Social proof marketing plays an enormously important role in helping to build trust and credibility around a business-to-business (B2B) brand, product, or service.
The rise of social media and the subsequent success of brands who rose to prominence on the back of business models that rely entirely on customer reviews has created an explosion in social proof online.
So noisy and pervasive is it that without social proof you might as well be invisible.
The concept takes its cue from psychological studies in the 1950s that showed the power of peer pressure on human behaviour.
Used in B2B marketing it delivers confidence, trust and reassurance to potential customers and clients, and has enormous potential impact.
Social proof marketing definition: Social proof marketing means using the power of external social proof from your market, your social community, and your customers to actively demonstrate the value and popularity of a product, solution or service within marketing communications and activities. It provides potential customers or clients with comfort and reassurance about products, solutions or services they are considering buying. It enables companies and brands to leverage the trust of others to show credibility, and build market momentum. Social proof comes in many forms, ranging from social signals to reviews, testimonials, and full customer case studies.
Why is social proof so powerful in B2B marketing
Many B2B businesses depend on gaining the confidence of senior executives to endorse purchases, as well as those elsewhere who may act as the principal researchers or buyers of new products, solutions or services.
As an audience, C-suite executives are arguably the most discerning. They are extremely busy and predisposed to distrust anything new and unproven.
B2B buyers have a different challenge. They are seeking new opportunities, or to validate opportunities presented to them, in an incredibly noisy world. They will have numerous choices available. Buyers are bombarded with information. Often what they need most is reassurance when making those choices. Social proof provides exactly that.
Arguably, this makes the burden of social proof in B2B marketing even greater than for consumer marketing.
The hierarchy of social proof marketing
There are four main types of social proof in B2B, and all of these are relevant and desirable.
It is not the case, though, that all are equally valuable.
The four types are:
- Social reach and engagement, in the form of follows, likes and social comments. You can build large numbers here, and they provide a great baseline indicating that the brand is resonating with the market. They say you are liked, noticed, and interesting.
- Product and service reviews. These range from star rating assessments and endorsements from the marketplace to expert reviews and opinions such as media reviewers, who like to feel they are independent. There are likely to be fewer of these. Assuming they are positive or highly star rated, they tell the world that your product or service offer is valid, useful, and effective.
- Testimonials. Most B2B companies aim to gather a cluster of these direct and verbatim comments from customers. They are typically quite short but deliver useful endorsements. These begin to tell the market that you’re good to do business with – as well as that the product or service did not disappoint.
- Case studies. Although ranging in depth and type, these aim to tell fuller stories of implementation, usage and benefits. The most powerful dive into the real customer experience, and provide a direct, in-depth account of the relationship. These are the scarcest, and the most powerful of the four types. They truly start to show why companies should choose you and your offer.
Why are these unequal?
Looking at these as a hierarchy, at the lowest level are mass market affirmations. At the top are unique, valuable insights directly from customers, which carry real business weight.
Just a few outputs in the customer’s own words can wield more influence than all the other levels put together.
Let’s dive into each one in a little more depth.
Social reach and engagement
Likes or comments show your published content has resonated with certain people. They are easy to measure and look great on a general marketing impact report.
They are a great measure of your visibility to your audience, and success breeds success, because the more you look to have momentum the more new people will join.
Your social content must still be engaging, especially if you hope to attract the attention of very senior executives.
LinkedIn’s research reports a significant increase in C-suite professionals using the platform, with a 35% rise in the US and 30% in the UK over the past five years.
They are themselves highly attractive publishers – so smart brands will encourage their own leaders to get involved in spreading company messages.
Posts from CEOs receive four times more engagement than those from average LinkedIn users, and executives often experience a 39% surge in followers after posting.
However, social platform likes or follows on their own are not enough. This is because the reasons for engagement – was it the message, product, or person? – are often unexplained.
They are also a relatively passive interaction. Someone may “like” a post without trusting or buying into the product or brand. “Likes” can also be bought or gamified far too easily.
Your social reach can form part of your marketing communication, such as citing figures on your home page to reinforce your credibility, but is limited in active application.
It is also quite easy for savvy B2B buyer audiences to dismiss them as unreliable or meaningless. They don’t help them to make the case for a purchase, nor give them significant reassurance for a complex purchase.
Product and service reviews
The next form of social proof comes from product or service reviews. Social proof in this category tends to come from star ratings, but can also come from other reviewer sources, such as media outlets. Each of these has a different influence depending on where the buyer has reached in their journey.
