Have you ever wondered why old sitcoms have canned laughter or laugh tracks? If you watch an old rerun of Seinfield you’ll know what I mean, someone makes a joke and you hear that ‘laughter’ in the background. Funny thing is, if you ask what most people think about this they’ll say it is dumb, fake, and useless. So why did these top TV executives do it?
It is human tendency to see an action as more appropriate or acceptable when they see others doing it
The idea of this herd behavior or social proof is very powerful and is often used in business and marketing. ‘Social proofing’ your campaigns can give the end user that little extra push to take action, hit the buy button, or fill out a form. It is very simple to incorporate this into your affiliate campaigns, and there are 2 primary ways of doing this: testimonials and taglines or sub headings.
Testimonials
Most people would agree, sprinkling your landing page with testimonials can only help your conversions. The idea of social proof is when someone is in a situation not knowing what to do, they look to others for guidance. Seeing and reading other people using the product and taking action makes them more comfortable.
Taglines and Sub Headings
Taglines are a great way to social proof your landing page. There have been many studies done that people really do read taglines and sub headings. The best places to put them are directly under your main heading or just under your call to action button or hero shot/main image. People will read them.
Here are some samples that I’m sure you have seen before on other people’s landers:
- Join 5,267 other members …
- Over 100,000 sold …
- Amaze your friends …
- Over 1 million downloads
- etc …
Don’t think this works? Take a look at the tagline below:
Another Superb post. Thanks Dave.
I always use tag lines. But testimonials I’ve never used because I just felt I was lying to my visitors. But the more AM we do, the more I realize, it’s all marketing gimmicks.
-G