How To Leverage SaaS Review Sites To Boost Your Sales

Any business, especially in the SaaS space, needs positive reviews in order to gain the trust of its potential customers.

In fact, according to a study conducted by Zendesk, 88% of their respondents say that customer reviews are a huge factor when it comes to their buying decisions. So they really have a huge potential to grow your user base.

But here’s the thing: You don’t have complete control over your user’s reviews. Sure, you can encourage them to leave feedback for your product. But you can’t really tell exactly what they are going to say.

So how do you take advantage of such a platform with a high potential to promote your SaaS product?

In this article, we will talk about how to leverage SaaS review sites in order to attract more customers and boost your sales.

Why You Need SaaS Reviews

Reaching 88% more of your potential customers is already a great reason why you need reviews for your SaaS product, right? But there’s a lot more to it than that.

Here are some great things that SaaS reviews can give you:

Exposure

One of the most important things that reviews can give to your business is exposure.

Potential customers are going to be looking for information about your SaaS solution. And if they find any reviews on popular review sites, they might be more inclined to buy your product.

We will talk more about the top SaaS review websites later on. But to really gain exposure for your product, you need to make sure that you have a profile for each of the most popular ones.

After all, they are the most-well known review sites because they contain the most honest and credible reviews.

Social Proof

One of the most important things that reviews can give you is social proof.

When people see that others have already bought your product and are happy with it, they are more likely to buy it themselves.

And this is especially true for SaaS products.

Potential customers are often hesitant to purchase software that they have never used before. But if they see that other people have given your product a good rating, they will feel more confident in their buying decision.

High-Quality Lead Generation

Review sites can also be a platform to acquire high-quality leads.

If people intentionally look at reviews about your product, that indicates that they are already interested or at least curious about it.

Those are high-quality leads right there.

Now, most review sites today can incorporate calls-to-action (CTAs) and links to your website or landing page. If you take advantage of those tools, then you can capture these high-quality leads more easily.

Real Customer Insights

When you have reviews for your product, you also get real customer insights.

This is extremely valuable information that can help you improve your product.

You can see what people like and don’t like about your product. And you can use this information to make the necessary changes and improvements.

Backlinks

Search engine optimization (SEO) is extremely important for any business, especially those that rely on content marketing.

And if you don’t know yet, content marketing is one of the most potent methods for a SaaS business to get its brand out there.

Now, one of the best ways to improve your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) is by getting inbound links or backlinks. These are links from other websites that point to your website.

And one of the best sources of high-quality backlinks is from reputable review sites.

When you have links on popular SaaS review websites that lead back to your web pages, it will help improve your SEO ranking.

But that’s not the only way for you to improve your visibility on search engines using review sites.

Search Engine Visibility

This benefit doesn’t necessarily involve SEO practices. Nor will every SaaS business get to enjoy this benefit.

You see, some SaaS review sites have pages where they list the top SaaS products for each category.

For example, let’s say that you’re offering a marketing automation SaaS solution. Then one of your potential buyers looks up “best marketing automation software” on Google.

One of the first search results would probably be a review site that lists the 50 top-rated marketing automation solutions.

Now, imagine that your software is on that list.

That would ultimately boost your search engine visibility and build trust with your buyers.

But as I said, not every SaaS business in your niche will make it to that list. There are many different ways you can move up the ranks and be visible in that way. We will discuss some of the strategies later.

But for now, let’s talk about the different platforms and sites where you can have your SaaS reviews.

4 Most Popular Platforms For SaaS Reviews

There are many different SaaS review sites on the internet. But not all of them are created equal. They each have their own pros and cons.

Still, no one’s stopping you from creating or claiming your company profile on all of these sites. After all, being on a lot of credible review sites would only improve your exposure.

Here are the most popular SaaS review sites today:

• G2
• Capterra
• FinancesOnline
• TrustRadius

These are well-established SaaS user review websites on their own. But sometimes, you can still find honest and reliable reviews platforms that are not necessarily dedicated only to SaaS user reviews.

So let’s add two more platforms to the list:

• Social media
• SaaS Review blog sites

Let’s talk about each of these sites and platforms one by one.

1. G2

G2 (formerly G2 Crowd) is one of the most popular SaaS review sites on the internet.

They have a very large database of SaaS products and an audience of more than 5 million SaaS buyers.

On this site, you can find a category for almost all the niches that SaaS solutions cater to.

What’s more, their reviews are written by real users. That means that a lot of potential buyers would trust these customer reviews.

