Your guide to all the types of social proof
Probably one of the most important things, not just in copywriting or marketing, is social proof.
Social proof is the number one most effective way to build trust with your audience across any type of copy or honestly just anything in your business.
You probably would struggle to find any type of business or any offer or anything, any brand in the world, that doesnât use social proof in one way, shape or form.
It might be the oldest type of marketing, even going back to people just sharing different ideas about market stalls or telling people to go and buy something from a friend or a neighbour.
However, one of the issues with social proof is a lot of people know about reviews and testimonials but they donât always understand the other types of social proof that they can use and so theyâre wasting a lot of opportunities where they could be building trust with their audience and showcasing how amazing their brand is and they just donât.
This post Iâm gonna walk you through all the different types of social proof that exist, how you can use them and how you can use them effectively so you can start using them in your business, in your marketing or in your copy and basically just building trust and making people want to work with you more.
Hi, Iâm Elle…
Website Copywriter, Unapologetic Girlsâ Girl, And (According To Clients) An âAbsolute Dream.â
What Is Social Proof?
OK so letâs start by talking about what social proof is. Social proof is essentially anything that you can use to prove that you are good at what you do and other people think that.
It is a huge simplification but an example of social proof is something like a testimonial. A testimonial is where a past customer or client shares their positive experience of working with you and tells other people that they would recommend.
Another example of social proof is reviews. If somebody gives a product a five-star review, then they are saying that they think it was great and that other people should buy it.
Social proof signals to other people that you are a brand that can be trusted and is trusted by other humans. As humans, we care about other people, we care about being part of society, we care about making great choices, and social proof signals to potential customers and buyers that other people are using your products and they love it, which means that you can be trusted and you are legit.
Itâs different than just selling yourself because obviously telling people that youâre amazing is one thing, but having somebody else say that youâre amazing is a lot more convincing and gives you so much more credibility, which builds trust.
Iâm also an ambassador for romanticizing business and making it fun, an expert in non-toxic conversion copy, a Miranda Priestley apologist, and my actual job description should really be âmatchmaker for you and your dream clientsâ
If you liked reading this blog post – I would love to hang out more with you đ
And these, IMO, are the best ways for us to that:Â
Do You Need It? (Yes, lol)
This should be an obvious answer, but yes, you do need social proof.
Especially in the age of the Internet, where anyone can say anything and thereâs so many competing brands, why would you trust somebody that doesnât have any sort of proof that they are good at what they do?
I can tell you that Iâm an amazing copywriter, but if you canât see any examples of copy theyâve written and you canât read any testimonials from anything, why would you believe me? I could just be saying anything and making it up and have never written copy a whole day of my life.
Same way that if you bought something from Amazon that had zero stars and zero reviews you probably are not gonna trust it, but if you go on Amazon and see that something has 10,005 star reviews youâre gonna trust it because you know that 10,000 other people have used it and youâre gonna choose it over another product that has less reviews.
Social proof is so important because it signals that you are credible. It shows that other people are using your product and it also gives you a competitive edge over other brands in your industry because if you have better social proof than somebody else you are more likely to get chosen.
If I have better testimonials as a website copywriter than somebody else somebody might choose me because they feel safer about making the decision when you are giving your money to somebody youâre making a dying decision. You wanna feel safe doing that and social proof gives people the chance to feel safe about buying.
What are the different types of social proof?
So what are the different types of social proof? Like I said, most people know about a few different types of social proof like reviews or testimonials, but they donât know that there are lots of different types of social proof and they can all work amazingly in different ways as long as youâre using them strategically in the right places.
So in this guide, Iâm gonna break down all the different types of social proof and the ways that you can use them so that you know exactly what you can be using in your favourite brand and you are constantly maximising your social proof.
Reviews
So the first type that weâre gonna talk about is reviews. These are probably the type of social proof that you are the most familiar with and that you know the most about and this is essentially just anything that past clients or past customers take their experience and share their experience and talk about it.
And this can look like:
Testimonials:
These are people sharing their opinion, sharing their experience or just using words to share their experience of using a product or of working with somebody or hiring somebody and their own words
Reviews:
This is specifically when somebody reviews a product or service. Sometimes this will include stars and it might include somebody sharing text of their opinion but it might just be them sharing stars or them sharing a percentage. It is somebody saying what their experience was but it doesnât necessarily include words.
