The Value of a Cybersecurity Customer Review Platform

A cybersecurity customer review platform is nothing new but do they provide value? Well, when we are making all important decisions over business purchases, we devour the experiences of others with the products or services we are thinking of buying. No one wants to make the wrong decision, and finding the right fit for these larges purchases is crucial. In fact, hardly anyone makes a purchase these days without prior consultation with an online review platform like Google and business review readership is up at around 90%!

Why is collecting reviews so impactful?

Online reviews help businesses to build their reputation. Collecting and listening to feedback from end-users is a valuable asset, which can be leveraged into improvements and developments. This is all very good over time, but what other benefits are there here?

Based on a ‘mutual trust’ ranking between the customer (review rating) and the service, your business will rank higher on services like Google and Bing. Reviews contribute to up to 15% of a website’s ranking factor!
Your star rating will be displayed by Google on the search results page so you get a better click-through rate. For more about Google Seller ratings see here.
Most importantly, good reviews influence customer decisions by way of unbiased reviews and providing information to tech buyers about their tech purchases.

An overview of the Gartner Peer Insights platform

There are many types of cybersecurity customer review platforms but today we will just overview one of them to get an idea of how they work. Gartner Peer Insights is just one of the best rating and review platforms for IT solutions and cybersecurity services.

Firstly, both vendors and enterprise tech-buyers use this platform. It is open and free to the public to read and write the reviews, and to view the ratings. Peer Insights put simply is a platform where end-users review vendors products.

Enterprises and IT users procuring software, services and hardware and looking for well-informed, end-user information can read peer reviews about their intended purchase and look at comparisons. The peer reviews are collected online in a survey format. Subsequent content is built by a team of Gartner-based research analysts. These help buyers to understand the product from the perspective of a similar role and/or company size. As the reviewers are end-users, they provide their experience with a product, including the set-up and implementation. This will ultimately guide their purchase.

Reviews include:

Critical demographics
Detailed ratings
Qualitative comments.

These help buyers to understand the product from the perspective of a similar role and/or company size. As the reviewers are end-users, they provide their experience with a product, including the set-up and implementation. This will ultimately guide their purchase.

A tech-buyer journey on Gartner Peer Insights

Once your company has identified a goal or current problem concerning a technology purchase, the next step is to find the technology essential to this problem or goal and to begin your purchase shortlist.

Gartner Peer Insights information can help to inform that shortlist by way of experienced end-user feedback. The survey questions given to the reviewer are very specific for each product category and market.

End users are looking for their best-fit provider. The results of these detailed surveys supply the buyers with a wide segment of information to compare potential vendor products. The Gartner peer reviews are a valuable asset to any buyer, especially for those making multi-million dollar purchases.

The Gartner reviews include extensive information about the selected products including:

Technical evaluations
Ease of implementation
The service and support provided by the vendor during the whole process.

Other points of evaluation:

Was a third party used in the implementation process?
Did the buyer work solely with the vendor of the service or product?

Too good to be true?

Not really, as not everyone can provide reviews for Gartner Peer Insights. Gartner has a stringent review moderation process, including a background check on the reviewers. Gartner rejects 35% of all the reviews submitted including those from partners and affiliates, and those from competitors. It’s worth noting that reviewer anonymity is paramount, ultimately resulting in very honest feedback.

Despite reviewer anonymity, a Gartner review will supply the following information to its reader:

Company size,
The job role of the reviewer
The industry sector they work in.

This information is valuable to a buyer when comparing company sectors, sizes, and current needs. Professionals are provided peer information from people like themselves.

The vendor journey on Gartner Peer Insights

Firstly, if you are not using a customer review platform as a vendor, then there’s a reason why you are not being prospected. Enterprise software buyers and service decision-makers want to compare current products on the market.

Secondly, the audience using the Gartner Peer Insights platform to evaluate new products and services are IT Professionals (Buyers of Technology) from organizations with revenue greater than $500M/year! So without the platform, you are not on the radar of these buyers and end-users who shortlist peer-considered products and providers. This amounts to a huge number of misses!

Gartner Peer Insights has content from:

395 markets
2.5M+ product comparisons take place through the platform each year.

Gartner provides free unbiased material that a vendor can provide to their customers to highlight the value of their products. It is free to the vendor and free to the public. You do not even have to have an account with Gartner.

Your company should be a part of all that.

Why invest as a vendor?

The enterprise buyer is well familiar with primary buying guides, Gartner Market Guides, and documents like the Magic Quadrant. Other industry valuable documents produced by Gartner include the Voice of the Customer, Peer Lessons Learned and the Technology Provider Consideration and Selection document.

Presence on a review platform helps your business rank higher on search platforms, improving your click-through rate, and providing tech-buyers with the information they need to make their purchasing decisions. Most importantly review platforms like the Gartner Peer Insights provide cybersecurity vendors with a massive amount of visibility. In 2020:

Readers logged an incredible 87K + hours on the site
Gartner produced 170+ industry documents

Another great benefit of joining the Gartner Peer Insights program is the information that an end-user can access and leverage from within the reviews themselves. Gartner collates vendor information including marketing capabilities, sales enablement and competitive intelligence. Within the end-user platform, gartner.com has a search function where all of these documents are accessible.

How we can help?

Where does your company start with all this? Well, Bora can help. We have extensive knowledge of the platform, and we will do the work for you!

As part of our 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... program we:

Enable and encourage your highly satisfied customers to proactively recommend your company
Guide the set up of the Gartner Peer Insights account with an introduction to your Program Manager
Discuss a review-sourcing and social media campaign plan to help you reach a more valuable audience
Build a current and visible marketplace for enterprise products and services

With our guidance, you will soon be receiving peer reviews for your products, access to readership analytics, and possible entry into the revered linked documents such as the Magic Quadrant and Market Guides.

In conclusion, inclusion in these documents will be imperative to your bottom line. And in addition, enrolment in Gartner Peer Insights will help you to understand both market positioning and the competitive environment. Above all, providing visibility for your prospective customers. We can help you with this or any other customer review platform. When ready we can help you to choose and manage the best one to highlight your products and/or services, or if you would like to know more, contact us here.

Are you interested in more marketing advice from Bora? Check out SEO – Tips and Tricks for Improving Your Visibility on the Internet or What is Emoji? – Using Emoji in Digital Marketing Agencies.