Other platform integrations

Many businesses offer integrations with third-party services to enhance user experience. If you are one of these brands, then one of the best social proofs you can add is the logos of your integration partners.

By doing this, you allow your customers to associate your name with familiar brands. This ultimately makes it easier for them to trust your services.

Apart from acting as an excellent social proof element, showcasing clickable third-party integration on your website makes it easier for customers to link accounts and perform tasks easily. For instance, look at Slack’s integration page.

7. Client logos

One of the best ways to build trust is to show your portfolio with big names in the industry. Adding logos of your reputed clients gives you an instant boost of reliability as a brand.

The sole value of a well-known logo is that it grabs attention. You want to add easily recognizable logos that will make your visitors say, “if they use these services, then it has to be good.”

For example, Freshdesk showcases logos of reputed companies like DHL, Cisco, and HP. When website visitors see these names on the homepage as clients, it makes them trust the brand and impacts their buying decisions.

8. User counts or metrics

If you have already gained a considerable customer base, showcasing that number on your homepage will gain the trust of your website visitors. It is a great example of the wisdom of the crowd's social proof.

When your audience sees many clients are already using your products and services, it will create a positive first impression of your brand.

Instead of just mentioning the customer base, some brands also show other metrics like:

The number of goods sold every day, week, month, or year

The number of acquired recommendations

The number of countries your customer base spans

For example, Threadstart mentions how they are trusted by their customer base of over 650+ creators. It gives an immediate boost of trust to the brand and increases the chances of visitors clicking on the “Start writing now” button.

9. Rating and reviews

People are more likely to make a purchase online if existing users agree it is an excellent decision. Similarly, customers are more likely to trust a website that shows proper ratings and reviews.

That’s why having your rating and review link on your homepage adds a dash of solid credibility to your website. If you have an e-commerce store, you must add reviews and ratings. It helps you gain customer trust and portrays you as a transparent brand.

Mentioning your rating from a reputed site on your homepage lets your visitors judge your capability at a glance. It helps them decide quicker and enhances your marketing pipeline.

For example. Shoprocket has a 4.7/5 Trustpilot rating at the top of the homepage. They also added a link to read reviews. This makes the website look credible and makes it easier for the audience to crosscheck the brand’s claims.

10. Customer images

Want to make people believe your claims are true? Including customer photographs with reviews is a good way to go.

The aim of adding social proof is to ease the audience’s anxiety about opting for a new brand. Adding a face to the displayed reviews takes the credibility factor by a few notches.

Humans are social animals. So, we like to choose products based on shared experiences. It all depends on how well they resonate with your brand.

While customer reviews make people trust brands, adding the customer’s image with the review humanizes the endorsement. The review becomes more than a bunch of words. Instead, it becomes an actual testimony that grabs attention and pursues your leads better.

For example, bkmark quotes Maya Lingam, the founder and CEO of Ecospot, talking about their services. They placed the review right beside their sign-up form and show a happy picture of Maya praising their product. This is a genius marketing move by the brand for two reasons:

It humanizes the review and makes it seem more credible.

The review’s placement on the website prompts action from the website visitor and heightens the chances of conversion.

Further, they’ve sprinkled testimonials with customer images across their website as standout sections so they don’t go unnoticed.

11. Live stats

Reviews give your potential customers a qualitative view of your capabilities. But if you can show tangible and quantifiable data that your clients have achieved using your services, it makes people trust you more.

That’s why adding live stats and numbers on your homepage can be excellent social proof. This way, interested visitors don’t have to rely on just words and experiences.

Websites add live stats to showcase growth in customer base, increase in sales, etc. This approach gives visitors a tangible idea of your popularity and makes a good first impression.

For example, if you add live sales notifications, it will show your website visitors the real-time number of customers opting for your products.

This way, when a potential consumer browses through your products, checks out your blog, or even on the payment page, they can see how other people are interacting with your site. It piques their interest and makes it easier to close a sale.

In simple words, live statistics act as subtle cues that positively impact your conversion rate, lead generation, and traffic.

