Author: Sidepop Team

Social proof is the next big thing in marketing. And, if you are attracting people to your funnel but lacking conversions it can be awesome for your business too. In this article, we’re going to review some social proof examples that you can implement on your website.

Three social proof examples for e-commerce

If you run an e-commerce website, and you have visitors, your next step is to increase conversion rates. In the case of online shops, the best way to increase the visitors to sales ratio is to increase FOMO.

Recent sales notifications

This type of notifications is great to generate conversions as they appeal to scarcity. Also, if you do it correctly, they will help your business look bigger, therefore increase trust. Sales are the most important validator and should be the first thing you do in your e-commerce.

Aggregated sales in a period of time notifications

These types of notifications are great to further increase trust. These are the type of notifications that say, for example:

30 people bought this product last week.

When they are correctly implemented, they are perfect to reinforce your message and increase trust over time.

Add reviews to product pages

Finally, in the case of e-commerce websites, another great way to increase conversions is adding a review section, or select some curated customer reviews. Not all reviews need to be 100% positive. Actually, realistic reviews are very useful for customers when deciding a purchase.

Samples of notifications for services

If you don’t sell products, but services, social proof shall look slightly different. While most examples tend to focus on products, the truth is, services can benefit from FOMO too!

Recent people that booked a free consultation

If you offer free consultations, display that! For example, if you offer a cellphone repair service you can use a message like the following:

A person in Springfield booked a free consultation for Monday

What’s great about this example is that, by revealing the day of the booked free consultation, your prospects will see that probably your schedule is full, therefore you will generate FOMO. You can easily achieve this in Sidepop creating different notifications for every day of the week.

Read the story of a happy customer

If you have some happy customers and a blog on your website, you can create an article with an honest review from a happy customer. And if you use Sidepop, you can use it to create a customized notification that invites your users to read the article. A great example of this notification would be like this:

Meet Jane Doe, a happy customer of Acme Inc. Read her story

You can reinforce this message with a photo of the customer. Photos are great for social proof as they really can increase trust.

Social proof notifications (like the popup are you currently seeing on the left side of this page) are awesome for conversions. Actually, you may think they are really hard to do, but they aren’t. In this article, we’re going to talk about Sidepop. And also, how this widget can boost your conversions and give your customers confidence.

Why are social proof notifications so popular?

You’ve probably seen these types of popups before. The truth is, even big companies use them to increase fomo and convert visitors into sales. This is a proven strategy and it’s easy to implement on any website.

There are other great advantages of this type of widget. One, is that you can also use them as a communication channel between you and your customers. This is a great alternative to offer your visitors discounts and show them what other people are buying.

These are not the only advantages to your website. Also, they are proven to increase awareness and trust. But, how can I implement this in my business?

Meet Sidepop, the fully customizable widget

Actually, we created Sidepop when we noticed how complicated was to customize current solutions of this type. The idea behind Sidepop is that you can create your own customized social proof notifications. You can even create fake social proof notifications if you don’t have real sales yet.

Using Sidepop is super easy. Just install our WordPress plugin or configure it directly our the one-line embed code. Your popup will be installed instantly and you’ll be ready to start showing sales.

In Sidepop, everything is customizable. Also, If you use our plugin, you can send real data of WordPress subscribers and WooCommerce sales automatically. Sidepop is perfect when your business is starting, as it doesn’t have the problem that other widgets have. Create your notifications your way.

You can test Sidepop for free using our 7 days trial, and cancel anytime if you’re not convinced.

Embedding a social proof widget on your website is easy, as you already have sales. But what happens if you don’t have sales? Or your sales are not enough? Creating a fake social proof widget is the most viable option in this type of business. In this article, we’re going to explore the advantage of Sidepop’s fake social proof widgets and how they can help your business start doing FOMO marketing easily.

How can I start building fake social proof notifications?

This can be the first thing that comes to your mind when you first read about this subject. Actually, most social proof notification solutions focus on real notifications. On the opposite side, Sidepop was created from the beginning to create false notifications that look realistic.

