With over 6,000 apps on the AppExchange, having a number of glowing customer reviews can work wonders to help your product stand out from the crowd. Customers rely heavily on the nearly 100,000 peer reviews of AppExchange solutions to make the right decisions on which apps to install.
Salesforce recently introduced an enhancement to AppExchange reviews to provide customers with even more assurance and confidence when selecting new solutions: Trusted Reviews. In this post, we’ll explain what Trusted Reviews are, and how you can leverage them to drive demand generation and enhance your overall marketing strategy.
What are Trusted Reviews?
Salesforce launched Trusted Reviews in March, 2021 to further refine the AppExchange marketplace experience for customers searching for new solutions. Trusted Reviews make it easier for customers to quickly find reviews from the most knowledgeable and engaged members of the AppExchange community.
Who are these valued community members? There are three types, with each group indicated by a label next to the member’s name. Salesforce defines these groups as such:
Trailhead Rangers: Rangers are lifelong learners who have earned enough points and badges to reach the highest Trailhead rank. Currently, that bar is set at 50,000 points and 100 badges.
Salesforce MVPs: MVPs are community members who have been officially recognized by Salesforce for their expertise, leadership, and generosity.
Top Reviewers: Top Reviewers are AppExchange community members whose contributions encourage conversation and help others make informed decisions. While Salesforce does not share exact eligibility criteria for Top Reviewer status, the more a customer engages with reviews on AppExchange, the more likely they are to earn Top Reviewer status.
Image courtesy of Salesforce.
Developing a Listing Review strategy
So how can partners benefit from Trusted Reviews? Well, the more current, positive Trusted Reviews your app has, the more appealing your solution will be to potential customers. You’ll want to craft an intentional, thoughtful strategy to build up your number positive reviews.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you develop your strategy:
- Encourage honesty. Be sure to take an open, transparent approach to building up your customer reviews. Salesforce takes an active role in validating AppExchange reviews on a regular basis to make sure all reviews are authentic and trustworthy. Encourage your customers to be honest and thorough with their review.
- Make it easy for the customer. Be proactive and ask your customers directly if they’d be willing to write a review for your product, but don’t leave it all up to them to execute. Explain the process to them, show them where to log in and leave their review, and maybe even provide them with a few bullet points that you’d like them to touch upon in their review. Writing a great review will be a lot easier if you do some of the heavy lifting for them.
- Don’t “set it and forget it.” After you’ve built up a nice stack of glowing reviews, it’s easy to think you can check this task off your to-do list and be done with it. But after a while, your reviews may start to seem dated. Your Listing Review strategy should remain an active part of your overall marketing strategy. Keep engaging with your customers and asking for additional reviews as they gain more experience with your product, to maintain a solid number of recent reviews.
You can find additional techniques for building up your positive listings here.
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