How to turn raw feedback into powerful social proof
I launched a brand new offer called Get Pitch Done Week last month.
It was great.
So I’m running it again in the first week of Feb—
Once the feasting season is over, the kids are back at school, and you’re feeling fired up about putting some very cool opportunities in your calendar
I’m currently updating the page with social proof from the first round of Pitchers, and figured it might be a nifty little lesson in how to best leverage the proof you have so you can roll on outta here and optimise yours.
Alright, let’s dive into a couple of examples, starting with the feedback Miish Grixti sent my way.
Here’s her typeform, in all its unedited glory:
If I was a bro marketer, chances are I’d take this epic insight and boil it down to a douchey stat, like "2244% ROI", pat myself on the back, and call it a day...
Here’s what I’m doing with it instead:
Thing #1: Adding this to the GPDW sales page, right underneath the first place I name the price ($147 USD, for reference)
"Of the five pitches I sent out, I ended up landing a $3300 project, paid in full the following week. It was so fun to write and send the pitch, and then *get* to work with this client in this way."
—Miish Grixti, Strategic partner for coaches ready to make magnetic offers with congruent copy
Can you see how placing this just after I name the price can nip any price-related objections in the bud, and do it in a way that’s much more tangible (and therefore impactful) than the crazy ROI %, bro-marketer approach?
(I don’t know about you, but my brain can’t really conceptualise what 2244% even IS… it tries to make a pie graph, but then gets confused because 100% is the full circle, so then it just makes squiggles and some elevator music comes on, and I start thinking about what I might have for elevensies, and how I really would be quite a good hobbit — *especially* if I stopped waxing my toe hair.)
There are a few other things this little snippet helps me do, including call out my ideal prospect (a service provider), and help illustrate the speed of return in a meaningful way — something that means I’ll also be leveraging this piece of proof in an email/on socials right before Get Pitch Done Week kicks off in February, because helping someone see that they could have a new project booked and paid for 2 weeks from ‘now’ is a compelling piece of the purchasing decision.
Thing #2: Bookmarking this as a conditional message (i.e. a piece of copy that only shows to subscribers who meet certain conditions) for people who’ve worked with me before, when I actively promote GPDW to my list
%FIRSTNAME%, I know we’ve worked together before, so you might be thinking "meh, I’ve learnt a lot from Kirsty about pitching already… will this be different?".
Miish Grixti (who I've worked with on and off for the past 6 years) was — understandably! — also sitting with this thought before she jumped into GPDW last time. Here’s what she said, once the week was done:
"This was different, for sure! It was a whole *experience* which was uber valuable in and of itself — I got five pitches sent! And beyond that, I definitely learnt new perspectives and processes and skills and workflows that I'm so glad to be taking with me.
To be honest, I *was* one of those weird people who didn't hate it when I first came into GPDW... I'd experienced success from pitching before... But now, the whole process is just simpler and easier and more delightful."
Can you see how this might be compelling?
Not only because of how it tackles the objection, but also because of the way it acknowledges the existing working relationship I have with certain people on my list.
TLDR: Great social proof isn’t just about the proof you have, but how you leverage it
Ok, for another example, here’s the feedback Nic Moors sent my way after GPDW:
And here are two ways I’ll be leveraging these insights
(In case you're wondering, I've updated the timing of the deadlines so that my northern hemisphere friends in the next round have better access to me in the lead up to submitting pitches for critique)
Way #1: Using this as an opener for an email promoting the offer
"I knew I had to pitch but man, everything else always seemed like a priority over my own damned business."
I won’t write the rest of the email here (let’s be honest, in an era of short attention spans, this *very* detailed post is already pushing the limits!), but I’ll use that line — with quotations — as a way to:
Step 1: normalise that experience
Step 2: speak directly to existing (hooray for ethics!) + related (hooray for context!) pain points
Step 3: pull more proof from Nic’s feedback form + stuff she shared inside the GPDW space to show what shifted for her when she used GPDW as a tool to do the damn thing. I’ll likely follow up with Nic in a couple of months to see where her pitches led, including the reply she got from the ‘DREAM client who is very well known in their space (think global speaker & best selling author)’. It’s already compelling proof, but being able to close the circle on this would add another layer.
