Presentation from Wolves Summit 2016 - Third edition of the biggest multinational event in Eastern Europe focused on networking.

1. INFLUENCE GROWTH FOR
SAAS STARTUPS
Tom Górski

2. TOM GÓRSKI
Co-Founder, 12 years of developing and
implementing online marketing for clients.
Specialties: SaaS Marketing, Growth
Hacking, SEO, Lead Generation
twitter.com/TomGorski
linkedin.com/in/tomgorski

3. IT’S NOT HOW IT WAS MEANT
TO BE…

4. YOU SPENT SO MUCH TIME AND MONEY
DRIVING TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE:
➤ Created content the audience
was simply bound to love
➤ Invested hours in promoting
it and building relationships
with influencers
➤ Ran ads to target and re-
target visitors
➤ Engaged in tens of other
marketing activities

5. PEOPLE STILL WENT TO SIGN UP
FOR YOUR COMPETITOR’S APP

6. BUT THEY MIGHT HAVE HAD A REASON
TO DO IT
➤ These users perceived your
competitor’s product as a
more trustworthy solution
➤ They’ve read reviews,
testimonials and other
social proof
➤ And heard stories how it
has helped other people
achieve their goals, become
more productive, grow a
business

7. WE OFTEN RELY ON THE
OPINION OF OTHERS

8. I’M SURE THIS HAPPENED TO YOU TOO:
➤ You picked a busy restaurant to
an empty one, even though it
meant having to wait for an
hour to be seated.
➤ Bought a product because of the
number of its positive reviews.
➤ Followed a person on social
media merely due to their
already large following.

9. „88% of consumers read reviews to
determine the quality of a local
business. That’s a 3.4% increase to a
year before
- BrightLocal discovered

10. ACCORDING TO ECONSULTANCY, 61% OF CONSUMERS READ REVIEWS BEFORE
MAKING A PURCHASE DECISION (SOURCE).

11. REVIEWS INFLUENCE THE
PURCHASING DECISION

12. ANALYZING THE DATA FROM ONE OF THE TOP 25 INTERNET RETAILERS IN THE US BAZZAR VOICE FOR
INSTANCE ESTABLISHED WHAT EFFECT INCREASING THE NUMBER OF REVIEWS FROM ONE TO 15 AND
REVIEW RATING FROM 3.5 TO 4.5 STARS WILL HAVE ON THE NUMBER OF ORDERS ACROSS VARIOUS
INDUSTRIES:

13. A JOINT RESEARCH BETWEEN ZENDESK AND DIMENSIONAL RESEARCH PROVED SIMILAR
RESULTS. ACCORDING TO THEIR FINDINGS, 90% OF RESPONDENTS ADMITTED THAT READING
POSITIVE REVIEWS INFLUENCED THEIR BUYING DECISION.

14. „ 63% of customers are more likely to
make a purchase from a site that
has user reviews
- iPerceptions(source)

15. WHAT ABOUT SAAS AND
SOFTWARE REVIEWS?

16. IN A SERIES OF STUDIES, RESEARCHERS FROM THE DEPT. OF BUSINESS, MEDIA AND
TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT FROM UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE AND BIRKBECK COLLEGE IN
LONDON DEVELOPED A RESEARCH MODEL FOR SOFTWARE PURCHASING PROCESS

17. THE RESULTS OF THEIR STUDIES WERE CONCLUSIVE, WHEN PURCHASING SOFTWARE; CUSTOMER
REFERENCES AND EXPERT NETWORK RECOMMENDATIONS DO AFFECT THE SOFTWARE BUYING
DECISIONS.

18. „When purchasing software; customer
references and expert network
recommendations do affect the software
buying decisions
- Business Management
University of Cologne

19. BUT HOW DO USERS COME
TO MAKING THAT DECISION?

20. IN THIS POST DAVID SKOK OUTLINES A TYPICAL SAAS CUSTOMER’S BUYING CYCLE:

21. SAAS CUSTOMER’S BUYING CYCLE
➤ It starts with the Awareness stage,
an initial point in which a customer
comes in contact with your app.
The person has realized their
problem and began search for a
possible solution. Although he or
she wasn’t specifically looking for
you, they may have come in contact
with your product.
➤ The process then moves to
Consideration stage in which a user
begins to consider whether to
actually purchase a specific solution
and then, researches what would be
the best alternative.

