Social Proof Marketing Hub

Below are two five-star reviews for you to compare. Product quality is top-notch in both cases.

If you collect reviews that look like this:

You have some text. That’s it.

But if you collect photo reviews like this:

You have pure emotions!

Focus on emotions and the sales will follow.

Social proof is so much more than product reviews.

Shirt brand ATLANL uses the photo reviews they collect from real customers to create a high-converting email opt-in popup.

Social proof at its best.

No explanation needed.

Word of mouth is the best marketing.

Happy customers share their experiences with friends and family. It’s free for you.

They share your store’s URL on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and more.

The thing is, these platforms show a preview image of your store. The open graph image.

If you want people to actually click on the shared links, you better make sure to nail that image.

And what’s more convincing than even more happy customers?

Here’s a prime example, taken from iGlow:

Celebrity-owned businesses come with built-in social proof marketing.

Two-time Grammy award winner Carlos Santana goes one step further:

His brand, Santana Sounds, uses a simple yet effective two-sided referral program to enable every store visitor to become a brand ambassador. 

This creates an army of people selling his products.

If you’ve been featured somewhere, show it.

It builds essential trust with people who visit your store for the first time.

The big stores do it. Why not you?

BlendJet:

Jungalow:

Replica Surfaces:

Tabs:

Respond to reviews. It’s that simple.

PS. If you use Loox, your customers will receive a notification about your response. This increases your brand awareness and the chances customers will visit your store again.

Top to bottom:

1. Build initial trust with a familiar face (influencer).

2. Then turn trust into sales with authentic reviews (real customers).

Wanna see real-life examples?

Here’s IQUNIX’s Happy Customers page:

And here’s Move’s homepage:

1. Download a photo of your customer using your product.

2. Copy the text of your most amazing review.

3. Combine.

Et voila, you have an amazing ad creative.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

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70,000+ orders, $7.7 million in sales and an exit for $2 million dollars. All in one year.

How? Happy customers.

Turned Yellow’s customers literally scream, cry, dance and laugh when they get their products.

It’s insane.

To acquire new customers, they run social proof video ads that are loaded with emotions.

It’s impossible to not get hooked:

(click here or on the visual below to play the ad)

Turned Yellow uses Loox to collect, display and highlight their 10,000+ stunning reviews. You can do the same. Get started free.

Thanks to Marin for this amazing social proof example.

Same number of reviews. Same ratings. Different styles:

• “We have 400 5-star reviews” or
• “4.65 average ratings” or
• “90% recommend us”.

Your product doesn’t have to be for everyone.

In fact, it shouldn’t.

Liquid Death, valued at $700 million, scaled through very controversional marketing and mastered all types of social proof…

...even anti-social proof:

Be bold with your social proof. It works.

Good news.

You no longer have to be perfect:

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PS. Loox has a 4.9-star rating on the Shopify App Store (11,000+ reviews).

The first thing your visitors see is your hero section.

It’s the only space on your site you know for sure visitors will see. The more compelling this section is the higher your conversion rates.

The most successful DTC brands in the world follow a simple framework:

• Product.
• Copy.
• Social proof.
• CTA.

Here are five real-world examples:

Obvi’s social proof header:

Volant’s social proof header:

TheOodie’s social proof header:

IQBAR’s social proof header:

Floraly’s social proof header:

Thanks to Obvi, Volant, TheOodie, IQBAR, and Floraly for mastering this.

It only needs one product for two people to build a viral product and get hundreds of millions of TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest and YT Shorts views.

Meet: Tabs.

On the surface, Tabs sells chocolate for adults. But it’s actually more than that. Tabs sells a lifestyle, and a whole new generation celebrates it.

Today we’re going to break down their homepage and learn how they master Social Proof Marketing to create virality (and sales).

The Social Proof Hero Section (Above The Fold)

Tabs sells a product that is different, which makes it hard for a copywriter to come up with good copy that converts.

The solution?

Their slogan (“Break. Bite. Bang.”) and a strong testimonial written by a popular online magazine.

