POWERFUL, untapped selling tactic

[MisterBHZ]

Me & my GF were sitting at Waffle House brainstorming new ways to market my new online business. She has a nice sized following on Instagram so she knows all about getting people to see your message.

I was showing her screenshots of paypal notifications & positive comments other people in my niche were posting. I told her that gives me motivation. So, she asked me, Why aren't you doing the same thing that they are doing?

So, we went through and took screen shots of all my paypal notifications & positive comments in my inbox to use as social proof.

Now, plenty people use positive comments in their marketing all the time but what I don't see that often is people showing their sales & payment activity.

When I see PP screenshots from people, I wonder, get intrigued & start to pay close attention to the person posting it.

"Wow, people are really buying from this guy...let me check him out." is what goes through my mind. I know this has the same effect on many other people.

What are your thoughts about using payment notifications as social proof?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[RHL]

What are your thoughts about using payment notifications as social proof?

Be careful. Unless you're in a guru/lifestyle niche, this is a very foolish idea. Broadcasting earnings is only attractive to two groups: Wantrepreneurs, who won't buy your product and just want to gawk at your life, or competition, who won't buy your product but will use your "social proof" as concept validation to spur themselves to take you down or make your life miserable via adwords inflation, etc.

I know it's tempting. Social validation feels so good. But unless you're Tai Lopez, it's cancer. Never ever ever ever tie earnings to your product until after you've sold the biz. That's inviting rivals.

 

[SweetTooth]

Give it a shot. Nobody here can tell you if it will work or not until you experiment yourself.

 

[MisterBHZ]

Give it a shot. Nobody here can tell you if it will work or not until you experiment yourself.

I just got a paypal notifications just mins before you posted this. So, I screenshot it. It can't hurt to test.

@RHL that's the exact reason why I was hesitant to ever post payment notifications for awhile. But at this point, I'm willing to do whatever it takes & test everything.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[RHL]

@RHL that's the exact reason why I was hesitant to ever post payment notifications for awhile. But at this point, I'm willing to do whatever it takes & test everything.

You should make use of your INSIDERS subscription and lurk more. Ask @Vick , @biophase, and @JasonR what's behind the door you're about to walk through.

 

[MisterBHZ]

You should make use of your INSIDERS subscription and lurk more. Ask @Vick , @biophase, and @JasonR what's behind the door you're about to walk through.

Actually, I lurk quite often. I haven't seen anything about negative effects of posting screenshots though. Do you have any specific threads you could link me to?

 

[TonyStark]

It's like flashing your money around, it doesn't attract any serious buyers, just lurkers.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[JasonR]

If you have to flash screenshots of your earnings or tell people your gross sales to prove your rich, then you're probably not very rich...

 

[Jake]

Or just use something like fomo

https://www.usefomo.com/

 

[biophase]

What are your thoughts about using payment notifications as social proof?

Social proof of what? That people sometimes buy stuff from you? I don't understand.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[biophase]

Years ago my phone would get a notification whenever I got a sale. It would ring every once in a while. Then I started getting too many sales that the ring was annoying so I turned it off. Same goes for email notifications. So if you are getting payment notifications, chances are you don't get that many, or enough to annoy you. So you probably aren't making that much money.

At least, that's what I would think if I saw someone posting payment notifications as social proof.

 

[MitchC]

Or just use something like fomo

https://www.usefomo.com/

This app is terrible for page load times, and especially bad on mobile, but yeah something similar

 

[devine]

Make people want to share their experience using your products.
One of my businesses makes a good use of customer experience - people share photos of our products and tell their audience on instagram about their experience with our products.
This is social proof.
Flashing money is not.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

Never ever ever ever tie earnings to your product until after you've sold the biz. That's inviting rivals.

Cannot be understated. Attracts rivals, wantrepreneurs, thieves, and whole slew of undesirables. I'd say it'd be better to portray an image of "struggling to get by" -- or "we need a boatload of funding to keep this enterprise afloat!" than to flaunt big sales.

 

[Get Right]

"we need a boatload of funding to keep this enterprise afloat!"

Exactly what I tell people in my business...and nobody even tries to enter my space

 

[jon.a]

we're just getting by.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Mattie]

I don't think it's something I would do personally. I think most businesses only show their information, like non-profit organizations, hospitals etc, to verify donations and fund raising, and show the board. It seems for accountability purposes. I agree with the others, it's kind of like bragging, or dangling a shiny lure, and who knows what you're opening yourself up too in a world of competition.

 

[RHL]

Give it a shot. Nobody here can tell you if it will work or not until you experiment yourself.

"An idiot is someone that only learns from their own mistakes."

 

[ClickDale]

Back in the days...internet marketers were all about showing off bank accounts, flashing money, and parading their cars and houses all over their ads and such. This is how selling info products was done. Around 2010-ish...internet marketing gurus started calling out people for leasing expensive cars and renting out expensive homes for the weekend to display in their ads. Advertising was changed to giving great content...and helping the average person to get results in advance. Let me show you how to get from point A to point C...and if you buy my product...then I will help you get to point Z. Still very much the same today.

I think a lot of people who still do the flashing thing come off looking like a doosh--period. There are low key ways of doing it under the radar that doesn't look so tacky. Actually...there was one time several years ago when I was on a training webinar were I was pretty impressed. While the presenter was giving a very informative presentation...he kept getting they email notifications popping up on the side saying that he had a $300 sale...or a $900 sale..and it just kept coming throughout throughout the whole two hours...I thought that was awesome. He didn't skip a beat and didn't even acknowledge it. He wasn't even selling anything in that webinar...it was just a training session for people who had already purchased his program. He's still my mentor today.

Ultimately...in my opinion...why would anyone waste their time worrying about something as pointless as this? Really! Focus on your offer...and then traffic...and then conversions. Just about everything outside of that is distracting you from your online business!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Mikkel]

I may have misread, but if you are also using Instagram for your business, I'd have to say that the best social proof is having a large following. Next to a large following would be to have people interacting with your photos. Taking pictures of how much people like your product or how much money you are making is not what your product or what your brand is about. The good reviews should be coming from people commenting positively on your posts or from people referring to you via word of mouth or shoutouts.

I think everyone's reason for why you should not post your details is valid. I do however see where the logic came in though. Just make sure your brand image is in tact when you do any marketing campaign.