January 2018 – user's Blog!

January 29, 2018

5 SaaS Lead Generation Secrets You Should Try in 2018

The ultimate goal of the SaaS product marketing is lead generation. The overall success of your marketing campaign whether you are making changes to a website, creating a next piece of content or running Facebook ads will be judged by a number of emails these activities deliver. In the long run, the question you should always keep in mind is how your marketing efforts will affect the number of people hitting the ‘Sign up’ button.

At Chanty, we had to learn a lot about lead generation as well as try new things before we found what actually works for us. Today we are sharing the best of our lead generation advice. Some of the hacks work well for us to get the precious sign ups for Chanty, others have proven to work great for well-known SaaS companies.

1. Lead generating content

Content marketing is nothing new. Unfortunately, there are still companies that invest into creating content, but don’t get the outcome they’ve hoped for. The good news is content marketing, if done right, could bring amazing results. Let us share our hack #1 that brings us a steady stream of customers.

Here’s a simple path you should follow:

Determine your top competitors in the niche
Make a keyword research for ‘Competitor Name’ alternatives, as well as ‘Competitor X’ vs ‘Competitor Y’
Choose the keyword phrase with the best balance of monthly search queries and keyword difficulty (could be checked in Ahrefs or SEMrush)
Write an in-depth article targeting the keyword. Among other alternatives mention your product. Highlight why it’s better than your competitors.
Acquire some backlinks pointing to an article
Enjoy the deluge of sign ups

This article on Slack alternatives in our blog is a a living proof of this strategy in work. It’s the easiest way to go if you have a prominent competitor in the niche. If you don’t – well, there’s still the traditional inbound marketing for you to try. Determine your buyer persona, learn their pains, solve them with your content, educate, engage and provide value. Create a downloadable asset such as an ebook or a comprehensive guide and offer it in exchange for visitors’ emails. Visit Hubspot Academy to learn how to do it in details.

2. Resonating ads

I can’t help, but mention this tactic, used by Ryver, our competitor. With the obvious leader in the face of Slack, team communication and collaboration niche is pretty hard to enter. You have to explain how you are different from Slack to their millions of fans and fight for your place in the sun. Ryver made a power move and set up the aggressive ad campaign in Twitter confronting their main rival.

Ryver says they’ve seen incredible engagement with these promoted tweets compared to other tweets where they’d speak of their advantages as a team communication app. Eventually, this approach helped them generate buzz around the product, got them noticed by thousands of potential customers and resulted in the long awaited sign ups.

I don’t encourage to go against your competitor with your ad campaigns. The ethical side of this approach is controversial and completely up to you. The bottom line is it works and gets you the precious emails.

3. Referral traffic from Quora

So many marketing channels, so little time. Referral traffic could become a great acquisition channel as well. After spending one week answering questions on Quora, I was surprised to discover its traffic converts at impressive 6%.

Here’s a priceless hack we’ve learnt – wiki answers. Rather than asking friends to upvote your content and fighting desperately to rank higher among other answers, here’s what you should do.

Whenever you find a question related to your niche e.g. it’s something like “What are the best Slack alternatives?” for us, hit the three dots menu and choose ‘Create Answer Wiki’. Once you post it, it’ll be reviewed by Quora staff and, if doesn’t violate their policy, it’ll be approved. Not everyone is aware of this hack so hurry up to make use of it asap.

4. Pricing model matters

Marketing isn’t only about promotion. There are still the three other P’s, remember? It’s hard to overestimate product pricing when it comes to generating leads.

When marketing thinks of leads, business thinks of sales. Not all leads are made equal. There are leads that turn into paying customers. There are also leads that churn after a free trial or remain freemium forever. Freemium, free trial, premium or other models you employ to price your product will result in different levels of lead generation. I’ve written more about various pricing models here. Let me highlight a few points.

I’d recommend to stay away from freemium unless you are a big company backed up by investors. Freemium sounds better than it in fact is. It means customers can use the lite version of your product for free for as long as you want. With all the virality you might get by going with freemium, you should consider the cons carefully.

Think of the number of free users you’ll have to maintain in order to get a handful of paying customers. Although it may look attractive, you can quickly find yourseful in a freemium trap – answering support tickets of free users and developing the features that freemium customers request.