Trustpulse shows every new sign-up on its website through a little pop-up called the “Actual activity on this site.”

12. Influencer endorsements

Influencers own most of the spotlight in the virtual world. They are personalities with a considerable following and hold knowledge and authority in their niche. People trust their opinions and make purchase decisions based on their opinions.

So, by showcasing influencers talking positively about your brand, you can influence your website visitor’s buying decisions in your favor.

When an influencer endorses your business, they essentially vouch for your products and services. You can use this as a powerful social proof on your website.

Because of their large following, influencers are a great resource for establishing authority and credibility in the market. While many brands partner with social media creators for paid endorsements, some influencer testimonials may come naturally as well.

Brands usually partner with influencers that align with the business' image. For instance, if your target market mainly comprises the elderly population, a millennial social media creator may not be a good fit.

You can build social proof through different influencer endorsements, such as celebrity reviews, social media mentions, etc.

For example, ConvertKit strategically places testimonials from its celebrity clients on the homepage to establish authority and credibility in the niche. In the above screenshot, we can see how the brand displayed a quote by Glo Atanmo, a famous travel blogger, endorsing their services. They’ve even embedded their YouTube video—Glo’s story which has gained considerable traction since its upload.

Some brands showcase customer testimonials on their sign-up page. This helps them smooth out any last-minute friction in closing a sale. It acts as the last layer of credibility and pursues the customer to fill in the sign-up form. This way, your email list grows, and the conversion rate on your website increases.

For example, Beehiiv added a customer review on their sign-up page. Such strategic testimonial positioning subtly nudges a potential customer to fill in the sign-up form.

14. Contact page

Adding a contact page to your website gives your potential customers a chance to contact your business directly. This shows them they can take up their issues with the brand whenever they want.

You can add your business’s contact number, other business account links like LinkedIn and Twitter, and your email to your contact page.

For example, Monday.com’s ‘contact sales’ page has a compelling mix of numbers and statistics, a customer testimonial, and brand logos that urges visitors to submit the inquiry form.

One of the simplest ways of showcasing social proof is by displaying the number of social shares on your site. By showing how many people have shared your content, social share buttons show the visitors that they are worth sharing. They act as social proof and encourage the visitor to do the same.

These links and buttons also make it easy for your website visitors and content viewers to easily share your content with their social media connections. This way, you can drive more traffic to your website and grow your audience base.

You can also add social share counts to any page on your website, including landing pages and product pages.

For example, in the above screenshot, we can see social media buttons displaying the share counts on each channel for this content.

16. Community

Your subscriber, follower, and customers make up your community and are an excellent tool to convince a new visitor to join the same. How you display your brand’s community brings credibility to your brand.

For example, G Fuel showcases its community under the ‘Our Squad’ header. This gives the community element a creative touch, which is very on-brand for the company. Popular affiliations like ‘Rick and Morty’ encourage G Fuel’s website visitors to join their “squad” too.

17. Popular products

Showing your popular products reflects other people are interested in them. So, placing these products prominently on your website enhances your chances of closing a sale.

Brands usually showcase up to 10 of their bestselling products at the bottom of single product pages.

For example, Amazon showcases popular products similar to the search results under each single product page. This helps visitors explore user-favorite options on the website and boosts conversion.

Wrapping up…

Before ending this, I thought I would share the end result of a website that has properly implemented some of the tips mentioned above.

Feather.so features profile pictures of users in their header, a list of companies that uses the tool, a list of examples of blogs using feather, as well as a testimonial section. Check it out 👇

There is no specific recipe for the best social proof. It comes in all shapes and sizes. But the definite fact here is that each can be very useful in building your brand image and driving increased sales.

Not every social proof example will agree with your business aim. So you must choose those that suit your brand and can fit within your budget and resources.

Although social proof is crucial to establish authority, collecting testimonials for your brand can be a laborious task.

That’s where Testimonial can help you up your social proof game. With our platform, you can collect text and video testimonials from your customers within minutes. The best part? There is no need for a developer or website hosting.

So, to make the best of social proof on your website, sign-up for a free trial today!