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A New Way to Think about Social Proof

February 1st, 2008 by Mike W. Read more about Creating Trust Online, Online Community

I was just reading one of the free ebooks from Jeff Walker's Product Launch Formula. It's about building and using social proof in your sales efforts.

This probably isn't new to most of you, but one idea stuck out.

What if you're new to the market or launching a new product and don't yet have testimonials (the most common way to show social proof)?

How do you show social proof then?

Instead of using testimonials, you must work to actually create that community around the product.

The key question, then, is what can you do to build a community from the ground up and make customers/leads feel a part of something bigger?

If you're launching something new, this must be molded into your strategy.

One statistic you might use is the number of people opted into your mailing list or signed up for a free trial so far, that day, per minute, etc.

Or, how many people in your market search for a common search-term in Google? Share it with the user in their confirmation email.

Create a peer group on the fly and leverage it to appeal to our natural desire to be a part of something.

The people buying your product or in your market are inherently in a community based around their desire for said product or market.

How can you magnify that sense of community and use it to your advantage?

Here's an example from an email recently sent out by Frank Kern

-----------------------------
PEOPLE ARE OFFICIALLY FREAKING OUT NOW
------------------------------------------------------------

In the past 20 days, 46,024 new people have
joined this waiting list for Mass Control.

And as you know, this is the second time I've taught the
class.

The first time I taught it was back in October and it was a "test run".

Only 50 people could attend ...and it sold out in
20 minutes.

Wanna know how big the waiting list for that one was?

------------------------------
ONLY 785 PEOPLE
------------------------------

There was no launch and no affiliates.

And I'm telling you this for two reasons:

1. It's even more PROOF that Mass Control works.
It's PROOF that you DON'T need a giant list for a huge payday.

At that time, the class cost $2,997 ...and there was no payment
plan. (It's only $1997 now *with* a payment plan.)

But it still sold out in 20 minutes.

That's almost $150,000.00 in 20 minutes ...from an interest list
of 785 people.

(I'm pretty sure just about anyone can generate an interest list
of 785 people.)

Frank Kern's exaggerating of course....

46 thousand people are not really "waiting in line" to buy the product. Those are subscribers. But it doesn't matter. The number he shares automatically establishes social proof in your eyes. Internet marketers use this tactic all the time and it works.

By the way...Mass Control Marketing is a great product. I highly recommend Frank's Free Videos and the course itself. We'll be purchasing when it launches tomorrow.

Previous Post on Frank Kern hereÂ

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About the Author

Mike W. Mike is an internet marketer at MindValley responsible for running marketing tests, designing product launches, and leading an eCommerce project.

Check out other posts by Mike W.

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5 Responses to “A New Way to Think about Social Proof”

  1. A New Way to Think about Social Proof - Affordable Website Marketing - Just another website promotion and online advertising weblog about seo and search engine marketing

    [...] Original post by Mike W. and posted by Alfred Moya [...]

  2. Social Proof Continued: When I say Social Proof, I don’t just mean "Testimonial"

    [...] Social Proof Continued: When I say Social Proof, I don’t just mean "Testimonial" February 14th, 2008 by Mike W. Read more about Copywriting, Creating Trust Online Following this thought on social proof, I’ve been pondering it further and came up with a micro guide that may just change the way you think about the topic. [...]

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