Imagine this: You’re scrolling through your inbox, bombarded with emails trying to sell you something.

Most get ignored. But then - bam! - one grabs your attention.

It feels different. It feels trustworthy. Why?

Because it leverages social proof in a way that doesn’t feel slimy or desperate.

Social proof is the secret sauce that makes people trust you, believe in your offer, and, most importantly, buy from you. And if you’re only using testimonials in your email marketing, you’re leaving massive money on the table.

So, let’s dive into the seven types of social proof that will make your emails more persuasive and increase your conversions - without feeling pushy.

Useful Episode Resources

FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketing

If you want to write better emails, come up with better content, and move your readers to click and buy, here's how. We put together this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here. 

Join our FREE Facebook group

If you want to chat about how you can maximise the value of your email list and make more money from every subscriber, we can help! We know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.

Try ResponseSuite for $1

This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.

Join The Email Hero Blueprint

Want more? Let's say you're a course creator, membership site owner, coach, author, or expert and want to learn about the ethical psychology-based email marketing that turns 60-80% more of your newsletter subscribers into customers (within 60 days). If that's you, then The Email Hero Blueprint is for you.

This is hands down the most predictable, plug-and-play way to double your earnings per email subscriber. It allows you to generate a consistent sales flow without launching another product, service, or offer. Best news yet? You won't have to rely on copywriting, slimy persuasion, NLP, or ‘better' subject lines.

Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcast

Thanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode (all about the psychology of marketing and the 9 things we use in all our email campaigns) and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review of the show on your favourite podcast player.

Not only does it let us know you're out there listening, but your feedback helps us to keep creating the most useful episodes so more awesome people like you can discover the podcast. 

And please do tell us! If you don't spend time on email marketing, what do you really fill your working days with? We'd love to know! 

00:01.43

Kennedy Kennedy

You're collecting it, but how do you actually use social proof in your email marketing? And what are the seven different types of social proof so you don't feel like you're doing the same thing over and over again? That's what we're gonna have a chat about in today's episode.

00:42.65

Kennedy Kennedy

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to the show, Happy Email Marketing, Wednesday. Kennedy here with you as ever. We're going to get stuck into this this big thing of like social proof. Look, we're all told over and over and over again, like, hey, you're supposed to use social proof. You're supposed to use social proof. Do it over and over again. Put some testimonies in your emails. But how do you actually do it in a way that's not gross, that's not sticky, doesn't stink? That's what I'm going to talk about. I'm also going to share with you seven different types of social proof when I think most people just default to one, like they put testimonials in. And some people might go wild and do case studies. There's seven different different types of social proof. And they all do different things. Each of them resonates with a different type of person. And they all achieve very different outcomes. We'll get into the absolute details of all of that during today's episode. Before we get into that, I do want to extend an invitation to you to come and join my free Facebook community group.

01:40.50

Kennedy Kennedy

It's called the Email Marketing Show Community. If you literally go over to Facebook and search for the Email Marketing Show Community, it'll pop up, request to join, and that's where you can come hang out. There's some training videos in there that I've put in there just for members of that group. It's completely free. You've got the option of joining my email list to get my free daily tips and email inspiration right to your email inbox. It's a bloody good time. ah Lots of people. um Sharing their wins, sharing their questions, getting stuck in, and just having a really, really good time. So if you're a coach or an online expert, a course creator, a membership as I own them, you're going to feel really at home there. So yeah, I hope you'll join us in the email marketing show community. Into today's episode then, social proof. We know on a landing page, on a sales page, you've got to put all these testimonials, you've got to do all that sort of stuff. But what are the different types of social proof? And also, how do you actually use it?