Sidepop was designed from the ground up to generate notifications that are credible. You can also combine it with real notifications coming from your WordPress registrations or your WooCommerce sales. Even you can use our API and connect your application with just a couple lines of code!

Actually, we created our solution with this in mind from the start. Notifications created in Sidepop are completely white-label, and you wouldn’t know it’s ours, even by looking at its source code!.

Some Sidepop features for creating simulated popups

In practice, Sidepop generates sales and other types of notifications in autopilot. These notifications are not created randomly, but we try to emulate sales in the most realistic way possible. Just enter how many false notifications you want to generate every day and the cities where your users are located. After that, Sidepop takes care of everything else.

You can also simulate real-time visitors on your website. Just set an average number and we make a realistic notification of realtime visitors, that moves upwards and downwards just like a realtime visitors counter would.

Also, when you have real sales, you can combine fake and real sales. This way, if customers see the notification after making a purchase, their transaction notification will show alongside the other notifications.

If you want to try out Sidepop, we offer a 7 days free trial.

Converting traffic into money is the hardest part of your sales funnel. In this article, we’re going to explore a proven method to boost conversions on your website. It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting or have an established website with tons of traffic, this article is for you

Why do social proof notifications work to boost conversions?

The psychology behind social proof notifications is explained mainly because of the so-called Fear of missing out or FOMO. Social proof works by validating your business as something people are massively purchasing. Having the fear of losing the opportunity to be part of the pack is a primal notification. But how does it help boost conversions?

Buying as a social validation mechanism

When a social proof notification system is placed in your funnel, it becomes a window that reveals how popular your product or service is. When a customer makes a purchase, the reward system of the person triggers. They finally are not alone, they are part of something. And actually, their action was suddenly meaningful and now becomes a new notification. The user is part of the pack.

While the psychological causes of this behavior are not completely understood yet, the ability to boost conversions using this method is clear. Actually, it works.

There are downsides, of course. One of the main problems with implementing a social proof notification system in your funnel is of course technical. And the second difficulty your business may face is lacking the actual sales to generate FOMO. In Sidepop we are committed to solving both.

Installing a proof notification system on your website to boost conversions

Like we said, one of the first difficulties most entrepreneurs face when installing a social proof notification widget to boost conversions is technological. The good thing is that Sidepop is one of the easiest solutions available for this. We’ve created a simple one-line install that works out of the box. And if you use WordPress, we’ve created an awesome plugin that lets you take out all the complexities. The installation is simple and doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes. You won’t believe how easy it is to get started!

Boost conversion using simulated notifications

Lacking the actual sales is the other big barrier your business may have, especially when you’re starting. Sidepop is different. Actually, you don’t need real sales at all!. With our platform, you can create perfect fake notifications that look so real, nobody will find out. Even your most tech-savvy users will not notice, even by looking at the plugin source code.

If you are looking for products similar to Hoversignal’s social proof widget, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’re going to introduce Sidepop, one of the best Hoversignal alternatives available.

Why is Sidepop one of the best Hoversignal alternatives?

Actually, we have found three reasons why you should try Sidepop before comminting to a plan with Hoversignal.

Sidepop is better at handling simulated notifications

While Hoversignal does have features that allow you to display fake notifications (like random words and numbers), Sidepop takes it to the next level. In Sidepop you can generate perfect notifications that behave just like a real notification. Just enable “Fake notifications” in the Sidepop dashboard and you can add locations, products and customize every detail. The sistem automatically generates notifications that stay, not only for the current visitor but for all visitors to your website.

To say it in simple words, your fake notifications will be the same for every visit, everywhere. They are virtually uncatchable.

Sidepop is always white-label, even in our $9 plan

Hoversignal is really straightforward about their fake notifications feature. But what if your customers find out?