Number Reviews:
And then the number of reviews which again could be people sharing their stars. It can be a specific percentage of people that have posted at five stars or said that theyâve enjoyed something.
Itâs any kind of a review that shares a number or a statistic about somebodyâs experience with your product.
Endorsements
So then we have endorsements and endorsements are essentially someone who has weight in your industry or that your target audience would care about who is saying that your product is good.
So think things like a dentist saying that a toothpaste is good or a hair salon expert saying that a specific conditioner is great.
It is basically a way for your audience to trust you based on an expertâs opinion, so rather than with testimonials or reviews where somebody is a regular person who is probably very similar to your ideal client sharing their experience, it is an expert who they already trust telling them that your product is good.
This works really well because they already trust the opinion of the person that theyâre talking to, they will buy what that person says, right? And this is actually very similar to how influencer marketing works.
And this can look like:
Experts:
So this is gonna look like experts who are like doctors or professionals in the industry or very well-known people in the industry, somebody whose opinion holds a lot of weight.
Like I said, dentists to approve something, doctors to approve something, universities who approve something, someone who holds a lot of social standing who is saying that your product or your service is good.
Celebrities:
This is either someone who is famous to everyone in the world or someone who is famous in your industry.
Again, somebody that people like and whose opinions they trust, and it doesnât feel like just a random person who is saying that your product is good or that they use it.
Certifications:
Then you have certifications, so this is any sort of certificate, award, or qualification that has been awarded to you by someone or something that has weight.
This could be accredited by a board.
It could be a prestigious university thatâs given you a degree.
It could be a very prestigious type of certification that you need in your industry, like as a personal trainer or a nutritionist or something like that that proves that you are above average in your industry.
It has to be a certification that people will recognize, especially your target audience, and will care about.
Media:
And then you have the media, and this is basically when the media is endorsing you.
If youâve been featured in something like Forbes or Vogue has written an article about you and said that youâre great, it is essentially just you being able to prove from your appearances in media whether or not that is being voted best at something, getting featured in an article, winning an award, or anything like that that proves that you are bigger than most companies and that you are trusted.
Pop-Ups
Pop-ups are commonly used on websites as a way to convince you that other people are making the buying decision and make you feel safer about doing it, or make you feel more included in society or with other people because youâre making the same decisions as them.
You may see this on a website when people say things like someone just bought this thing in New York or three people are looking at this right now.
Itâs essentially a way of trying to make you feel like if you do the same thing as these people youâll be part of them.
Humans really like to feel like weâre part of the crowd or like weâre part of society and so the goal of this is to kind of psychologically make you feel like everybody else is doing it so you can do it too.
So for example, you can see on websites that youâre gonna get a pop-up where it might say this person just bought something, or somebody in New York just bought three of these, or three were sold in California today.
You might also see the amount of people who have bought it today.
You often see this on booking sites sometimes where you might see Booking.com saying something like three people are looking at this, or three rooms sold today, or only one room left.
The thing to remember about these is it is important to be ethical with this and make sure itâs true, so usually people use a pop-up software to do this.
You need to make sure you use a reputable one that is actually showing the truth and also you need to be careful around the legalities of it.
I know that in some countries Booking.com has got in trouble for doing that before because it creates fake urgency and thatâs not allowed in those countries, so make sure you do your due diligence if you do try and use this method because you donât wanna get in trouble.
Numbers
And then the next thing people usually look at is numbers in general. We touched on this a bit in reviews, but any kind of number that proves results or proves something like that is a really, really strong form of social proof and you probably see this all over the place.
Statistics:Â
So an example of this could be statistics.
If you have made a certain amount of money for a client, to say that Iâm a sales copywriter on one of my audit pages for sales pages, I talk about a sales page audit that I did for somebody where within six weeks of doing my audit they saw a 400% increase in conversions from that page.Â
Itâs just any number that proves that you are getting results for people or that you are helping them.
You also might see somebody saying that like, you know, since they started using this toothpaste their teeth are three times whiter.
Itâs meant to be based on some kind of study or some measurable data to prove that you know what youâre doing.
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Ratings:
And then we have ratings, which we kind of already talked on, which is where somebody is being rated out of a specific number. It might be five stars. It might be 10 out of 10.
It might be 100% of people loved this thing.
Itâs basically a trust signal to show you that out of a large group of people you are consistently being voted the best.
