B2B Digital Marketing: Encouraging Buyers To Give You Reviews Online

B2B digital marketing has been changing—fast. Now, it’s necessary for B2B businesses to connect personally with their prospective buyers. In what has tended to be an overly buttoned-down market in the past, many B2B companies are struggling with the idea of personal outreach. The truth is that once you connect with buyers and show them that you understand what problems they want solved, you will foster customer loyalty for years.

One of the newest and most effective ways to market yourself while connecting personally is through the online review process. While online reviews aren't a new concept, the B2B industry hasn't completely taken advantage of the possibilities. The buyer-review strategy has a twofold advantage: you connect with your buyers and you gain valuable insight into your customer base.  Encouraging buyers to give you reviews online will strengthen your online presence and enhance your reputation.

RESEARCH YOUR BUYERS BEFORE MARKETING TO THEM

Before you even think about earning a good review online, you must be sure that you can deliver the products that your client base needs and wants. Your prospective buyers are undoubtedly finding information about you before they even initiate contact. Keeping this in mind, you should be researching for information about your potential leads, as well. Find out everything you can about them as a group, including what problems they need solved.

Once you fully understand what your buyers want, and what they aren’t getting from others in your industry, you can easily market to them. They'll also appreciate that you took the time to understand who they are and what business problems they face. If you do this research before you even interact with the customer, you’ll be sure to delight them in your interaction. Once this is done, you have set up your business for a positive online review.

ASK BUYERS TO WRITE REVIEWS

Now that you’ve done the right research and you’ve earned your customer’s esteem, you need to ask them to write a positive review for you.

Whom should you ask, exactly? Many businesses that realize the marketing power of online reviews ask their most loyal buyers to write reviews. It doesn't hurt to do the same in the B2B industry after you've established a loyal set of buyers for your products. If they've continued buying from you for several months, it's a good bet that they've become loyal and wouldn't mind being asked to write a review.

You should never pay customers to do this. Their reviews should come from an honest reaction, which you can request in a marketing email rather than in person or on the phone.

COMMENT ON BUYER REVIEWS

Those of you who've already done the process of online conversations on social media to generate leads know that discussions with buyers are worth having. But the discussions are only worthwhile if you eliminate all the usual hard-sell tactics. Leaving comments on online reviews works the same way.

At some point, you will probably have to deal with some negative reviews. Don't be discouraged. The ratio of positive to negative online reviews is important to make yourself look real. Too many positive reviews makes buyers suspicious that the reviews aren't real.

Of course, you don't want too many negative reviews, since online reviews are truly making and breaking businesses these days. By creating conversations on negative reviews, you can show that you care about buyers while taking proactive steps to eliminate any problems a reviewer cited.

Online reviews are the newest and most effective ways for B2B businesses to connect with their buyers. If you’ve done your research, reviews go a long way in establishing rapport and showing that you are a responsive business that listens to its customers’ needs.