This simple technique, replacing your own copy with a testimonial, works. Why? By default, people don’t trust new companies. So no matter how good you write about yourself, if others write good about you, it’s always stronger and more trustworthy.

Tabs tops it off with a recognizable brand logo.

The Conversion Section

Tabs’ homepage is Tab’s product page. This reduces friction and increases conversions.

And because of that, their homepage has to be optimized. They can’t rely on a product page to convince shoppers to become buyers.

To achieve that, Tabs displays the product alongside 5-star icons and the review count. This builds instant trust and increases the likelihood of a sale.

The Customer Photos Slider

Professional photos are good, but real customer photos are better. They don’t just display a product, they add life to the product. And, more important than anything else, they add social proof.

Tabs features a hand-picked collection of real customer photos on their homepage.

The Social Proof Marketing Center

Tabs works with tons of social media creators that genuinely love their product and brand. The amount of content they put out is stunning.

To highlight this content, Tabs is repurposing their user-generated content videos alongside a testimonial and a reviews CTA. This is the ultimate social proof conversion hack.

The Reviews

If new visitors are still not convinced to buy, Tabs also displays all of their reviews on their homepage. This will give shoppers the last push they need to turn them into buyers.

Tabs is using Loox to collect, display and highlight photo and text reviews.

The Social Media Promotion Footer

Tabs understands the creator economy. And with millions of views on social media and high website traffic, Tabs wants to give everyone the chance to promote their products and get a kickback.

It’s a win-win.

That’s why you can apply to become a brand ambassador for Tabs straight from the footer.

Replica Surfaces became the industry leader in the home photography space by mastering Social Proof Marketing.

Today we’re going to break down Replica Surfaces' highly converting homepage, so you, too, can become the leader of your industry.

Founded by Canadian actress and entrepreneur Mandy Gleason, Replica Surfaces sells products that range from photo-realistic backgrounds for photographers to a digital course on in-home photography.

Their key to success? Social Proof Marketing.

Here’s the breakdown:

1. The Social Proof Hero Section (Above The Fold)

80% of shoppers spend their time above the fold. They never scroll.

No wonder Replica Surfaces wants to make sure they are recognized as a trustworthy brand that is delivering on their promises.

The hero section contains four social proof elements:

1. Reviews: all reviews on a dedicated “Happy Customers” page.
2. Customer photos: the customers are the heroes.
3. Review star icons: five stars are the universal sign of quality.
4. Review count: adding review count backs up the star icons.

The sum of all these social proof elements builds the trust that makes shoppers dive deeper into the site.

2. The User-Generated Content Carousel

TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts: vertical videos are here to stay. Shoppers from all around the world are used to this format.

And so it makes sense to display the same format on a storefront.

Instead of hiring an expensive videographer, Replica Surface highlights their real customers by using a carousel of videos that contains user-generated content (UGC).

3. The Cognitive Bias Advantage

In his famous “25 Cognitive Biases”, Charlie Munger (best buddy of Wall Street legend Warren Buffet) said that people are influenced by the association with other brands. It’s called “The Influence From Mere Association Bias”.

Replica Surfaces leverages the reputation of successful brands to gain credibility by displaying the logos of popular publications. Such as The New York Times and Entrepreneur Magazine.

4. The Success Stories

Replica Surfaces sells products to professionals who want to level up their photography game. For them, it’s an investment, not a toy. They want to see results.

What better way to prove that success is within reach than by sharing success stories of customers?

Here’s one:

“My Slate Replica Surface helped me land my first magazine cover.”

Social proof at its best. It works like a charm.

5. The Incentivized Instagram Call to Action

It’s a known fact that social proof works for conversion rate optimization. Replica Surfaces takes it to a whole new level. They turn social proof into an acquisition engine by incentivizing Instagram tagging.

That’s a smart move because they know that their customers’ audiences are full of other photographers.

6. The Customer Reviews

Now to the good part: customer reviews.

Reviews set the stage above the fold. Now, a few sections further down the site, they appear as a highlight. They continue the social proof-injected storytelling.

