The Social Proof Handbook

What would a 20% better conversion rate mean for your business?

When I was a little kid, I used to have bad dreams.

There was one particular bad dream I used to have quite often - I'd be standing near a cliff, at night, watching a friend or family member walking towards the cliff edge. So of course I'd try to shout and alert them to the danger. Again and again I'd shout.

But although I could find the right words and my lips moved just fine, the sound would come out muted and distorted. So the person I was trying to alert either didn't pay attention to - or couldn't understand - my warning.

You probably didn't have the same dreams. But the feeling of frustration I felt in those dreams reminds me of how most good marketers and founders feel about their marketing efforts. Know the feeling I'm talking about?

It's that frustration we feel when we *know* that our product would help a customer - when we are in the right place, at the right time, and *know* the right words to say - but sometimes (most of the time) the customer decides not to buy.

Now, I never managed to find my voice in those bad dreams - eventually they just stopped as I grew up. But after a decade of making $millions for companies as a founder, VP of Growth and marketing consultant, I do have a solution to this problem in marketing...

It's called social proof and, if done correctly, it's going to improve every important metric in your company. From bounce rates to lifetime value.

How?

Well it turns out we've been focussing so much on identifying the right customer, at the right time, and showing them the right content, that we haven't been paying nearly enough attention to the context and *who* that message is coming from.

You probably have testimonials, for example. Maybe some case studies and reviews on your landing page. But have you been through your customer journey step by step and identified where (and which forms of) social proof could increase conversion rates at key moments?

Most nearly all marketing teams don't have this kind of structured approach to implementing, creating and testing social proof. And they're losing out on easy growth because of it.

Not you though.

I've put together this guide, including expert interviews, to make sure you know how to use social proof to help more of your customers get over their objections wherever they are in your funnel.

I'll talk you through the tools, planning, internal objection-handling and tricks you need to grow your revenue with social proof. In total, you'll need 3 - 6 hours to work through the guide and create your own social proof plan (you can listen to the interviews later). Implementing the plan will take anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks, depending on the social proof formats you need.

All in all, you should be seeing at least single (but probably double) digit revenue growth within a month.

Who is this guide for?

This guide is aimed at founders and senior marketers of SaaS and ecommerce businesses doing somewhere between $50k-$10m in ARR, but who would like that number to be (much) bigger.

These savvy founders and marketers will look at the expected revenue growth they can demonstrably achieve with my guide, compare it to the price of the guide, and laugh at the amazing ROI deal they are getting.

If you aren't at that revenue size yet, don't buy this guide - there are other, higher-impact things you should be working on. You can always come back and buy later.

What will you learn?

How to make more money.

Seriously. Of course, social proof isn't some crazy philosopher's stone or a Jedi-mind trick (although it does feel that way to me sometimes). So if your product, value proposition or team sucks, social proof won't end your misery.

But if you have good product/market fit, social proof *will* improve pretty much every important metric you care about. From conversion rates to lifetime value, social proof is an often-overlooked 'easy win.'

Together, we're going to dive deep into implementing my framework for effective social proof. Supported by examples, step-by-step guides and the same toolkit I use with my consulting clients, you'll first learn how to identify which key customer actions could most be influenced by social proof. We'll then build on that to discuss which sources, effects and formats of social proof will best increase your revenue.

By the end of the guide, you'll have created your own actionable blueprint for making more money with social proof. And you'll have everything you need to successfully implement it in your own business.

We'll look at questions like:

• How to get the testimonial/case study content you *need* from your customers
• Marketing, sales, customer success, or product - who should own social proof?
• How to use social nudging to improve conversion rates by 20, 40 or even 60%
• How to reach a bigger audience with social proof?
• How to halve churn by setting better expectations with social proof
• How to increase conversions with social proof, even when you don't have any

We'll also do in-depth, exclusive interviews with founders of some of the best tools for social proof (I review 10+ tools in the guide) and with some of the most successful marketers out there.

For more information about the guide's content, check out the table of contents.