A TL;DR Playbook for Driving Revenue with TrustRadius
Buying behavior changes faster than marketers are able to keep up. As we discovered in our 2024 B2B Buying Disconnect Report: The Year of the Brand Crisis, what marketers think is working often misses the mark. It’s a rat race, and while we can’t solve every problem, we can lay them out for you, share what we know (backed by data), and give you proven solutions that you may not have tried before.
If you’re looking for new tactics to address any of the below obstacles, keep reading!
Get insights into the following areas plaguing B2B tech marketers in 2024-2025:
Breaking through ineffective messaging in an oversaturated marketplace
Changing buyer preferences and evolving tech are disrupting tried-and-true GTM strategies
It doesn’t matter if you’re a big player in today’s technology market or an emerging brand, reaching today’s technology buyer is tough. While GTM teams have spent the last several years scrambling to keep up with changes and risk-averse buyer preferences, the proliferation of AI presents its own challenges.
Everyone is feeling the impact on SEO, discoverability, and brand trust right now, and while it may seem like an uphill battle, the good news is–we’ve made it easy for you to address these shifts and give buyers exactly what they’re looking for.
Today's technology buyer doesn't trust you
Buyers don’t put a lot of weight into marketing claims. They want real-life proof that a product will fit their use case and solve their problem. They want to test-drive a product before they purchase and want to hear that it will solve their problem directly from people like them.
Tech sellers’ macro business problems typically boil down to three categories: brand awareness, brand preference, and revenue growth. The biggest obstacle sellers are facing today is building buyer confidence and helping buyers take the leap of faith that your solution is going to do what it promises to do.
The solution:
Building buyer confidence starts with transparency
Buyers want to try before they buy, and product demos are key to establishing trust
As the #1 resource technology buyers investigate on their journey, product demos are good to have on your website. But not all technology sellers have a product that comes ready for an unguided demo out of the box, or maybe your demo page just isn’t a high performer. Whatever the reason, if you’re looking to create better visibility, make sure to leverage an interactive demo on TrustRadius. These simple, interactive, and easy-to-create demos can be tailored to specific personas and/or use cases you need to highlight. This tactic allows you to tailor a test-drive to the right destination for your buyer’s persona, use case, etc. It also helps increase traffic to your product listing on TrustRadius—a double win.
Average customer results after utilizing an interactive demo:
470%
Buyers interacting with a demo on TR have a 470% increase in session duration
330%
Buyers engaging with a demo on TR have a 330% increase in pages per session
15%
Our partners report a 15% increase in MQLs for customers using interactive demos
15-25%
Our partners report a 15-25% increase in meetings booked for customers
Influencing the buyer’s journey with long-form reviews
Right behind “your own prior experience,” it’s no surprise that buyers want customer proof in the form of user reviews, videos, case studies, quotes, etc., to give them confidence in their purchase. The great thing about TrustRadius is that you can drive reviews for free, starting right now. All you have to do is claim your profile and start reaching out to your customers.
TrustRadius reviews are 4x longer than competitors
TrustRadius’ questioning model garners reviews that are four times longer than competitors. This wealth of content is a huge benefit for GTM teams looking to accelerate the buyer’s journey with customer proof.
TrustRadius customers unlock additional potential for profile optimization, visibility in SERPs, pipeline generation, and revenue realization than non-vendors.
You can see the full breakdown of what you can do as a customer vs. non-customer:
How TrustRadius customers are using reviews to stand out in a saturated market
13X: See how SeekOut used TrustRadius to get 13x more reviews and over 500% increase in pageviews
#1: Learn how Dun & Bradstreet became #1 in their TrustRadius category in just 90 days
#1: How Apptio used TrustRadius Event Support to triple their reviews and ascend to #1 in their category
#1: How Groove bolstered its review strategy and became the #1 viewed product in its category
Creating brand preference with custom questions
It’s not about getting any old review on the record–it’s about getting the right reviews from the right personas who say the right things to attract the right buyers for your product. Did you know that TrustRadius offers custom questions?
These questions can be tailored in your review flow to get your target narrative on the record. Arm your GTM teams with laser-focused content that pinpoints how your company solves a specific persona’s problem or use case. Check out the custom questions example below where Rubrik was able to deposition their competitor Veeam in their review content.
