Using Social Proof on a Consulting Website

If your website only has three customer stories, you may pass the initial blink test for buyers on the home page, but when they start to dig deeper on your site (e.g. to individual solution, industry, product, customer pages) - you’re going to miss an opportunity to build trust and credibility. For buyers to actually trust you, your social proof needs to have depth, breadth, specificity, and diversity.  Ideally even beyond just organizing by industry. As an example, not all Financial Services companies have the same needs. Maybe one company is operating in a hybrid cloud environment where others are operating on-premise software.  Maybe another one is coming from a big old incumbent vendor, whereas another one is scaling off of a small startup. If the only way to filter down case studies on your website is by Industry, people will have a hard time finding their specific use case, or finding stories relevant to their size, region, tech stack, etc. That’s why we recommend letting customers filter by Industry, Company Size, Use Case, and any other demographic info that may be relevant to them. The prospect’s job is to ask: Is this going to work for me? The closer your case studies and proof points are to their needs, the better the chance you’ll close the deal.

3 ways I make websites more trustworthy: 1. Use a wide variety of social proof points Social proof isn't just testimonials. Make sure you're using: - Testimonials - Case Studies - Data - Research - Media Inclusions 2. Back Up Your Claims Back up every claim with proof. "Our customer service is unmatched!" ↳ Video of customer raving about customer service "Our customers receive outrageous results!" ↳ Case study showing the work in action By doing this, you're showing them you walk the talk. 3. Re-use The Same Proof In Multiple Formats Some people want to read. Some people want to watch. Make sure you have both videos and written versions of your trust-building content. A trustworthy site is one people aren't afraid to buy from. Or afraid to share. Make sure you invest the time to build one.

There's plenty of talk here about social proof. But not enough talk about HOW to use it. Sure, you can toss a bunch of vague testimonials into an eye-blurring carousel. And prove absolutely nothing. Social PROOF is supposed to PROVE something. For every claim you make, you should be erasing skepticism by proving your claims. I've seen these Big Three common mistakes with social proof: 1. Testimonials talking about everything, and nothing specific → "Such a great job! Highly recommend." 2. Dated testimonials that under-represent the company's capabilities → "She did such a good job in Canva!!!" (for a custom web designer) 3. Case studies from the wrong target audience → "Case study: NPO" (for a consultant serving start-up businesses) If you think these mistakes sound silly they happen all the time. Many brands don't think about social proof strategically. If that's you, you can start now. It's not easy, but it's simple. Every time you make a claim that can elicit skepticism, PROVE IT with specific, targeted, cherry-picked social proof. ✔️ Match the claim ✔️ Match the audience ✔️ Be specific When you do that, social proof is doing her job, and so are you.