Operating in multiple language markets, Vainu sought a way to streamline trust-building with potential customers online. The team needed a flexible solution to gather feedback and reviews at scale, while also controlling how and where that social proof is displayed. Trustmary turned out to be exactly what they were looking for.
Vainu is the leading sales intelligence platform helping organizations target the right buyers in the Nordics by using enriched company data.
Their users range from salespeople and CRM admins to enterprise data teams, all leveraging Vainu’s tools to fuel more effective prospecting and targeting.
About Vainu:
- The leading sales intelligence platform in the Nordics
- Helps salespeople and CRM admins to fuel effective prospecting and targeting
- Trusted by +1,000 businesses
See the full case story video here:
“You can’t establish trust without reviews”
Aamer Hasu, the VP of Marketing at Vainu, says that companies should focus more on building trust with their website visitors to ensure conversions.
– If you have a website without testimonials and without real people praising your product or service, you’re missing out. You can’t establish trust with website visitors without reviews on your website, Hasu states.
Understanding the importance of social proof, Hasu wanted to find a feedback and review solution that was easy to manage internally, offered customization, and didn’t rely on third-party review platforms where visibility can be influenced by money.
– We just want to give our customers the chance to easily provide feedback and for us to display it anywhere, emails, ads, our website… You name it, he explains.
Trustmary proved to be the ideal solution for Vainu’s needs.
Reviews make the best social proof
Hasu underlines that reviews are more trustworthy than traditional testimonials and case studies made by the brand itself.
Case studies and testimonials typically inflate the ROI numbers to some extent, which makes them less credible and relatable than authentic reviews.
– I think the most valuable thing about reviews, case studies, and references is that the person gave their face and name to showcase publicly, Hasu summarizes.
More reviews by recognizing success moments
Vainu has integrated Trustmary with their CRM HubSpot to automate some parts of the feedback and review collection processes, but Hasu thinks getting the timing of the feedback requests is key to getting the best testimonials.
– When a customer praises us in an email, our people thank them for the feedback and send one of the direct survey links and ask to submit the feedback via the form. This is a low-effort way to capture feedback from those success moments, Hasu explains.
Automating workflows saves time, manual control ensures quality
Hasu appreciates Trustmary’s blend of automation and manual control:
– The HubSpot integration works nicely, but by catching success moments and reacting naturally, we get better feedback, and more of it, he says.
That being said, feedback isn’t just for internal use, but can be publicly shown.
– By better feedback I mean that we can add the publicly given comments straight away to our marketing flows without having to bother customers with testimonial requests, Hasu says.
Vainu’s feedback process in a nutshell:
- Manual Feedback Triggers: Whenever a customer shares praise via email, the Vainu team sends a feedback request using the direct link sharing.
- Simple Segmentation: Personalized links tailored by language, buyer persona, or sender ensure relevant outreach.
- Website Widgets: Trustmary widgets are embedded everywhere on Vainu’s site, segmented by audience (e.g. Finnish reviews for Finnish visitors).
- HubSpot integration: The integration ensures feedback requests are sent automatically after certain activities are marked done. It also provides access to feedback information within HubSpot for sales and success teams without having to navigate an additional tool.
Measuring Marketing ROI Sales-Led Organization
Hasu doesn’t believe everything needs to be tracked with numbers. For him, trust is both measurable and intuitive.
With sales-led organizations, measuring the return on investment from marketing activities takes time, as the leads need to be processed by the sales team first. Therefore, the ROI of new activities often relies on gut feeling before they can be verified.
– Since we implemented Trustmary, we have seen a large increase in sales in Q1. We did some changes to our website, and the needle moved up. Trustmary was one of those changes, Hasu explains.
Tangible ROI aside, the time saved alone is significant:
– Without Trustmary, I’d need to manually find our happy customers, manage testimonial quotes, design widgets in CMS, and handle outreach. That workload alone justifies the investment. Trustmary’s price is very spot on, he continues.
Working with Trustmary
From HubSpot integration to a responsive product team that implemented two of Vainu’s feature suggestions, Trustmary has become a core part of Vainu’s marketing toolkit.
– Trustmary seems to listen to its users. We’ve asked for two new implementations, and they were added very quickly, he says.
Additionally, Hasu has been happy with the proactive approach that the Trustmary team has, as he gets recommendations to further improve their feedback flow and usage. He is also happy with the functionalities and features offered without being overwhelmed.
– The interface and the process are very simple. I would recommend Trustmary to any company. Honestly, it’s a tool I will need wherever I work, Hasu says.
In true Finnish fashion, Hasu summarizes his experience with Trustmary by saying:
– I don’t actually have any bad things to say about Trustmary. It just works. It’s one of the rare pieces of software I’ve used that actually works all the time.
Learnings
- Timing of feedback requests matters: Reacting and asking feedback at success moments will generate great results.
- Authentic reviews outperform polished case studies.
- Segmentation matters: Localized feedback resonates more with the target audience.
- Sometimes, your gut feeling backed by experience is all the measurement you need.
Erica Ylimaki
Erica Ylimäki is a Growth Marketer at Trustmary. She is an expert in how to grow the organic traffic of a business with effective SEO strategies, and how to utilize reviews on different CMS and platforms.