Cybersecurity marketing is just like any other business – if you are not running a customer advocacy program, then consequently, there’s a reason why you are not being prospected. So, as the need to evolve your B2B playbook grows, having a website is no longer enough to attract new leads. To get engagement (and ultimately sales), you need additional company and product profiles on 3rd party review platforms, especially those where your users and customers recommend your company, products, or services through strictly moderated peer insight.
Cybersecurity professionals and tech buyers use review platforms to evaluate new products and services in their buying considerations. As they research, cybersecurity content from the review platforms becomes visible as it often ranks in search platforms. A good review can influence buyer decisions by providing tech purchasers with honest peer information about their tech purchases. As per G2, “90% of B2B buyers are more likely to make a purchase after reading a trusted review“.
What is customer advocacy?
Customer advocacyCustomer advocacy is a form of customer service in which organizations use customers as spokespeople. Customer advocacy is a focused approach to customer service, supported by marketing techniques. Engaging the... is the marketing strategy designed to encourage and enable your customers to leave peer feedback and recommendations about your company to their peers, friends, and others. Customers, end-users, and partners can leave feedback about products or services on review platforms for others to read. But your company is not on the radar of the buyers and end-users who shortlist peer-reviewed products and providers unless you use these platforms. In terms of potential sales, this translates to a large number of misses!
Look at these statistics: G2 boasts 70M visitors per year, listing 1.8M reviews!
And Gartner Peer Insights has content from 395 markets, and 2.5M+ product comparisons take place through the platform each year.
Review platforms offer unbiased content that you can distribute to your customers to highlight the value of your services or products, and they are both free to the vendor and the general public.
Why cybersecurity marketing should invest
1) Amplify your company voice – Firstly, positive evaluations support your company’s visibility on search engines like Google or Bing. The more Google trusts you, the more customers you’ll draw in due to increased client confidence. Secondly, your company will appear higher on search engines like Google and Bing if you and your customers exhibit a high level of “mutual trust” based on the review ratings. Up to 15% of a website’s ranking criteria is made up of reviews! Capterra says, ‘Software products with 10+ reviews get three times the traffic’. Thirdly, Google will show your star rating from the review platform on the search results page, which can increase your click-through rates.
2) Influence in-market buyers – Review sourcing aside, completing a review platform profile helps increase company visibility.Completed profiles help build your reputation and provide prospective buyers with your company, services, and product information. Basic vendor listings are free, and there you can upload company descriptions, product descriptions, and optional pricing descriptions, upload assets, videos, and screenshots. According to Gartner, profiles get up to 80% more views with a completed profile.
3) Capture buyer demand – Reviews attract new customers, containing very specific information – peer-to-peer. A good review can influence a tech purchaser’s decisions by providing honest information about tech purchases. Tech buyers trust other tech buyers, so they use review platforms like G2, Gartner Peer Insights, or Capterra to compare current products on the market. If you think about it, we all love market comparisons; they make our decisions more straightforward, and we get the right product that solves our needs (and more!). Tech buyers also want that and are looking for their best-fit provider. So, review platforms provide the very specific market comparisons buyers want to see. G2 research says, ’7 out of 10 buyers reference reviews in the consideration phase’.
4) Close More Deals – Source feedback and use that leveraged content for marketing; what better than peer insight and recommendation? Reviews, review data aggregates, and reports can become marketing and sales content to be used on external platforms and your website. Reviews are a crucial component in helping customers feel confident about their purchasing decisions, frequently believing in them as much as personal recommendations. Include review quotes in your emails, landing pages, and signatures to promote the reputation you’ve already built and garner more interest from potential customers.
Starting a customer advocacy campaign checklist
Firstly, where do you start?
Top tip – start with the most widely used platforms for Tech industry products and services. Here’s a handy list to get you started: G2, Gartner Peer Insights, Get App, Capterra, Expert Insights, Trust Radius, SourceForge, Crozdeck, and B2B Stack.
Once you’ve chosen your target platforms, work through the checklist below.
* Perform a review platform site audit; where do you have profiles? Are they claimed or unclaimed? What can you do to improve your company’s presence on this platform?
* Produce unique product descriptions for each platform – don’t mess with SEO!
* Upload assets.
* Source reviews. Top tip – take advantage of the free incentives often offered when starting your review-sourcing campaigns.
Let us do the customer advocacy work for you
At Bora, we offer campaign plans or a complete A-Z package of review platform management, making your customer advocacy work a breeze. We are flexible and are happy to jump in at any stage, whether your idea is to create or update profiles, leverage content as assets, or drive reviews to unlock readership analytics and possible entry into Gartner Magic Quadrant and other market guides. Contact us for more details, or read more about The Value of a Cybersecurity Customer Review Platform.