Replica Surfaces didn’t hire a copywriter to write clever sales copy. They chose to let their customers speak, which is the most authentic voice a brand can have.

Replica Surfaces uses Loox to incentivize, collect and highlight reviews that turn into sales: Loox brought in nearly $300,000 in additional sales through review -incentivized discount codes.

“I switched to Loox from another review app and am so happy that I did. The reviews with photos is a great idea and everything has run perfectly.”

Mandy Gleason

CEO and Founder, Replica Surfaces

Try the Social Proof Marketing platform Replica Surfaces use 14 days for free here.

7. The Facebook Reviews

More is more.

To double down on social proof, Replica Surfaces showcases the reviews they collect on Facebook.

More reviews = more customers. It’s that simple.

8. The Facebook Community

Replica Surfaces lives and breathes Social Proof Marketing.

They heavily invest in activities and initiatives that help them grow their business through the power of trust.

That’s why they built a community of more than 16,000 photographers, aka. potential customers on Facebook. And to make sure that store visitors who are not (yet) ready to buy still get value from visiting the Replica Surface homepage, they include a call to action to the community.

It’s a great trade:

• The visitor gets an invitation to a community of like-minded people.
• Replica Surfaces can capture their hard-earned traffic.

Nice little Social Proof Marketing hack: “Community” is a stronger word than “Group”.

9. The Social Proof Footer

Backed by thousands of happy customers, Replica Surfaces delivers an end-to-end Social Proof Marketing experience.

From the hero section to the footer:

The numbers don’t lie:

• Thousands of Loox reviews.
• Hundreds of thousands in additional sales through Loox.
• 132K+ Instagram followers.
• 16K+ Facebook community members.

“Loox is easy to set up and customer support helped me when I had a question right away. I plan on being with Loox for a long time. Highly Recommended!”

Mandy Gleason

CEO and Founder, Replica Surfaces

Now you can use the same Social Proof Marketing platform as Replica Surfaces: Build your Social Proof Marketing engine free for 14 days, with Loox.

Backed by Replica Surfaces and more than 100,000 Shopify and Shopify Plus brands.

Don’t make visitors work to trust you. Strive to make trust the default state of mind. 

How?

Shopify Plus brands Replica Surfaces and BlendJet foster this sense with a wall of love, aka. happy customers page. They showcase the large number of positive reviews they’ve earned over the years.

Every store visitor is exposed to every single review. Not one at a time. No, all at once.

(It’s a cute little social proof hack that makes the reviews appear as more than they actually are. But please don’t tell anyone.)

Here’s Replica Surface’s page:

Here’s BlendJet’s:

And yes, it converts:

“You could literally spend entire days going through all of our reviews, and we’ve found that’s actually the thing our customers spend the most time doing before making a purchase.”

Ryan Pamplin

CEO and Co-Founder of BlendJet

^ Hundreds of thousands in Loox-driven sales for BlendJet in around 1.5 years speak for themselves.

A copywriter worth her money can speak your customer’s language.

Your customers (obviously) do the same. Use them.

Here’s Oddjob Hat’s social proof popup:

And here’s Surely’s social proof email copy:

A lesson in product validation and community engagement from LEGO:

Getting customers excited about a new product they’ve never seen before? Hard. 

But letting your customers: 

1. Contribute product ideas they love. 
2. Share them with their (and your) community.
3. Vote on their favorite (new) products.
4. See the best community ideas come to life. 

… That’s genius. And that’s exactly what LEGO does with their “LEGO Ideas Designers” program:

Their customers become creators. And their creators become their stars:

^ LEGO features their creators on social media to make sure they keep building amazing products for them.

Standard post-purchase upsells convert at 1-4%. (On a good day).

Add social proof, and you will see conversions go up. As high as 13%. 

The four key elements of Green Philoshophy’s high-converting upsell offer:

1. The offer: The more compelling your offer, the better your results.
   
2. The ratings: Give customers peace of mind by putting social proof front and center.
   
3. The decision: After they complete checkout, your customers are primed to buy again‍
4. The UGC: This addition can increase conversions up to 3x over standard industry rates. 

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