Views on Reviews is a new series of interviews with B2B SaaS professionals who will provide a real-world perspective on what it’s like working on reviews. My second interview is with Melody Leatherbury, Customer Marketing Manager at Webex Events. Let’s see how she views reviews.
Melody is a customer-centric marketer with over 8 years of experience working on programs to deliver better customer experiences. She is currently a Customer Marketing Manager at Webex Events. Her prior work experience includes running a Voice of Customer program for a global HVACR manufacturer, designing and executing their customer surveys, focus groups, and customer interviews to influence business strategies and marketing campaigns. Melody also rebranded and managed an award-winning customer advocacy program at Cvent and received the “Most Engaged Advocate Community” awards from Influitive and Stevies in 2018. Melody was also a finalist for the Advocate Marketer of the Year award by Influitive in 2019. She also has experience creating and managing referral, reference, and product review programs. Prior to joining Webex Events, Melody worked as a consultant for AmeriGas, helping to launch and manage an automated text messaging program for various customer journeys.
Melody recently moved from the D.C. metro area to Jacksonville, North Carolina with her husband, daughter Kaia, and English bulldog Bao. She loves to cook, paint, try new foods, hang out at NC’s beautiful beaches, and visit Taiwan where her family is from.
We’re lucky to have Melody provide her views on reviews in B2B software.
1. How did you get into B2B SaaS?
Answer: I got into B2B SaaS during my first year of business school. In between my first and second year at business school, I got an internship at an education technology SaaS company in Herndon, VA. I ended up taking a job at a B2B manufacturing company after business school but after a few years, found myself back at a B2B SaaS company in the event technology space.
2. What drew you to a career in Customer Marketing?
Answer: What I love most about working as a Customer Marketer is the relationships I’ve built with customers. Prior to starting a career in marketing, I worked at a few luxury hotels, including The Ritz-Carlton, as a front desk agent. I enjoyed getting to know our repeat customers and found joy going above and beyond for our customers to make their stay extra special. After graduating from business school, I worked as a market researcher and led Voice of Customer initiatives at a manufacturing company. I loved talking with and getting to know our customers, hearing their challenges and pain points, and creating solutions to address their needs. This desire to work with customers directly and to solve their problems led me to continue a career in customer marketing. I like the challenge of trying to understand customer needs and using that insight to create better customer centric programs that enhance the customer’s experience with a company.
3. What was your first experience with reviews in business software?
Answer: My first experience with reviews was when I started a new role as a Customer Marketing Manager at a B2B event technology SaaS company. At the time, G2 was a relatively young company and the concept of collecting B2B customer reviews was new to me. I was familiar with B2C review sites such as Yelp and Tripadvisor but had never really heard of B2B review sites. However, I did some research to quickly get up to speed on B2B review sites such as Capterra, TrustRadius, and G2 and built marketing campaigns to drive customer reviews on all three sites.
4. What role have you seen the Customer Marketing department play in reviews?
Answer: Customer Marketing has always played a leading role in driving customer reviews. However, I believe collecting reviews is not only a customer marketing success metric. Other stakeholders such as Customer Success, Professional Services, and other customer facing teams need to play a supporting role in asking customers for reviews.
5. What does Customer Marketing want from Customer Success when it comes to reviews?
Answer: Customer Marketing and Customer Success need to work hand in hand when it comes to reviews. I believe Customer Success and any other customer facing teams are the best people to directly ask customers for reviews because of their frequent face to face interactions. Their relationship makes it easier to gauge a customer’s happiness and their willingness to write a positive review versus sending out mass email invitations to a large audience.
6. What have you found works—and what doesn’t—in review generation (when asking for reviews)?
Answer: Providing an attractive incentive works well in review generation. I’ve found that an attractive incentive may vary depending on where you are asking for reviews. I’ve asked for reviews in person, at conferences, in exchange for cool swag. People seem to love free swag at live events and will do anything for them. On the other hand, swag doesn’t work so well when you’re asking someone to write a review via an email invitation or another digital campaign. An e-gift card from Amazon or another popular retailer is a great incentive to offer in digital review campaigns.
7. How do you see reviews fit into a broader customer marketing program?
Answer: Reviews are a positive byproduct of an effective and engaging customer marketing program. Customer marketing programs should keep customers engaged and happy throughout the customer lifecycle, from customer onboarding, product adoption and expansion, to advocacy, and ultimately renewals. Engaged customers that are given the tools they need to succeed and become product experts will be happier and advocate for a company on their own. Acts of advocacy include writing reviews, serving as a reference, or sharing their success story in a case study or testimonial.
8. What was your favourite review request campaign?
Answer: My favorite review request campaign was one that I ran at an in-person user conference. I drove reviews through two main channels: a review booth and a digital scavenger hunt. I worked with my planning team to create a review booth with six laptops and highchairs. To incentivize customers to write a review, I gave away branded socks as swag and partnered with G2 to make a $10 charitable donation for each review written. Customers loved the charitable donation and the swag. Additionally, customers could participate in a digital scavenger hunt hosted in our customer advocate portal and receive reward points for writing a review either at the review booth or on their personal phone/laptop. Reward points could then be traded in for a gift card or another reward in the advocate portal. This multi-channel review campaign generated over 250 new reviews over the course of 3 days.
9. What advice do you have for B2B SaaS vendors who want to get more reviews?
Answer: Don’t be afraid to try something new in terms of where you ask for reviews and who you target for reviews. For example, instead of just asking customers who have a high NPS score, expand that list to include customers who recently renewed or purchased add on products, customers that attend a lot of company events or generally seem pretty engaged. Partner with customer facing teams such as Customer Success to drive reviews too. An ask from a familiar face is more effective.
10. What helps customers write reviews?
Answer: A clear and straightforward process accompanied by an incentive will help customers write reviews. If sharing a review site link with a customer, try to share a direct link to the company page versus sharing the home page of the review site and asking customers to search for your company. Clear instructions on how to write a review and how to receive the incentive also helps. Try to remove as many barriers as possible that would confuse customers or prevent them from moving through the review process seamlessly.
Key Takeaways:
- Collecting reviews should be a success metric not only for Customer Marketing but also for Customer Success, Professional Services, and other customer-facing teams who need to play a supporting role in asking customers for reviews.
- Customer-facing teams are the best people to directly ask customers for reviews because their relationship makes it easier to gauge whether it’s the right time to ask for a review. They also have relationship capital that can increase the chances of getting a review.
- Reviews can be a positive byproduct of an effective and engaging customer marketing program. If you’re building or leading a customer marketing program, be sure to make reviews a part of it.
- Brainstorm ideas for when you should ask your users for reviews and who you target for reviews. There are many milestones that make for a good opportunity to trigger a review request, so think through those milestones for your users, and don’t limit yourself to just NPS scores.
- Take a multi-channel approach to review generation. Run a review booth at an in-person user conference and a digital scavenger hunt in a customer advocate portal and you might also generate 250 reviews in 3 days.
- Make the process of reviewing your software clear and straightforward for the review candidate, and be sure to include an incentive (if you’re a vendor generating reviews on a business software review site).
To contact Melody, add and message her on LinkedIn. To learn more about Webex Events, visit their site.
You can see Webex Events on the G2 Top 50 Marketing Products in 2022 list at the #20 spot.
If you’d like to share your experience generating, leveraging, or measuring B2B SaaS reviews, please email me: joe@b2bsaasreviews.com
