Vendors focused on distributing cloud-based applications are usually aware that various cloud apps marketplaces and review platforms are great places to showcase their products to potential customers. These platforms can make a huge difference in promoting your software’s visibility and brand recognition. What is more, cloud app marketplaces can point buyers to your product directly, promote it to give you and edge over your competitors and be a great source of leads. In this article we’ll take a look at the most popular cloud app marketplaces. If your product is not yet listed there, then after reading our article you should have a better understanding why it might be a good time to think about adding your app there now.
Let’s start with taking a look at some of the main benefits that you would get from having your product or service listed on such cloud softwar review platfroms.
They make your product more accessible to a wider market
In the 2016 B2B Buyer’s Survey Report by Demand Gen, researchers found out that 80% of B2B buyers spent a lot of time researching information about a product. It seems that B2B buyers spend more time researching now and like in B2C, they do it online now. Furthermore, 73% of B2B customers revealed that they choose to research and evaluate their options through multiple sources of information, including reading user reviews and experiences on cloud app review sites.
In addition, the report revealed that web search, vendor websites and peers/colleagues are the three sources that B2B customers consult the most. Web search was cited by 68% as the top resource used by respondents while vendor websites got 54% and Peers/colleagues got 49%—rising from 20% in the previous year.
This means that a trend is forming where B2B customers value reviews more and more. In fact, the survey found that 55% of the buyers thought reviews were a very important point of consideration in making their purchasing decisions. More buyers found external reviews to be more reliable than case studies/testimonials and analyst rankings. They appear to be more objective and more trustworthy than testimonials on vendor sites and analyst rankings since the latter two are prone to biases.
Seeing these trends, it makes business sense to consider getting your product listed on a cloud app marketplaces or review platform. When listed, you’d be able to get your product to rank better in web searches, get it reviewed by peers and get them to visit your vendor site—three birds in one stone. Here’s how it works.
You rank higher in web searches. Google’s algorithm favors community-driven sites in search results. They are usually ranked higher than vendor sites when generic keywords are used. If you try searching for “top business intelligence software”, you will see that review platforms are favored over any vendor website. B2B customers and customers in general use generic keywords and it is hard for a vendor to rank higher than review sites. To circumvent this problem, vendors make sure their products are listed on all top SaaS marketplaces to benefit from their high search results ranking. This way, you can increase your product’s online visibility.
You Gain more trust from reviews. Not only will you get more online visibility, your product will also get reviewed in an organic and objective manner by a community of users. Not all reviews might be positive but this is also a great tool to help you improve your product. You can also engage your customers better and in real time. When you get a positive review, you can amplify it and use it in your other marketing efforts. If you get a negative one, you can quickly address the issue. SaaS review sites are marketing platforms, product feedback channels and a direct line to your customers rolled into one.
You get more traffic for your vendor site. SaaS review sites and marketplaces also direct your prospect customers to your website. Thanks to them you will be able to directly acquire new leads and improve the sales of your product since the chance that a person who just read a positive review or your product will convert into a paying customer is very high. A secondary, yet significant, benefit is that your product can get some more mileage even from customers who search for software from your competitors or in a different category. This is because SaaS review sites usually have a free directory of their listings. You can also amplify visibility on these sites with paid marketing campaigns or other promotional services offered by the review sites to improve your exposure and ensure you look better than your competitors.
So which review platforms are worth adding your product to? There are quite a few of them, but we selected the ones that attract the highest number of visitors and provide the best results for their lead generation campaigns.
1. FinancesOnline.com
FinancesOnline is one of the most popular review platforms out there. It covers hundreds of product reviews in a wide range of B2B and SaaS software categories. This makes it one of the fastest-growing and most popular cloud apps marketplces today. The site uses propriety algorithm called the SmartScore System to help buyers compare and filter products according to their needs. Users are easily able to find all the necessary information about each product’s pros and cons, best functionalities, customization, integration, support, and alternatives and much more.
Brand awareness is always good, and getting listed on FinancesOnline will certainly give you that. Where FinancesOnline really shines though is their lead generation campaigns. The site is very successful in driving potential leads from their revires to your landing pages. The typical conversion rate for review platforms is around 7%. The lead generation platform of FinancesOnline gets much better results than that. Vendors who own have lesser known brands can expect a conversion of at least 10% conversion from the platform while more popular software brands can enjoy even more than 20% conversion rate. If you want to learn more about how to generate leads for your product you an easily request a product review here.