02:36.65

Kennedy Kennedy

but So in order to get into how we actually use social proof, we're going to go through seven different types of social proof first, and then we're going to talk about how each of those gets used. So, um yes, let's get through the the sort of obvious ones first, right? So testimonials, they're a pretty obvious type of social proof. Now, the reason testimonials work so well is because they say some people have used this program before and some people have liked it before. okay And it sort of says, hey, I'm not going to be the first person to be to be doing this course. Nobody really wants to go first. right People go, is it tried and tested? like

03:19.18

Kennedy Kennedy

Because the biggest objection any of us have to buy anything is yeah But will it work for me like even I remember I was buying a new a new computer And I was like it was a new back MacBook I was like I travel quite a bit and will this new way to do the batteries and only change all their batteries and stuff will it be okay when I like plug it in when I'm like work on a cruise ship or when I'm um When I'm traveling to the stage or traveling throughout Europe is it gonna be okay with the voltage and wattage because frankly I don't know a single thing about about voltage and wattage like I don't know what's a good and and what's a bad and what's going to break things. So again, I'm like, will this work for me before spending two grand? But I'm also going to be like, hey, will this work for me before I even buy a $7 mini course or ebook or whatever. ah We all want to know will this work for me? And it's not just because we're worried about losing the money.

04:09.80

Kennedy Kennedy

It's because we are resistant against being disappointed because we've all been disappointed before. We don't want to feel that emotion again. In fact, if you want to talk about, if you want to hear more about these ideas of of of what I call memory craving or or emotion craving, go back and listen to last week's episode where I talked about memory craving. And that's the negative side of memory craving. It's like when people go, oh, I don't want to feel like that again.

04:35.39

Kennedy Kennedy

Last week we talked about how to actually evoke that in a positive way to make more sales. If you're not listening to that one, definitely worth going back to. But in terms of like testimonials themselves, we want people to say, hey, I've gone first, you are not going to be disappointed. This thing exists, it's around, and it's good. A great way of using that in in in your emails is to say, hey, I've just heard from this person, here's what they said.

05:00.86

Kennedy Kennedy

Okay? And then what I like to do in those testimonials, testimonial emails is, and here's an advanced technique, is I pull out one of the elements that that person talks about in their testimonial, um and I make the email about that one thing.

05:16.98

Kennedy Kennedy

I'm obsessed with this idea of one thing for folks, right? Obsessed with it. So if the person in the testimonial mentioned the speed that it was for them to get results. So that's got a testimonial for our email hero blueprint. And so someone was like, oh my God, I couldn't believe it. Like within the first seven days I got X result. And it was like, and I don't know, I made five grand. yeah know I'm just making something up, right? As an example, I don't have an example to hand, but five I made five grand in the first seven days. It was amazing.

05:41.45

Kennedy Kennedy

If that's what testimonial says, I'm then gonna be like, hey, you know, um a lot of people, I'm gonna basically make the whole email about how it doesn't mean, just because you do email marketing doesn't mean it has to take a long time to get results. Some people get results really, really quickly. That's what the email's gonna be about. So don't just slap a testimonial and be like, hey, this course is awesome. Here's what Maggie said and she's a genius and she's beautiful. So you should listen to her and here's her words. No.

06:09.53

Kennedy Kennedy

gave Give a lesson, give something of value in that email, even when there's a testimonial. I'm gonna say it again, cause it's really, really important. Even when you're giving a testimonial in your emails, make it valuable. Make it so they have a lesson from it. And the lesson should not be, oh, your course is fucking great.

06:31.47

Kennedy Kennedy

Right? The lesson could be, oh, I always used to think that email marketing took a long time. And now my lesson is it doesn't need to. Even if I don't buy the damn course, I now have inspiration. I now have a new thought, which is results of the thing you you talk about, you sell, can be quick. So pull out a learning point from the testimonial to make the email more valuable. That will and add up more value in the email. It will be more effective. It will be effective because you've got the testimonial in there.

07:04.56

Kennedy Kennedy

It'll be effective because they're getting value from it. It's not just you saying, hey, buy my thing because Maggie here said it was great. And thirdly, it's got a better chance, not guaranteed, of depending on how depending on how much of this you do, it's got a better chance of not going at the promotions folder if you make it more of a value led email.

