You Have More Social Proof Than You Think

Social proof can be a five-star Google review, a customer testimonial on your homepage or a video testimonial. But, customers may be giving you social proof that’s getting overlooked. Your most valuable feedback might be in an email a customer sent after a successful project or a customer who tagged your business in a social media post. The challenge isn’t always getting social proof. Sometimes, it’s recognizing it. Let’s take a closer look at the unexpected social proof that might be hiding in plain sight.

What Is Social Proof?

First, what is social proof anyway? Social proof is evidence from other people that helps prospective customers feel more confident about choosing your business. It can show them that other people have purchased your products, used your services and had a positive experience.

There’s a simple reason social proof is so persuasive: people naturally understand that a business has a reason to say good things about itself. But your customers give prospective customers information they can’t get from your claims alone. Social proof can also help answer the questions people have before making a purchase. Will this actually work for someone like me? Is the product worth it? What happens if something goes wrong?

A good piece of customer feedback can answer those questions far more naturally than a paragraph of marketing copy.

Your Customers Are Probably Already Giving You Social Proof

Customers don’t always give a polished testimonial, but still offer positive, valuable feedback. A customer might email your team after a project and explain how much time you saved them. Someone might tell your salesperson that they were nervous about making the purchase, but were pleasantly surprised by the results. A customer might post a photo of your product and recommend it to their followers. Someone might mention that they’ve already referred you to a friend or colleague. All of these interactions contain valuable information.

That doesn’t mean you should publish every customer email or comment without permission. It’s essential to get your customer’s permission before using any communications. But when you have permission, those little pieces of feedback can become valuable additions to your marketing.

12 Types of Hidden Social Proof You Might Already Have

When most business owners think about social proof, they probably think about customer reviews and testimonials first. But those are only a couple of the many ways your customers can demonstrate that your business is worth choosing. If you look closely, you may already have a substantial collection of social proof—you just may not have thought of it that way.

Here are some places to look.

Emails From Happy Customers

Take a look through your inbox. You may find customers who have taken the time to thank your team, compliment your service, describe a successful outcome, or tell you how much your product helped them. These emails weren’t necessarily written as testimonials, but they can contain some of the most natural and specific descriptions of your business. With the customer’s permission, a particularly good line from an email can become a testimonial, website quote, case study, or other piece of marketing content.

Survey Responses

If you send customer satisfaction surveys, don’t think of the responses only as data for measuring customer satisfaction. Open-ended survey questions can reveal exactly what customers appreciate about your business, what problems you solve for them, and what makes them choose you over alternatives. A customer who writes a thoughtful response about their experience may have already given you the raw material for a powerful testimonial. Even less enthusiastic responses can be useful because they can reveal the questions and concerns your marketing should address.

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Comments on Social Media

Customers may already be talking about your business on social media without you ever asking them to write a testimonial. They might recommend you in a comment, respond positively to one of your posts, tag your business in something they’ve shared, or tell someone else about their experience. These interactions can serve as social proof because they’re examples of customers voluntarily associating themselves with your business. Pay attention to the language people naturally use when they talk about you, as it may reveal benefits and selling points you haven’t emphasized in your own marketing.

Customer Photos

A customer doesn’t have to write a paragraph about your business to provide social proof. Sometimes a photograph can say plenty. A customer might post a picture of your product in their home, show off the results of a service, or share an image of something they accomplished with your help. Customer photos provide visual evidence that real people are using and enjoying what you offer. With permission, these images can also become valuable additions to your website, social media, email marketing, or other customer-facing content.

Case Studies

Case studies are one of the more substantial forms of social proof because they can tell an entire customer story. Rather than simply saying that your product or service is effective, a case study can explain what a customer was struggling with, why they chose your business, what you did, and what happened as a result. This level of detail can be particularly useful when you’re selling something expensive, complicated, or difficult to evaluate before purchase. If you’ve already created case studies, you may have a wealth of customer evidence that can be repurposed throughout your marketing.

Screenshots of Customer Messages

A screenshot of a customer’s message can sometimes feel more immediate and authentic than a polished testimonial. Maybe a customer sent a text saying they loved the finished product. Maybe someone messaged your business after using your service and explained how much it helped. Maybe a customer sent a photo along with a quick note about their experience. With appropriate permission and any necessary privacy protections, these messages can provide compelling social proof because prospective customers can see the customer’s own words rather than a marketing department’s interpretation of them.

User-Generated Videos

Customers who create their own videos are giving you a particularly powerful form of social proof. They might demonstrate your product, show the results of your service, explain how they use what you sell, or simply talk about their experience. These videos don’t need to have the production quality of a professional advertisement. In many cases, the fact that they were created by an actual customer is precisely what makes them compelling. If customers are already creating videos about your business, look for opportunities to ask permission to share them more widely.

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Responses to Support Questions

Your customer support conversations can contain surprisingly valuable social proof. A customer might write to say that a problem was resolved quickly, that a particular feature solved an issue they had been struggling with, or that your support team went above and beyond to help them. These responses are especially useful because they often demonstrate something prospective customers care deeply about: what happens after they buy. A business can make plenty of promises about customer service, but a customer explaining how your team actually helped them provides evidence to support those promises.

Success Stories

A success story is similar to a case study but doesn’t necessarily need to be a formal, long-form piece of content. It could be a short account of a customer who achieved something meaningful with your product or service. Maybe a customer reached a goal, solved a persistent problem, saved time or money, improved a process, or accomplished something they hadn’t been able to do before. These stories give prospective customers something concrete to imagine. Instead of simply hearing that your business produces results, they can see what those results looked like for someone else.

Repeat Purchases

Repeat purchases may not look like social proof at first, but they can tell prospective customers something important. When people continue buying from you, renew a service, upgrade their account, or come back for another project, they’re demonstrating that their first experience was valuable enough to continue the relationship. You wouldn’t necessarily turn a customer’s purchase history into a testimonial, of course, but patterns of repeat business can become meaningful evidence of customer satisfaction. Depending on your business, you may be able to highlight retention rates, renewal rates, repeat customers, or other aggregate data as another form of social proof.

Customer Quotes

Finally, don’t underestimate the value of a single good sentence. A customer might say something during a sales call, interview, survey, support conversation, or follow-up email that perfectly captures why your business matters to them. A quote such as “We finally stopped worrying about this problem” or “Our team actually enjoys using it now” can communicate a benefit more naturally than a paragraph of carefully written marketing copy. Keep an eye out for those memorable phrases, and consider asking the customer for permission to use them. The best customer quotes often aren’t the ones that sound the most polished—they’re the ones that sound like something a real person would actually say.

Your Customers Are Already Telling Your Story

More than likely, your customers are already telling you what they think about your business. Take a look at your emails, messages, social media posts, customer photos, and conversations with your team. Look for the specific stories, problems, experiences, and outcomes hiding inside them. When you find something valuable, ask the customer whether you can share it. You may discover that you don’t have a shortage of social proof after all.

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Boast makes it easier to collect, manage, and share customer feedback so you can turn real customer experiences into powerful social proof for your business. Start a free trial today and start collecting powerful social proof.