We’ve designed Sidepop with this issue in mind. Our widget is perfectly white label, and you wouldn’t know who is the company behind it, even seeing the source code. Even your most tech-savyy customers won’t tell a difference between Sidepop’s real and fake notifications.

Use WordPress and WooCommerce? This one is for you!

Actually, Hoversignal does have a WordPress plugin. But is it enough for your needs? Their plugin is only compatible with WooCommerce, while Sidepop’s also has full membership compatibility.

With WP Membership notifications, you can create notifications every time a user registers in your WordPress blog or platform. Also, it’s fully compatible with the most important membership plugins like Memberful.

You can customize with detail where your notifications will show, and also hide them where you don’t need them (I’m seeing you, order invoice!).

Some final words

Actually, we know how complicated is to choose between all Hoversignal alternatives you may have come across. For this reason, we are offering a 7 days free trial. You can use this trial without limits and see why Sidepop is the best option for your social proof needs.

Have you stumbled upon a widget with a sale or action Verified by Proof? Chances are, you saw this badge and wondered: Is that an actual verification? And also, how can I have a similar widget on my website without breaking the bank? In this article, we’re going to talk about these three words and how we can create a social proof widget for much less using Sidepop.

No, “Verified by Proof” is not a verification

Try it for yourself. For anyone with limited tech knowledge, it’s easy to use their Zapier integration to send fake leads to the widget, for example, from Google Docs, even though the company claims the opposite. So, definitely Proof is not an actual verification that the data you send to the widget is real. And for the steep price of $79 for just 10,000 visits, it is definitely a bad choice.

Is Proof the only solution for Social Proof?

We’ve talked in previous articles about Social Proof Marketing and its advantages. Still, let’s be honest. You probably need to fill your notifications and customize them to fit your needs. For this reason, we created Sidepop. In Sidepop, you won’t find “Verified by Proof” or similar branding made just to upgrade you to a bigger plan in order to remove it. Sidepop is completely white-label, and even the embed code doesn’t reveal our brand!

Some advantages of Sidepop over Proof

Sidepop has several advantages over Proof. And trust us, your customers are going to love our notifications. Feel free to check out for yourself with our 7 days free trial.

Fully customizable notifications

In Sidepop, we’re honest about what you really want with a social proof widget. You can customize all the messages that appear in the notification, and even generate “sales” automatically (see the quotes?). This is great if you’re just starting your business and need to add a little bulk to your actual sales in order to increase FOMO.

100% white label widget

Our widget does not have our brand anywhere. Not even in its source code! We made it super hard to detect the company behind your widget. This way, you can feel confident that in case you decide to spice the things a little bit, you are in good hands.

Add your real sales also!

But what if you actually receive a real sale? With Sidepop you can also integrate our API to display real notifications for your sales. And also, if you use WordPress or WooCommerce, we have a super easy to use plugin. With this plugin, your information from WordPress registrations and WooCommerce sales is sent automatically to Sidepop. It’s the best of both worlds!

And again, “Verified by Proof” is not a real verification

All it’s needed is a Google search from a savvy customer for them to discover Proof is not an actual verification and how easily it can be faked. And trust us, you don’t want your customers to know that.

Switch to Sidepop and save yourself the hassle of your customers discovering it. Our 100% white label (even in its source code) will have the same effect in your customers, for a fraction of the price.

Try Sidepop for free with our 7 days trial.

If you have a website made in WordPress and are looking for a Social Proof plugin, you may have stumbled many options. Only Sidepop can help you combine real notifications with fake automatic Social Proof. In this article, we’re going to explore how to install Sidepop in your WordPress site and configure it to start displaying notifications and sending WordPress and WooCommerce events to Sidepop.

Install the Sidepop plugin in your WordPress website

First, download the free Sidepop plugin here and use the Add Plugin feature in WordPress to install it. Just go to Plugins (on the sidebar), then Add new and finally Upload Plugin (in the top of the screen). Once you have uploaded the plugin, choose Activate to finish the installation.

