Whether you call it herd mentality, social proof, safely in numbers, follow the leader or keeping up with the joneses - today more than ever, social decision making plays a big role in consumer purchase decisions. All of us are more comfortable making offline decisions about product purchases or service providers if we can get a personal referral from a friend.
I think that when making online purchases, the fact that you can't pick up the product and feel it, smell it, try it, ask a sales person questions - increases the need for validation from others. The Internet makes it so easy to read lots of reviews from other people or take advantage of best seller lists. The new social web makes it even easier to find out what others think about products and services before making a purchase decision.
Affiliates need to take advantage of this trend by providing as much social proof on their own sites as possible, to help pre-sell the customer. One of the best ways to create the feeling of safety in numbers and assure consumers they are making a wise purchase decision is with best seller lists.
Problogger has a couple great articles about how to use best sellers lists to increase affiliate sales. As always, some of the best tips are hidden in the comments, so be sure to scan those too.
How to Use Social Decision Making To Increase Your Affiliate Sales
How to Dramatically Increase Amazon Affiliate Sales with Bestseller Lists
Using Best Seller Lists to Boost Affiliate Sales
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