Is social proof really worthy of all the hype? As intricate and ongoing as your SEO may be, a successful social media marketing strategy just may be an extremely close second. The general rule of thumb tends to be that if a customer has had a great experience with you they will tell 2-4 people about it. But if they thought they had a less than stellar experience, they will blab to 7-10 people. In some recently compiled data published by Trustpulse, it demonstrates just how critical social proof is to the future of your bottom line:
- 83% of people trust reviews over advertising.
- 90% of users need less than 10 reviews to form an opinion about a business.
- Users browsing on mobile are 127% more likely to make a purchase decision than those browsing on a desktop.
- More than half of consumers won’t use a business if it has less than a 4-star rating.
- 82% of users specifically seek out negative customer reviews.
- The average consumer reads 10 customer reviews before making a purchase decision.
- After reading a review, 50% of consumers will visit the companies website.
- 82% of Americans say they seek recommendations from friends and family before making a purchase.
- 94% of online shoppers reported that a negative review has convinced them to avoid visiting a business.
- Buyers require an average of 40 online reviews before believing a business’s star rating is accurate.
- 83% of users think reviews older than 3 months aren’t relevant anymore.
- 73% of people prefer to see written reviews over star ratings.
- 97% of consumers look at reviews before purchasing.
- Testimonials can increase conversion rates on sales pages by 34%
- 50% of consumers’ next step after reading a good review is to visit the brand’s website.
- A single good review can increase conversions by a whopping 10%!
- Online product reviews about a specific product can increase conversion rates by 270%.
- Customers would spend 31% more on a business with good reviews.
- Having at least 5 reviews causes purchase likelihood to increase by a factor of nearly 4X.
- Higher priced items need at least 5 reviews to see maximum conversion impact.
- Lower-priced items only need 2-4 reviews to see a noticeable impact.
- Purchase likelihood increases by 15% when reviews are written by a verified customer than a random person.
- 34% of consumers use social platforms to receive promotional offer.
- 38. 59% of users use social media as buying inspiration.
- 76% of US citizens have purchased a product they’ve seen in a brand’s social media post.
-Written by Kevin Sawyer