07:24.41

Kennedy Kennedy

the more value there is in an email, by the way, and the less ASCII selliness, the less, then you're gonna get into the, and the primary tab, not into the promotions tab, right? So testimonials, that's number one, and a bit about how to use them. Awesome source. I tend to use them like sort of towards like the the the sort of, um the final third of a campaign is the best way of describing it. So it's not exactly in the middle, it's just after the middle part of the campaign. Usually in the middle of a campaign, I'll be doing something more to do with adding something extra in. I like a bonus or something like that, but we'll not go there.

07:57.67

Kennedy Kennedy

All right, so that's testimonials. Case study, similar kind of thing. All right. Case study is another one that a lot of people talk about. And that is basically telling a story. Some people say to me, oh, I haven't got any testimonials on my program. um Because one, I never thought about collecting them. And my program, like as it is, is kind of new in this structure. I'm like, tell a story. Stories are hyper-engaging anyway. We all already know that.

08:21.71

Kennedy Kennedy

Stories are hugely engaging and emotionally interesting to people. So tell a story. And when you tell that story, Be careful. Be careful that you don't degrade the person who you're telling the story about. I see this a lot and it's a shame because it really damages the impact of the case study. What a lot of people will do when they give a case study is they will say, this person was a proper loser and they were ugly and no one liked him and they had no friends. And then they got my thing and they were fantastic and they were popular and they were beautiful.

08:55.69

Kennedy Kennedy

Well, that sounds like nobody wants to identify with the before picture. When you tell a case study and when you show that before picture, your audience has to identify with the before picture. So never degrade, never downgrade and talk down to and spit on, right? Which is how it feels, right? You read that like, oh oh my God, you're really painting that person poorly. Don't do that. Big the person up instead.

09:24.83

Kennedy Kennedy

and basically show the people the audience a picture of the before person, the before picture in their mind, of course you're you're writing this in words, I'll say picture, right I'm not sure about talking about a physical picture, but tell the story and build the picture in their mind of the person they believe they are. and For example, everyone likes to feel like they are a person who knows their own mind, who who tries and works really, really hard,

09:51.95

Kennedy Kennedy

Everyone's like, no one's going to disagree with that. That's a thing that fraudulent psychics used to say a lot um when they were doing like fake tarot readings. I did a TV show for the BBC years and years and years ago now where I exposed that kind of thing using these kind of what are called Barnum statements, statements that no one's going to disagree with. So and that's just two of them. So I want you to use them.

10:13.45

Kennedy Kennedy

Right? So hey, here's um I want you to I want to tell you a story about Chris. Now, Chris is a really smart, passionate business owner. No one's gonna disagree with that. That's the before picture. Build up the before picture. Unfortunately, Chris just couldn't make this email marketing thing work. That's me. I'm a smart, passionate business owner. No one's gonna disagree with that. Whereas I'm like, ah, Chris was a loser. He looked like shit.

10:41.59

Kennedy Kennedy

but we picked him up off the floor and hosed him down so he wasn't covered in shit anymore and then nobody identifies. So when you're telling a case study, make sure, this is a big transformation for a lot of people, make sure your audience will identify and agree that they are just like the before picture of the person in the case study, or the testimonial.

11:05.97

Kennedy Kennedy

and then that they aspire to also have the results of the person and the after picture that you're telling about in the case study. So again, that's how you do it. All right. You're telling a story. Awesome. So let's get into these other, uh, how many are there? There's going to be five extra, uh, types of social proof. So another really powerful one that I really like to show cause social proof is like external proof that this thing is good. It's like external validation of like all these other people saying this thing is good. So a really powerful one is to show the number of people who are interested.

11:45.60

Kennedy Kennedy

So hey, we're going to be opening the program very, very soon. We've we've had we've got this wait list. We've got 3,226 people interested in the program. Holy shit, I'm not on that list. And it sounds like people are really interested in it.

12:04.15

Kennedy Kennedy

Okay, you might have seen those videos online, those sales videos, where it's like there are 225 people watching this right now. um I know when I book theater tickets, go to the theater, it's like 12 people are currently have this in their cart. 16 people are currently viewing this page. It is showing that other people are interested. That is social external proof.