22. NOTE HOW SOCIAL PROOF (INCL. REVIEWS) IS THE LAST CRUCIAL STEP A PERSON TAKES
BEFORE THE CONVERSION.

23. „[…] when others offer their opinions
about the quality of a product, the
opinions have the most potential to
influence a consumer who has tried the
p r o d u c t w h e n t h e o p i n i o n s a r e
considered.”
- David Wooten

24. FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE
HOW WELL REVIEWS WORK

25. THE VOLUME OF REVIEWS
The more reviews you have, the trust-worthier your product
seems to be.

26. JUST TAKE A LOOK AT THOSE TWO ALMOST IDENTICAL PRODUCTS. BOTH HAVE
SIMILAR RATING AND PRICE

27. HOW MANY REVIEWS IS ENOUGH? IT’S AS SIMPLE AS THE MORE REVIEWS YOU HAVE THE
BETTER.

28. IN FACT, ACCORDING TO BRIGHTLOCAL, 85% CUSTOMERS READ UP TO 10 REVIEWS
BEFORE MAKING A DECISION.

29. TURNS OUT THAT HAVING BAD REVIEWS ISN’T ACTUALLY THAT BAD. IN FACT, HAVING
NEGATIVE REVIEWS COULD INCREASE CONVERSIONS BY UP TO 67% (SOURCE). DON’T
SEE ANYTHING NEGATIVE AT ALL” (SOURCE).

30. „68% of consumers trust reviews more
when they see both good and bad scores,
while 30% suspect censorship or faked
reviews.
- Reevo

31. HOW CAN YOU GET MORE
REVIEWS FOR YOUR APP?

32. T H E R E A R E T Y P I C A L LY 2 WAY S
BUSINESSES GO ABOUT COLLECTING
REVIEWS.
➤ In the first one, they simply
leave it entirely to chance,
hoping that a customer enjoys
their product or service and
will go to a review site to
leave feedback.
➤ Some of those businesses
develop basic strategies to
inspire customers to leave
reviews:
➤ They display in-store signage
asking for feedback,
➤ Train their staff to ask for
reviews and so on.

33. BUT THEY DON’T ALWAYS
GUARANTEE RESULTS.
➤ The second type is where a
business actively seeks and
entices specific customers to
leave reviews.
➤ At its core, this method looks
quite similar to the first one.
However, there is a difference.
➤ These businesses leave nothing
to chance. Instead of displaying
review requests they actively
seek out those customers who
could give them positive
reviews and help increase their
perception on the marketplace.

34. LIST YOUR APP ON
REVIEWS SITES

35. 52% OF BUSINESSES THAT CARE ABOUT GETTING REVIEWS PREFER TO GET THEM
ON REVIEW SITES RELATING TO THEIR INDUSTRY.

36. AND IT COMES AS NO SURPRISE. SITES SAASGENIUS OR G2CROWD PLAY A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN
B2B BUYING PROCESS. NOT ONLY THEY ALLOW COLLECTING REVIEWS THAT ARE AUTHENTICATED,
MEANING THAT CUSTOMERS KNOW THAT THE PERSON LEAVING THE REVIEW HAS ACTUALLY USED
YOUR PRODUCT.

37. SURVEY EXISTING USERS

38. S e n d y o u r e x i s t i n g
customers a satisfaction
survey. Then follow up
with those who provided
positive opinions directing
them to your app’s profile
on review sites, asking to
leave feedback.

39. USE REVIEWS PROMPTS

40. ANOTHER GREAT WAY IS TO INCLUDE REVIEW
PROMPTS IN YOUR APP AND MARKETING
➤ Display review widgets
within the app pointing
customers to specific review
sites.
➤ Include link to review site
profile in emails.
➤ Include review request at the
end of a support interaction
and so on.
➤ However, the aim for these
isn’t only to collect reviews
but to communicate the idea
that you’re open to feedback.

41. EMAIL EVERY NEW USER 2-3
WEEKS AFTER SINGING UP

42. NEW USERS ARE OFTEN THE BEST SOURCE
OF POSITIVE REVIEWS.
For one, they still consider your
app a novelty and are excited about
using it. Providing that they
benefit from doing so, they should
have no problem leaving a positive
review.
Monitor new user’s activity and
email everyone using it regularly
2-3 weeks after they’ve signed up
asking to complete a satisfaction
survey.
Then select those who left the
most positive feedback and direct
them to the review site, asking for
comments.

43. GET REVIEWS FROM
YOUR SITE

44. THE BENEFIT OF USING THIS TYPE OF FEEDBACK IS THAT YOU CAN STRUCTURE THE
INFORMATION YOU’D LIKE TO RECEIVE FROM USERS. YOU COULD, FOR INSTANCE, CONDUCT
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH ASKING VISITORS TO FILL IN A MULTIPLE-CHOICE SURVEY:

45. AND FINALLY
Collect reviews and user
feedback from your site too.
Tools like Feedbacklite
make it easy to create and
deploy user feedback
widgets and collect reviews.

46. CONCLUSION
Crucial to focus on collecting positive reviews, ideally on review
sites to increase the number of your app’s social proof points.
Do you own a SaaS company and already use reviews to promote it?
We want to hear your story!