How To Leverage SaaS LTD Reviews To Build Your Brand

According to Global Performance, 67% of the average B2B buyer’s journey is completed online. Especially now with more and more businesses shifting their operations to the cloud, that percentage is only going up.

SaaS companies and other online businesses cannot afford to ignore this fact if they want to stay relevant. As a SaaS business owner, you’ll want to leverage every platform you can use to rise above your competition.

In one of our blogs, we have talked about the potential of SaaS lifetime deals (LTD) in promoting your SaaS solution. If you’re a SaaS startup or are launching a new product, LTDs can be a potent tool to boost your brand awareness and jumpstart your growth.

Still, there’s the matter of promoting your LTDs. Let’s say you’ve already launched your product on a SaaS LTD platform.

But how do you broadcast to the world that you are offering a high-quality product at a sweet deal? How can you prove that your SaaS solution is unlike anything they’ve seen before?

The answer? SaaS LTD Reviews.

How SaaS Reviews Can Build Your SaaS Business

SaaS LTD reviews are, simply put, unbiased customer feedback about SaaS products. More specifically, these are the opinions of SaaS customers who have actually used the product they’re reviewing.

SaaS LTD Reviews can be in written or video format and oftentimes focus on the pros and cons of a SaaS solution.

Here are some benefits you can get from SaaS reviews:

• You get honest feedback from SaaS users
• It helps you rank higher in searches
• It builds trust with your customers
• It serves as social proof

Let’s discuss these benefits one by one.

1. Honest Feedback From Your Users

When customers are allowed to review SaaS products, they would be able to convey their honest opinions.

How? Simple. SaaS reviews are unbiased because users would not have any reason to sugarcoat their feedback.

If you offer really bad service or have a faulty SaaS solution, then the chances of people reporting on it are high. And if they do, by all means, let them talk about your SaaS solution.

Wait. Aren’t we talking about building your brand and not destroying it?

Yes, we are. And the bitter truth is that you can always get bad reviews for your product. And that’s because your product isn’t perfect.

But it doesn’t have to stay that way. And it definitely doesn’t mean just leaving the negative reviews as is.

In fact, it’s ultimately up to you if you’re going to take the chance to build your brand or destroy it.

What am I talking about?

I’m talking about which areas you can do something about. Whether your users leave a positive or negative review is beyond your control.

But what you can control is your response.

So if someone leaves a negative review of your product, you can either respond bitterly or graciously. Of course, you would want your response to be the latter kind.

One way to build your brand despite negative feedback is to thank them for their honest review. Then promise to improve it for them.

If it’s a bug, tell them a patch is on the way. If it’s a clunky interface, tell them it’s in the works.

But don’t stop there. Don’t just make the promise. Act on it. Honest reviews reveal to you what you’re product’s weak spot is. And how does that saying go? “Knowing is half the battle.”
If you know what needs to be improved, it’s easier to fix or upgrade it.

2. Reviews Build Trust With Your Customers

Customer sentiment and SaaS reviews can be powerful SaaS marketing tools.

One proven way to secure your customers’ loyalty is to allow them to voice out their opinions. If these are new customers fresh from your LTD campaign, asking their opinions tells them that you genuinely care about their needs.

If you already have existing customers, it shows them that you really do listen to them. So whatever review you receive, be sure to respond quickly and to do something about it.

3. Reviews Serve As Social Proof

Not only do reviews build trust within your existing customer base. It also builds confidence in your potential customers. It serves as social proof that would drive more sales.

Social proof is when you show people your reviews and testimonials. It helps convince them that what you sell works because other SaaS users think so too.

And for some companies, these SaaS reviews work better than the hype they generate themselves.

Self-generated hype can only go so far. Of course, you’re saying good things about your product. It’s your product. But if the great reviews are coming from others, it’s more credible. If it’s from verified users who have no reason to lie on their reviews, it’s more believable.

4. Reviews Make You More Visible In Searches

Imagine that you’re looking for a good sales automation solution for your business. So you type “best sales automation software” in the search bar.

One of the results is a reputable SaaS product reviews site with a list of the most reviewed sales automation SaaS solutions. So you go through the list and see a good one with a rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars.

Would you pick that SaaS product for your business?

Even if you don’t buy it right away, the product being on that list puts it on your radar. Even if you don’t buy it then and there, you already have an idea that that software is a good choice.