The bottom line is price the product wisely and learn about pros and cons of each pricing model. Generating leads is good. Generating leads that eventually become paying clients is even better.

5. Conversion rate optimization

No tactics or hacks will work If your website isn’t optimized for conversion. I’m not going to repeat what’s already written on the other blogs. Let me just share our experience on this.

It is a good idea to encourage those who already signed up to share the love with friends. Offer something in exchange, e.g. we’re offering the early bird access to our app if the potential customers share the word about Chanty in social networks. This helps us increase brand awareness and attract new clients to our team messenger.

I know pop ups are annoying. That’s why I didn’t choose to put up distracting windows that appear when you are in the middle of reading an article. Instead, we’ve opted for an exit pop up. Once the user is about to leave your website, it comes out. The results have exceeded our expectations – it now generates about 10% of our sign ups.

The last, but not the least – signing up at your website should be incredibly easy. It goes without saying, you should remove CAPTCHA and other challenges on the way of your potential customers. Unless you are a well known app like HubSpot, avoid multiple fill in forms at the sign up form. Email is, in fact, all you need. OK, ‘Name’ is another appropriate field to add. Just make sure it’s doesn’t become this:

Source

If you have user-unfriendly forms that still convert, my best guess is you are holding a complete monopoly over the niche.

Conclusion

Marketing a SaaS product is complicated and involves a series of various activities. The bottom line, however, is the number of sign ups this activities generate. This is the metrics that every founder and CEO will keep in mind when evaluating efforts of a marketing team.

Therefore, try to strike a balance of promotion, price, product and placement to meet the business goals. Staying on the ethical side is equally important. Try the lead generation and conversion optimization hacks we’ve shared in this article to boost the number of sign ups on your website. Feel free to share other tips that worked well for you in the comments below.

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Olga Mykhoparkina is a Chief Marketing Officer at Chanty- a simple AI powered business messenger and a single notification center. Having a 9-year experience in digital marketing field, Olga is responsible for Chanty’s online presence strategy, managing an amazing team of marketing experts and getting things done to change the way teams communicate and collaborate. Follow Olga on Twitter @olmykh or feel free to connect on LinkedIn.

January 26, 2018

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January 22, 2018

Measuring the True Cost of New Consulting Clients

“Yes, let’s move forward with your proposal.”

For consultants (like me!), few sentences are sweeter to the ear than this one. In addition to boosting next year’s revenue forecast, new clients help you hedge against uncertainty. After all, you never know when an existing client will decide to unexpectedly change course.

As great as new clients can be, there are also a few tradeoffs to consider. In this post, we’ll discuss the costs and risks associated with adding new clients.

Preliminary Sunk Costs

Before you ever bill your first hour, you’ve already dug yourself into a hole. Allow me to explain.

Let’s say that you own and operate a growing IT consulting business. Your company specializes in network and web security, and most clients are within driving distance of your office. About one month ago, a new prospect filled out a form on your website and requested a free consultation.

It turns out that this lead (a well-respected software company) represents a very large opportunity for your firm. That’s the good news. The bad news is that they’ve been putting you through the wringer – with no end in sight. You’ve already visited their headquarters on multiple occasions, pulling your top IT minds off important projects to attend the meetings. After several rounds of proposals, you feel no closer to a closed deal than on day one. To make matters worse, you have a bad feeling that even if you do win the contract, it’s going to be a very one-sided arrangement (in their favor).

The last thing you want to do is pass on the opportunity (especially this far into it), but you can’t help acknowledging your sunk costs:

Lost billable hours: Time is money. Had this lead never requested info, you could have freed up additional billable hours. Instead, your team invested substantial effort in preparing proposals, brainstorming solutions, and engaging with the prospect (for free).

Switching costs: Jumping from one thing to the next increases mistakes and decreases productivity. With so much attention being paid to a single lead, your team must work even harder to keep everything balanced.

Administrative costs: Each meeting brings the inevitable set of follow-up activities. You’ve smartly organized all of your contact records, meeting minutes, tasks, and project milestones in Insightly. That helps out, but there’s still a quantifiable amount of administrative work to go around. Things don’t get done on their own.

