IT security solutions are the first and last line of defense standing between companies’ safety and their worst nightmares, from major data hacks and leaks to ransomware attacks.
But when those same security brands want to share their customers’ huge wins, they often… just can’t. Companies understandably hesitate to go on the record about security issues, even fully resolved ones, so getting quality stats, quotes, or case studies is next to impossible.
This leaves security companies in an unenviable marketing bind, especially at a time when most B2B buyers trust reviews and third-party data sources over brands and company websites. (In fact, brands and their websites are the least trusted information sources for buyers right now.)
But customer evidence and third-party reviews aren’t a lost cause for security brands. IT security is a sweet spot for us at UserEvidence — we already work with five companies (and counting) from Fortune’s 2024 Cyber 60 list.
Here’s why UserEvidence makes perfect sense for the IT security space.
Customer evidence is a huge headache for IT security
If you sell security solutions to large enterprises, you know that getting customers — even happy ones — to share a success story on the record is like pulling teeth.
Imagine that you’re the CIO of a Fortune 100 company, and you use CrowdStrike to strengthen your security posture. You wouldn’t say, “Before we used Crowdstrike, everything was a complete mess; our data wasn’t secure at all! But, y’know, now it’s great.” Even if that’s true, that quote would never make it through legal, brand, and corporate review — not to mention other layers of approval.
Now picture that you’re on the customer marketing team at CrowdStrike. At best, that story probably gets watered down to the most vanilla version possible, details removed till it reads like Swiss cheese — no substance in sight. At worst, you spend five months on the story, only for it to get killed at the last minute.
This is the frustrating reality for customer marketers at IT and security companies.
It’s frustrating for the broader GTM team, too
When you’re fighting to gather customer proof as a security company, your sales team’s library of stories ends up with huge gaps:
- You’ll be missing stories in certain industries.
- You’ll have weak case studies describing why a customer switched from a top competitor.
- You’ll lack data to support performance and ROI claims.
And it’s not just sales that struggles:
- Marketers face the massive time-suck of trying to capture customers’ security success stories
- Content at the top and bottom of the funnel misses the meat that customer proof offers
- CSMs and customer marketers dread asking customers to share stats and quotes
- Sales enablement teams drown in requests for the numbers, examples, and testimonials that sellers need to convince their prospects their product is worth buying
All of these teams keep hitting the same brick wall: Customers can’t (or won’t) publicly share about the problems your IT security solution solves for them.
Here’s how UserEvidence solves the IT Security customer evidence dilemma once and for all
There’s a better way to create and sustain a self-serve library of customer evidence to convert customers more quickly and effectively, and that way is UserEvidence.
UserEvidence helps hundreds of GTM teams automate social proof and reduce hassle for everyone. Here’s how IT security marketers can build their flywheel of customer proof with UserEvidence.
1. Pull from your existing tools and review platforms
First things first — start with customers who’ve already vouched for you. Look to peer review sites for the glowing testimonials you have on hand.
UserEvidence lets you automatically collect and curate customer reviews from the G2s of the world and quickly create on-brand content; the kind that shows your prospects how your solution has helped other companies like them.
2. Gather “always-on” evidence with customer surveys
Go from reactive to proactive customer marketing with “always-on” surveying.
Before: Sales repeatedly asks marketers, “Hey, do we have a testimonial from X industry?”
After: UserEvidence has been automatically asking customers, “How much value are you getting from our product?” at key moments during their user journey for months now, so sellers have detailed quotes and stats from all kinds of companies.
The only thing tricky here is identifying key moments during your customer journey, and building short surveys that line up with those milestones.
For instance, you could ask why a customer switched from another cybersecurity competitor just days after they buy your product. Or you could ask them which problems your platform solves for them after two months of using a certain feature in your product every day.
In short, with UserEvidence, you can automate relevant surveys that ask the right questions at the right time.
3. Anonymize results
Even when a customer wants to remain nameless, your team can share on-point customer proof with your prospects. Capture anonymous testimonials with UserEvidence, and share results with your prospects without your customers (and their legal team) wondering or worrying if they’ve overshared.
Here’s an example:
An anonymous Yellowbricks customer on how their product changed the game.
A happy Yellowbricks customer shared the before and after of choosing Yellowbricks in an anonymous UserEvidence survey. Yellowbricks has a story to share — including industry demographics to satisfy the sales team — all while this customer’s name stays completely out of the spotlight.
4. Capture quick wins that your team can use right away
Customer evidence doesn’t have to be a heavy lift, and you don’t need to write entire assets like case studies to start meeting your GTM team’s needs.
Instead, aim for impact — start with the gaps in your sales content, like industries or company sizes that your sellers have been asking for. Move straight to designing short, metric-based surveys, and send them to the kinds of companies sales wants stories from. Use their quotes and stats as quick, shareable wins in outreach emails and demo decks in record time.
And when it is time to pull together that case study, UserEvidence has you covered with automation to streamline the entire process.
5. Identify new customer advocates and champions
When you proactively survey your customers at key moments, you find customers who love your product and have the stats to prove it. If you have advocates who are willing and able to go on the record about time saved, revenue protected, or outcomes prevented, surveys are a great way to find them.
Through the UserEvidence platform and research library, you can sort customers by industry and size to find advocates who’ve shared examples and quotes for every sales enablement need.
Netskope’s research library organizes assets by industry.
6. Understand why customers chose you over a competitor
Did a customer just sign with you? Now’s the perfect time to survey them about their search process. What other products did they consider, and why did your solution come out on top?
UserEvidence makes it easy to create and send those surveys — and curate them so that your prospects can see how you stack up against the competition.
With the Vanta research library, their team can quickly review (and share) why their customers chose them over other solutions.
You need customer evidence — UserEvidence can help
If you lead an IT or security company, customer evidence doesn’t have to feel like a heavily redacted document filled with vague “insights” anymore; you can move past endless approvals to build an always-growing library of success stories.
That’s why a growing group of top security companies already work with us.
For companies that aren’t, including:
UserEvidence reduces the friction that comes with customer marketing in a highly regulated space. Even if your customers won’t go on the public record, you cancapture credible stories and proof points from a wide range of anonymized customers.
Together, we’ll make your social proof and sales pipeline as secure as you keep your customers and their data.
