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7 Simple Ways to Improve Your SaaS Management

Posted: 10 Dec 2019 08:00 AM PST

Software as a Service (SaaS) applications have done wonders to improve the quality of businesses in a variety of industries. But as businesses grow, it can be difficult to keep track of all the software.

Keeping track of payments, renewals, employee onboarding, and all the other details involved with these accounts and subscriptions can become overwhelming. Unfortunately, failure to keep track of your SaaS applications can lead to inefficiencies and an increasingly chaotic system. Every successful company must have a plan for SaaS management. So how can you avoid the chaos and ensure all your SaaS applications are being effectively managed? Here are seven tips to help you keep track and manage all of your SaaS applications 

1. Avoid shadow I.T.

In large or quickly growing organizations, shadow IT is all too common. Any time software is purchased or used without organizational approval or awareness of an IT department is known as shadow IT.

The problem with shadow IT is that it is highly likely to be mismanaged, forgotten, or underutilized. The IDC reports that by 2020, 67% of enterprise infrastructure and software will be for cloud-based offerings. It is extremely easy for cloud-based services to go unnoticed without a designated system for tracking them.

Shadow IT can be very costly for businesses, as employees often don't have full training for each service, leading to software being underutilized and overpaid for. Sometimes software subscriptions become forgotten, but not canceled, causing organizations to lose money on each automatic, unnoticed payment. Furthermore, when the IT department is unaware of what apps are being used, then they aren't able to ensure that the company's network is safe from vulnerabilities caused by SaaS access permissions.

Be sure each department and employee at your company understands how to record new software subscriptions. There should be one person or team in charge of knowing about all SaaS applications at the company and understanding their functions and requirements.

If shadow IT is already lurking at your company because systems for management are not currently in place, the first step is discovering, recording, and informing yourself about the functions of each software service. This step should be done as soon as possible to avoid wasting resources. 

Once all shadow IT is uncovered, evaluate the importance and network access permissions of each software service. Perhaps some applications are no longer in use, or their function is not worth the cost. Be sure to cancel these wasteful services. Don't let shadow IT drain you of resources without your knowledge.

2. Put an onboarding system in place

The first few days at a new job are often overwhelming for newly-recruited employees. There is so much to learn in a short amount of time. This process is only made more intensive if there are issues gaining access to all the various software services used by your company.

Organize your employee onboarding process for each SaaS application. This can be done by designating an IT or human resources employee to ensure all new employees have proper access and training for each software service. Creating an onboarding system will eliminate inefficiencies as employees won't waste time waiting for access to be granted. It will also ensure employees understand how to use each application so no service or subscription is underutilized.

Many managers know the frustration of encouraging employees to use a software service they don't want to use. But most software services are purchased because there is value in it when properly used. A proper onboarding process that includes providing quick access and dedicated training to new employees, leads to a higher likelihood that these applications will be used throughout an employee's time at the company.

Similar to your onboarding system should be an off-boarding system to remove employees' access to apps at the end of their employment.

3. Make security a priority

An unfortunately severe consequence of mismanaged SaaS is a security breach. It's extremely important to keep up-to-date on all SaaS applications to avoid leaving yourself vulnerable to the exposure of your data.

According to Gartner, roughly one-third of successful cyber-attacks experienced by enterprises will be on their shadow IT resources. This is why it is imperative to bring all SaaS applications to the forefront of your business, so security can be tracked and managed.

It is best practice to keep all software at your company updated to the latest version, as well as to frequently change passwords and monitor who has access. It is not uncommon in large businesses for former employees to keep access to old files far longer than is safe.

Security vulnerabilities can cause significant amounts of damage to a company. According to an IBM study, a data breach can cost a company up to $3.92 million on average, and they can happen to anyone. Small businesses are especially at risk, due to weaker security systems. SBM research found that roughly two-thirds of attacks target small businesses.

Avoid exposing yourself to data breaches by managing your SaaS applications and improving visibility for all IT services.