Legal review fees: A wise man once said, “The only thing worse than no deal is a bad deal.” Being the prudent business owner that you are, there’s no way you’ll sign something without having legal counsel look it over. That’s smart, but it’s also going to cost you something.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Yes, Matt. These are indeed sunk costs, but that’s just part of doing business. You win some, and you lose some.” I wholeheartedly agree with you. I’m not saying you shouldn’t pursue new business. I’m simply pointing out that there is a real cost that’s associated with any pre-sale process – especially when you’re doing complex deals. Surprisingly, some business owners never consider how much their sales pipeline is actually costing!

Ongoing Obligations

Finally, you receive the email that you’ve been waiting for: the software company is ready to move forward. Considering it’s Friday afternoon, you decide to take the crew out for ice cream and celebrate the victory. Everyone is very excited about the outcome.

Then, Monday morning rolls around…

As you stroll into the office at 8:02, you can immediately tell that it’s going to be a stressful day. You glance down at your phone, and you’re surprised to see several texts from various contacts at the software company. Your inbox isn’t much better. The first email is from the client’s accounts payable department, asking you to fill out a ton of paperwork. Another email, from their legal department, is asking you to complete something called a “new vendor due diligence packet” – before the close of business, of course. And, to complicate matters, your IT manager won’t be coming in to the office today – or the rest of the week, for that matter. His wife just went into labor a few weeks early.

The next thing you know, your office clock strikes 7:00 pm. What a day! As you walk toward your car, another reality hits you: this new client is already changing your company’s work patterns.

Incremental staffing costs: Your IT manager’s absence is a stark reminder of your team’s fragility. Should you hire additional staff to support new and existing clients? Doing so could be a wise move, but it also comes with a big price tag.

Non-billable requests: Some aspects of your client relationship simply aren’t billable. Submitting the vendor due diligence packet is the perfect example. On the other hand, failing to submit the packet would probably result in an unhappy ending for your firm. There’s an opportunity cost to fulfill these types of requests.

Other administrative “stuff”: If you want to get paid on time, invoices must get generated. Overdue invoices must be pursued by your accounts receivable team. Paid invoices must be reconciled in your general ledger. And, at year end, you hope that your 1099 will match up with your books. If not, there’s more work to be done. All of this has a cost.

Ongoing Risks

We’ve discussed the hard costs associated with servicing new clients. But, what about the unknown risks? Here are just a few to watch out for:

Nonpayment: Most customers pay on time. Some customers are forgetful and occasionally require a gentle reminder. Others aggressively push the envelope on payment terms in order to optimize cash flow. Remember, you’re not a bank. An occasional past-due invoice will happen, but a pattern of delinquency is detrimental to your own cash flow and stability.

One-and-done: The client’s work agreement has you locked in for a twelve-month period. That’s great for your current P&L, but what about future years? There’s no guarantee of renewal, which is all the more reason why you need a best-in-class CRM system. You essentially have a twelve-month window to lock in renewals and identify upsell opportunities. A tool like Insightly can help you manage such opportunities, reducing the likelihood of “one-and-done” clients.

Refunds (or worse): While most clients are very easy to work with, some can be quick to point the finger when things go wrong. You’re not planning on anything going wrong, but nothing is 100% certain in business – especially when it comes to the IT world. Until you establish a better relationship with the customer, refund requests are a possible outcome that you want to avoid.

Bad relationships: Consulting engagements are more than just the exchange of services and cash. Lasting engagements are built upon an interpersonal relationship between vendor and client. Like any relationship, however, some are better than others. Both parties must proactively work on the relationship. Otherwise, it’s destined for failure.

Balancing Cost vs. Reward

Clearly, there are many costs and risks associated with taking on new clients. In fact, at this point in the article, you’re probably tired of thinking about them all. I sure am.

So, should you dwell on all the downsides? Absolutely not! On the contrary, the smart consultant simply acknowledges them and creates systems to drive profitability. A platform such as Insightly can be invaluable for doing exactly that. Here’s how.

Efficient Pipeline Tracking: The moment a new lead enters your pipeline, Insightly can bring clarity to every aspect of the sales process. How many team members (and hours of work) have been dedicated to closing the deal? Where is the most recent proposal deck? Insightly integrates with the industry’s most widely used document systems, allowing you to quickly attach and link cost estimates, tracking files, quotes, and proposals. The built-in opportunity tracker brings key dates and milestones into the forefront, such as the forecasted close date, time spent in each stage, probability and deal size, and much more.