The second step is to copy and paste your Integration key into WordPress. Just visit your Sidepop Dashboard and select your site. (Don’t have an account? Click here for a 7 days free trial of Sidepop!).

Once ready, and your changes are saved, you’re ready! Easy, right? Now let’s configure the settings for this social proof WordPress plugin.

Configure Sidepop’s social proof WordPress plugin

The Sidepop plugin is very straightforward in the options you can configure. Let’s follow these configuration options one by one to be ready in a couple of minutes.

Widget display Settings

In this section, you can enable or disable the display of the social proof widget in your WordPress site. The options are:

• Don’t display widget: Hides the widget completely from your website
• Only on selected pages and posts: Displays the widget only on some pages and/or posts. You can choose which posts will display Sidepop in each post Edit page.
• Everywhere except selected pages and posts: Display the social proof WordPress widget everywhere. This includes categories pages. You can hide the popup from some posts or pages in each post Edit page.

To choose which posts or pages will display or hide the widget (options 2 and 3), go to any post or page. A new Sidepop section will appear in the right of the editor. Using this option, you can enable or disable the widget for this particular post or page.

Notify registrations

Notify registrations will submit all registrations you receive in WordPress automatically to the social proof notification widget. In this case, the only two options are Don’t send and Send WordPress registrations. Every time a new user is created, either by you or a compatible plugin, a notification is sent automatically if this option is enabled.

In this same section, you can configure both lines of the notification (the third line, time, is filled automatically). Also, you can also include the following tags in your notification:

• {location}: The location of the person registering. This location is gathered from the IP address of the user, so it may be different from their actual location.
• {first_name}: The first name of the person that signed up. Keep in mind that, if you are in Europe, your GDPR compliance may be limited when including this field.
• {last_name}: The last name of the person that signed up. Again, your GDPR compliance may be limited in this case.

This feature is fully compatible with WordPress native Add User. Also, it should be compatible with most plugins that use WordPress native users. it also works with the following plugins:

• WP-Members Membership Plugin
• Ultimate Member
• Paid Memberships Pro
• Memberful WP
• s2Member Framework
• Membership by Supsystic

Notify WooCommerce sales

Notify WooCommerce sales will submit all sales you receive in your shop automatically. Again, the only two options are Don’t send and Send WooCommerce sales. In the case an order has more than one item, a separate notification will be sent for every product in the order. If the quantity of a product is more than one, the product will display the number of products purchased.

You can use the following tags in the notification:

• {location}: The location of the person making the purchase. Again, the location is gathered from the IP address of the user.
• {first_name}: The first name of the person making the purchase, gathered from the WooCommerce order. Keep in mind that, if you are in Europe, your GDPR compliance may be limited when including this field.
• {last_name}: The last name of the person that signed up. Again, your GDPR compliance may be limited in this case.
• {product}: The name of the product purchased by the person. This text will also include the quantity in case more than one product was purchased in the order.
• {price}: The price in the order, excluding shipping fees and discounts. This is displayed in the same currency format configured in WooCommerce.

Send notification events easily to Sidepop and generate notifications easily from your backend using our Rest API. In this article, we’re going to explore the best ways to do it in different languages, with a simple copy and paste integrations. Notifications are created sending a POST request to our https://app.sidepop.me/api/events endpoint. If you don’t have access to your platform backend, contact your developer.

Authentication

To authenticate, just add an authkey parameter to your header request, and include your Integration Key. You can find this code in the Sidepop Dashboard. Do this request in the backend! Publishing this key can compromise your account, so it’s encouraged to not make this request on the frontend.

Send notifications in PHP

To send notifications to Sidepop in PHP, you can use this simple cURL example to get you started.