12:28.74

Kennedy Kennedy

And we can do that in multiple ways. We can show how many people are on the wait list. We can show how many visits we've had to a sales page. Hey, we've already had 612 people look at, ah check out the preview page. Oh my God, that's great. So that is a number of people. And the more specific that number of people it is, the better. Of course, make sure you put things in place to make sure that number is always true.

12:51.62

Kennedy Kennedy

Next piece, so number ah number four, ah social proof type number four is the number, another number of past customers you have served. How many people have you helped? So in a lot of my copy, before i'm as I'm writing it, I'll quickly have a look at our Stripe account and just grab the number. So um right now, the last time I checked, which was I think admittedly like 10 days ago, I was writing some copy for something or an email or something, and it was 7,800 people, I believe. 7,800 people, I have helped to improve their email marketing. When you hear that, what do you think? You think, oh my God, he's helped a lot of people. A lot of people have paid this guy, and that's how many people have paid me, by the way. That's not how many people have been on my list, right? That's the number of people who've paid to get this guy's help. It must be good, right? So how many people have you helped in the past? And if you don't have many paying customers yet, how many people have you helped casually?

13:49.05

Kennedy Kennedy

Right? You can flip that around, by the way. It doesn't become social proof if you have a small number. It becomes exclusivity. Right? So if you've got a small number, it's just marketing, we're going to flip it around. I've only shared this with 12 people. I've only shared this with three other people. Now, please don't get confused. That is not social proof. That's not really what we're talking about here today. That is exclusivity. It's a secret. It's something you're not supposed to know.

14:16.30

Kennedy Kennedy

Next is five-star reviews. How many five-star reviews have you had? This thing has had five-star reviews. Great example. There is a musical in London right now called Operation Mincemeat, right? It's about the big, it's about a part of the Second World War called Operation Mincemeat to do with like how they won part of one of the battles of the wars or something like that, right? But what I know, it but and I've seen it like twice, it's amazing, it's hilarious, it's so good, it's it's brilliant.

14:43.25

Kennedy Kennedy

But one of the things that's amazing about all of their social media posts pretty much and all of their advertising on the London Underground Tube and around London and all over the place says the most highly reviewed musical in West End history. And it's just got five star reviews all over the place.

15:01.65

Kennedy Kennedy

And when you hear hear that, you're like, oh my God, this wasn't just like the big newspaper saying it's five stars. This is like blogs and bloggers and reviewers and like from every part of the industry reviewing this thing highly. So again, if you're collecting reviews on your Google reviews, on your Facebook reviews or any um trust pilot, if that's your thing, like however, whatever your industry thing is, what's most suitable for your industry, again, if you can show up in an email and be like, hey, we've got,

15:30.84

Kennedy Kennedy

I just realized we've got 32 five-star reviews for my Email Hero Blueprint on Google Reviews, if that was the case, then that's like, oh my God, like that's public proof. And what do you do with that? You don't just tell them that. You grab a screenshot and we of Trustpilot or Google Reviews. That shows that.

15:51.78

Kennedy Kennedy

So you want to prove the proof as well, right? Again, with the testimonials, the testimonials are always going to be more powerful if you just grab a dog ugly um screenshot of the post that somebody made in your Facebook group, on your Facebook wall, the email they sent you rather than just tidying it up and making it look pretty. If it's just a screenshot of whether of the native place where the person organically posted a thing, it's way more believable. The thing you're always fighting against in social proof is Yeah, but is it really anybody can say that can you prove it? That's why whenever I talk about we've helped seven thousand eight hundred students I put a screenshot from my stripe account on the screen on the page Which says this is how many customers we've got seven thousand eight hundred and it shows that in real life because again we it's only social proof if it is Proved if it's proof if it's proven if it's proofed right make sure you prove it. Okay, so

16:48.23

Kennedy Kennedy

Two more to go for you and how to use them. I hope you find these really, really valuable. By the way, if if you haven't already, make sure you hit subscribe to your podcast player because next week, I am really excited about what I'm sharing with you. I sat down with the king of webinars, Jason Fladlin, who agreed to come and have a ah conversation with me recorded. And we talked about exactly what's working in webinars right now, what is absolutely not working anymore with webinars so you can stop doing it.

