How to Create Persuasive Videos by Using ‘Social Proof’

Have you ever gone by a restaurant that seems to always have a line outside? If you’re anything like most people, you probably couldn’t help thinking “This must be a good place if so many people are standing in line to eat there!”
Well, you just became a textbook example of ‘social proof’. Social proof is a psychological mechanism we all respond to. It means that people are much more likely to take an action if they see someone like them doing the same thing.

So how do you use that principle to grow your business? By creating video that invokes this mechanism.
In Robert Cialdini’s classic marketing book Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion one of the most striking examples shows what a powerful persuader video can be – simply by using ‘social proof’.
In the book researchers chose preschoolers that were afraid of dogs. They showed them, from a distance, another preschooler playing happily with a dog. After only 4 days of seeing another child play with a dog for 20 minutes, two-thirds of the kids had lost their fear of dogs. So the researchers tried the same experiment  - this time merely showing a video. The astounding result: just showing video cured the same percentage of kids of their fears!

So how does this translate to you business? You can convince prospects by showing them ‘social proof’ on video if you follow these short steps:
1.    Know Your Audience
Your aim is to show your target customers that many people just like them use your product or service. You can’t do that successfully if you don’t know who’s your target demographic (or psychographic). Are your customers horse lovers? Babyboomers? Tweens? Technology early adopters? Probably you don’t just serve one single type of customer so create 2-3 segments that are most important to your bottom line.
2.    Show Others Doing It
Once you know whom you’re targeting, find the best and most enthusiastic customers in that segment. You work hard and there are many customers that love to help spreading the word when they were treated right. Ask those customers to share their experience with your audience. All you need to do is send them an easy-to-use camera to record what your product or service has done for them. Have them answer just 2 to 3 questions like “What did you like about using XYZ service/product?”, “How has using XYZ impacted your life or your business?”, “Would you recommend XYZ  to your friends or colleagues?”
3.    Share the Proof
Once you’ve collected 2 or 3 of these video ‘testimonials’ make sure you share the videos with your prospects. Don’t be shy – post the videos on your website, YouTube, on Facebook, tweet about them, link to them at the bottom of all of your emails and include them in newsletters. If you’re lucky you will enhance your social proof by getting comments from customers that reinforce those testimonials.
4.    Tag Them
On social media sites, be sure to tag the videos correctly with your company name, target keywords and the word ‘review’. People evaluating your business via online search will often check to see what others have said about your business before starting an inquiry or buying from you.
5.    Make It A Habit
Keep these videos fresh and keep them coming – at least every quarter, you should send out cameras again. Nothing screams ‘social proof’ like a huge collection of testimonials.

Have testimonial videos been helpful in your business? Have more tips on creating them? Please share insights with us below.
 

P.S. - Thank you to Geoff Mamlet of the Cambridge Innovation Center for sending me Influence as a gift. It was a great read!

Posted by Bettina Hein
Tuesday, 07 September 2010