Social Proof Loops: How The Top Creators Get Social Proof To Drive More Sales!

Social Proof can be the difference maker that completely changes the outcome of whether or not you convert on sales.

And although it might be a recap for some of us, I want to start by quickly discussing what social proof is, and why it is so important to begin building.

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that happens when people look to the actions and behaviors of others to guide their own behavior in a specific situation.

In other words, individuals are influenced by the actions, choices, and opinions of others, especially when they are uncertain about how to behave in a given context.

This is also one of Robert Cialdini's 7 Principles of Influence (which is where Social Proof became popular), from his book Influence (which is a must-read, by the way).

Think back to the case study on The Psychology Of Amazon and you know just how prominent social proof can be when nudging towards a sale.

But what about for content creators?

Here's what is likely the case:

• We know it's extremely powerful.
• We see it used on top creators landing pages.
• But we're unsure how to collect it for when it matters...

So in this case study, instead of showing you how powerful social proof is (you already know how powerful it is!), I'm going to be showing you how top creators create social proof loops to actively collect more social proof and increase the power of future conversions.

Justin Welsh: The Overdeliver Social Proof Loop

To get us started I want to discuss one of my favorite Social Proof Loops used by Justin Welsh because we have already discussed him a couple times in our case studies, and some of you may be familiar with this one.

I touched on it a little in our Justin Welsh Psychology of Pricing case study, but I want to go into a little more depth here so I can really show you how you can make it work for yourself as well.

It may even change your whole outlook on pricing!

To start, let me just get something out of the way:

• Justin Welsh is the king of social proof when it comes to creators.
• It can feel like you're scrolling endlessly through 5 star reviews when you're on his landing pages.

And all he does is ask for it...

BUT, there's something that comes before the ask that makes it so powerful: overdelivery.

Here's how it works:

1. Justin prices lower than competition, while overdelivering on his products (which he could easily charge double or more for).
2. Justin waits until he's done overdelivering to politely ask (at the very end of his course) if we have a minute or two to leave a testimonial/review.

The Social Proof Loop (and Psychology):

1. Pricing/Overdelivery: Justin specifically chose to frame his prices lower than competition. He says "My theory has always been that by coming in at a lower cost with a higher-value offering, I could capitalize on word-of-mouth referral marketing. And this has worked out pretty well for me so far."
2. Reciprocity: The law of reciprocity is a social psychology principle that states that people have a tendency to respond to a positive action with another positive action. So by Justin overdelivering, it makes it seem only natural for us to take just a minute or two to share a testimonial.
3. Social Proof: This loops right back to him collecting more social proof and in turn making more sales that lead right back in the full Social Proof Loop.

So what can we learn from this? 

We can consider coming in a bit lower on our courses and aiming to overdeliver in order to create our own social proof loop that leads to more sales and word of mouth marketing.

Katelyn Bourgoin: The Shoutout Social Proof Loop

People love to look smart, cool, good, etc...

So Katelyn Bourgoin found a genius way of getting people to share more testimonials .. while she also shares more social proof for herself!

Katelyn started by sharing some social proof she got about her newsletter that was super witty and fun, and because it was shared to her 50-100K+ followers, that person felt pretty awesome, and made other people want to feel...awesome.

So people began sharing fun testimonials in the comment sections not only because Katelyn's newsletter is such a great resource, but because they wanted to see if they could get a shoutout as well!

The Social Proof Loop:

1. Katelyn shares social proof to her followers, in turn making more people want to subscribe (because of the social proof), and also want to leave more testimonials!
2. People leave more testimonials/social proof after reading the newsletter because they want a chance at being featured.
3. Katelyn shares more of that social proof she is collecting and restarts the loop.

It's brilliant, and it's easy to implement.

William Choi: The Freebie Social Proof Loop

Another brilliant feedback loop is one that William Choi uses in conjunction with his lead magnet (and foot in the door technique).

He actually has multiple layers to it, so I'll be breaking it down piece by piece.

1. William offers a freebie called The LinkedIn Leverage, which he uses scarcity to hook you by saying it's FREE right now, but will eventually launch at $149.
2. William then overdelivers by sharing a nearly 2 hour video going through every aspect of LinkedIn branding you could imagine.
3. William asks for a testimonial, which we feel is an obvious yes because he overdelivered (and law of reciprocity), but even throws in an incentive, saying we can get $100 off the launch of his program.

So William is not only creating an endless loop for social proof, but he's also setting himself up for an incredible launch at the same exact time (and using it as a bonus incentive within the loop!)

Here's William's Social Proof Loop broken down a bit more simply:

1. Overdelivers on Freebie/Lead Magnet.
2. Creates Reciprocity and even Incentivizes Social Proof with Discount.
3. Gets more people to join the newsletter for the freebie with the social proof.

This is another super simple loop, but one that is extremely effective.

As you can tell: overdelivering on value and building on reciprocity really helps to drive social proof.

Katelyn Bourgoin: The Incentivized PAID Social Proof Loop

Yes, Katelyn is getting two portions of this case study...for good reason!

Katelyn teaches "Why We Buy" (that's also the name of her newsletter), so there's good reason why she implements these loops to drive social proof.

She, of all people, knows the true power and effectiveness of them!

For this one I'm going to be showing you how she uses an incentivized social proof loop on her paid products.

It's a bit similar to Justin Welsh, as she does overdeliver on the product, but she adds an extra layer that really makes this one crush it.

Here's some quick background:

• Katelyn recently rolled out a new product called Wallet Opening Words (which I bought, and it's amazing, by the way). 
• When you join and go through, though, instead of simply asking for the testimonial at the end like Justin Welsh, she tells us that we can actually get FREE access to Wallet-Closing Words, which is going to be the next product.
• So because she overdelivers with Wallet-Opening Words, builds on reciprocity, and makes it clear her products are awesome...OF COURSE we want the next product...and it's FREE!

But let's take a look at it as a loop.

Katelyn's Paid/Incentive Social Proof Loop:

1. Katelyn overdelivers on her product.
2. Katelyn builds reciprocity by overdelivering.
3. Katelyn asks for a testimonial and even offers a free bonus product in exchange for it (which we now know will be amazing).
4. Katelyn shares the testimonials and creates another loop within a loop (highlighted in the bonus below).
5. Katelyn sells more products because of her social proof. 

Bonus: As you can see from the images I shared, Katelyn also uses the technique she uses for her free social proof loop by sharing the testimonials for the product right on social as if they're also a shoutout to the people who shared them.

Take Action Now: Don't Forget To Collect!

Social Proof Loop or not, my last message to you is to begin collecting NOW.

When I was building Superhero Jacked I didn't actively screenshot and collect testimonials right away, and then time went by and I had no idea where to go back and get the ones I missed out on.

Testimonials are right there in your comment section, your email replies and even your WhatsApp messages.

Screenshot, collect, and you can share later.

Over time you can use these to empower your own social proof loops that will lead to high conversions and more sales!

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