17:17.76

Kennedy Kennedy

and you'll be pleasantly surprised by what it is how actually teaching more and being a better teacher makes makes you convert better on webinars and also my favorite part right towards the end of our conversation I dropped a huge question on him and that was If we've got a webinar that's underperforming, how do we go about fixing it? What is your process of identifying what's not working apart from, well, it just didn't convert. Like, how do we actually a dice like that? So that's coming up next week, next email marketing Wednesday. So make sure you hit subscribe to your podcast player right now.

17:50.33

Kennedy Kennedy

um Just so that you don't miss out on that. it's ah It's a really interesting conversation. I think you're going to really, really love it. So the final two types of social proof and how to use them. So the next one is to talk about how long you've been doing this thing. You've got to be careful with this one.

18:09.58

Kennedy Kennedy

So I've been selling stuff on the internet for more than two decades. I'm 40 years old now and um and and I've been selling stuff ah for 20 years.

18:21.16

Kennedy Kennedy

And ah that means I can say I've seen it all. I have to say what that means because there is a danger that if you say, I've been doing this for 20 years, people might think, are you old? Are are your techniques old fashioned? Are you outdated? Are you out of touch? So the way you position that is you say, look, I started doing this stuff 20 years ago, two decades ago. And it was very different then. It was much harder to run advertising because basically social media didn't pretty much exist.

18:49.74

Kennedy Kennedy

um It was really hard to put a video on the internet, right? Because YouTube wasn't really around and uploading a video was a f freaking nightmare. You couldn't really do it. But as trends have gone on, and we've adapted each trend, and we've dialed each thing in, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. One of the things I've noticed is that some of the principles that sit under regardless of the technology are the same. And one of those principles is, and then that might be my lesson. So we're gonna use my experience or your experience in this case, so to say, I've seen it all. I've been through it. I followed it. But something that sits underneath, like you need to share why your experience means that you're still better today. But you're still good today. That makes you better today.

19:35.61

Kennedy Kennedy

Not that I've seen all and I've stood the test of time. That's about you. How does it mean that your your advice, you are you are relevant to them and how they're going to get their result today because of your experience of how long you've been doing it. The flip side of that is the opposite which is I haven't been doing this very long so you basically say let's say somebody's just pretty brand new they've been doing like for six months let's make that up right six months in the last six months I've been able to achieve awesome results oh my god there is social proof in that

20:10.83

Kennedy Kennedy

It's a different social proof, but it's to do with the length that you've been doing it. In the last six months, I'll be able to make $1.2 million dollars just by sending these really simple emails. I only started six months ago. Here's a photo of my bank statement. Here's a photo of my Striper can to prove I can do it. Cause again, we've got to prove it. People are like, holy shit, I'm going to follow this person. Cause if they can do it in just six months, that's the kind of dream I want. Nevermind these gurus who've like been building their list for 20 years.

20:36.67

Kennedy Kennedy

You see how how that's powerful? So if you're be doing it in a short amount of time, talk about why that's a benefit. The most important point is, when you talk about how long you've been doing something, you've got to express why that is a benefit to their success today. If you don't do that extra bridge of why it's a benefit to their success today, then it is a moot point. They will fill in the gaps with objections. You don't want to have that. You don't want to leave that gap.

21:01.23

Kennedy Kennedy

The final type of social proof is I'm going to give you a ah ah redefinition of this, but it's basically what I call photographs with celebrities. And I don't necessarily mean how you got to go and get a picture with like that really famous pop star.

21:17.13

Kennedy Kennedy

but what I mean is this they can be celebrities in your niche. Of course, if if if your niche will respond to that pop star and you've got a photo with them, like awesome stuff, like you've got a photo with Taylor Swift, that's probably a cool status piece to put out to your list. Like, oh my God, this person is very well connected. That's cool.

