Fresh Egg
developed a test concept based on behavioural science and the
principle of Social Proof. Research shows that when people feel uncertain,
they look to the behaviour of others for reassurance. This tendency is most
pronounced when an individual strongly identifies with the group they are
imitating.
They hypothesised that by showing users evidence that people like them,
in their local area, already trust Sharps, it would reduce anxiety and increase
form completion.
Fresh Egg designed and ran an A/B test on the design visit booking form,
using the visitor's postcode to identify relevant statistics on the number of
design visits booked in their local area. We tested two versions of the Social
Proof notification against the control to see whether different descriptions of
the local area would increase its impact.
-
Variant 1 (Town/City): Displayed a message highlighting the number
of design visits completed in the user's specific town or city.
-
Variant 2 (Your area): Displayed a broader but more robust message
confirming Sharps had completed over 100, 500, or 1000 design visits
for customers in the user's local area.
Both variants were dynamically served based on location data and only
shown when minimum thresholds were met. The test ran for 14 days across
all users and devices.
Data was collected through Webtrends Optimize which could then be served
and tested on the front end of their website. This test highlights the benefits
of Geotagging as part of a social proofing strategy, and particularly to instil
confidence by sharing the experience of local people in the area who have
utilised the same service.
