6 Creative Ways to Incorporate Social Proof in Your Emails

Including social proof in your emails is a great way to boost your credibility and engage your subscribers. Is there a right way to do it, though? There sure is – and Attrock founder and digital marketing expert Gaurav Sharma shows you how. In this article, he gives you creative ideas and examples so you can start using more social proof in emails, too.  

Do you know that more than 80% of customers look at ratings and reviews before making a purchase? That’s the influence of social proof. 

When you incorporate social proof in emails, you can supercharge your targeted email marketing campaigns like never before. 

While your email subscribers are genuinely interested in your product description, specs, images or videos and even the special deals you might be offering, what can really sway them the most to make a buying decision is social proof. 

How would you and I determine whether a skincare product or travel agency or restaurant is good or not? By looking at reviews or what real customers have to say about them. 

In other words, digital marketers can greatly influence their potential customers’ buying behavior when they incorporate social proof in emails and other marketing content. 

In this post, I’ll share a few actionable tactics to incorporate social proof in emails that have yielded great results for me. I strongly recommend them to my clients. 

Are you ready to learn some new hacks? 

Let’s get started. 

Related: How to use the AIDA model to write better emails

Why incorporate social proof in emails?

While curating elements of social proof may be time-consuming, it’s worth its weight in gold for marketers. Here are some of the top benefits you can leverage when you incorporate social proof in emails.

1. It builds credibility 

Every time you receive a positive review, five-star rating or a media mention, it is a vote of confidence. It is the proof of what you claim about your brand and products. 

When you incorporate social proof in emails, you get to showcase this trust vote to potential customers and stamp your credibility.

2. It humanizes your brand

Social proof humanizes your brand. When you drop names or showcase testimonies in your email, readers will be able to relate a lot better to your content than just to read promotional content. 

3. It nurtures leads 

Emails are one of the most powerful means to generate leads. When you incorporate social proof in emails, you make them all the more powerful. Photos, videos, case studies, awards and recognitions can all be used to build the trust of prospective customers in your brand.  

What’s more, you can automate the process using any of the lead generation tools listed in this Attrock post and receive quality leads consistently. 

4. It helps boost email CTR 

You can incorporate social proof in emails to boost your click-through-rate (CTR) by convincing people to take the desired action. 

The social proof could be about how many people took your subscription renewal offer or what people said about your free dentist consultation session. Including such data in your email can help you write compelling (calls-to-action) CTAs and move people to take action. 

For instance, in this email, HubSpot mentions the success story of G2 and invites readers to get all the details. Many of HubSpot’s potential clients are lured to click the CTA button to learn a few hacks.

5. It helps upsell and cross-sell

One of the biggest benefits of incorporating social proof in emails is that it can help you upsell and cross-sell. By highlighting what others are purchasing, or showcasing the “frequently bought products,” you can gain a psychological advantage over your customers nudging them to purchase those products too. 

6 expert-recommended tactics to incorporate social proof in emails

Now that we are aware of the benefits of using social proof in email content, you might be excited to know some smart ways to incorporate social proof in emails. 

Take note of these six expert-recommended tactics. 

1. Showcase reviews to boost authenticity 

Your happy customers and clients leave positive reviews in multiple places, be it on your Google Business Profile, review sites like TripAdvisor or social media channels. 

These positive reviews can strongly influence your potential customers. A positive review might be just the push a prospect needs to make a purchase. So make sure to harness this power to boost your email marketing results.

There are multiple ways you can incorporate social proof in emails like: 

• Showcase top reviews in welcome emails.
• Enhance the effectiveness of lead-nurturing emails with user-generated images and videos.
• Use testimonials to emphasize the quality of your product or services.
• Create a newsletter featuring reviews.

When you incorporate social proof in emails, you’re building trust. 

Here is HOTH using testimonial videos as a mark of authenticity in their email and inviting readers to check them out. 

2. Share numbers to quantify your popularity 

So, your product is very popular or you have a large number of subscribers for your services. How will you quantify this popularity? By using real numbers.

Real numbers have great power to convince people. 

These numbers can be:

• Number of subscribers and clients 
• Percentage of happy customers 
• Number of projects completed 
• Number of followers on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn 
• Revenue generated 

When you incorporate social proof in emails like this, you’re convincing potential customers to get on the bandwagon and be part of your community. 

This email by Loom is a good example. They not only talk about a prominent problem but also use numbers to present themselves as a suitable solution. This surely gives them a psychological advantage.

3. Put that endorsement in the limelight 

When people of significance speak positively about your brand or product, it’s one of the most powerful types of social proof. The endorsement can come from industry leaders, celebrities, sports personalities, critics or influencers. 

Related: Email pro Liz Willits shares her most lucrative email strategies

You can incorporate social proof in emails to persuade readers to choose your brand over your competitors. 

This tactic is extremely effective for clothing and accessory brands, healthcare and wellness products, skincare brands and so on. 

When you showcase the endorsement in an email, remember to mention the person’s name, designation and a screenshot of the message as well for authenticity. 

4. Leverage media mentions 

Got some good press? Then don’t hesitate to show it to the world. Media mentions are another type of endorsement that businesses can leverage to create impactful promotional and re-engagement emails. 

Media mentions are not limited to newspapers or television. This includes podcasts, popular blog sites, social media mentions, interviews and so on. 

You can add these mentions as a carousel in an email newsletter to grab the attention of your subscribers and build their confidence in you. 

5. Highlight your best-selling products 

One of the major goals of email marketing is product promotion. Sending a personalized email to potential buyers is far more effective than advertisements. And when you incorporate social proof into emails, the message becomes more convincing. 

Udemy shows us how it promotes its best courses using social proof. In this email, the company not only lists down the top courses but also shows their ratings – which will encourage readers to check them out. 

When you incorporate social proof in emails this way, your subscribers would also want to have what others are being benefited from. 

6. Show off your nominations and awards 

Have you been nominated or are you the winner of a prestigious award? It’s time to put it in the limelight. Emails are not the place to be humble or low. You can use the email space to boast about your achievements. 

As you would flash a Google reviews widget on your website, you can add logos or badges of the award in a prominent position in an email where your readers can see them. You can even go ahead and add a copy of the certificate for a greater impact. 

This idea to incorporate social proof in emails can be used by businesses across various industries to impress their potential customers. 

Bonus tip: use social proof to write more powerful email subject lines

Want to really highlight your success? Then find a smart way to incorporate social proof in the email subject line. 

The catchy subject line of this email from Coursera shares numbers in an impactful way and also makes the reader a part of their success story.

When you incorporate social proof in emails, you’re boosting human trust and moving them further down the sales funnel which may in turn result in more subscriptions and more sales.

Go ahead and apply these tactics to incorporate social proof in emails – and create a more impactful and result-oriented email marketing strategy. 

Author: Gaurav Sharma is the founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. He grew an agency from 5-figure to 7-figure revenue in just two years | 10X leads | 2.8X conversions |  300K organic monthly traffic. He also contributes to top publications like HuffPost, Adweek, Business 2 Community, TechCrunch and more.