21:33.10

Kennedy Kennedy

But if i if I know my audience knows who certain people are and they respect them, if ive if I happen to be in the same room, if I happen to be in a mastermind with that person, if I happen to be in an online meeting, like I've got an online meeting with a really um And I'm just having to catch up with a really big online guru um very soon. And I'm going to get a photo and and of me and him chatting. Why? Because when I send that email, a lot of people are like, oh my god, you've got the level of connection.

22:04.27

Kennedy Kennedy

where, and and the and the level of knowledge that this other this person I respect will spend time with you, so therefore I want to spend time with you. You borrow some of their credibility, okay? So if you're able to do that, and in your niche there are people who your audience respects. Don't go and be like, hey, I need to get a photo with Taylor Swift.

22:21.94

Kennedy Kennedy

go for like that's that's tricky it's not impossible by the way but it's tricky instead go and find out who are the the leaders who are respected in your in your market in your niche and get yourself interviews with them look on this podcast like if you look at the history of who I've interviewed on this podcast podcast it's unbelievable and that positions me next to those people and that acts as social proof Right? On this podcast alone, I use a number of types of social proof, right? ah I use the fact that I position myself what next to really big, highly experienced ah celebrities with credibility, and they've got longevity, like Jason Fladland, who I'm speaking to next week, and you'll hear all of that. um Like Liz, who I spoke to a few weeks ago, like all these people who have got who bring their own credibility,

23:09.68

Kennedy Kennedy

and like the who's who of marketing have been on this podcast, right? But also, there's another type that I talk about, another type of social group I do on this podcast, which is talking to our clients, right? So just a couple of weeks ago, we had Karishma on the show, who's one of our Email Hero Blueprint members and clients, and she came on and talked about the successes she'd had. Again, storytelling.

23:29.91

Kennedy Kennedy

right So you can do all of these things across multiple media, not just in your emails. But again, drop a photo of you and a celeb into your email, but then tell the story.

23:42.45

Kennedy Kennedy

I remember the first time that I attended the top one mastermind in Florida. And for me, I was like so star struck walking into that room. Matt Baysack was there. He was like an OG goat of email marketing. Well, not of email marketing necessarily, but like of online marketing. He does email marketing too, but like of broad marketing stuff, digital marketing stuff from like the, um, the, uh, the warrior plus world, which is like a JV network.

24:06.39

Kennedy Kennedy

really interesting guy, very much, you know, Todd Brown, the guy who invented the VSL, John Benson was there and I was like, oh my God, he's like my hero. So I get photographs for these guys and I'm like, this is great.

24:21.39

Kennedy Kennedy

I'm in the same room as them. I have to tell you now, I pull up a lot of courage. I hate asking for like photos of signatures with celebrities, nevermind like actual people who are business leaders, but I pulled up the coach and did it. And then of course, I'm not gonna just send out an email. It's just like, hey, here's a photo of me and John Benson hanging out. and And John and I actually end up becoming pretty good friends and I helped him with some stuff and and and all this kind of stuff. I've met up with him a number of times.

24:43.21

Kennedy Kennedy

but you But how do you use that, though? You put it into an email and say, hey, I want to share with you the thing that I just shared ah with the guy who invented the set the video sales out of the VSL, the sales video. um He was made more than a billion dollars with with sales videos. And this is what I shared with him that absolutely shocked him to the core about email marketing.

25:05.78

Kennedy Kennedy

You're like, oh my God, okay. And then there becomes a lesson. It becomes valuable. None of this is just to like name drop. None of this is just to say, hey, here's me and this person. You create context around why you're with that person. Was it like you paid to have a photo with them? So I have a photo of me with Stephen Bartlett from Diary of a CEO, big podcast.

25:26.47

Kennedy Kennedy

Well, I don't just say, here's the thing where I stood in a line and got a photo with Stephen Bartlett, which is what had to happen. But the reason I got to do that, stand in that line and be with Stephen Bartlett was because I was one of the speakers sharing the stage with Stephen Bartlett. So whenever I shared that photograph, I'm like, I shared the stage with Stephen Bartlett.

25:43.75

Kennedy Kennedy

awesome, right? So again, and here's one of the things that I shared in that in that presentation. And now there's values, there's context around it. So be very careful about just dropping social proof. Otherwise, you just look like you're name dropping. And really, nobody likes to, you know, we've all got friends who like name drop, we've all met people who name drop.