Sample review page on FinancesOnline.com website
Lead Generation Services:
Lead generation tools offered by the platfrom include free trial/visit website buttons located in strategic places throughout their site that funnel prospective clients over to your landing page. This will either lead them to your site for further research, purchase or to start a free trial of your product. If your product is a good fit for their company and needs, they can easily get converted into satisfied and loyal clients. Your campaigns are managed by a professional team that you can always get in touch with. You also get access to reliable tracking and reporting tool that allows you to monitor your campaign and its effectiveness.
Quality reviews are available for all products. You can count on an in-depth review made by their B2B editorial team. The review is prepared in a way that will highlight your strong points and benefits to ensure that clients are actually aware of your unique features and ways in which you can help them solve their problems.
Industry Awards are given by FinancesOnline experts to products that stand out from the crowd. These are usually based on each software strengths and other metrics of value. If you get listed on their site and meet the quality requirements you have a chance to win one of their awards. Awards range from minor ones such as the Rising Star Award of Great User Experience Award to very prestigeous ones like their Supreme Software Award of the awards for best products in their category. Winning such awards can greatly boost your lead generation campaing as awards build trust and allow you to distinguish your product from competitors which will in turn lead to better conversion rates.
Sample awards and quality certificates offered by FinancesOnline
Verified Quality Seal is a geat way to get more trust for your brand. The seal is provided by FinancesOnline as a guarantee that the product has been thoroughly quality checked and evaluated by third-party experts. This offers you an objective and organic way to exhibit your strong points to prospects. The “Verified Quality Seal” signals authenticity and prospective customers seek that.
2. Capterra.com
Capterra is also a popular SaaS marketplace much like FinancesOnline. It offers a wide range of product categories ranging from medical practice software to applicant tracking. Capterra also offers reviews and tips to help companies find the right software fit for them and their needs. Companies such as Coca Cola, Walmart and Warner Bros. have used Capterra for their SaaS needs.
The website design is slick and truly has an impressive range of product categories. It is easy to navigate and one can find much less popular SaaS solutions for Winery, Yoga Studio, Plumbing and Pet Grooming. Because of the extensive list, B2B customers could even find more things other than what they are initially looking for.
Sample review page on capterra.com
The site offers a Pay-per-click (PPC) scheme for their lead generation campaigns. Bidding starts at $2 per click and it increases in $0.25 increments. It offers vendors the ability to control position and traffic volume in their directories. This is done through increasing your bids. What is more, you can control your budget by setting up a monthly limit. Capterra also offers conversion tracker to see which Capterra directory generates more leads for you. The site provides the assistance of a personal marketing advisor to assist you with optimizing your campaign, website design and landing page. The advisor can also give you pointers on lead tracking and conversion.
3. SoftwareAdvice.com
Software Advice is another top SaaS marketplace. It prides itself with simplicity and with their extensive list of software categories which is currently around 350 ranging from dental software to project management solutions.
Software Advice is very simple and easy to use. It provides everything a prospective client needs and products are scored based by users who write the reviews (there is no experts’ score). Each review also shows the percentage of users that recommended a given product. Price rating is also conveniently included but customers will need to sign up first in order to view a free price quote.
Like most SaaS marketplaces, Software Advice offers vendors a free listing. This will include your product in their market comparisons with no cost and no commitment. It also includes personalized marketing materials give your product exposure to potential buyers.
Sample review on Software Advice website
Like FinancesOnline, Software Advice offers a lead generation program where you can access qualified buyers from all kinds of markets and categories. The site also has its propriety algorithm that matches vendors and prospects. It claims that its algorithm evaluates interested buyers against more than 500 qualification criteria. This helps you and your sales team to distill potential customers for a higher conversion rate. The algorithm will screen inquiries and let you handle high-level prospects to close the deals. Software Advice also prides itself with its “At-will” service where it allows vendors to opt out at any time and only pay only for qualified leads.
Conclusion
All three cloud app marketplaces we suggested share some similarities and have their differences. They each have a set of core competencies that they bring to your table. Some may think that it’s prudent to select the best one. But is it really? Remember, 73% of B2B customers revealed that they choose to research and evaluate their options through multiple sources of information. If you can get on all three, it is generally better. Taking advantage of their compounded core competencies will let you take more advantage of the recent B2B customer research and purchasing trends. Having all three at your disposal would land you a bigger chance at generating leads, ranking high on search engines, getting reviewed more by peers and getting more spotlight than your competitors. If you have to choose though, the best approach is to choose a platfrom that will provide you the best conversion rate for your lead generation campaign, since acquiring new customers is the ultimate goal here after all.