Effective Service Delivery: Unlike some CRMs that only track the sales process, Insightly provides a seamless transition from sales to delivery. Converting an opportunity to a project ensures your pre-sales information remains intact throughout the customer’s journey. No more jumping between your CRM, project system, and document system. Insightly brings it all together, ensuring a more cohesive client experience.

Upsell Management: Turn your “doers” into your best sales reps. As clients share their frustrations, challenges, and goals, your team can easily add new opportunities on the fly. They’re already using Insightly to coordinate tasks, projects, milestones – why not turn them loose to also identify upsell opportunities?

360-Degree View of Profitability: At the end of the day, you’re not a charity. You need to know if each client is contributing (or detracting) from your overall profitability. Insightly can help you get the answers you need. The library of prebuilt and customizable reports brings life to your CRM data. Pull together client project information, revenue forecasts, and booked business to make more informed business decisions.

Are New Clients Worth It?

If you find yourself routinely asking this question, it might be time to implement a more robust client management system. To find out if Insightly is the right tool for your consulting business, click here to learn more.

Matt Keener is a marketing consultant and President of Keener Marketing Solutions, LLC. Matt specializes in content marketing and strategic planning, having helped numerous Saas (software as a service) companies and other small businesses worldwide. Read more of Matt’s work, get his book, or connect on LinkedIn.

January 11, 2018

4 CRM Resolutions for the New Year

The New Year brings with it a renewed sense of hope and optimism.

Will this be the year you land that record-setting contract? Does expansion into adjacent markets represent a growth opportunity for your company? Will that “pet project” you’ve been toying with for years finally become a reality?

Business owners across the globe are wrestling with questions exactly like these. Some even go as far as setting resolutions, committing themselves to specific deadlines and outcomes.

If you’re still mulling a few resolutions of your own, your CRM might not be the first thing you think of. In reality, setting a few CRM-related resolutions might be exactly what you need.

Here are four CRM resolutions worth considering.

Resolution 1: Consolidate

In today’s web-based world, it’s easy to spread your business activity too thin. For example, your inbox houses your most important customer interactions. Project-related information is all over the place, ranging from team members’ hard drives to shared document repositories. And, of course, your pending deals are tracked in your CRM.

Without a single go-to reference point, it’s difficult to properly align resources and develop realistic plans. To make even the most basic business decision, you may find yourself checking several overlapping systems. Granted, you’ll never find a single software application that serves every business need. (If you do, please let me know!) Therefore, the next best option is to consolidate as many data points into the tool that you use most: your CRM.

Here are a few thoughts for consolidating around your CRM:

Revisit Unused Features:

If your CRM offers tiered pricing plans, is it possible that you’re paying for features that aren’t being utilized? If so, could these features eliminate the need for other third-party apps? As an example, some Insightly users are surprised to learn that all plans include project management features (at no extra charge). Aligning project management and sales initiatives could yield additional economies of scale, improve delivery, and make an impact on customer satisfaction.

Consider Upgrading:

There’s no law that says you must remain on the same CRM plan forever. Unfortunately, many business owners are quick to deploy additional apps (with overlapping functionality) – rather than simply clicking the “upgrade” button. Upgrading usually comes with an upfront cost, but it could save you countless dollars in frustration later on.

Identify Out-of-the-Box Integrations:

Your CRM is never going to replace the need for your invoicing software or document collaboration platform. For those third-party tools your company just can’t live without, it may be possible to get the best of both worlds. Many CRMs, including Insightly, offer out-of-the box integrations with a variety of popular software applications. Although your team will still need to log into and maintain multiple systems, they’ll at least enjoy the benefits of a more information-rich CRM.

Build Your Own Integrations:

Thanks to webhooks and innovative API services, such as the Zapier platform, your team can build custom CRM integrations with minimal coding knowledge.

Resolution 2: Simplify

Consolidation is a logical first step, but it’s matched in importance by your next resolution: simplification.

Remember, a CRM offers minimal value to your business if it creates confusion and chaos. Although there are countless records being managed by your CRM, it’s wise to continuously and proactively seek a more simplified data structure.

