The Social Proof Flywheel

Read time: 3 minutes

Welcome To The Clever Letter!

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Our last email explained how to write the perfect connection request to get leads and connections.

Have you had a chance to apply those lessons?

Let's jump into today's topic...

It's unique.

A while back, at Cleverly, we had a big problem.

As you probably know, we offer a super low-cost LinkedIn lead generation service…

When we first started, it was a great way to get new customers and convert them into leads.

However, as we grew, the competition started copying our website so they could put their spin on our offer.

Competition was increasing, and ad costs were going up.

We needed to get ahead.

Lowering prices wasn't an option because we already offer a very affordable price.

That's when we turned to... social proof.

We realized that we needed to focus on building trust with our audience.

If we could prove to people that we could drive results and consistently deliver, there was no way other newcomers could compete with us.

However, collecting social proof is a lot of work for both sides.

To overcome this, we came up with the Social Proof Flywheel system.

It's helped us get over 750+ reviews on Trustpilot, making us one of the world's top 10 B2B agencies.

How does it work?

We made it insanely easy for our clients to write testimonials and automated the collection & presentation of their reviews. Let's break it down:

1. Made it easy for clients to write good testimonials

We did three things for our clients to reduce the burden of sharing social proof.

First, we gave appropriate reminders.

Instead of bombarding clients with email reminders or follow-up messages during meetings, we would give them gentle reminders.

As soon as we got results, we would ask for a review.

Second, we provided templates and structures.

Staring at a blank text box can be daunting for anyone.

So we gave made prompts & templates to make it easier for clients to write their reviews.

Here is an example of a testimonial prompt we often give our clients:

• Introduce yourself and what your business does for customers.

• Talk about your major problem or challenge before you started working with us.

• Describe how we helped you solve the problem/achieve your goal.

• End with a strong statement about the value they received from working with us and how others can gain value from working with us too!

It's simple, concise, and convenient.

2. Automated collection

We signed up for three apps that helped us to automate our side of things. These three apps also allowed customers to give different types of reviews depending on what they thought was appropriate.

We shared links to these three platforms along with the prompts or templates in each reminder.

The three apps we used to automate testimonial collection were:

• Trustpilot:

  • Star-review system

  • Short text response

  • Quickest option for customers looking to leave a review

• Clutch (.co):

  • Star-review system

  • Project and feedback breakdown

  • Searchable directory of companies

  • Options for customers who wanted to leave longer, more detailed reviews

• Testimonial (.to):

  • Social media reviews

  • Video reviews

  • Text reviews

  • Gave our customers the most flexibility when it came to reviews

With these systems in place, it was just about consistency:

• Sending timely reminders

• Sharing links to platforms

• Ensuring new testimonials went live on our website

This powerful system helped us overcome our rising cost per customer and out-compete our new competition.

Over the last couple of years, some of our competitors have vanished, and we're super grateful that you've continued to invest in us.

Never underestimate the power of social proof.

It WILL make you the no-brainer option.

Use this system to your advantage.

Signing off for now.

See you guys in the next issue!

Whenever you are ready, there are 3 ways we can help you:

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