Star ratings and reviews will often come from your Google reviews or Trustpilot ratings. They are also awarded by software review platforms, marketplace or App Store ratings and industry-specific directories or networks.
Small business buyers will often place great faith in Google and Trustpilot star ratings and comments regardless of the volume of them.
Company buyers often use software review platforms for vendor comparisons and making shortlists. A high rating with detailed reviews builds buyer confidence early on and can be especially influential for SaaS or digital tools.
Buyers wanting to evaluate a plug-in or partner solution effectiveness within a tech stack may turn to marketplace or App Store ratings since these are more likely to contain some technical commentary. Their relative influence may be moderate to high depending on the depth of integration or compatibility.
For services like consulting, design or marketing there are many industry specific directories or networks. These can provide ratings according to criteria such as project success, client feedback and industry recognition. They are moderately influential, especially for boutique or specialist firms.
Customer testimonials
Customer testimonials are valuable endorsements that carry more weight than simple reviews and ratings.
They range from a single sentence quotation to multi-paragraph direct quotes from a customer. Ideally, these are publicly attributed to a genuine customer, with their agreement.
Many companies also use unattributed testimonial quotes but these carry far less weight and can be used less powerfully in marketing activities.
Endorsements in the form of testimonials do provide human insight into the customer’s experience. They are a powerful tool for marketers wanting to show that real people are purchasing and benefiting from your product or service. They add a valuable emotional dimension to the process of building brand trust.
In B2B marketing you will find a testimonial section on many home and other pages of the website. Then you will find them featured in sales decks and on sales collateral, and used in social media posts.
Testimonials have many limitations though. Isolated quotes lack context and often explain very little about how a product or solution has been used. They can come across as highly selective and lacking in balance. Testimonials rarely include useful datapoints.
Relying on customer quotes and testimonials alone can feel repetitive, and they can age if not carefully crafted. Permission to use the entire quote can be withdrawn after a former spokesperson leaves.
Even if this does not happen, aged testimonials from people no longer with a company that remain in use many months (or years) later will start to look very tired…
Case studies
The most powerful social proof marketing comes when you have social proof that you can leverage and lean on many times, across multiple channels.
Case studies have the richness and depth for that. They tell a relatable story: what problem was solved, how it was solved, the outcome and the experience the customer had in the process.
Research backs up the power of storytelling with 53% of marketers saying case studies/customer stories and videos deliver some of their best results.
Customer case studies help you show your prospects what makes you different.
They often take the form of long-form editorial stories, based on interviews with your customers, telling your story in their voice. Video case studies can also tell the story, albeit in less depth. In ideal circumstances, companies will use both formats for maximum social proof marketing power.
Case studies are a more persuasive and compelling way to communicate your messages and value than through sales materials.
They are very easy to do badly.
Maximising your case studies
To harness their power to the maximum, case studies must be rich and contain lots of story elements including quotes, datapoints, and narrative detail. All too often brands will do a short written or video case study that simply sits on the website delivering little value.
By contrast, a long, rich and detailed editorial story can be turned into multiple marketing assets in document, video and audio formats, generating tons of social posts or other lead gen opportunities.
There are well over 60 uses for a single case study, when you start in the right place.
Buyers value case studies to validate their choices and sell those choices to senior executives when needed. They can answer common questions and quell common concerns. Or reveal additional benefits that come with making a particular decision.
Above all, they help create affinity. When a prospect sees or reads how you have tackled a similar problem to theirs, it increasestheir trust. When they see you have worked with a company in their market, they know you understand their context. If it’s clear you understand the issues that they feel are unique to their job role, they feel greater personal confidence.
Companies that create and use customer case studies to the maximum can see higher quality inbound leads, an increase in demo requests and better conversion rates as a direct outcome.
Social proof marketing works
Businesses operate in a highly competitive world, and social proof marketing not only helps you make an impression but stand out from competitors.
Not all social proof is equal. Smart organisations will consider a social proof marketing strategy that encompasses multiple types of proof. They will build their social proof stack and put them actively to work across their marketing activities.
Seeking and securing a strong social base matters in today’s world. Encouraging and sharing reviews and ratings with the market can be a valuable or even essential part of your marketing. Securing customer testimonials goes a step further, to show that you are building real customer relationship momentum.
At the pinnacle, gaining even just a few true, full story case studies demonstrates that calibre of customer relationships that you build. They capture the business value you deliver through your products or services.
To paraphrase a well-worn epithet: The customer’s story is king.
Discover the social proof power of customer case studies. Explore our Case Study Studio portfolio to see what we’ve done.