Average impact of custom questions on customer reviews:
33%
Reviews utilizing custom questions are more targeted and 33% longer
25%
TrustRadius customers who leverage custom questions find that 25% of their review content ends up being customized
∞
Custom questions allow you to tailor new content to your GTM and refresh older reviews
↑
Custom questions help you grow your library of marketable quotes for sales and marketing usage
Arm your sales team with customized social proof
Now that you have tailored review content that matches your GTM strategy, it’s time to put it to work. Sales teams are always asking for quick and easy ways to find quotes that tell your brand narrative or prove use cases. The TrustRadius chrome extension makes it easy.
Downloading the extension takes less than five minutes and your entire sales team will be able to quickly filter by industry, persona, use case, competitor, etc. for the review quote they need to back up their deal. Not only is it quick and easy to filter to a money quote, there’s copy-and-paste capability built into the widget that captures the review quote with HTML formatting for a quick paste into an email, sales deck, RFP response, etc.
Use customized social proof to increase website traffic and visibility in search engines
$200k
See how Alteryx enabled 1,600 sales reps with the Chrome extension and generated $200k in new pipeline in two weeks
Ready to drive traffic and rank for keywords related to your GTM?
If your competitors are beating you in search engines, review content syndication is a powerful tool to rank higher in Google SERPs and increase traffic and on-page engagement. By utilizing custom questions, you can capture net new review content that aligns with the topic of any page you need to increase visibility for on search engines. TrustRadius customers commonly syndicate on:
- Home pages
- Competitive landing pages
- Conversion-focused pages
- Product/solutions pages
- Social proof pages
- Services/portfolio pages
In a down economy where technology layoffs are high and every dollar is heavily scrutinized, maintaining a healthy pipeline is top-of-mind for tech executives. Marketing teams are typically the first to experience headcount reduction and have their budgets slashed with requests to cut or reduce ancillary spending and reallocate brand marketing dollars to lead generation. If you’re feeling this pain, we have the data to help you maintain, and make an argument for healthy brand spend.
Making a buyer’s shortlist starts with brand awareness, but brand budgets are being slashed
According to the 2024 B2B Buying Disconnect Report, 71% of buyers reported buying a product that was their first choice and 66% reported choosing a product that is leading and established in their industry.
This means that by the time a buyer is reaching out to sales, likely through one of your lead generation channels, they’ve already made a decision on whether to purchase.
The solution:
Spend budget smarter from the top to the bottom of your funnel
Don’t sleep on brand marketing
Less-established brands in particular need to invest in brand marketing as a feeder for their lead generation marketing pathways. This pivot toward brand-led growth will ensure pipeline health not only through these economic headwinds, but will also set your company up for success in the future. Data from our partners at LinkedIn tells us that LinkedIn members exposed to both brand and demand messages are over 2.3x more likely to convert.
And when brand and demand gen campaigns are run in tandem, there’s a 57% decrease in time to acquisition. Watch our webinar on using TrustRadius downstream intent data on LinkedIn to drive brand and demand.
Social proof should be woven into every step in your marketing funnel. Every asset you create, every e-book, landing page, sales deck, etc., should have reliable proof to back up your claims.
It’s today’s currency when building buyer confidence, and using buyer intent data in the background to drive demand and generate leads is the ROI icing on top. Avaya decreased CPC on their LinkedIn ads by 48% simply by adding review quotes to the ad creative.
93% of buyers start their research on search engines. By syndicating user reviews from TrustRadius on your website and landing pages, you can expect increased visibility on SERPs, more keywords ranked, increased on-page engagement, and increased conversion rate.
Find out how Hootsuite increased URL clicks to niche pricing keywords by over 70%.
By tailoring your syndicated reviews to the topic of the page, you can create extremely targeted content that helps you hit your SEO goals and is relatable to buyers.
Find out how Riskified started ranking #1 for competitive keywords in their industry.
Average results TrustRadius customers see after syndicating reviews:
- Increase of 15% in conversion rate
- Monthly CPC savings of $5k-$50k
- Increase of 20% in organic traffic
- Increase on-page engagement and scroll depth
Reinforce your SEO strategy with brand and demand messages to buyers powered by TrustRadius buyer intent data. Target and convert in-market buyers researching your product listing and your competitor’s on TrustRadius with our Intent-Driven Leads program and our integrations with ABM and ad partners like LinkedIn, Salesforce, 6sense, Demandbase, ZoomInfo, Intentsify, and more.
Intent data has become a mainstay for B2B GTM teams over the past decade, with numerous providers emerging in the market promising an easy button to capture prospects. While on paper these providers may seem similar in what they provide, their intent sources are often wildly different–and that’s ok!
The problem emerges when GTM teams partner with a provider and then find out after the fact that their audience isn’t targeted enough to deliver on expectations. So, how can you avoid this pitfall?
