“When your narrative is consistent across channels, AI recognizes it as authoritative and repeats it back to buyers. G2 is what gives us that authority at scale.”
When Evan Reiss became VP, Head of Marketing at Foxit, he brought more than just a fresh perspective – he brought a playbook for the future.
With years of SEO expertise, Evan could see what many marketers were missing: AI wasn’t just the next big thing; it was about to change the way buyers discovered, evaluated, and trusted software vendors.
Rather than waiting for the market to catch up, Evan got to work. He invested heavily in G2 – refreshing Foxit’s profile, aligning it with brand messaging, and building a consistent review generation engine. His goal: ensure Foxit owned the narrative in AI-generated answers before competitors even knew it was up for grabs.
That bet paid off. Today, G2 is the #1 cited source in AI search queries about Foxit, their reviews are influencing brand sentiment across the buying journey, and the company earned a coveted spot on G2’s Top 100 Best Software Companies list.
Evan joined Foxit nearly three years ago and quickly spotted an opportunity – and a looming threat. “I saw where AI was going.” he shared, “These engines were going to pull from trusted, first-party sources, and fresh customer testimonials were going to matter more than ever.”
At the same time, Evan noticed something telling, search volume in their categories was dropping fast. “I’ve seen our category go from 10,000 enterprise searches to 4,000 in a quarter. AI is cannibalizing search traffic.”
Foxit was already a strong player in its categories, often winning individual G2 awards, but they lacked broader recognition and a cohesive advocacy strategy.
The risk was clear – if Foxit didn’t control its brand narrative where AI was sourcing information, someone else would.
Evan invested heavily in G2, making it the foundation of Foxit’s advocacy strategy.
The approach combined three key plays:
Foxit established a regular cadence for updating their G2 profile – not just for product releases, but to ensure messaging remained fresh and aligned with their market positioning.
Evan explained, “I took a high-performing phrase ‘#1 Acrobat Alternative’ and put it on our G2 profile. A year later, that’s the only narrative AI returns about us.”
This consistency between Foxit’s G2 profile and website ensured AI engines encountered and reinforced the same story everywhere.
Foxit also implemented targeted review campaigns, timing requests to moments of peak customer engagement (90 days and 6 months post-onboarding) and investing heavily in refresh campaigns. They also leveraged G2 Voice Reviews to easily capture more reviews and in-depth feedback from their customers.
“When you update reviews, it keeps your ranking higher in the algorithms because of recency bias,” he explained. “That’s what AI cares about.”
The team shifted investment away from less impactful review sites, focusing efforts on G2’s proven ability to influence buyer perception and AI results.
Foxit didn’t stop at collecting reviews, they put them to work. G2 badges, ratings, and testimonials now appear across outbound campaigns, their Google Business listing, and SEO-optimized web pages.
The reviews weren’t just a marketing play – they became a cross-functional resource.
“G2 has been huge for us, it’s now our core source of customer truth.”
Evan Reiss, VP, Head of Marketing, Foxit
The Sales team embedded G2 ratings, badges, and testimonials into their outreach, and Customer Success also began using G2 reviews to identify and resolve product issues faster, turning feedback into action.
The results of Foxit’s advocacy investment have been both qualitative and quantitative:
“Out of over 10,000 companies, only 36 were added to the Best Software list in our category." Evan explained, "If this isn’t a testament to letting customers speak their truth on G2, I don’t know what is.”
For Foxit, G2 is no longer just a review site, it’s a core channel in their brand and visibility strategy.
“G2 shows up over and over as the top source in AI results about us.”
Evan Reiss, VP, Head of Marketing, Foxit
Evan emphasizes the importance of thinking beyond traditional referral traffic and embracing the role G2 plays in AI-driven buying journeys.
For other companies looking to see similar results, his guidance is simple: refresh your profile regularly, prioritize review recency, and ensure your brand narrative is consistent across every high-authority source AI might use.
Evan is already thinking ahead to the next evolution of AI discoverability. His team is exploring deeper integration between advocacy data and AI visibility metrics, testing messaging prompts in review collection, and expanding customer storytelling to new product lines.
“When your narrative is consistent across channels, AI recognizes it as authoritative and repeats it back to buyers." Evan shared, "G2 is what gives us that authority at scale.”
Want your brand to be front and center in AI-powered buyer journeys? Discover how G2 Marketing Solutions helps you build trust, visibility, and pipeline.
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