This site also allows users to submit their reviews in video form. If one of your customers does this, it can be a great way to show off your product and how it works in the real world.

But more than just being a site where you can gather and display user reviews, G2 also offers a whole arsenal of marketing solutions. These tools allow you to identify potential buyers, add CTAs to your profile, and a whole lot more.

Just take note that G2 doesn’t give out all of these marketing features for free. The platform has three paid plans with varying levels of access to its seller solutions.

2. Capterra

Capterra is another popular site that specializes in SaaS reviews.

This website is a part of the Gartner Digital Markets family of SaaS review sites. Along with Capterra, other popular sites like GetApp and Software Advice also belong to this group.

So, creating or claiming a SaaS vendor profile with Gartner Digital Markets covers all of those three integrated sites. Your user reviews would be visible across all of them.

Like G2, Gartner Digital Markets also offers marketing tools. Although they are not as comprehensive as what G2 has. By upgrading to a Premium account, you can have access to various features like competitor analysis, buyer insight, campaign analytics, and more.

3. FinancesOnline

FinancesOnline is another popular site that offers reviews of business software and services.

What’s unique about this website is that it offers both expert and user reviews. This gives you a more balanced view of how your product fares with users and experts.

This review platform uses two proprietary methodologies in rating SaaS solutions: the SmartScore system and the customer satisfaction algorithm.

SmartScore System: The SmartScore system seeks to create an unbiased rating of how useful a SaaS solution is.

With this system, FinancesOnline’s team of B2B and finance experts takes into account varying levels of importance on different aspects of a SaaS solution.

With main functionalities contributing to 20% of the final score, it also considers collaboration features, customizability, integrations, and a lot more factors.

Customer Satisfaction Algorithm: This system provides a holistic view of how happy users are with the SaaS product.

It scans all of a product’s reviews on social media, blog sites, and other review sites. Then it puts all of those feedback into one database where it processes the scores and keywords used in those reviews.

After sorting the ratings and comments, this system further analyzes them. It assigns a positive, neutral, or negative level of satisfaction for each of them.

Finally, it calculates the final Customer Satisfaction Rating based on the ratio of positive and neutral reviews to negative reviews.

4. TrustRadius

TrustRadius is a site that specializes in B2B SaaS product reviews.

Just like FinancesOnline, TrustRadius has its own proprietary system for rating SaaS solutions. This system is called the TR Score.

This system considers several factors, including Net Promoter Scores (NPS), ratings for usability and support, and scores for features specific to the SaaS solution.

The goal of the trScore is to generate an accurate overall rating for each SaaS solution being reviewed on the TrustRadius website.

Most sites just get an average of all the ratings and that’s that. But the resulting final rating may not be very accurate due to some factors. For one, some reviews may outdated. Or the SaaS provider may have only asked their happy customers for reviews.

The TR Score addresses all that by having a weighted average that favors recent and in-depth reviews from a random representative sample of users.

The TR Score, along with TrustRadius’ other verifications and badges, fosters a lot of trust with its readers. That’s why a lot of buyers see this site as a reliable source of user reviews.

Social Media

Your company’s social media accounts can also be leveraged to get user reviews.

Sure, it may not be the first place people would look at if they specifically want to see reviews. But user reviews can largely contribute to your social media marketing efforts.

After all, a lot of your potential customers might first hear about your SaaS product through social media. Having authentic reviews on your company profile would help you make a good first impression with them.

SaaS Review Blog Sites

Another great platform for SaaS reviews is blog sites. In fact, we also publish SaaS review blog posts from time to time. Blog posts tend to be more in-depth and detailed than reviews left by users. This gives potential customers a more well-rounded view of your product.

Plus, blog sites are great for reviews because they have a very engaged audience. Bloggers are always on the lookout for good content to write about.

So if your SaaS product falls on their radar for content ideas, there’s a high chance that a blogger will write about it.
Better yet, you can reach out to these types of bloggers and ask them to review your SaaS solution.

Who knows? It can even be an opportunity for affiliate marketing.

But still, just because you’re paying a commission to them doesn’t mean you get to control what is in those review articles.

In fact, you should find bloggers who don’t let SaaS vendors dictate the content of their reviews. You need content producers that create honest and objective review articles.

Why?

Because those are the kind of product reviewers that build solid trust with their audience.

How To Leverage SaaS Review Sites

So how do you go about leveraging these sites for your SaaS product?