That’s what reviews can do for your SaaS brand. It makes it easier to find your product on reliable websites.

Still, it takes a lot to have that kind of visibility. You would need hundreds, if not thousands, of reviews. And you need to make sure that your reviewers give you a high rating.

That’s why you need a good strategy to get lots of favorable reviews.

We’ll talk about the specific strategies later. But first, let’s discuss the platforms where you could gather and display SaaS LTD reviews.

Best Platforms For SaaS LTD Reviews

Like marketing can have multiple channels, SaaS LTD reviews can also use several of them. After all, reviews can be a marketing tool. And you’ll want to use every channel that you can so that you can show the reviews to as many potential customers as you can.

You can use the following platforms for gathering and displaying your SaaS LTD reviews:

• Your own website
• The SaaS LTD platform itself
• SaaS review sites
• SaaS blogs

Let’s talk about them in more detail.

Your Own Website

Your SaaS website is your blog, storefront, and everything else you need to market and sell your SaaS product. It’s where you get the most control over the content.

If potential customers are visiting your website, that means they have heard of you already. They are already considering buying your product. They just want to see for themselves that your product would be worth the investment.

And if they see social proof right on your website, it could further convince them that your product is indeed worth it. Imagine a potential user who still has some reservations about your product. So they go to your website. Then see someone’s reviews that it gave them a good ROI. And boom, they are convinced about the value that your product can give them.

I know that’s a pretty simple way to put it. It’s not that fast in real life. But having these reviews on your website can go a long way to securing sales from your website visitors.

Just a tip. When you do display these reviews, you can use screenshots. They give a more authentic feel to the reviews.

Now, here’s the thing. The degree of control that you have on your website is a huge advantage when it comes to displaying any content in general. But for reviews, it may not be that strong or convincing.

Again, of course, there are positive reviews on your website. It’s your website. You have full control of what gets shown there.

That’s why displaying reviews on your site isn’t enough. You also need to use third-party platforms that your potential customers won’t see as unbiased.

The SaaS LTD Platform Itself

One unbiased source of reliable SaaS LTD reviews is the LTD platform itself. If you’ve launched your LTD campaign on a platform like AppSumo, your users can leave reviews right there on your listing.

In fact, if you do offer LTDs through such platforms, you have to get positive reviews there as soon as possible. Reviews are the first thing that potential customers check out before buying.

The reviews in your listing come from customers who have actually used your SaaS solution. Because of this firsthand experience, they have strong credibility when it comes to their reviews and testimonials.

So when a potential customer looks at the reviews on your SaaS listing, they have a high chance of buying your SaaS product.

Still, you need to watch what comments your customers are leaving. Veteran SaaS users tend to go into detail when leaving reviews about SaaS products.

That means going into detail on what works well in your product. However, it also means a detailed description of what they didn’t like about it.

Again, don’t be afraid to get negative reviews. Even if you do, your response will make a difference.

That’s actually one of the good things about the reviews section of your listing. In the same way that all visitors will see the reviews, they will also see your replies to those reviews.

So when you receive an unfair comment, you can graciously defend yourself and everyone will get the chance to see your side of the story.

SaaS Review Sites

We’ve used this platform as an example earlier. One of the benefits of gathering SaaS reviews on review site platforms is the visibility it can give you.

Now, these platforms are not exclusive to LTD reviews. They usually display reviews on all SaaS platforms, whether they offer LTDs or not.

SaaS review sites like G2, Capterra, FinancesOnline.com are some of the most reliable sources of reviews.

Like in SaaS LTD platforms, the feedback on these sites comes from users who have actually used the SaaS solution. In the same way, your response to these reviews will also be visible to the public.

If you visit these websites, you can see that they have reviews for almost all SaaS solutions ever offered to the public.

Yes, they have profiles for A LOT of SaaS products.
So won’t your product’s profile on these websites be like a needle in a haystack? Won’t that be a problem?

Well, not if the haystack has a search bar.

Visitors who are just browsing may not see your SaaS solution right away. But those who already know about your product still may see it.

Imagine a potential user who has already seen your Saas solution on an LTD platform. They’ve seen some of the reviews there, but they need to see more user feedback before making a decision.

So they go to G2 and find more reviews on your SaaS product. After weighing all the pros and cons, they decide to buy a lifetime license to your software.

Review sites also sometimes have lists featuring the highest-rated SaaS solutions per category.

