How to Grow Your Business With Review Platforms

Few things are more important to a company’s success than customer feedback and reviews. More than 90 percent of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase from a company with trusted reviews, according to a report from G2. In addition, 23 percent of decision-makers rely on peer recommendations or review sites, according to a report from Marketing Charts.

Without social proof and an online presence, buyers might not even know you exist.

It’s a challenge every business struggles with when they first start out, including us at Belkins six years ago. But there’s a solution. Developing a solid digital footprint on multiple review platforms can play a significant role in accelerating your company’s growth. It even helped us bring in 100-plus opportunities a month. 

Read on to learn tried-and-true tactics to help you get the most out of your testimonials and expand your presence on review sites.

Why Use Review Platforms

Two reasons: Trust and revenue.

Of course, review platforms can’t serve as the sole lead source. But with them, your sales team can facilitate deal closures and guide client discussions in the right direction. When a sales representative shows a prospect the client’s appraisal from one of the largest independent international platforms, it lends them authority.

Still, you can’t ignore the fact that it’s a solid source of new, high-quality leads and future clients. For instance, here’s what just one of the review platforms we use brings us monthly:

• Up to 1,800 unique views of our account.
• Up to 1,600 of them visit our website.
• Around 100 high-quality contacts (with an average of $140 per lead).
• Around 65 opportunities.
• Two to five closed-won new deals every month.

On top of that, review platforms often offer annual awards and recognitions. By winning those, you can get a chance to run a promo campaign and announce your achievements. In turn, it can build more trust in your brand. 

Mentioning reviews and awards on your website, in your marketing materials, in email signatures and even in relevant case studies can help you quickly signal trust with your buyers. Even if someone hasn’t heard about your company, they’ll most likely know what Clutch, Trustpilot, Goodfirms, G2 or Capterra are — especially if they’ve ever researched software.

More on Customer SuccessInside the Customer Experience Dilemma

Common Review Platform Challenges

Beginners listing a company on a review site can encounter many challenges while trying to rise to the top. Yet, overcoming them can open up growth opportunities:

• Establish authority and industry expertise
• Gain the trust of the potential clients
• Attract sales-ready leads regularly

Such results are worth trying, so let’s see what obstacles you might have to navigate while conquering review platforms.

1. Negative Feedback

While clients may be delighted with your products or services, they might not readily leave a review, considering it as an additional task. To make things more difficult, people are more likely to leave a negative review than a positive one. That’s why accumulating a substantial volume of positive reviews can be a real challenge. 

This is where you need to take the initiative and make them change their mind. Handling negative feedback is a routine part of business, but effectively managing positive reviews demands an equal level of attention and effort.

The Solution: Create customer experiences that exclude the possibility of bad reviews. Analyze each negative case, adjust internal processes, polish communication and even establish bonds with your clients.

2. Getting to the Top Organically

Becoming a top-ranking company on a review platform is a tough task, but not an impossible one.

Most platforms require payment for a high ranking. But some of them don’t sell top places in the listings, and you have to earn them, like Clutch Leaders Matrix. Though this ranking is hard to earn, it’s worth it. Its organic nature not only bolsters trust but also drives an influx of leads.

The Solution: Build up a customer success process with a dedicated person within your team. At Belkins, it’s a marketing operations manager, who works with multiple review platforms daily. This specialist ensures that we meet all the criteria to maintain our leading position and handles negotiations with clients.

How to Encourage Clients to Leave Reviews

Here’s an example of a functioning process to encourage clients to leave reviews:

1. Detect the proper client. Our marketing operations manager monitors the projects’ health in the client success platform and chooses the ones with 100 percent KPIs or outperformed metrics. Then, they contact the responsible account manager (AM) to ask for a review. In other cases, AMs themselves detect the most successful projects and go straight to the business on the nearest sync-up call.
2. Ask the right questions. On the call with the client, our AM asks how satisfied they are with our service. If their answer is positive and they are happy, the account manager asks what rate from one to five they would give us. If it’s a solid five, our teammate asks the final question: “Would you mind reviewing us on Clutch/G2/etc.?” In our practice, around 50 percent agree, and the AM introduces the client to our marketing operations manager.
3. Communicate and guide. The marketing operations manager connects with the client via email. They craft tailored email sequences with follow-ups. The manager follows up once a week and regularly gives updates about the review status to the dedicated AM. Sometimes the process can last up to several months.
4. Simplify the process for clients. In the emails our manager sends, we always include a link that leads clients to a review form directly. But if clients do have some issues or questions, the manager addresses these concerns.
5. Manage the tasks. Since this workflow includes lots of touches and communication, we have a separate Trello board to manage the processes. For each project, the marketing operations manager creates a card that helps the team track the statuses of all reviews, collects news from AMs and follows up in a timely fashion.  

This seamless and well-built process allows us to receive up to 60 new reviews yearly on Clutch alone and stay on top of the categories we’re targeting.

How to Get the Most From Your Review Platform

Though different independent review sites have their specifics, there are still common things that will work for most of them. To achieve a top 10 position without payment, take into account the following factors:

• Quantity, relevance and quality of reviews plus average score based on all reviews. Regardless of platform, always aim for a 5.0 average score. Both the review sites and potential clients pay attention to this. The higher the score, the more promotion you get.
• Proven track record. Without a solid portfolio, you can’t expect a good rating from B2B review platforms. Moreover, case studies make the account more convincing for leads.
• Company’s marketing efforts. In other words, you need to be active rather than waiting for someone to discover you.
• Online presence. The company should maintain an active website, a strong presence on social media platforms, and garner mentions in the media.
• Size and quality of clients the company works with. The more trustworthy and well-known businesses are on your client list, the better.
• Other metrics like reputation in the industry, HQ location and awards, etc.

More on Customer SuccessImprove Your Customer Experience. Hire a Decision Scientist.

How to Generate Leads From Your Review Platform

So, here’s how to make your account more attractive and get leads from it:

1. Set up your profile. Complete as many fields as possible and catch at every opportunity to tell more about yourself. You can even add cases and links to social media.
2. Provide a portfolio of your previous works. Add video reviews if the platform supports such an option.
3. List the awards you’ve won. If you have none, try to win some. Search for relevant recognitions and apply for them. Also, add awards to the email signatures of your team. This is especially relevant for account managers, CEOs, and other C-level execs, BDRs and sales teams as it helps to increase reply rates.
4. Create a separate landing page for each platform on your website. The message there should be relevant for warmed-up leads, who are ready to talk shop. For instance, we’ve added our contact form to the first screen.
5. Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews. Be sure to reach out to your customers and inquire about their experience. If they are loyal to you, and you’ve compiled a good email template, you’ll be able to get a response and a testimonial from them.
6. Work with negative reviews. Don’t ignore them. Try to figure out why the client wasn’t satisfied with your service. Come up with a tailored solution, and after that, ask them to change the score if they change their mind.

The most important thing behind all those tips is to provide a service of such quality your customers will be eager to leave positive reviews on their own.

These tips should aid you in crafting an impressive company profile and securing a regular flow of opportunities from review sites