In today's world, buying decision is heavily dependant on recommendations from peers and online reviews, which is why you have to delight your customers and make them brand advocates for your SaaS business.
- 7 out of 10 consumers leave a review of they are asked
- 84% trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations.
Without further delay, let us discuss on various ways for identifying brand advocates for your SaaS business and leveraging them!
Identifying brand advocates for your SaaS business:
#1 Top customers
Top customers are:
- Customers who have been engaged with your business the longest
- Customers who are top spenders for your SaaS solution
- Customers who provide testimonials
- Customers who proactively provide referrals
Find your top customers group. These will be responsive when you ask for reviews and you will likely gethigh ratings from them.
#2 Engaged customers
Here are the places from where you can identify engaged audience:
- Social media
- Email marketing software
- User forums
- Blog comments
Look out for those customers who often like, share, and comments on your posts on social media, those who open a majority of your emails, and those who comment on your blogs. Take a list and these are your customers who will jump at the opportunity to be your brand advocates.
#3 Recent renewals
The customers who have decided to continue investing in your software must have seen valuable results and there is a great chance that they will be happy to review your software. Triggered email campaigns asking such recent renewals to review your product in software comparison sites like Capterra can work out well.
#4 Meetups
In-person meetings work well for building relationships and finding out strong advocates. Hosting own events, attending meetups, or having in-person meetings with your customers are best ways to identify brand advocates for your SaaS business. The customers who take time to attend your events are more likely to submit reviews if asked for and share referrals. Ask them face-to-face when you have their attention.
Now that we know how to identify brand advocates for your SaaS business, we can discuss on leveraging them.
Leveraging brand advocates for your SaaS business
Building reputation online is best done through customer reviews. Here are a few tips to collect more reviews:
1. Ask
While a few customers might review your software without asking, a majority of them might need a push. When you ask, be sure to tell that that their feedback is valuable and you want their honest review. Genuine feedbacks make your reviews trustworthy.
2. Strategize
Quantity: Businesses that stand out are those with a strong number of total reviews.
Quality: Review quantity goes hand in hand with quality. Clients look beyond the quantity of reviews while making the buying decision. They look at the quality of reviews for helpful feedback, which is why you have to pay attention on the start ratings. Negative reviews are not something that should hold you back. Infect when both good and bad scores are present, customers tend to trust your reviews more.
Recency: Collect new reviews consistently and frequently.
The above are the important keys to strong reviews.
3. Follow-up
It is possible that your clients might be busy to review right away. But sending a polite reminder after a few days to check in and ask if they have any questions can help in building a personal connection. Following up can help in identifying those who enthusiastically respond to your review requests. These customers are your strong advocates and you can consider featuring them in case studies, asking them to participate in feedback sessions, or suggesting them to join a referral program.
4. Thank them
Thanking your advocates is very important. Appreciate them for their time and reply to their reviews. This helps in getting long-term advocates for your SaaS business and building an even strong brand.
The above are a few tips on identifying and leveraging brand advocates for your SaaS business. Now, what's left is for you to delight your customers and make them brand advocates for your SaaS business!