Step 4: double down with more result-focused proof from others inside GPDW, so people can see Nic’s experience wasn’t unique
This approach is all about using social proof to connect the people who’ve used your offer with the people considering it, by highlighting relevant pieces of their ‘before’, as a way to build a reliable bridge from ‘here’ (their current experience, which may well look like Nic’s ‘before’) to ‘there’ (their version of Nic’s results).
So many businesses focus only on the ‘after’, which has the unintended effect of separating or ‘othering’ their current prospects, who don’t see themselves reflected in the proof on offer.
Way #2: Adding this to the checkout page
"Get Pitch Done Week helped me Get Pitch Done. I loved it & feel super confident about my pitches!" — Nic Moors, Launch Strategist + Copywriter
The checkout page is prime real estate for social proof that reduces any lingering risk around the purchasing decision.
Since the feedback from the first round of GPDW tells me that the most common objection pre-purchase was "will I actually follow through?", Nic’s statement is right on the money.
There are a bunch of other ways I’ll be leveraging Nic’s feedback (e.g. to highlight how GPDW is different to other pitchy things you may have tried before, and — for a slightly different use case — to support a pitch I’m making to speak at an in-person event next year), but I hope what I’ve shared here has given you some ideas.
If it has, and you want more strategy, tools, and real-life, annotated examples to help you optimise the way you collect and leverage your proof, check out The Social Proof Sidekick
It has everything you need to really, truly ace your social proof game, including:
👉🏻 the Build-A-Survey tool, which helps you pinpoint which Qs to ask to get the good stuff, and how to motivate people to *actually* respond
👉🏻 foolproof scripts to help you get permission to use ‘unprompted social proof’ (aka all that good stuff your clients and customers share with you off-the-cuff in emails, on social media, and inside your group programs)
👉🏻 the annotated examples mentioned above (so you can see what I'm doing with the social proof I collect, along with the strategy behind it), and
👉🏻 a use case section that steps you through specific challenges, like proving a beta offer, proving an offer in a crowded market, and proving intangible outcomes.
After I posted a promo for the Sidekick earlier in the week, I got so many responses from people who already own it (Eman Ismail, Katie Boyce, Rachel Anderson, and the like) saying they still love it + use it all the time.
Given so many digital products have the lifespan of a fart once people buy them, this made me feel INCREDIBLY chuffed.
If your social proof is already doing the bulk of your selling for you, but getting a peek inside Get Pitch Done Week has you itching to kick off 2026 with some exciting opportunities in your calendar, click here to take a squiz at all the details.
I’ll be uploading fresh proof to the page over the next few days, but all the logistics are up to date.
To long posts with many screenshots,
Kirsty xo
PS. One of the things I teach inside Get Pitch Done Week is that the best pitches are always in response to something — taking a natural opening and turning it into an opportunity.
Here’s a spur of the moment pitch I sent the folks at Circle this morning, at the end of the product feedback survey they sent out:
Yes, I see the glaring typo, and yes I only noticed it after hitting submit, as is The Way Of Typos 🙃
If they respond (either directly or by purchasing the Sidekick), I’m going to pitch them a consultation project to optimise their proof-collecting system and upskill them in how to leverage the insights they collect.
And, if that goes well, I’m going to pitch them a workshop for their members (which would actually be the most lucrative opportunity of this little rabbit hole).
Anyway, just figured it’s always nice to know someone practices what they preach
Here's the link to:
👉🏻 The Social Proof Sidekick, and
👉🏻 Get Pitch Done Week
One last time (because this post is long, and scrolling is tricksy).