4. Keep a payment and renewal schedule

One of the quickest ways to cause chaos in your company is to lose track of payments for software subscriptions. This frequently causes problems in two different ways.

The first way businesses are caught off-guard by payment and renewal schedules is when a highly important and frequently used service is unknowingly canceled. Many software services have automatic renewals, but some require a licensing renewal process that does not occur automatically.

This can wreak havoc on a company when important applications are unusable during critical moments. It may seem simple, but due to the seemingly automatic nature of SaaS applications, many businesses do not do a good job of tracking the requirements to keep their access active.

The second problem caused by not having an effective schedule for all SaaS applications is when unimportant and rarely used services have costly automatic renewals. Companies should frequently evaluate all SaaS applications for effectiveness, and when it comes time for renewal, you should be well informed as to whether that is something that is in the best interest of your business.

5. Utilize SaaS management tools

Even with a designated employee or team of employees assigned to managing all your SaaS applications, things can fall through the cracks. Amongst others, consider enlisting the help of a SaaS management tool, which tracks usage, spending and optimization for each SaaS application at your company.

SaaS management tools can also help uncover shadow IT, onboard new employees, improve security and keep payment schedules. Some companies may choose to handle all these processes manually, but it's the invention of SaaS management tools that provides major advantages to companies that don't have a lot of extra time and resources and want to streamline processes.

Enlisting the help of a management tool frees up availability for your employees to work on other issues, and it also helps avoid human error in the management of these systems. These tools give useful insights into how each SaaS service can be better utilized.

6. Get all departments on board

Having organization-wide controls for SaaS applications is highly important for effective management. There should be frequent communication between all teams about the use of software services. If you don't have consistency across your entire company, most systems will be rendered ineffective. A well-functioning system relies on universal employee buy-in.

Each department should have a vested interest in the success of whichever SaaS applications they use most frequently. Mismanaged software services could be affecting each department's budget, communication, efficiency and security without their knowledge. It might require training to ensure every department understands the processes in place for managing SaaS, but it will be well worth the time, and will most likely save your company resources in the long term.

7. Report and investigate for further improvements

The goal of managing SaaS well is to increase visibility, understanding and communication surrounding SaaS applications. It's important after improving your management system to report on its effectiveness and continue to search for further ideas to increase efficiency.

Reflection is highly important to successful business, so any time a new process is put in place, the organization should spend time evaluating its effectiveness and ensuring employees understand how the process worked. Reflection and investigation for further improvement will help avoid falling into old patterns. We don't want shadow IT to return or various SaaS applications to be forgotten again as new employees are hired and old employees move on. Good SaaS management is not a one-time thing; it is an ongoing process that will improve the functionality of your business long-term.

How to Set Your 2020 Digital Marketing Budget Priorities

Posted: 10 Dec 2019 07:00 AM PST

As 2019 nears its end, business owners are ramping up their holiday marketing efforts and preparing for the sales tsunami that is sure to ensue. However, in all the hectic holiday hustle and bustle, retailers must also take time to establish their digital marketing budget for 2020.

During the last quarter of the year, marketing teams generate new strategies and tactics for reaching consumers. These blueprints act as a roadmap for engendering a seller's vision for what is to be achieved. That said, a brand's outlook must be rooted in sound reasoning that is derived from concrete data that will aid business owners in understanding how to most effectively get the company from Point A to Point B through its marketing initiatives.

Therefore, merchants must explore the forces that drove their conversions in 2019, including messaging, audience demographics and influential touchpoints that resulted in sales. To gain proper insights on such metrics and behaviors so as to craft an adequately prioritized digital marketing budget for the upcoming year, retailers must begin their analyzation efforts by looking at their traffic sources.

Establish profitable traffic sources

Most websites receive traffic from a multitude of sources as consumers have an increasing number of channels through which they can access a site. Fortunately, retailers can utilize Google Analytics to establish how consumers arrived on specific pages. Some of the different traffic sources that sellers might see include:

  • Organic traffic: Traffic derived from search engines like Google and Bing.