Case Studies
This is one of the most valuable types of social proof, especially for service providers, coaches, or small businesses because you are basically telling a story about something that you have successfully done for a customer or client.
With case studies, you will often see these linked blog posts or added on peopleâs pages.
Sometimes these are also sent out in newsletters or emails or downloads and itâs essentially the format, very long story short, is to take something that youâve done.
So for example with me, I might take a website project I worked on and say this is the client.
“This is a problem that they came to me with. These are the challenges that we had. This is how we solved the problem. These are the results that they saw. Here is the before and after.”
And so what Iâm doing with that is Iâm showing you a real world example of me doing my job, me getting someone results, me completing my process and showing you what you will get.
These work really well because they give the customer or client a way of seeing themselves as the person getting the results.
You can easily put yourself in the shoes of the past client and imagine what will happen if you get the same thing or work with the same process and the transformation that you will get.
Trust Icons
So these are things like logos, certifications, or awards that prove to you that you can trust someone.
You may be a bit confused about what Iâm talking about and when I give you example examples, Iâm sure that you can think of tons of times when you have seen these on a website page.
Logos:
So a logo is any logo from a famous brand, a well-known company, anything that will build trust and you will see these a lot on websites where they might say âfeatured inâ or âas trusted byâ.
So you might have a beauty product that says âas seen in Forbes, Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitanâ or, you know, if you work with a website copywriter they might say âtrusted by companies like Linktree and Coca-Colaâ.
If those are companies that theyâve worked with, these basically logos exist either to tell you that somebody has been endorsed by these companies or they have been trusted by these companies as an employee or as a customer, and again it works similar to endorsements.
Itâs basically using somebody elseâs fame and success and the fact that you trust somebody else to make you trust the person being trusted by your customer.
Awards:
And then the other one you have is awards, so if you have ever won an award you might see somebody putting that on their website or putting that on their social media, putting that somewhere and saying you know they won, if it was a beauty brand an example might be if they won a beauty award for best makeup of 2024 or most inclusive skincare of 2025.
That would be an example of an award and again they work similar to endorsements.
If you have won an award from an accredited body or if you have won lots of awards then you seem more trustworthy and people feel safe to buy from you or give you their money because if you won this award, you must be amazing.
Portfolios
And then another type of social proof is portfolios, so a portfolio is where somebody is showcasing their past work or projects and using that to show you that they know what theyâre doing.
So for example I have a website copywriting portfolio so you can go and look at all the websites, all sales pages, or posts that Iâve written for other people and you can see that I actually know what Iâm doing and you can look at the work that Iâve done to decide whether or not you wanna work with me based on the work that Iâve done.
These are specifically great for service providers or small businesses or anybody who works in a sort of creative industry where itâs not enough to talk about what you do.
People are looking for you to do something specific for them and so itâs really important to see examples of your work and understand if you can do the exact thing that they want you to do.
UGC
And then UGC, or User-Generated Content.
This is really big on social media right now and itâs things like user reviews through videos or video content or influencer marketing where essentially somebody who is like you in the same demographic, exactly the same person as your ideal customer/client, makes videos reviewing their experience and makes authentic user-generated content.
This is honestly huge in a lot of industries right now for e-commerce or hotels or things like that where people like reviews but they would prefer to see a visual representation of what theyâre going to use or buy.
It rates really well because somebody can talk you through all the pros and cons. It feels a lot more real.
Theyâre showing you the products and youâre seeing a real person sharing your results.
The same with a hotel.
Itâs one thing to read a review but seeing somebody actually staying in a hotel room feels a lot more powerful and it really works well because it helps build an idea similar to case studies and paints a picture of what you would get if you worked with that product and kind of paints that idea in the head.
Where are people using social proof?
So now weâve talked a little bit about the different types of social proof that you can use, the next question is where do you use social proof? How do you use them in your marketing?
Well basically anywhere. You can use them on your website, you can use them on sales pages, you can use them in your emails, you can use them on your social media. You basically want to use social proof anywhere that you can because it is the best possible way that you can build trust with your audience.
As a copywriter I use it everywhere. I use it all the time. I use it on sales pages or landing pages that I write for clients. I use social proof throughout the page to make sure that as people are learning about the products I am improving to them through other peopleâs experiences that this product is as good as Iâm saying.
The same thing with websites. You want to have social proof on basically every single page of your website. You want to have it on the homepage, you can have it on the web page. You definitely want to have it on any sales pages or services page and you can even add it on your contact pages or your subscribe pages.