$params = array( 'ip_address' => $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'], // User's IP address 'title' => "A person from {location}", // Include {location} 'subtitle' => "Made a purchase", 'tag' => "custom_tag" // A tag to group aggregated events ); $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,"https://app.sidepop.me/api/events"); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($params)); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); $headers = [ "authkey: [your-auth-key]" ]; curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers); curl_exec ($ch); curl_close ($ch);

Send notifications using WordPress HTTP API

If you use WordPress and need to send a notification not included in our WordPress Plugin (Customer registrations or WooCommerce Sales), you can easily implement an Async HTTP request inside any WordPress plugin using the following code.

$params = array( 'ip_address' => $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'], // User's IP address 'title' => "A person from {location}", // Include {location} 'subtitle' => "Made a purchase", 'tag' => "custom_tag" // A tag to group aggregated events ); $args = array( 'body' => $params, 'timeout' => '5', 'redirection' => '5', 'httpversion' => '1.0', 'blocking' => false, 'headers' => array( "authkey" => "[your-auth-key]" ), 'cookies' => array() ); $response = wp_remote_post( 'https://app.sidepop.me/api/events', $args );

Send notifications in Node.JS

To send notifications to Sidepop in Node.JS you can use the following example. This request is made using the Request library.

const request = require('request'); request({ url: 'https://app.sidepop.me/api/events', headers: { 'authkey': '[your-auth-key]' }, form: { 'ip_address': request.connection.remoteAddress // User's IP address 'title': 'A person from {location}', // Include {location} 'subtitle': 'Made a purchase', 'tag': 'custom_tag' // A tag to group aggregated events } } });

Parameters of the request

This is a list of parameters that you have to include in your request:

• ip_address: The IP address of your customer. If not set, will use the IP address of the connecting client (your server) for geolocation
• title: The title of your notification. Either the title or the subtitle has to include the string {location} that will be replaced with the location of the customer.
• subtitle: The second line of your notification
• tag: A tag to group notifications together. It can be used later to create aggregated notifications in the dashboard. For example, if you add a custom tag like “signups”, you can later create an aggregated notification that counts all “signups” in the last week.

People need confirmation from other people to be sure their choices are correct. Social Proof Marketing means to use this human behavior to your advantage. With this strategy, your users will feel more prone to acquire your product or service. In this article, we’re going to debunk the secrets of Social Proof Marketing and how you can use it to bring sales.

What is exactly Social Proof?

Human beings are social animals, that’s a proven fact. And we, either consciously or unconsciously, need the confirmation of a peer to make choices. This is called herd behavior. A typical example of this behavior is when there are two ATMs together, both good, but people only line behind one thinking the other one is malfunctioning. Another example, from NatGeo’s Mind Games, shows how social proof validates a wrong choice to a limit that everyone in the pack makes it.

Social Proof is an unconscious validation that, if people are doing it, it should be the right choice. In many aspects, we’re lonely beings. Still, in unknown situations, we tend to follow the herd as a protection measure from a potentially bad outcome. This is a powerful behavior that can be used in marketing too.

Applying it as a marketing strategy

Like its name says it, Social Proof Marketing is simply using this natural behavior as a marketing tool. What you want to achieve with this strategy, is to generate a herd behavior in your favor. Actually, it’s easy to implement this in your existing marketing strategy. Want to learn more?

Idea 1: Create a referral program

A Nielsen study revealed that 82% of Americans seek friends and family validation before acquiring a product or service. Actually, by having a referral program, your customers become sellers and share their own experience to generate social proof.

A good idea to test if a referral program is right for you, is creating coupons for some of your best customers and see if they are willing to share it with people who may need your product or service. If it doesn’t, you can always start giving a small incentive for them to share the coupon. Actually, you can start small and test if it’s right for your business.

Idea 2: Use a Social Proof solution on your website

If you have a website, things are fairly easier. Actually, a lot easier. You can create social proof notification using a solution like Sidepop. These type of notifications are designed to leverage social proof by generating validation. Actually, you’re probably experiencing it as this website also has it installed.

The secret sauce of Sidepop is that it allows you to create your own customized notifications. In other words, you don’t need to have real sales to use it. You can customize the look and feel of the widget, and if you use WordPress, you can combine real and fake sales. Your visitors won’t tell the difference.

