Is your B2B SaaS company taking full advantage of reviews? While everyone is familiar with Yelp or Amazon ratings within the B2C space when it comes to B2B SaaS many of our clients are not familiar with the opportunities that exist on B2B review sites. This is a missed opportunity for growth because reviews can help with every stage of the customer lifecycle from awareness to acquisition to retention, in fact, according to research from G2, 82% of buyers find review sites valuable in their search. In this Mosaic Minute, we will walk you through how reviews can impact all phases of the customer lifecycle to boost growth.
Why are B2B reviews important?
Consider the customer lifecycle stages and you can see the impact reviews can have on each stage.
Awareness – As the buying process has become more complex the number of additional sources of information to help users research a solution has increased substantially. B2B review sites are a leading source of information about software solutions because they quickly give users a quick way to research multiple solutions. In addition, review sites also make prospects aware of companies the prospect did not even know existed. Visitors to review websites are not just researchers, many of them are active buyers who are looking for a solution meaning that they convert at higher rates than most traffic sources.
Consideration – Review sites are also important during the consideration phase because they give valuable real-world insights from actual users helping prospects narrow the list of products to consider. Review sites make it easy for prospects to find all products with a high rating that meet their necessary criteria.
Purchase – Positive reviews and ratings can be incorporated on a companyโs website and in their sales process to help move users to a purchase decision. Two of the primary decision criteria for prospects when making a B2B purchasing decision are trust and risk. Reviews help build trust and positive ratings help reduce concern around risk. It is much easier for a decision-maker to pitch a solution internally that has a high rating and a set of reviews that address common pain points.
Retention – Developing a review-focused mindset can help organizations improve retention by implementing tools like net promoter score (NPS) to develop a stronger understanding of how customers feel about your product. Our first suggestion for many clients in trying to improve their reviews is to implement an NPS program so they can identify users who love the product vs the users who are dissatisfied.
Advocacy – Finally, reviews help with advocacy because they provide a mechanism for users to express their opinion about the product. We often find clients who have lower ratings have many users who love the product but simply donโt have a way to express their opinion. When our clients give their customers a mechanism to provide feedback, they see a large improvement in their ratings.
Reviews beyond the customer lifecycle
Reviews also help businesses beyond the customer lifecycle. High ratings and a large number of reviews demonstrate brand authority within an industry making it easier to gain PR and build partnerships. Plus, links back from your review profiles help build your website authority improving your organic search performance.
TL;DR
Review sites are an effective way to drive growth but remain an underutilized tactic for many B2B SaaS companies. We have worked with many clients to improve their growth throughout the customer lifecycle by implementing an effective review strategy. While not always simple to implement, the review-focused mindset not only drives more deals but can also improve customer satisfaction.
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