{"id":1091,"date":"2025-04-03T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/03\/social-proof-backfire-the-marketing-mistake-costing-you-conversions\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T11:00:00","slug":"social-proof-backfire-the-marketing-mistake-costing-you-conversions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/03\/social-proof-backfire-the-marketing-mistake-costing-you-conversions\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Proof Backfire: The Marketing Mistake Costing You Conversions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to\u00a0Creator Columns<\/strong>, where we bring expert\u00a0<\/span>HubSpot Creator<\/a>\u00a0voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the early 2000s, communications professor Bob Hornik wanted to see if anti-drug ads worked<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the time, most ads used shock and fear tactics to persuade kids.<\/p>\n

Bob gathered data on thousands of teenagers. He tracked their exposure to anti-drug ads and their marijuana use over time.<\/p>\n

The results?<\/p>\n

The ads didn\u2019t reduce drug use. They increased it. Teenagers who saw the ads were more likely to smoke marijuana.<\/p>\n

Let’s discuss why this happened, and how you might be making a similar mistake.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mistake Most Marketers Make<\/h2>\n

These anti-drug ads backfired because the ads unintentionally reinforced the idea that drug use was common. <\/strong>Rather than making the unwanted behavior seem scarce, the ads made drug-taking seem popular.<\/p>\n

This is called negative<\/em><\/span> social proof.<\/p>\n

People look to others to determine what\u2019s normal. The more they hear about something, the more they assume it\u2019s widespread.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We follow the actions of others. For example, simply reframing a menu item as \u201cmost popular\u201d can make it 20% more popular<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

The anti-drug campaigns meant to deter use were hindered by the same effect. They showed that drug use was a big enough problem to require national ads.<\/p>\n

And by making the behavior seem commonplace, they made kids more likely to try.<\/p>\n

Most marketers make the exact same mistake. They popularize a problem \u2014 but only make the problem worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of us have seen these messages before. Wikipedia repeatedly publicizes how \u201cfewer than 2% give\u201d. This message is doomed to backfire. And we have the evidence to prove it.<\/p>\n

Negative Social Proof Evidence\u00a0<\/h2>\n

1. To change behavior, highlight what people should<\/em> do.<\/h3>\n

Don’t highlight that negative behavior is commonplace.<\/p>\n

For instance, at Arizona\u2019s Petrified Forest<\/span><\/a>, a sign stating that many stole wood backfired \u2014 rather than reducing theft, the sign doubled the amount of theft.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A new sign urging preservation was far more effective, more than halving the theft.<\/p>\n\n

2. The UK’s largest retail bank made the same mistake.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

To encourage saving, Nationwide, the UK’s largest retail bank, advertised how <\/em>“11.5 million Brits have less than \u00a3100 saved”.<\/p>\n

Rather than persuading Britsh people to save more, this advertisement encouraged them to save less<\/span>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nationwide would have been more successful by highlighting how \u201c15 million British adults save enough for retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

3. In the UK, the NHS faces a recurring issue: missed medical appointments.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

To tackle missed medical appointments, some NHS managers displayed stats on no-shows. For example: \u201cEvery week, 4,520 appointments are missed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This message seems rational, surely aiming to persuade patients to come in on time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But research found this backfires. Seeing high numbers normalizes behavior.<\/p>\n

A simple shift solved it. New signs emphasized that \u201cmost patients arrive on time\u201d. No-shows dropped significantly.<\/p>\n\n

To persuade someone, don\u2019t make the opposite action seem commonplace. To encourage a customer to buy, don\u2019t say that most haven\u2019t bought yet. To persuade an event attendee to show up, don\u2019t say, \u201cmany of you haven\u2019t registered.\u201d To motivate a YouTube viewer to subscribe, never say only 2% of viewers subscribe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, to make you share this blog with a friend, I shouldn\u2019t tell you that only 1 in 1,000 readers share my blogs.<\/p>\n

Instead, I\u2019ll finish by letting you know that more readers than ever before are posting my work on socials, and I\u2019m extremely grateful to all of them.<\/p>\n

This blog is part of <\/span>Phill Agnew<\/a>\u2019s Marketing Cheat Sheet series where he reveals scientifically proven tips to help you improve your marketing. To learn more, listen to his podcast, <\/span>Nudge<\/a>, a proud HubSpot Podcast Network member.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to\u00a0Creator Columns, where we bring expert\u00a0HubSpot Creator\u00a0voices to the Blogs that inspire and help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}