  • Referral traffic: Traffic that is driven by sources outside of search engines, such as a link on another website.

  • Social media traffic: Users who came from platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the like.

  • Paid search traffic: Traffic generated from users who clicked through on ads placed on search engines.

  • Email traffic: Consumers who clicked links present in email marketing campaigns.

  • Direct traffic: Those who typed a company's URL directly into their web browser or who clicked on a saved bookmark. Be aware that anytime Google Analytics cannot tell where a visitor came from, those folks will be attributed to direct traffic.

For sellers to view their traffic sources for specific pages, start by logging into Google Analytics and going to "Behavior > Site Content." From there, site owners can select if they would like to view traffic sources for all of the store's pages, or specific ones like landing pages or exit pages. After selecting the desired pages, navigate to "Secondary Dimension > Acquisition > Source/Medium." Doing this will display a list of the selected pages, alongside sources of traffic, such as where users were prior to clicking through to a specific page.

From here, merchants will want to create an advanced segment to gain a more comprehensive, detailed view of the traffic stats for specific pages. While the initial Google Analytics traffic breakdown is helpful, it only provides a collective overview of all traffic sources as they are relegated to buckets of direct, organic and referral traffic. By creating a segment, sellers can break traffic sources down to a more refined level, thereby gaining direct insights into visitors driven by paid search, social media and so forth.

By obtaining detailed information on which channels have successfully driven click-throughs, retailers procure an understanding on which portals are most influential for their brand, thereby guiding budgeting efforts. However, it is understandable that some retailers don't have the time or acumen to sift through such data properly. In such an instance, it is advisable to partner with an e-commerce marketing agency to help extract actionable budgeting insights.

After establishing where traffic comes from, it is time for merchants to dig into who exactly is visiting their sites.

Uncovering audience demographics

The success of any marketing campaign rests on an intimate understanding of who comprises a brand's audience as this informs the portals leveraged, messaging employed and nearly every other facet of the push. The fact is that without detailed and penetrating knowledge on audiences, marketing dollars are almost certainly being spent on uninterested, irrelevant consumers who will never convert.

Therefore, sellers must utilize the data at their disposal to uncover the exact demographics that drive business growth. However, before this information on the types of folks visiting a site can be accessed, sellers must enable the demographics and interests reports in Google Analytics.

Once this step has been completed, merchants can access user data such as:

  • Visitor ages

  • Visitor genders

  • Affinity categories that indicate specific interests

  • Other categories that expound upon affinities for more detail information

To access this data, go to "Audience > Demographics" in Google Analytics. From there, the overview provides sellers with a broad breakdown of the demographics of site visitors. Navigating to the Age and Gender section of the Google Analytics accounts allows for more detailed information on site visitor behaviors as they relate to these dimensions. For example, from these pages, sellers can identify which age groups generate the most revenue or which gender initiates the lion's share of new sessions.

Once again, it is advisable to create an advanced segment to break down the data into more minute details for further analyzation. Doing so is essential as establishing a brand's most fervent audience segments is key to prioritizing marketing budgets in the year to come. However, it is not just people and portals that sellers should study, as it is equally vital to analyze the effectiveness of different tactics.

Contrasting ROI for PPC and SEO campaigns

Understanding exactly how much is spent on content marketing, search engine optimization strategies, display and social advertising and email marketing, as well as how much revenue each methodology produced, is critical for scaling an e-commerce business. To effectively prioritize next year's marketing budget, understanding the ROI of each activity is crucial. Thankfully, return on investment can be simple to calculate as one formula is:

ROI = (Gain – Cost) / Cost

That said, there are more complex marketing ROI formulas that retailers can utilize.

