The 5 Types Of Social Proof Freelancers Need To Succeed In Their Business
They say it’s my birthday! For my birthday, I wanted to share something with y’all, a bonus podcast episode! I think that social proof can make or break a website. I wanted to share the five types of social proof you should be able to share with clients. When it comes to freelancing, you need your potential clients to know, like, and trust you. Social proof is one of the best ways to speed up the trust factor.
If you are building your freelance business, you might not have this social proof to lean on. For example, when I started my website, I didn’t have a ton of testimonials or brands who published my content. I’ve gained a ton now, and I am happy about that.
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1) Brands You’ve Worked With
First, we all love a good logo wall. I am so proud of the logo wall I’ve built on my website Amanda Cross Co. If you’ve worked with a few companies, one of the best things you can do is great a logo wall filled with the brands you’ve worked with. Here’s a peek at what mine currently looks like on Amanda Cross Co.
2) Testimonials
Next, you want to share testimonials. Many people think about adding a testimonials page, but it might be best to add them throughout your website instead. Add them where people are likely to make purchase decisions: your home page, hire me page, and about page are great places to start.
3) Work Samples
Next, if you can share actual samples of your work, your audience would appreciate it. You might think that more is better, and that could be the case, but it’s not necessarily true. You need enough samples to catch someone’s attention, but above all else, you want to make sure that the examples are a great reflection of who you are. Having samples just to have samples won’t get you far. When you have an abundance of samples, you lose the ability to point potential clients to your best work. What if they click something from years ago instead of something more recent. You should always evaluate your samples page to ensure that potential clients are clicking the samples you care most about.
4) Results You’ve Gotten
If you have a lot of tangible results, share those. These results could be from your projects or client websites. Make sure you share numbers, receipts, and everything in between. If you are a blogger, has any of your content gone viral or done well on Google? If you are an email copywriter, what are your open and click-through rates? If you are a wedding photographer, have your images been featured anywhere cool? Be clear about the results your clients have seen from working with you.
5) Awards/Certificates You’ve Received
If you’ve received any awards or certificates for the work that you do—share those on your website. Whether you got an award for being an excellent writer or you finished a Hubspot course, your audience wants to know. Sharing awards and certificates can help you stand out from your peers and show that you are doing amazing things worth awarding.
Conclusion: Building Social Proof Takes Time
No one has a million testimonials right off that bat. It takes time to build your portfolio and get results from your clients. If you want to create a business that lasts, you have to stop chasing overnight success stories. Instead, we are taking it slow and building our business the right way.
If you want to grow your freelance writing business through social proof in 2020, go full steam into one type of social proof for an entire quarter. For example:
Use one quarter to create results-driven content and follow-up with companies to ask for those results
Spend another quarter building writing samples, guest posting, and building your portfolio.
Take a quarter to focus on taking classes, applying for awards, and building your knowledge.
Wrap up the year by spending time ramping up the testimonials you get from clients.
Taking this one quarter at a time will help you build your website without the stress. Tackling every part of today’s blog post at once is going to put you into burnout mode, so don’t try to do that.