Well, it depends on which site you’re targeting. But the very first step is to claim your company profile and add as much information as possible. This will help people learn more about your product and how it works.

As for specific strategies, the following practices may help:

Deal With Negative Reviews Nicely

As we mentioned earlier, you have no control over what your users will say about your product.

Some may be happy enough to give you flying colors. But there will just be others who would give you negative reviews.

The scary thing about these kinds of reviews is that they could hurt your brand. They give negative word-of-mouth and can really be a big reason why a lot of potential buyers won’t choose your product.

Unless you do something about it.

You see, even when you get negative reviews, you can still turn things around in your favor.

To do that, you can do the following:

Respond Politely: When someone leaves a negative review, make sure to respond to them politely. Thank them for their feedback and tell them that you’re sorry for the inconvenience.

This shows that you’re listening to your customers and that you’re willing to address their concerns.

You never know. Someone who left a negative review may be on the verge of canceling their subscription. And a respectful response may just keep them from doing so.

What’s more, remember that your potential buyers are watching. Your response to negative comments also gives them a glimpse of how you handle customer complaints.

Showcase Your Awesome Customer Support: A lot of users who leave negative reviews are really just experiencing specific issues with the SaaS product.

And it could be your opportunity to showcase your awesome customer support team. Fix the problem efficiently while being polite to your customer.

Being able to do those things will show how excellent your customer support is. Not just to your existing users, but even to potential customers.

Take Responsibility: Your users may also find a real flaw in your SaaS product. And sometimes, it’s an issue that can only be addressed through a full-fledged patch or update.

When that happens, take responsibility for it. Apologize and tell them how you’re going to fix the problem.

This shows that you’re a company that takes its users seriously. It also gives potential buyers a sense of how you handle your product’s shortcomings.

Use The Marketing Tools On The Review Site

As we discussed earlier, most review sites have marketing tools that you can use to your advantage. The most common ones would be banner ads, buying intent signals, and competitor analysis.

However, we also mentioned above that most of these tools are accessible only through paid plans or premium accounts.

So you should consider these marketing tools as an investment. After all, they do help you build your brand and drive in more customers.

Feature User Reviews On Your Website

One of the best ways to leverage user reviews is by featuring them on your website

You can do this in a few ways:

Showcase User Reviews As Testimonials: One way to feature user reviews is by displaying them as testimonials on your homepage or landing page. This gives potential buyers a sense of how your product has helped other users.

Create A Separate Page For User Reviews: Another way to feature user reviews is by creating a separate page for them on your website

This will allow potential buyers to dive deep into how your product has helped other users. It’ll also give them an idea of how popular your product is.

Include Them In Your Blog Posts: As a SaaS business, you probably have a content marketing campaign going on.

You can also include user reviews in your promotional blog posts. These reviews would be helpful additions to your bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) content.

This gives your sales-qualified leads (SQLs) a clearer view of how your product works in the real world and how it can help them achieve their goals.

By featuring user reviews on your website, you’re not only leveraging the power of word-of-mouth but you’re also showing potential buyers that you have an active and vocal user base.

Ask For Reviews From Your Happy Customers

Another way to leverage user reviews is by asking for them from your satisfied customers. You can identify them by sending them an NPS survey or other customer satisfaction surveys.

When you have a list of your happiest customers, send them an email or create a landing page specifically to ask them for feedback.

And make sure to provide them with an incentive for doing so. This could be anything from a discount code to a free month of subscription.

The key here is to make it easy for them to leave a review. You can do this by providing them with a link to the review site or by including a form on your website.

When you ask for reviews from your happy customers, you’re not only increasing the general number of user reviews that you have. You’re also increasing the chances that they’ll be positive.

Just remember that some review sites like TrustRadius have scoring systems that take this factor into consideration.

Final Thoughts About SaaS Review Sites

SaaS review sites are a great way to get feedback about your product and to leverage that feedback for marketing purposes. Doing so will help you build your brand and boost your sales.

However, you should keep in mind that not all review sites are created equal. Some of them are more popular than others. And some of them have more marketing tools than others.

What’s more, these review sites have different methods of inspiring trust with their audiences.

To cover all of your bases, it’s best to create or claim a profile on all of the popular review sites.

But when it comes to using paid marketing tools, that might depend on your budget. Just make sure that you choose the platform(s) that have the features necessary to boost your marketing efforts.

Looking for more strategies and guides on growing your SaaS business? Visit our SaaS marketing blog here.