When calculating the cost, it is important to look beyond the campaign materials and include other factors, such as labor. Furthermore, gains can be defined in different ways. Some sellers might define gains as profits from a sale, while others might deem this as the long-term value of a customer.

For merchants to effectively understand the ROI produced by their paid advertising efforts, conversion tracking is necessary. Assuming that merchants already have this component in place, running a conversion report via Google Analytics will provide retailers with data on how many conversions came from paid search, organic search, social media, and so forth.

On this page lives a tab that highlights the number of conversions, as well as the value. The value is essentially a metric on how much revenue has been generated from each channel. It is crucial for merchants to compare these values with the amount that has been spent in each arena (i.e., PPC, SEO, etc.) during the same time period to begin establishing the ROI for each effort.

For instance, if the revenue generated from organic search is $50,000 in a single month, and the company paid $10,000 on SEO efforts during that time (keyword research, content production, etc.), then the ROI would be $40,000 or 40%, roughly speaking.

This same process should be applied to email marketing, social media marketing and other marketing efforts to understand which tactics were the most fruitful for the business. By understanding which methodologies pulled in the most revenue for a brand, retailers can better understand where to invest their marketing dollars over the next year. 

While it is crucial work for merchants to set their digital marketing budgets for the following year, it is also important to remember that things change. Therefore, over the course of the next 12 months, retailers should revisit, maintain and, if necessary, adjust categories accordingly as there are always unexpected costs and opportunities.

While marketing budgets for each brand are sure to look different, one thing remains the same: Setting priorities based on data is vital to maximizing marketing dollars to help a business grow. Analyze these areas of customer behavior and marketing performance to effectively determine how your brand's digital marketing budget can be best spent in the New Year.

10 Tips for Writing a Great Press Release

Posted: 10 Dec 2019 06:00 AM PST

Often, a press release can be the catalyst for news coverage and stories about your organization and its corresponding announcements. But crafting a press release that gets noticed takes a specialized approach that is attention-grabbing and informative at the same time.

Whether you're announcing a new product, have an event you want to promote, or want to spread the news of a new hire or promotion, a well-written press release can help you break through the noise and act as a timely hook to get the coverage you're looking for.

Understanding how to write an effective press release is critical if you want to share your latest news and announcements with reporters and customers alike. But when it comes to writing a press release, it's easy to get a bit of writer's block if you don't have a  template to follow.

As you put the proverbial pen-to-paper and start writing, follow these 10 tips to craft the perfect press release.

1. Simplify and prioritize

Before you even begin writing, it's important to prioritize your message. What story are you trying to tell? Why does this matter? A press release should share the most important information in a clear and concise manner. Simplify your message by focusing on the core audience takeaway and why they must know about this news, now. Then lead the audience to your website, social media channels, etc. for more information beyond the release.

2. Utilize the inverted pyramid

With a focused idea of your story, it's time to write. Picture an upside-down pyramid. At the very top and widest point, you share the most important, newsworthy information. As you move to the next layers, you'll taper from important information to supplemental details to general background information. You follow this approach in order to ensure because the further along you go the more people stop reading. Make sure you have the important info where most people are reading. 

3. Craft a catchy, informative headline

A lot of readers won't keep reading beyond your headline. Pause here and read that again. A lot for readers will not keep reading beyond the headline, so make sure it tells a clear, succinct, informative story. Within six to nine you want to capture the attention of a journalist and give them enough intrigue as to why they should care enough to read your release. Reporters often receive hundreds, if not thousands, of emails a day from people pitching stories just like yours. Give them a reason to open and read yours. And, if you are sharing your release through a press release distribution service, you will want to intrigue your customers, but also account for those who may not read beyond the headline.

4. Add a solid subhead

For many, figuring out how to tell a story in just six words can be a tough task. This is where a subhead comes in. Immediately following your press release headline, you will want to include important follow-up information in a one-line, 10 to 12-word phrase, that expands on the intrigue from your headline. You've hooked them with the headline, keep them reading with a subhead that provides additional context. When formatting this in a press release template, it goes right below the headline and is typically italicized.