Social proof widgets work by appealing to the same triggers of the line example. For example, if 30 people bought maple syrup last week, and someone near me bought it 5 minutes ago, why wouldn’t I buy it too?

Idea 3: Use influencers to generate validation

Also, Social media influencers are great channels for validation. In this case, the equation works in a different way. If someone who is popular and desired bought the maple syrup, why wouldn’t I?.

Of course, influencer marketing is a more expensive strategy if your business is just starting. Still, you can use small influencers in your niche to get the job done.

Is social proof marketing right for me?

Yes! Social proof marketing is for everyone. Use these simple ideas as a boilerplate to begin, but don’t stop there. Test multiple landing pages, with different themes and social validation messages. The sky is the limit!

Pro tip: Did you know that with Sidepop you can create unlimited social proof widgets? Start your free 7 days trial!

FOMO (or Fear of Missing Out) is one of the biggest social anxieties in this generation. And did you know you can use this fear to your favor? In this article, we’re going to explore FOMO marketing, one of the latest trends in marketing tactics, and how you can incorporate it in your business.

What is FOMO marketing by the way?

“You missed it” is one of the most terrifying phrases for millenials. Actually, a study from Eventbrite discovered that 69% of them, accept they have this fear. This is no way surprising, as this is a generation that demands instantaneity like no other generation has done before. While the causes are not completely understood yet, several brands have understood this fear and use it as a purchase motivator.

Users that experience FOMO tend to be users highly hooked with social media, and feel more prone to make impulsive purchases, specially relate to the fear of losing the opportunity to do it. This is the key reason why FOMO marketing strategies have proven popular with brands.

In the case of FOMO marketing, the two most used strategies to appeal to this fear are Scarcity, Urgency and Social Proof.

Scarcity, a strategy to speed up purchases

Something that makes consumers act fact, is lacking the capability to leave it for later. And considering the high acquisition cost in some industries, delaying purchases is a luxury most business can’t take. There are things that they simply cannot lose, and our business can become one of them.

Brands understand this, displaying understated stock levels. They also show alerts of other people watching this website at the very same moment (hint: you can create these type of alerts with Sidepop). These alerts can trigger FOMO as when they see other people are on the same action, they are prone to feel pressured to act, especially with stock limited offers.

Urgency: Act now or lose it

Urgency is the sibling of Scarcity. While Scarcity triggers FOMO due to the lack of availability, Urgency triggers it due to lack of time. A great way to do it is using time-limited offers or daily exclusives that will disappear if they don’t act fast. This strategy is widely used in retail, but not so much in services.

Don’t abuse this strategy. Consumers have grown suspicious of this type of strategy, especially as online shopping has become prevalent. It’s easy to open up another tab in your browser and check the prices of your competition. For this, you can always induce urgency by including a gift or giving a limited-time offer that is not related to price. If you use Sidepop, you can create Customized notifications for your website visitors that will only display until you delete them. You can use them to engage them and display exclusive deals not available anywhere else.

Social Proof: If they do it, it’s good

We all heard it when we were children. If your friends jump off a cliff, you would jump too?. Actually, FOMO prone people would (while not in the literal sense).

One of the main characteristics of FOMO prone people is looking for validation before taking the plunge. Whether it be reviews or online opinions, the truth is that when confronted with peer validation they are more prone to act. When real people do an action, it immediately validates it, and when more people do it, the better.

If we sell online, a great way to incorporate social proof is to use a widget or plugin for our website. Sadly, if we’re starting up, or we don’t have enough sells to really create Social Proof it becomes a chicken-or-egg problem.

Sidepop is a great way to solve this, as it’s the only fully customizable FOMO marketing popup. You can combine real sales with fake autogenerated sales that will provide the social proof your customers need to take the plunge. This way, you can create Social proof in your customers easily. Try Sidepop free for 7 days.