Building trust and capturing leads: A short business prospecting guide with Trustpilot

In the past, business prospecting relied on brute force – cold calls and in-person interactions. Today, the digital revolution has transformed the game. Data analytics, social media, and online tools are the new prospecting weapons, offering increased efficiency and a laser focus on the ideal customer for each individual business.

However, humans are still humans, and trust plays a key role in the success of all these endeavours. This emphasis on trust should reassure you that the human element remains crucial despite the digital tools.

In the business of trust, there are a few stand-out solutions, reviews being a major one. Why are reviews so important when bringing on new customers? When authentic, the customer's voice is powerful and can quicken the purchase journey, prove credibility, and make a business memorable for all the right reasons. 

But first, let’s examine how Trustpilot reviews can build trust and help capture quality leads. 

Understand your competitors' marketing strategies with a review platform

Competitor insights are gold; thanks to technology, there are many ways to dig deep into what’s happening in the market. It’s not difficult to get a bird’s eye view of what competitors are up to. 

Trustpilot's customer sentiment tools offer a suite of AI-powered features that help deliver competitor insights based on customer sentiment. Customer sentiment tools like Trustpilot translate qualitative data (customer reviews) into quantitative insights (sentiment scores, topic trends). 

Via Trustpilot’s dashboard, you can select up to 5 businesses in your industry to compare your performance against on Trustpilot. Once you’ve added your chosen competitors, you can compare your performance based on topic sentiment by competitor, their average review rating, and their total reviews.

This can transform a prospecting strategy by providing keen insight into how customers truly feel about your competitor’s marketing strategy. With this knowledge, it’s easier to pinpoint where they lack and how your business can fill the market gap. 

Capture leads and conversions with trust signals 

Prospecting materials range from digital advertising and web marketing to email marketing. There is always a better way to get the message across online, and it's usually driven by what prospects actually want, which can be hard to gauge. 

What is known is that 48% of sellers say they struggle with communicating value.

The key to unlocking this challenge could lie in trust signals. Trust signals prove to prospective customers that you’re reliable and credible. They include testimonials, reviews, awards, positive PR, and more. In a world where AI makes it harder to know what’s real, trust signals remain steadfast. 

Including trust signals like reviews in prospecting materials can help bring potential customers closer to a sale. Integrating reviews into emails, websites, and social media is simple with Trustpilot’s TrustBox Widgets. Our widgets come in many varieties, depending on your needs. For emails, a TrustBox Signature widget is useful for adding reviews, star ratings, or TrustScores to your email sign-offs in every outgoing email. 

We’ve found that including trust signals like reviews or ratings in emails can positively affect open rates. Airtasker, an online local service marketplace, used Trustpilot reviews in its email marketing campaigns and achieved a 15% increase in click-through rates.  

Retargeting campaigns powered by reviews

Did you know retargeting ads can lead to a 147% increase in conversion rates compared to non-targeted ads?  Retargeting is a valuable strategy to maximize the potential of your website traffic and turn those window shoppers into loyal customers.

With the addition of Trustpilot branding and reviews, research has shown that consumers are almost six times more likely to click an online advertisement with the Trustpilot logo and stars than without the logo and stars. 

Personalizing retargeting messaging can create positive differentiation in a convoluted online marketplace. By analyzing customer painpoints and their reasons for dropping off the journey, you can utilize specific review messaging that speaks directly to their needs. 

Adding review messaging that covers what their happy customers are saying (including those reviews) can help retarget ads more effectively. The same goes for adding positive messages around some of their customers' pain points.

Trust in the digital age: Turns out it's not all bots

Prospecting's gone digital, but trust remains king. Reviews are your secret weapon: competitor insights, prospecting materials that convert, and retargeting that resonates.  Trustpilot unlocks the power of digital tools while keeping the human touch at the core.

Key takeaways

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  Uncover competitor marketing strategies: Leverage review platforms to analyze competitor sentiment, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and tailor your approach to fill market gaps.

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  Capture leads with trust signals: Showcasing trust signals like positive reviews in your prospecting materials can boost the effectiveness of your web marketing (emails, ads) and help capture leads.

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  Personalize retargeting campaigns: Improve retargeting effectiveness by analyzing customer reviews and personalizing messaging based on their needs and pain points.

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  Trust remains key: Despite digital tools, building trust is still crucial. Authentic customer reviews are a powerful tool to build trust and convert leads.

Interested in learning more about how Trustpilot can help you convert more leads? Try a free demo here.