Marketers want to communicate with their customers and convey the benefits of their products more effectively. However, telling existing and potential customers why their products are so great isn’t enough. Prospects are more interested in what their peers have to say about their products than what companies have to say about their own. This is why social proof has such a strong influence.

When it comes to purchasing decisions, 88 percent of customers trust internet evaluations as much as personal recommendations, according to one survey. Furthermore, buyers are more likely to spend 31% more on a company with positive reviews. But how can you use social proof in content marketing more effectively? Here are five effective ways to help you get started.

1. Convert customer testimonials into powerful marketing tools.

Customers discuss items all the time on blogs, forums, and social media. Begin by gathering reviews and deciding which ones are the most appealing. Feedback and quotes can be obtained by sending an automated email requesting feedback in response to a customer’s purchase.

Transform reviews into a collection of quips and memes that focus on the main consumer pain issues once they’ve been collected. To add an instant dose of legitimacy, share them on social media or incorporate them into your website or landing page content.

The main message is that there are a lot of great customer evaluations lying in plain sight. Monitor blog comments, social media, and forums for the most effective nuggets of social proof and use them in content marketing.

2. Use long-form testimonials in your content.

Testimonials are comparable to reviews in that they use your customers’ comments to make a bigger effect. The distinction between the two forms of content is that reviews are usually short, but testimonials are usually longer. Customers may send you an unsolicited email because they are delighted with your items, but in most circumstances, you will need to ask for feedback.

Start with your most recent customers when looking for testimonial candidates, as their purchasing experience and the effects they’ve seen are still fresh in their minds. You should also turn to your top customers for referrals and advocates for your products, as well as people who work well with your team. Inquire about how your products aided their business by asking specific, probing questions. Did they, for example, save any money, and if so, how much? What was the percentage change in productivity if it increased?

The testimonials that result can subsequently be used in a variety of ways, including content for a blog. Include client testimonials in the sidebar of your site so that customers can read the content while learning something new. Digital marketer Jay Baer, for example, does this on his blog.

Case studies are a type of case study that is used to The most obvious application of testimonials is case studies, but they are also extremely powerful. To add additional interest to the information, you can link to case studies in related blog articles or include a few instances from the case studies while creating relevant white papers.

In marketing materials, there are CTAs. Do you have a landing page for a certain product in mind? If that’s the case, testimonials are crucial for increasing conversions. To get better outcomes, sprinkle them throughout the content.

Campaigns for email marketing Drip email campaigns are a great way to keep prospects interested while also delivering them with useful and current information. To get better results, include testimonials that are related to the messaging in these advertisements.

Testimonials are one of the most potent types of social evidence, but to maximize the benefits of this method of social proof, remember to ask for tangible results. “XYZ company raised my team’s productivity by 249 percent,” for example, has more impact than “XYZ company increased my team’s productivity significantly.”

3. Increase the Influence of Affiliations

Affiliations are a straightforward type of social proof to obtain, owing to the fact that you can obtain them without asking or exerting any further effort. With this form of proof, you’re demonstrating your company’s affiliations with individuals that your clients are familiar with and trust. By emphasizing these connections, you quickly increase your trustworthiness in the eyes of your clients.

Then create a list of current associations that would be advantageous to utilize and a list of content marketing assets that would be appropriate for this strategy.

The key message is that you most likely have associations that you aren’t making use of right now. Don’t worry if you don’t. Guest blogging with reputable journals and then displaying those connections as a starting point are straightforward ways to build affiliations.

4. Make Use of User-Generated Content.

User-submitted content is a terrific resource for generating social proof because it allows you to connect with and engage with prospects. Lay’s, for example, ran a “Do us a Flavor” campaign that encouraged customers to create their own flavors; fans could vote on their favorites, and the winning proposal received a significant financial prize. A total of 3.8 million submissions were received for the campaign.

Although this is a B2C example, it may be used to generate strategy and content marketing ideas for B2B marketers. You may, for example, encourage prospects to vote on their most important pain issues around a topic related to your product on social media sites like Twitter or Linkedin. The emails of individuals who voted may be collected during this procedure so that the final results can be disseminated.

Encourage people to leave comments on your blog, participate in your forum, or join a LinkedIn group so you can not only listen to what they have to say but also leverage their precise words in content marketing to increase engagement.

User-generated material isn’t just good for utilizing social proof; it’s also a wonderful engagement tool. Using user-generated material and capturing it helps prospects feel truly heard.

5. Use visual content to make a stronger impression.

Take a look at the following numbers to get a better idea of the influence of visual content: According to 37% of marketers, visual marketing is the most crucial sort of content for their company.

People only recall 10% of the information they heard ten days ago, but when that information is linked with a related image, they remember 65%. Tweets with images receive 150 percent more retweets than tweets without images.

What does this mean in terms of gathering social proof and incorporating it into content marketing? We all know how effective visual material is, so why not combine it with social proof for even more impact?

Gather testimonials and reviews and turn them into visuals or infographics to share with your audience. Are you putting together an eBook for your clients? If that’s the case, sprinkle memes and quotes throughout your material to pique readers’ curiosity and keep them engaged.

Customers are becoming more receptive to visual content. Therefore, leverage that information to produce social proof that is more valuable to them.

Here is the list of widgets that you can implement to develop your social proof game.