For example, on my subscribe page I even have social proof specifically for my newsletter. I have reviews that people have left about my newsletter or things that people have said about it on social media when theyâre saying that itâs really great and I share that to try and convince people to sign up to my newsletter.
You can also share social proof in your newsletter, you can share it in your podcast, you can share it on your blogs. You can share it basically anywhere that you are hoping people will make a buying decision, whether or not thatâs buying a product, hiring you for a service, or you just want people to trust you and take an action, you can use social proof to try and make them feel safer about buying or taking that action.
And you can use it on social media in general just to boost your trustworthiness, so hotels will use UGC content on social media to try and go viral, to try and get attention, and to try and get traffic back to their website or back to the funnel.
E-commerce brands will do the same thing. They might use user-generated content, influencer marketing, or sponsored videos or things like that to try and gain attention. So social proof can be used to gain attention instead of just to help people make decisions. I could post a video review of somebody working with me or I could post a testimonial carousel on Instagram. Somebody might find that from the explore page and be interested to learn more about me after seeing these great reviews and then come to my page and enter my funnel like that.
What types of social proof should you be using / whatâs the most powerful?
So probably one of the big questions that you have now is what type of social proof should you use and which one is right for you?
Iâm going to simplify it: any social proof that you have, you should be using it.
You can stack social proof, you can use more than one type of social proof on your website. You can have social proof on every page of your website. You can use different social proof on your social media to what you use on your website to what you use on your pages.
Basically, as much as you can use as possible is great because the more you can prove that people can trust you, the better it is.
However, you donât want to overwhelm people and you might be asking yourself when is the right time to use each one: I have endorsements, I have testimonials, I have reviews, I have awards – when do I use each one?
A very good example to use here or idea to use here is to ask yourself: what does this piece of social proof prove? The reason itâs called social proof is itâs proving something. Itâs proving you can be trusted socially.Â
So what does it prove, and where might it be valuable to prove that thing?
For example, I have one testimonial from Tia from Freelancing Females, where she talks about how easy it was to work with me and how happy she was that I was so strategic in the way that I did everything.
So I use this on my homepage because itâs a really powerful testimonial, but also I know that what people really want from a copywriter is somebody whoâs easy to work with, somebody that they can trust, and somebody who is actually good at the job. Thatâs a really important message for the homepage.Â
They need to know that they can trust me, and Tia from Freelancing Females is very well known in the freelancing world so itâs a name that they trust and when they see it theyâre like okay great sheâs worked with this person and I can trust her.
I use a different testimonial from Francesca from The Creative Moka, where she talks about how much she loved my audit. And instead of just using that on my homepage, I actually use that on my audits page.Â
So if anybody is thinking about booking an audit but theyâre not sure if theyâll have a good experience, Iâm proving that they will have a good experience, because this is what Francesca said about working with me, and this was her experience.
I, again like I said, also use a testimonial from Lawrence whoâs a nutritionist who I did an audit for on her sales page, who talks about the results that she got from working with me on her sales page.Â
It makes sense for me to put that on my sales page audit specifically so that people who are not sure whether or not theyâre going to make back their investment if they pay for an audit can see that they could get a 400x increase in conversions within a short timeframe.
I also use logo bars to prove that Iâve worked with their companies and I use this on my homepage, and on my services page because I know that people who visit those pages are maybe a bit more logical in how they make decisions, and might be more interested to know whether or not I have experience working with bigger companies, or what makes me different to other copywriters who offer the same services.
Itâs really all about using your social proof in a way that is strategic and asking yourself: what does my audience care about on this page?
What specific anxieties do they have about me, or my offer, my product, my service, that I can make them feel better about by sharing social proof? And that is where you want to use your social proof. You want to look at what anxiety or obstacle you are trying to counter and then use your social proof to make them feel less anxious or worried about that thing that might stop them from buying from you.
And you can do this anywhere. You can do it on social media. You can do it on your newsletters. If you are sending a sales newsletter and you are launching something and you have a testimonial about that launch, you might have a specific email that you send out that talks about somebody elseâs experience, or you share a case study that shares a review and says something like what life looks like after you buy whatever your product is, and then you share all of the reviews.
Thereâs really nowhere that youâre gonna write copy where you donât want to use social proof at some point – use it on your sales pages, in your funnels, and on your website, and anywhere on social media where it you need to build trust.Â
How do you collect social proof?