For example, a page for the best CRM software would feature the top 100 CRM solutions on the review site. One good thing about these lists is that they are objective.

The rankings are based on the software’s number of stars, or tacos, or potatoes, or whatever symbol they use to rate the software.

But lists of best SaaS solutions per category aren’t limited to review sites. You can also find them in blogs.

SaaS Blogs

Blogs are also great and reliable sources of SaaS LTD reviews. But these blogs don’t have to have their niches exclusive to SaaS.

For example, PCMag is generally in the tech niche. But it also publishes listicle articles on the best SaaS solutions per category.

Same with Business News Daily. It usually blogs about business news and guides. But from time to time, it also lists the top SaaS products for some SaaS categories.

When blogs publish SaaS reviews, they usually rate the SaaS solution based on pricing, features, ease of use, and even customer support. Then they use their own SaaS review system to arrive at an overall final score of 1-5 stars.

Just a side note, having your SaaS product reviewed by third-party bloggers can even be an opportunity for affiliate marketing. We’ll go into more detail on that later.

Sometimes, SaaS providers themselves publish these kinds of blogs. And of course, they would put their own products at the top of that list. For example, Buffer’s blog for the best social media management software.

If you have a well-established blog for your content marketing efforts, this can be a good way to build your brand through it. If your blogs rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs), then that’s even better.

Strategies To Get Honest And Positive Reviews

We’ve talked about the different platforms where you can gather and display SaaS LTD reviews.

But how do you actually get your customers to give their reviews? And how do you make sure that they give positive comments?

While you have very little control over what they will say about your product, you can use some strategies to make sure they at least speak their mind.

Here are some of them:

• Build an awesome product
• Ask for the review
• Ask from your happy customers
• Offer rewards for reviews
• Leverage affiliate marketing

Build An Awesome Product

I know. Obvious, right?

The best thing you could do to get your customers to talk is to give them something good to talk about.

One tip to do this is to design your product around your target customers’ needs. Build it specifically to address their particular pain points.

If you do it right, it can even be favorable for a product-led growth model. Positive reviews would come organically and they would bring in even more customers.

Ask For The Review

Yet another obvious strategy. But it’s true.

Most of the time, your customers won’t give you reviews unless you ask them to.

One thing to consider with this strategy is the timing. You should do it after the customer has experienced using your SaaS solution, of course.

As for how long, you can wait at least a month after they have started using your SaaS product.

You might also want to prioritize your happy customers. If they are satisfied with the experience your product is giving them, they would be happy to leave you a review. And it will likely be a positive one.

Ask them to leave reviews on the SaaS LTD platforms and review sites. If you get comments that would make good testimonials, feature them on your website.

But how about the less happy customers? How do you get them to review your product?

You incentivize their reviews.

Offer Rewards For Reviews

One way you can motivate your customers to review your SaaS product is to offer them rewards. It can be free credits if your SaaS solution has a credit-based system. Or it can be a one-year free upgrade. Or it can be something as simple as a gift card.

You can also increase their reward if they leave more reviews on different platforms and review sites.

You can also do this with bloggers. You can provide them limited-time free access to your SaaS product. Not only does this incentivize them to review your product. It would also help them make accurate assessments of your SaaS solution since they get to try it for themselves.

But that’s not all you can do to motivate bloggers to write about your SaaS product. You can also give them monetary rewards if they bring in paying customers.

That brings us to our next point.

Leverage Affiliate Marketing

While launching your SaaS solution on an LTD platform is itself a form of affiliate marketing, you can use other methods to acquire even more customers.

One of those methods is having bloggers as your affiliates. They can review your SaaS product and add affiliate links to their blogs. If their readers click on their links and purchase your SaaS LTD, they get a commission.

These blogs don’t have to talk about your SaaS product alone. The content can be product comparisons, listicle articles, and other types of blog posts that can attract more customers.

Final Thoughts About SaaS LTD Reviews

SaaS LTD reviews are a great way to build your brand, establish your authority, and acquire more customers.

There are many different strategies and platforms that you can use to get positive feedback from your customers. But at the end of the day, it’s the quality of your product that would determine what kind of reviews you would get.

Remember that you want honest reviews for your product. If it gets too hyped and new customers end up disappointed, you might find yourself giving more refunds than expected.

For more strategies on growing your SaaS business, check out our blog here.