Vendors are not living up to their buyers’ expectations regarding content. Reviews are essential for buyers when they are balanced with both positive and negative feedback and when reviewers are validated and verified transparently. Ironically, software company websites are the most important source of information buyers rely on when planning to make purchases (60%). At the same time, only one in three buyers consider vendor websites the information source they trust most when making major purchasing decisions. Also, only 10% mentioned that relevant vendor- supplied content is influential when making decisions. User-generated content is king User-generated content, such as reviews, is essential for buyers. 76% of respondents think that product and service reviews websites are trustworthy or highly trustworthy, and 21% moderately trustworthy. As a result, one in two buyers feel better educated on the benefits and risks of purchasing software and more confident in the buying decision as well as in the selected product. One the flip side, while only 16% don’t use reviews websites, one in three respondents mentioned that ads and vendor influence are the main reasons they choose not to rely on reviews websites for software purchasing. 2022 G2 Software Buyer Behavior Report 11