How not cleaning our list led to 100+ G2 reviews—and a total disaster on our testimonial campaign

How not cleaning our list led to 100+ G2 reviews—and a total disaster on our testimonial campaign 

We made some really bad decisions with this campaign. Hopefully, you can learn from them. Let my misery be your happiness.

My team and I thought it would be a great idea to boost our G2 reviews for one of our clients’ software products. The product had fewer than 10 reviews, and let’s face it, everyone checks the internet first before committing to a new tool. So, we kicked off a G2 testimonial outreach campaign. Seems straightforward, right? Upload your contact list, offer an incentive, and watch the reviews roll in.

Wrong. Nothing is that simple.

Sure, we received over 100 customer reviews. But about 20% of them were absolutely terrible. Picture the CEO, customer success lead, and sales lead all jumping into our marketing meeting on Monday morning, livid.

The good news: we got 100+ reviews.
The bad news: some were from angry customers. We’re talking full-blown rants like:

• “This product is terrible. Complete waste of time.”
• “They’ve stolen my money. How do I get out of this contract?”
• “I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone.”

Exactly the type of glowing feedback you’d love to see plastered all over the internet, right?

Here’s what we learned, and what you need to know before starting any outreach campaign: clean your list.

Keep your contact list fresh—purge the dead weight

Our first mistake? We reached out to contacts who hadn’t used the product in years. You’re probably wondering why they even reviewed it. Well, we offered a $20 incentive. So, they took the money and left us a glowing review, like:

• “Haven’t used it in a while.”
• Or worse, one of those “Airbnb-style” reviews where you just review to see what the owner said about you, like, “It was fine, thanks for the help.”
• And some just flat out said, “No complaints here.” — helpful, right?

Cmon people! More passion, more energy, more footwork (here’s some fun). 

But anyways, what we should’ve done was segment the list by active users—people who had actually used the product within the last 3, 6, or 12 months. And for users who had stopped using it? Either throw them out or only reach out if they were known advocates. That would have saved us from having some lackluster review. I mean who would convert from those?

Tip: Start by filtering your list by those who actively use your product. If they haven’t engaged with it in over a year, they're more likely to leave you with complaints than kudos.

Score and prioritize contacts—focus on high intent

Our second mistake? Not prioritizing our biggest advocates. We should’ve reached out to the champions who sing our praises, not just dumped everyone into one giant list and blasted out the campaign like a cannonball. Instead, we ended up with a mixed bag of responses like:

• “This product improved our efficiency by 30%. I love it!”
• Followed by, “Why are you still emailing me?! Tell Jeff to call me—I still haven’t received a refund.”

We should have segmented our list by:

• Our biggest advocates (happy customers)
• Those who frequently use the product
• And those we’ve had recent, positive contact with

Had we done this, we would’ve had a much smoother campaign with far more positive reviews. It’s all about quality vs. quantity. Don’t aim for mass outreach—target the right people who are likely to give you stellar feedback.

QA every contact—because spray-and-pray never works

Another lesson learned: double-check everything before you send. Spray-and-pray is great for football Hail Marys, not for outreach campaigns. We didn’t just deal with bad reviews—we also saw email deliverability tank. Why? We were sending to outdated email addresses, some names were spelled wrong, and a few emails even bounced back. Our outreach turned into a spammy mess, hurting our client’s domain.

What went wrong:

• Old contacts who hadn’t been reached in years.
• Misspelled names or placeholders like “Hi [NAME].”
• Emails going to spam or bouncing because we didn’t validate them.

Pro tip: Before launching a campaign, do a thorough QA:

• Ensure every name is spelled correctly.
• Validate emails through a tool like ZeroBounce.
• And please, for the love of marketing, check for placeholders like “Hi [NAME]” that can easily slip through.

The bottom line: clean your list before you hit send

At the end of the day, the biggest takeaway is simple: clean your list. I’ve made the mistakes already, so you don’t have to. A clean, well-segmented list will give you the targeted, high-quality outreach that gets you the results you actually want.

So, before you hit send on your next campaign, remember:

• Segmentation is key—don’t contact people who aren’t a fit.
• Prioritize your biggest advocates.
• Double-check every detail to avoid a deliverability nightmare.
• And if you’re offering incentives, make sure your contacts are qualified to leave meaningful reviews, not just taking the money and running.

Learn from our mistakes, and you’ll end up with a kick-ass outbound campaign and a clean list for your next outreach. Use our list cleaning template to guide you through the process and ensure nothing is overlooked.

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