It isn’t totally up to a brand to determine how cool it is. Other people’s opinions matter too. Consumers are interested in what audiences think of brands. Chances of many people being wrong are slim. If the general feedback is bad, the brand has some home work to do.
According to research, 79% of consumers take a cue from online reviews in their buying decisions. If you give people a reason to say not-so-good things about your brand, you inadvertently shoot yourself in the foot.
Social proof isn’t a new trend. It has always been a viable marketing technique, but has become more conspicuous given the all-inclusive nature of social media. Remember testimonials in print and broadcast ads?
Here are four ways to use your content in building positive social proof:
1. Have a regular publishing schedule
Communicating with prospects, regularly, acquaints them with your brand. They get to understand you better and buy into your idea. Every content shared makes a strong case for your brand and breeds trust.
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But don’t publish just any kind of content.
You’d be doing your brand more harm than good by publishing half-baked content. It’d kill the reputation you have managed to build already. Good content is attractive. It lures more followers to your brand, increasing your online following, and ultimately projects your brand in a good light.
2. Include testimonials in your content
Every content is an opportunity to tell your audience something new about your brand. Saying all the great things about your brand is good, but having them hear some of these things from satisfied customers is better.
Doing this effectively requires creativity. No one clicks on a blog content to be bored by someone else’s thoughts. They seek to be educated about the topic of the post. You must ensure that you give them the value they seek while you subtly promote your brand with your testimonials.
Breathe life into your posts with quotes from customers. These customers have to be real, otherwise, you are making things up. Add links to their online profiles so that readers can verify their authenticity.
Make your posts more engaging by adding various forms of testimonials other than texts. A short interesting video somewhere in your post will be a delight to watch. Testimonials must add value to your post, otherwise, they’d be a waste of time.
3. Encourage your audience to share
Your high-quality content is underused if everyone who reads it, keeps it to their self. Social proof is about what other people are saying about your brand.
Online audiences don’t necessarily have to create original content about your brand to serve as social proof. Simply sharing an already published content cuts it.
Start with your own content. Your content might be great, but people aren’t under any obligations to share it. Research shows that call-to-action increases clicks by 371%. Simply asking people to share your content makes some of them to do so.
But is your content sharable?
It’d be unrealistic to ask people to share content that you wouldn’t share yourself if you were in their shoes. Every content you publish says a lot about your brand. If it’s below the mark, you are indirectly telling people that your brand is substandard. If you aren’t 100% confident in your content creation skills, outsource it to expert content marketers. They make your brand look like the authority you ought to be.
4. Team up with influencers
Social media influencers seat comfortably at the table of social proof. A Twitter and Annalect study found that 40% of online audiences purchased an item after they saw an Influencer using it. That’s a high revenue for simply bringing an influencer aboard your content marketing.
Influencer marketing may be lucrative, but to get the most of it, you have to do it right. First off, you must be able to identify influencers that are truly influential. Having a huge following online isn’t the benchmark. Secondly, you must be able to identify a niche-based influencer. Online audiences have high trust in influencers that specialize in a particular niche. Understandably, such people are expert by devoting their time and resources in a specific area.
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Conclusion
Online audiences have a knack for expressing themselves. They are going to talk anyway, so you might as well give them something good to say about your brand. For every good review posted, there are hundreds of eyes viewing it.
Featured Image Credit: Unsplash
