If you’re in charge of marketing for a B2B SaaS company, you’re probably already familiar with Capterra. Capterra is a B2B marketing channel you can’t afford to ignore, with a large web presence and a key source of reviews for business software purchasers. Capterra can not only increase your search visibility, but it can also generate more qualified traffic (3 times more likely to convert, according to Capterra themselves).

According to Capterra, “Every month, more than 5 million business software purchasers utilize Capterra.” With a pay-per-click listing, you’ll reach the right clients at the right time when they’re looking for the software you provide.

Big firms are asking a premium for the top positions on Capterra, which is already a congested market. This can be intimidating for a newcomer, but with the appropriate strategy, you, too, can benefit from this recommendation.

What exactly is Capterra?

Capterra is one of three software peer review sites run by Gartner, which is now part of the organization (the other two being GetApp and Software Advice). The sites include reviews and rankings for over a million software products in over 700 categories, ranging from accounting software to hairdresser booking systems. Customers that pay have their program listed higher on the page, with more thorough explanations and reviews, as well as a link back to their website. The price of bids – pay per click – from competing companies determines the ranking of highlighted software in each category.

What’s the best way to get started with Capterra?

The initial step with Capterra is to have your product listed in the appropriate category or categories, complete with product descriptions, images, and, if available, a video explaining your service. As a basic Capterra member, you can do all of this for free. Once you’ve registered, you’ll be asked to fill out a standard Pro-forma that includes a brief description of your service and its features. Your work will be reviewed by the Capterra staff before being published in the appropriate category.

Before you invest a dime, your service could be towards the top of the category before you invest a dime. Even if you don’t get a paying customer right away, it’s worth promoting your business and growing your network presence. If you decide to bid for higher rankings later, your Capterra profile will already be there, perhaps with some favorable reviews, and ready to be upgraded.

Advice on how to list your goods on Capterra

1. Keep your product descriptions short and to the point.

Your product description must rapidly capture the reader’s attention and be simple to comprehend at a glance. Make a list of all of your USPs and make sure they’re easy to understand. Because a buyer’s visit to Capterra is often just the beginning of their decision-making process, you should avoid going into too much detail. If they’re intrigued, they can learn more by visiting your website. Make the information you have appealing and easy to comprehend by using product screens and videos.

2. Choose your categories wisely.

Your program will most likely fit into numerous categories, so make sure you include all of them. It may also be worthwhile to list in more specialized and less competitive categories, where you have a better chance of ranking at the top.

3. Verify that all of your features are listed.

Users can restrict their searches based on features, so make sure all of yours are included. You don’t want to be left out of relevant searches because you neglected to check a few boxes.

4. Make demos and trial periods available.

Consider providing free trials or demos. They’re excellent ways to pique your target audience’s interest in your service, and Capterra is the ideal venue to do so. Visitors to Capterra can apply the search filter “free trial” to their search, so if you don’t include one, you could miss out.

Reviews are a great way to start building your Capterra profile.

Capterra’s competition, which already receives a lot of B2B marketing money, can be intimidating to newcomers. It’s worth taking the effort to make sure your profiles stand out, in addition to optimizing your bidding technique. The quantity and quality of your reviews are crucial in this regard. Capterra’s offer to software consumers is centered around peer reviews, and the more favorable reviews you can submit, the better.

Few things will persuade business executives more than recommendations from others in similar positions in their sector. Capterra reviews include a name, job title, industry, and, in some cases, LinkedIn profile accreditation. You can encourage your customers to leave reviews on Capterra (preferably through their LinkedIn profile) in a variety of ways, including by providing incentives. The site is transparent about this, stating which reviews are paid for and which are “organic.”

Filtering for the most reviews and the top-rated listings is available on Capterra (star rating). These are commonly used filters, so getting to the top of one or both of them is well worth the effort. Once you’ve gotten there, Capterra also offers a variety of badges that you can use to promote your service as the “best rated” on your website and other marketing channels.

Using Capterra to promote your products

So you’ve created a Capterra listing for your goods. You like the product page and have some positive feedback to back up your assertions. It’s time to invest some cash and get your product listed near the top of the category!

While your reviews can help you establish a visible presence in some categories, more competitive categories require a budget, and only as a paying customer will Capterra link directly to your site and help you drive visitors to your landing page. In my next post, Capterra optimization and best practices, I’ll go through exactly how to arrange your bidding process and optimize your returns.