How can your data structure be “simplified”? Here are a few tips for starters:

Set a Master Vision:

Do you have a vision for your CRM? What defines a lead? When should they be converted to opportunities? What information should be fed (or not fed) in from your other apps? Take an hour or two to storyboard this with your management team. Doing so will prove valuable as you consider other simplification strategies.

Merge Duplicates:

Does your CRM make it easy to identify and merge duplicate records? If not, how will your team stay on top of this important issue? Maintaining multiple records for the same person or entity is highly distracting, thereby detracting from your team’s overall productivity.

Clean House:

I would wager that at least 10% of the records in your CRM could be deleted without harming your business. Don’t believe me? Try this exercise. If you’re using your CRM to track your to-do list, sort your tasks by due date. Now, look for items that are more than a few days past due (or have no due date at all). I’m sure you’ll find at least one task out of ten that’s already been completed. Or, you may find an idea or two from long ago that is now irrelevant. Keeping outdated records only clouds your ability to hone in on what truly matters.

Revisit Your Admin Settings:

Is your tagging structure out of control? Would adding a few custom fields enhance how your team organizes its records? Study your use cases and revisit your CRM admin settings often. A simple adjustment or two could dramatically simplify your data structure – and make your end users happier.

Set Ground Rules:

In what circumstances should your team utilize a project record instead of a simple task? How frequently should your sales staff update the probability on their deals? These are all good questions that, if answered and documented, will help your organization become more successful.

Resolution 3: Sequence Smarter

Now that your CRM contains the right information (no more, no less), it’s time for the fun part: sequencing.

All things being equal, there’s only so much work that can be done. It’s therefore incumbent that you leverage your CRM to determine what should be worked on first, second, third, etc. In other words, which projects and prospects represent the greatest impact to your bottom line.

Let’s look at a few sequencing tips:

Automate Your Sales Priorities:

Not all leads and opportunities are created equal. Likewise, not all sales reps are as gifted as your top-grossing agent. Does your CRM offer automated workflow rules that could reduce friction in the lead delegation process? Could some basic lead assignment rules pay big dividends with minimal effort?

Categorize Your Projects:

As a business owner, you never run out of ideas. That’s a blessing, but it can also be a curse – especially when deciding what your team should tackle first. Staring at a huge backlog of product and service ideas can make everyone feel overwhelmed. A logical first step might involve the categorization of your projects into subgroups. Categorizing by customer segment, department, or product type could provide the clarity necessary to make more informed sequencing decisions.

Make it Visual:

Whiteboards are particularly useful for mapping out innovative processes. The same is true for sequencing your company’s strategic initiatives. A Kanban-style board, such as the one below from Insightly, can be tremendously helpful for deciding what to do next. It also offers a bird’s-eye view of what has already been done (or what is currently in progress).

Resolution 4: Build in Accountability

Most New Year’s resolutions fail for one key reason: lack of accountability.

As January and February start to fly by, the temptation is to lose sight of your goals. After all, you have existing customers to keep happy. New priorities can wait – right?

Without the right accountability structure, you may find your goals no further along in October than they are now. You need an accountability plan, and you need to build it into your CRM.

Here are ideas for doing that:

Be Specific:

“By June 1, 2018, we will have the new product available for beta testing. We will also have ten of our top customers ready to test it for us.” This type of explanation would likely serve as an effective starting point for a project description. Based on this, your team can then get to work and coordinate the related tasks, events, and milestones. (Bonus tip: Be sure to link all subsequent records back to your master project!)

Set Reminders:

Just because a task has been assigned (with a due date), it doesn’t mean it will actually get done. Remember, not every team member lives and breathes your CRM. Create another layer of accountability by ensuring tasks are set to automatically remind users via email. The “I didn’t see that task” excuse just became a nonfactor.

Let Your CRM Track the KPIs:

Does your current CRM allow you to build customizable reports? If so, can you bookmark them or save them for later? If you’re not sure, spend time to fully understand which KPIs can (or cannot) be easily tracked. In the product launch example mentioned above, a listing of all items linked to the master project might be especially beneficial. Once created, should you set the report to arrive in your inbox weekly? monthly? The answer might depend on your meeting cadence and aggressiveness of timelines.

Here’s to a Productive 2018

Your CRM is destined to play a crucial role in achieving this year’s business resolutions. By setting aside time to be more strategic with your CRM in 2018, you may be surprised at the many great things you can achieve.