So how do you collect social proof? Thatâs a great question. Itâs actually very easy if you are a service provider or a solopreneur or a founder who works one-on-one with people. You just need to make sure that you have an email that you can send to them after you finish the project asking them for some feedback.
Itâs very easy to do this, where most people fall short is that they donât remember to send it, or they feel embarrassed to do it, but the best thing to do is wait maybe a couple of weeks after the project is finished, while itâs still fresh in their mind, or even just after the product is finished have an email template saved that you can send them directly where you just basically say: I had a great time working with you. I would love to get feedback. Can you fill in this form or could you send me a quick testimonial?
You want to get reviews from people. You can use different platforms that allow people to leave reviews. You can get reviews on Google. If you sell through something like Fivver or Shopify, you can see if there are any plugins that you can add on that will allow you to get reviews and build things up like that.
When it comes to endorsements, you obviously will already have them. You just need to figure out how to display them. If it makes sense for you to display a specific logo that people will recognise, if you have endorsements from a celebrity maybe you can get a picture of the celebrity and put a quotation mark the same way that you would do with a testimonial.
Itâs pretty easy to collect social proof. You just need to remember to ask for it, and itâs a good idea to have a folder somewhere on your computer or on Google or wherever you use where you save your social proof and you can come back to it any time. So you can make a folder or a Google Doc or whatever works for you with all of the categories Iâve given you today and figure out which ones you have, add those to the folder, and then you have those ready to share anywhere that you need to share them whenever it makes sense.
A quick PSA on being non-toxic
Okay so I do have to quickly remind you: social proof only works if itâs true. Do not fake social proof. Do not lie about social proof because if you get caught out it will do the opposite. Social proof is meant to make people trust you, and if people find out that youâre lying or that your reviews are fake, not only will they not trust you but they will distrust you forever.
It is definitely better to not have any social proof when you are first starting out, or to reuse the same piece of social proof on every single page of your website, or just to have one piece of social proof on your social media if you are new, than it is to lie about it.
You will eventually build up social proof as you go, and Iâm sure that you can think of some things that you can use even if you feel that you donât have anything, whether or not thatâs a degree, whether or not thatâs a certification, whether or not thatâs how many years youâve been doing the specific thing that youâre interested in- all of those things count as social proof.
It is never worth it to lie. Do not use a platform that does fake reviews and like I said when we were talking about the pop-ups, donât do it in a sleazy way because sometimes itâs illegal and it can get you in trouble, and also it just makes your audience feel a bit shitty.
Iâm personally not a fan of pop-ups that say âthis person just bought itâ or âthereâs only this amount of things leftâ or âthree people just booked it.â I always feel like Iâm being manipulated and thatâs not a good feeling.
So be conscious of making sure that youâre using social proof in a way that doesnât feel sleazy or manipulative, and that makes your audience feel good and excited about working with you, not afraid of making a mistake.
In Conclusion: Go Get That MF Social Proof
Social proof is one of the absolute most important aspects of conversion on your website.
Itâs okay if you donât have any social proof when youâre first starting, but you need to try and get it as soon as possible because the more social proof that you have and the better quality social proof you have, the more people are going to trust you, and the easier itâs going to be for you to sell.
People buy from people that they trust, and people buy from people that other people trust.
Social proof is a way of showing, not telling, how good you are at what you do.
And in a world where humans are part of a society and weâre social creatures who care about being like others, it is invaluable to be able to leverage that to make sales and improve your reputation.
The Hot Gossip, The 411
More from The Blog
If you loved this post, and you want to get the 411 on more things copy and marketing – here’s your next read, all lined up.Â
Hi, Iâm Elle
Website Copywriter, Unapologetic Girlsâ Girl, And (According To Clients) An âAbsolute Dream.â
Iâm also an ambassador for romanticizing business and making it fun, an expert in non-toxic conversion copy, a Miranda Priestley apologist, and voted most likely to over-deliver and overshare.
But â you know what else I am?
A girl whoâs tired of seeing talented, creative women settling for mediocre copy and generic branding because they think they have to do it all themselves, or theyâre waiting for permission to step into their It Girl era and become the hot brand theyâre supposed to be.
Which is why Iâd love for you to finally get copy that reflects your full potential â even if you canât quite yet put that into words.
