December 8, 2022
by Stephen Hoops
The voice of the customer is indispensable when your product is outstanding.
From sourcing amazing quotes to highlighting market sentiment and everything in between, so many options are available for you to choose from. But it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the countless opportunities that lay before you.
G2 is the world’s largest B2B marketplace, where software buyers go to assess a diverse range of products and services. Software vendors that realize the power of customer advocacy find success on G2 for numerous reasons.
Any software brand can use G2 to acquire new buyers and keep existing customers. With a bit of know-how, you can find your way to the top of the Grid Report in no time.
As part of Reach 2022, our very own Katlin Hess and Emily Malis Greathouse gave a masterclass on customer advocacy on G2. This session was packed with a ton of excellent best practices and information sellers can use to maximize review collection and improve their overall presence along the way.
Didn’t get a chance to catch the masterclass? No worries – this article breaks it down for you.
The world of B2B software constantly changes. Customers' feelings about a product or service may shift in weeks or months. G2’s scoring methodology considers this and attempts to create scoring that reflects the dynamic nature of customer software reviews.
For new and established sellers who want more from G2, it’s crucial to grasp the components of your G2 Score. Emily Malis Greathouse, Director of Market Research, spoke about this and other concepts at length, so let’s look at how G2 processes data, which will help us understand G2 Grid Reports later.
A profile’s G2 Score is the calculated average of two other proprietary scores: Satisfaction + Market Presence.
If a company has an average Satisfaction score of 70 and a Market Presence score of 60, its G2 Score is 65. In other words, improving satisfaction and market presence gives a profile a greater chance of performing better on G2 Grid Reports.
The satisfaction score considers multiple indicators from G2 review
data to provide a single score beyond star ratings that shows how happy reviewers are about using your solution.
Listed in order of importance, the following elements impact satisfaction scores.
Many G2 sellers ask how they can improve their G2 Score. Malis Greathouse answers that question with some key considerations.
TL;DR: Gather more reviews!
Market Presence is a combination of 15 metrics from G2’s reviews, publicly available information, and third-party sources. Here’s a look at some of the most critical information G2 uses to measure Market Presence.
Since market presence combines different metrics beyond G2 data, there’s only so much a seller can do to affect these factors. Nevertheless, read on to learn which aspects sellers can influence.
Tip: To learn more about some of the data in your Market Presence score, make sure to open your my.G2 dashboard and navigate to “Analytics” > “Competitors” to see a breakdown of certain metrics.
Released every quarter, G2 Grid Reports represent the crème de la crème of B2B software. Grid Reports contain data from both verified user reviews and vendor information from trusted online sources comparing products based on Satisfaction and Market Presence scores.
But ranking high on reports isn’t just for pride. Your inclusion in reports heavily influences how prospects decide on a software platform. Here’s a breakdown of the different types of Grid Reports:
For inclusion on any Grid Report, a software vendor must have at least 10 reviews in one target software category. In addition, a Category Grid Report needs at least 150 reviews overall and at least 6 software.
Because some software spans multiple categories, ensure that you have at least 10 reviews in a given category. You can check this by going to your G2 Profile page and filtering reviews by category to see how many you’ll need to qualify for a Grid Report.
The last concept to understand about Grid Reports is how decay affects your reviews. Essentially, the older the review, the less valuable it is.
For the remainder of the masterclass, Katlin Hess, Director of Customer Marketing, focused on sharing tips and best practices for utilizing G2 reviews to drive customer advocacy. To start, you’ll need more reviews, and Hess lays out a couple of great ways to ramp up your collection.
We’ve mentioned how the recency of reviews plays a big part in your profile performance in G2. Consider that 85% of consumers consider reviews more than three months old irrelevant.
If you want to get a high G2 score or claim the top spot on a Grid Report, review collection should be an ongoing effort, not a one-and-done exercise. To provide a general framework for your efforts, Hess briefly discusses the four pillars of review collection.
Tip: Don’t just send review requests to customers with high NPS scores! Reviews should be as authentic as possible, meaning you want to collect reviews from as many customers as possible.
You can try three distinct ways to collect more reviews on G2. Consider utilizing all of them simultaneously; each is a proven method worth considering.
Not sure where to start with asking customers to submit a review? Bookmark this quick list of 12 ideas!
When you’re capturing authentic feedback and reaching out to your customers, you’re probably going to get some reviews that aren’t exactly favorable.
In truth, you should respond to all reviews if you take customer feedback seriously. Doing so
Hess shares some tips to keep in mind when creating a review response process for your team. Just ask who, what, where, and when!
With review collection firing on all cylinders, software vendors ultimately want to know how these activities on G2 drive success in other areas. To justify their efforts, marketing and sales teams must quantify and measure the return on investment (ROI).
It all comes down to the goals you’re trying to achieve. Below you’ll find the metrics that matter most with regard to your success on G2.
G2 helps software brands connect with their ideal customers to achieve success in three areas.
Brand building:
Traffic and conversions:
Pipeline and sales:
G2’s Reach had a ton of great information. In this masterclass, attendees got the inside scoop on how to better utilize the customer voice and prioritize authentic feedback.
With these tips, you’ll scale your reviews, understand your G2 Score, and figure out how to respond to customer reviews with intelligence and kindness. In no time, you’ll reach the summit of the Grid Report and prove why your customers love you.
Interested in seeing more from Reach? Watch all of the on-demand recordings of all the sessions to get great insights from the experts.
Check out this masterclass and all on-demand recordings from Reach 2022.
Stephen Hoops is a former Sr. Content Marketing Specialist at G2. He focused on creating content that helps tech industry sales professionals and B2B SaaS marketers find success with G2 products such as Buyer Intent, Review Generation, and more. After receiving his B.A. in Journalism from West Virginia University in 2013, he has helped countless B2B brands reach new highs through content creation and SEO. When not nerding out about the artistry behind well-written copy, Stephen can be found info-dumping about homemade cocktails, Italian cuisine, and why vinyl is the superior physical medium for music.
Check out this masterclass and all on-demand recordings from Reach 2022.
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