Not all intent data is created equal
You may already know that first-party intent is your own data from your own website, databases, and marketing capture. Second-party intent is a provider’s proprietary first-party intent data that has been packaged and delivered to a marketer at a cost, and is not blended with other sources. Third-party intent data blends multiple sources, casting a broad net to engage buyer interest.
Usually this approach is based on contextual interest in a topic or specific keyword that a buyer may have read about online or searched directly in their browser. Your first-party intent data will always be the richest–these are buyers who came to your website to learn about your product. Second- and third-party intent data can be very targeted as well, but you need to know the right questions to ask.
The solution: Understand your intent data vendor’s audience from A-Z
If you’re vetting a provider offering second-party or third-party intent data, make sure you’re armed with the right questions to ask. If they’re offering second-party intent data, gain an understanding of exactly how those intent signals are captured, who the audience is, and what the overall volume looks like, and see if they’ll let you do an ICP-match exercise up-front. If a vendor isn’t being transparent about this information, there’s probably a reason why.
Offering an ICP match pre-purchase gives you a taste of the intent quality before making an investment. After all, shouldn’t you be able to try before you buy too? Third-party intent providers typically provide intent that’s higher up in the funnel (i.e., someone read an article that is related to the problem your solution solves). How is this provider helping you nurture these accounts down the funnel? What is your nurture plan?
Review websites like TrustRadius offer second-party intent data and provide a unique vantage point in the market. Technology buyers come to TrustRadius as a top-three source on their journey–they’re here–reading about your product and your competitor’s. If you’re considering review site data as your intent source, always ask about the vendor’s audience demographics and ensure they match your target audience.
TrustRadius is transparent about our audience demographics and traffic overlap with named competitors. We skew more mid-market and enterprise, and our product is designed to keep buyers on our website, enriching intent data for your usage. More transactional review sites with short-form reviews and less information have less engagement and less targeted intent signals. For example, G2 intent data models in blog traffic and sponsored content, not necessarily people researching you or your competitors.
TrustRadius intent activities are straightforward and include:
- Buyers researching your products
- Buyers researching your competitor’s products
- Buyers comparing you and your competitors
- Buyers researching your categories
- And more…
Additionally, some intent providers like G2 will block you from your competitor’s intent data if they’re also a paying customer, and this isn’t helpful for anyone. At TrustRadius, we keep the playing field even. Our goal is to connect buyers with technology sellers who are the best fit for them.
“By leveraging TrustRadius category intent data in our LinkedIn advertising, we were able to improve overall campaign KPIs across click-through-rate, impressions, and our cost-per-click. This is considerable as MIP’s ad benchmarks are already above industry averages. Our TrustRadius campaign also received the highest impressions of any ad group overall!”
Gregory McElroy
Marketing Campaign Manager
MIP Fund Accounting
Content syndication is often marketed as a quality lead generation tool, but underdelivers
There’s nothing more frustrating than working with a poor-quality leads vendor. You’ve wasted time, budget, and have lost the trust of your sales and marketing teams. There isn’t a lot of information out there to help you do your due diligence when selecting a syndication vendor.
First off, always make sure you’re asking the right questions:
- Who are their publishers and where will your content be shared?
- How does your publisher intend to reach your target audience? Are they using intent data? Are they using their own filters that match ICP?
- Which content asset type will they be using as a conversion point? Are they creating it? Can they use something you’ve already created?
- How exactly will the content be promoted?
- How will each lead’s contact information be verified? Do they offer an ICP match service?
- How will leads be synced to your CRM or system of choice?
- Is your sales team ready for follow-up? Do they understand where these leads are in the buyer’s journey? Do they understand what types of messaging to use?
- How are leads priced? Do you pay per lead? Do your competitors have an option to bid higher than you and capture leads?
Content syndication for lead generation has a reputation for being junk. Leads are often higher-up in the funnel and not ready to buy. Just because they downloaded an e-book doesn’t mean they’re ready to take the plunge and purchase your product. This is why strategy matters when it comes to lead generation services.
The solution: TrustRadius’ Intent-Driven Leads program delivers ICP-qualified leads who are verified buyers
Plain and simple, leads should have shown true intent to purchase before being delivered to your sales team. There’s nothing more frustrating to sales reps than chasing a deal that needs more nurture or simply isn’t ready to buy. TrustRadius’ Intent-Driven Leads program mitigates sales’ frustrations by delivering leads that are actually verified buyers on TrustRadius.
How does it work?
