Social Proof Marketing for B2B SaaS Founders

This is the fourth chapter of the B2B SaaS Marketing Playbook


“We assume that if a lot of people are doing the same thing, they must know something we don’t.”


Action Items


1. Add Testimonials

Mailchimp

Mailchimp Testimonials

Mailchimp uses testimonials on their landing page. The company enhances the powerful technique by providing pictures of customers. (Page)

Basecamp

Basecamp Testimonials

Basecamp mixes testimonials with statistics to trigger social proof. (Page)

Intercom

Intercom Testimonials

Intercom triggers social proof through testimonials. (Page)

Twilio

Twilio Testimonials

Twilio provides testimonials for each product in their catalogue. This gives prospective customers product-level feedback instead of company-level feedback. With a portfolio of more than 20 products, this is quite an investment. (Example)

WordPress

WordPress Testimonials

WordPress uses testimonials to trigger social proof. (Page)

Superhuman

Superhuman Testimonials

Superhuman uses testimonials on their landing page. The company sprinkles pairs of testimonials throughout it’s landing page. (Page)

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Ahrefs

Ahrefs Testimonials

Ahrefs features testimonials on their landing page. (Page)

Zapier

Zapier Testimonials

Zapier uses customer testimonials to encourage visitors to sign up. (Page)


2. Use Customer Logos

Mailchimp

Mailchimp Customers

Mailchimp provides well-known customer logos on their landing page. (Page)

Intercom

Intercom Customers

Intercom uses well-known logos to trigger social proof and trust among prospects. (Page)

Twilio

Twilio Customers

Twilio showcases some of it’s largest customers on their landing page. If it’s good enough for these brands, then it must be good enough for us. (Page)

Webflow

Webflow Customers

Webflow dedicates a segment of their landing page to display recognizable customer logos. (Post)

WordPress

WordPress Customers

WordPress uses well-known customer logos to trigger social proof and gain trust. (Page)

Ahrefs

Ahrefs Customers

Ahrefs landing page features well-known customers. (Page)

Airtable

Airtable Customers

Airtable builds trust by showing recognizable brands that trust the company with their data. (Page)


3. Document Customer Success Stories

Mailchimp

Customer Success Stories

Mailchimp provides tons of customer success stories along with high-quality videos and pictures. (Success Stories)

WordPress

Customer Success Videos

WordPress goes beyond testimonials to share stories of customer success. (Page)

Shopify

Founder Stories

Founder Stories by Shopify profiles store owners while also inspiring users to get started and keep going. (Founder Stories)

Zoom

Zoom Case Studies

Zoom goes beyond using well-known logos on their landing page.

The company dedicates an entire page to customer success and case studies. Prospective customers can parse the page by industry.

This allows potential users to find existing customers that are similar to them. Relevance amplifies the effect of social proof. (Zoom Customers)

Webflow

Webflow Case Studies

Webflow provides lessons and concrete examples within their case studies. (Case Studies)

Airtable

Airtable Case Studies

Airtable’s case studies serve as social proof for prospective customers. (Page)


4. Share Examples

Glide

#MadeWithGlide Showcase

The #MadeWithGlide showcase inspires no-code creators.

Users can submit their apps to the showcase by posting to social media with #madewithglide hashtag.

Glide gets users to leverage their personal networks to spread the word about Glide and their app. Genius. (#MadeWithGlide Showcase)

Shopify

Examples Directory

Shopify users get ideas and inspiration from the examples directory. (Shopify Examples)

Twilio

Twilio Showcase

Twilio triggers social proof by showcasing 40,000+ businesses built on Twilio. (Showcase)

Webflow

Webflow Showcase

Webflow Showcase inspires designers. It also demonstrates the flexibility of the design tool. (Showcase)

Airtable

Airtable Universe

User-generated content is leveraged as social proof for existing and prospective Airtable users. (Page)


5. Create a Customers Page

Intercom

Intercom Customers Page

Intercom goes beyond testimonials by sharing customer success stories. Prospects can find persuasive profiles from companies in their industry. (Intercom Customers)

Webflow

Webflow Customers Page

Webflow went beyond the typical trusted by blurb by dedicating an entire page to customers and use cases. (Webflow Customers)

Basecamp

Basecamp Customers Page

Basecamp’s customers page focuses on showing remarks from 1000 of their customers. (Basecamp Customers)

Stripe

Stripe Customers Page

Most companies dedicate a segment of their landing page to showcase their largest customers. Stripe took things a step further with a page dedicated to customers. Stripe customers are segmented by industry and many profiles include video interviews. (Page)

Twilio

Twilio Customers Page

Twilio dedicates an entire page to showcasing customers. (Customers)


6. Share Praise from Twitter

Notion

Twitter Praise

Notion uses tweets as testimonials on their landing page. (Product)

Superhuman

Superhuman Twitter

Superhuman retweets praise. The company stokes the fires of FOMO by amplifying the voices of happy users. (Twitter)

Ahrefs

Twitter Praise

Ahrefs uses praise from influential marketers to sell it’s course. (Blogging for Business)

Airtable

Airtable Twitter

Airtable constantly retweets praise and interesting use cases. (Page)


7. Display Sign Up Counts

Basecamp

Basecamp Users

Displaying new user counts is a powerful technique that’s rarely used in B2B SaaS. (Page)

Ahrefs

Ahrefs Users

Ahrefs triggers social proof by revealing how many users signed up in the last 7 days. (Page)


8. Use Statistics

WordPress

WordPress Stats

WordPress is one of few companies that can make such a claim regarding internet dominance. (Page)

Intercom

Intercom Stats

Intercom quantifies their value proposition with statistics. (Page)


Lessons

Retweeting Praise

Twitter is a treasure trove of testimonials. Good and bad.

Companies prefer to use existing customers to sell to others. Positive messages are more powerful when they come from external sources.

B2B SaaS companies are starting to amplify the voices of supporters by retweeting praise. Some companies are relying on Twitter as the source of testimonials for their landing pages.

YC Acceptance as Social Proof

Getting accepted into Y Combinator is a powerful form of social proof, especially when the YC audience overlaps perfectly with the target audience of a portfolio company.

Stripe, Glide and Zapier have benefitted from this effect.

The Book

This is the fourth chapter of the B2B SaaS Marketing Playbook