Social proof in marketing is showing evidence that other people have purchased and found value in a product or service offered by a business. When it comes to marketing this concept can still be seen clearly in many different scenarios – reviews, logos of media publications they have featured in and even creating content that is personable. Social proof can be a way to increase conversions by showing target customers how popular and trustworthy a product or service is.
There are 5 main types of social proof that businesses will aim to acquire to help build their brand awareness and credibility online. These are:
- Expert – when an expert in a specific industry is seen associated with a particular service or product
- Influencer – where an influencer is endorsing your products/brands
- User – when current users recommend your products and services based on their experiences with you as a brand
- Audience – the number of followers and interactions you get on your social accounts from your audience also contributes as social proof
- Certification – verification on a social media platform
White’s Training has used social proof in a multitude of ways to help build their brand awareness and continue growing online. As an adult social care training provider it was vital that their business and service came across as reliable and valid as possible – which is why they used several avenues of social proof to help achieve this.
They use their expertise and knowledge of the adult social care sector to position themselves as credible and liable. Due to experts being more trusted and engaged with online, they have been able to give their expert views and insights to different media publications that are specific to the social care industry. Not only were they able to become visible to the publications, they were then also able to create more brand awareness to the readership of those outlets.
Alongside being able to put themselves forwards to media publications, being experts in their fields also allows them to create personable content for their audience. Due to their knowledge of the adult care sector, White’s Training have been able to identify the pain points that their customers, or target audience, may be experiencing. They can then support them through their services specifically as their knowledge and expertise would grant them the skills to acknowledge how to find the solution to a problem they are having.
Not only does this help build their expertise, but can also help enforce the user and audience type of social proof.
By creating solutions to their audience’s problem, White’s Training are able to form strong relationships with their customers. These strong relationships are reinforced by the 1000+ TrustPilot reviews that they have collected over the past couple of years. Reviews are a great way of building online social proof as they are used and trusted by potential customers all of the time. If a social care worker was looking for a provider of courses to help enhance their learning and skills, they are more likely to choose a training provider who has more positive reviews rather than one who has none.
