Well, If She’s Working With Youu Then I Will Too!
5 Ways to Show Social Proof of Your Great Work

When your peeps are thinking about working with you or even purchasing a product or program, they like to see social proof of others who have had an experience with you. In general, we like to follow the crowd, and we feel more confident in our decisions if we see similar people or people we know who are using the product or have joined the program. I recently experienced this when a colleague was leading a workshop which she had invited me to attend. I wasn’t sure of my plans with my family that weekend so I put off the decision. She, with great humor and flair, kept sending me tweets about who was attending and that they wanted to see me in person! Then she had other attendees tweet me to say they wanted to see me there too! It really made me want to join in! Let me share 5 ways you can add social proof to your emails, sales pages, blogs, and website. It’s more than just a traditional testimonial; you can get really creative even if you don’t have a lot of fans for your program or even an actual product yet.

1. Love Notes I am sure you receive what I call “love notes.” Those inspiring words written in an email or glowing words of praise on a teleclass or client call. They aren’t quite a full-out testimonial, but are in the “I just love your work” range. Everything from “You made me laugh out loud,” “You really got me thinking,” “It was the perfect message I needed to hear,” “You are always so…authentic, funny, leading-edge, joyful, brilliant….” These notes don’t usually have a lot of results but are endorsements of your style, personality and your personal brand.
2. Raving Fan Testimonials This is when your clients share results they have achieved from working with you personally, being at a workshop or using your product. They can include external results: money they made, projects accomplished, weight they lost, etc. as well as internal results: everything is easier, “I feel so calm and grounded,” or “ I am much more on purpose. “You can include pictures, audio and video testimonials to give these testimonials more impact and credibility.
3. Preview Copies If you have a brand new product, you won’t have testimonials yet. What you can do is to share preview copies with your current clients, colleagues or successful experts in your field. You can even just share one chapter or a checklist and get early praise. I recently did this with the Business Goddess’s Guide to Creating Powerful Sales Pages. I shared the valuable 50-point checklists and download page with a few close colleagues and my platinum clients, and they gave me rave reviews. I then launched my product with a page full of real-life words of excitement and anticipation.
4. Colleague Endorsements When other successful colleagues talk about you in a flattering way, then you can ask them if you can use their words as an endorsement of your work. Recently a well-known colleague of mine raved about me on another teleclass she was on, and several people emailed me to let me know. I made sure she was good with me using their words as quotes. Of course she was! It was wonderful for me and highlighted her generous nature.
5. Tweets and other Social Media Love Someone will often post a comment on your wall on Facebook and tell you how much she enjoyed a product, book or a teleclass. Or you’ll get quickie words of praise on a Tweet. Linked-in is perfect for this as they really focus on quality testimonials. You can use these as endorsements on your website or sales pages!

There are so many ways to creatively acquire words of praise, endorsements and testimonials which will assure your potential clients and customers that you are an authentic expert in your area. For more ideas on ways to add social proof to your sales pages and emails, check out Business Goddess’s Guide to Creating Powerful Sales Pages at our website. It’s all about sharing the love and stepping into your Business Goddess self that knows she does amazing work. And she does. And so do you!

If you would like to use this article in your newsletter or blog please feel free to do as long as you include our credit information: Written by Laura Howard West, Center for Joyful Business, www.joyfulbusiness.com. I would also appreciate it if you'd send us a copy for our media files. ©Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.

Laura West is an award-winning online entrepreneur and president of The Center for Joyful Business.