26:03.09

Kennedy Kennedy

um I have especially like having worked in the entertainment industry with like with some celebrities like they'll often be like oh I've worked with that spy and this guy and this person's cool and I'm like I don't care about any of these names you just sound like a a knobhead so so that's the seven different types of social proof that you can use please use a blend of them you can sometimes mix them up together but use them in the ways I've talked about to give the most value All right, to make sure they're valuable. A lot of people say I know I should be adding social proof to my emails. But how do I actually do without coming across as a dickhead? That is how you do it. I really hope you've enjoyed that. Now it's time for this week's

26:44.01

Kennedy Kennedy

Okay, I've got an extra bonus thing to tell you about um about about social proof in a second that I really wanna share with you, but first I do wanna tell you about this really cool subject line, which was secret 10K goal. And it was just the word secret, the number 10, there was no dollar sign, 10K, and then the word goal, all um in title case, so uppercase first letters, right? um And the reason I've done it this way, so if I put a dollar sign in front of the number 10,

27:13.19

Kennedy Kennedy

That would have said clearly, oh, this is about how to make $10,000. Initially, I first i typed that, and I thought, I can make this more curious by removing the dollar sign. Often, compound curiosity, like adding more curiosity to your subject line, is about removing stuff, right? So removing the dollar sign, it's like, oh, 10,000 what?

27:37.57

Kennedy Kennedy

10,000 subscribers, 10,000 customers, $10,000 maybe. And the fact I made it a secret goal, quantified it in a way that why is it a secret? I've got lots of questions about, and also why are you telling it to me? What is the secret? So lots of ways of dressing up this idea of a 10, what should have been ah a subject line of like dollar sign, $10,000 goal,

28:03.48

Kennedy Kennedy

That doesn't really ring. Secret, drop the dollar sign, 10K goal, really evokes a lot of curiosity. Now, just before we finish up the episode, for sticking around the very end, I've got a bonus tip for you about using social proof. You see,

28:21.64

Kennedy Kennedy

I want to just say like, if you stick around the end of these episodes, I really appreciate you. Like I really, really do. Like I love sitting down here in my little home office at home in front of this microphone, making these episodes for you because I just get to share the stuff that's really in my heart right now based on what I'm observing, what we're working on our business, what we're seeing, what we're tweaking, the things that are breaking that will have to improve and the things that I'm really thinking of when it comes to building businesses for ourselves.

28:46.99

Kennedy Kennedy

And also for my for my clients that I'm working with every single day. So I love that you stick around. So that's why I want to like start adding some bonus stuff to the end for everybody else who like so drifts off at the beginning. So well done for sticking around. And this is it. What I want you to think about is that You can actually use social proof in a really unusual way, a really interesting way. And that is when you make an offer and you do a discount, you say, hey, but today it's only X amount. One of the things we've talked about on the show before, I talked about a lot with with our members,

29:22.27

Kennedy Kennedy

is that there needs to be a reason for the discount. It might be that um I need to pay a tax bill or it might be um it's just for 24 hours. We do a special thing. ah It might be for new customers only. But one of the most brilliant reasons that I absolutely love using is the reason for the discount is because I'm collecting new testimonials. What does that do?

29:47.60

Kennedy Kennedy

One, it gives you a really valid reason for dropping the price. But two, by saying, hey, the reason I'm letting you in for a cheaper, lower price is because I want your testimonial later, that implies that this thing is so good, so effective, that you are gonna give me a testimonial. If I didn't think it was any good, I wouldn't be saying, hey, I want a testimonial from you. So you can use the fact that you're gonna use social proof as the reason for your discount and that will increase your conversions because it implies that it is really, really good. Powerful, right? I really hope you enjoyed it. Tune in next week. I am going to be speaking to you, Jason Fladland. We're going to be talking about all things webinars, what's changed, what's working. Make sure you tune it in to the show. Hit subscribe to your podcast player. I'll see you next week.