- We identify who’s checking out your products, and your competitor’s products, on TrustRadius and match those accounts to your ICP
- We engage those buyers with trusted market reports created by us and derived from your review content
- We deliver leads seamlessly to your system of choice
How is this different from other syndication providers?
- Buyers targeted are limited to accounts found in your product and category’s intent data. These accounts have come to TrustRadius to read reviews about you and your competitors and are in a known buying cycle.
- The asset used to convert these buyers to contacts is a trusted third-party verified market report with social proof from your customers; market reports produced by TrustRadius convert at a higher rate than standard e-books and guides
- Customers who leverage this program to fill their pipeline also receive a dedicated program strategist who will work with them to create an actionable, high-converting nurture strategy with their sales and marketing teams
Customer Testimonials
Lucidworks and Cisco were early adopters of the Intent-Driven Leads program and were pleased with the outcomes and quality of leads delivered.
Navigating the complex landscape of B2B peer review websites
There’s a misconception that review sites just offer your brand a presence and nothing more. In today’s digital-first B2B landscape, buyers prefer to self-serve a large portion of their buying journey. User reviews continue to rank among the top three resources consulted by technology buyers.
The trust is broken
73% of buyers believe that they regularly or sometimes see fake reviews online. This indicates that review sites themselves play a vital role in combating fraud and building buyer trust.
As learned in our 2024 B2B Buying Disconnect report: The Year of the Brand Crisis, the most important factors buyers are evaluating are:
1. Review content
2. Self-serve information like demos and pricing
3. Product’s score(s) for specific features or attributes
4. Reviewers relatable to them (company size, industry, role, etc.)
The solution: To effectively meet these self-service buyers, you need to be where they’re researching—on multiple review platforms.
A multi-review platform strategy allows you to:
- Reach buyers wherever they are, increasing your product’s visibility
- Improve your SEO by ensuring your brand is mentioned across various sites
- Drive more traffic to your website by appearing on the platforms that buyers trust most
- Collect diverse and detailed customer reviews, which can be used across your sales and marketing efforts
However, we realize this is easier said than done
- ❌ “My boss has always worked with G2 and doesn’t want to switch.”
- ❌ “How would we even leverage two review platforms, I barely drive reviews with the one I have.”
- ❌ “All of our competitors are on G2. We have to be there.”
Sound familiar?
Keep in mind, not all review sites are created equal, and understanding the differences is key to planning your strategy.
TrustRadius audience demographics
Key myths to dispel
Relying on a single site means missing out on buyers who are researching elsewhere. Not all 35 potential buyers will visit the same platform. By expanding to multiple platforms, you significantly widen your reach.
Negative reviews can actually be beneficial. Buyers see overly positive reviews as suspicious, and addressing negative reviews publicly demonstrates transparency and trustworthiness.
TrustRadius takes the guesswork out of driving reviews. As a customer of TrustRadius, we help you strategize ways to drive reviews, whether it be in-product, incentives, or at in-person events.
Our Review Growth Kit contains high-performing done-for-you copy so that you can spend less time on the “how” and more time implementing and sharing your customer voice.
Increase your TrustRadius product profile page visibility by 50% with just five quality reviews. For us—and for buyers—it’s a quality play. That’s why our brands find more success with each review—and therefore don’t need scores of them.
Genuine reviews give you richer content to repurpose across your marketing channels, enabling you to flood the market with customer proof points more easily.
Did you know that as a customer of TrustRadius, you get access to a team of review-driving experts? We handle everything from the review invites to incentive fulfillment.
From those reviews we drive for you, opted-in reference candidates will appear in your vendor portal. Gathering customer testimonials just got a whole lot easier.
It's hard to put a dollar amount on the impact of customer voice on revenue generation
Marketing teams are looking for a way to show clear revenue attribution to maintain investment in peer review partnerships.
The solution:
We know that customer voice is crucial for building brand trust and sharing genuine product experiences.
Quality reviews are a top influence on the buyer’s journey, and through integrations like the TrustRadius intent data Salesforce connector, you can see the tangible influence of TrustRadius traffic on your pipeline.
“I never would’ve expected in a million years the traffic and matched accounts TrustRadius has for higher ed—our best performing market! The new visibility is really valuable.”
On average, TrustRadius customers see:
Increasing sales efficiencies and opportunities
Direct attribution of revenue coming from TrustRadius can also be found in 1:1 conversions through our native lead forms, as well as closed won deals generated through intent advertising and the Intent-Driven Leads program. In TIS’ customer story, you can see they accelerated revenue by 4x by leveraging TrustRadius intent data in ZoomInfo.