 5. Answer the 5 W's in the first paragraph

Remember in the headline when we said a lot of people don't read past the headline? For those that do make it past the headline, a large number will not read past the first paragraph. Knowing that you want to make your lead count. In two to three sentences, answer the 5 W's - who, what, where, when and why. You'll want to share the most important details in the very first paragraph. This not only ensures reporters do not have to sift through paragraphs to find the most important information for their stories but also provides general audiences with the most important information in the upfront if they do choose to stop reading.

6. Add quotes that add value

Quotes are a great way to provide context to your release in a way that is not as bulleted and to-the-point. It's the color commentary to the otherwise straightforward facts. This means it's a great opportunity to add value in the release by including a quote from a project lead, executive, customer or another relevant source. Make sure the quote adds value. For example, instead of saying, "I am really excited to announce this new product," you could say, "This product has been in development for more than 18 months, and after hearing directly from our customers that this is the solution they were looking for, we cannot wait to roll it out to new customers and hear what they think!" The latter includes information on product development and consumers. Be sure to always add value.

7. Close it with the content, contacts and CTAs

As you wrap your release, don't forget to include relevant information for where your readers can find more information and your contact information. Think about what action or next step you want readers to take with this information. Do you want them to email you with questions? Visit a website to learn more about the event or product/news? Sign-up for a webinar or course? Be sure to include all of this information as you write.

 8. Capitalize on SEO and keywords

Once you have your release written, take advantage of the opportunity to help your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by integrating keywords and two to three relevant links into your release. An easy way to add links is to highlight your company name and product/webinar/news announcement and link readers back to those pages on your website. For SEO, always re-read your content and build out keywords where you can naturally roll them into the conversation. But don't force it. SEO is a great supplement to the release, but the news announcement is always the priority.

9. Keep it short and sweet

Press releases should be around 600 words. At times, there may be a need to include more words to share your news, but a general rule of thumb is to keep it short and sweet. Never use five words if three will do. Eliminate incidental adverbs, those pesky words that end in "ly" but aren't essential. Additionally, always proofread for brevity.

10. Share your news release with media 

OK, so you've crafted the perfect release and find yourself asking, what's next? This is the whole reason we're here – to share your story with the masses. Besides sharing your release through a press release distribution service, like a PR Newswire, you'll also want to share it via email directly to reporters. Reach out to journalists, bloggers, editors or news producers by sending them an email about your release. Craft a brief email introduction to the reporter that shares why you're reaching out and lets them know they can find more information in the press release. Then copy and paste your news release into the body of your email, typically below your signature.

Press releases are a great way to communicate a news announcement with the media and to keep audiences informed of happenings with your organization. They are meant to pique interest, inform and are often the first step in getting news coverage.

Remember to hook readers with a catchy start and then reel them in with the prioritized content to really drive results from your press release.

Sales Strategies for Businesses Facing Seasonal Fluctuations

Posted: 10 Dec 2019 05:00 AM PST

Every business has its challenges. But when your sales cycle is seasonal, it introduces a host of unique issues that can threaten a company's bottom-line sustainability and inhibit future growth. When you have uneven periods of sales and annual revenue depends on a narrow window of opportunity, planning carries a higher risk of being off-target and misdirecting cash flow. The reality is that if your season doesn't go well, the whole year can be lost.

Managing your cash flow year-round to achieve annualized stability is not as difficult as you might think. It involves incorporating three actions into your management strategy: 

  1. Adjust for the impact of seasonality when forecasting sales.
  2. Take a seasonal approach to managing your sales team.
  3. Identify opportunities to develop the revenue pipeline to nurture leads during the offseason.

Cash flow issues plague 82% of small businesses, and running out of cash leads to 29% of small business failures. How can you accurately plan to make the most of your selling season and optimize results? The answer is to develop a solid sales plan.

Here are some tips for how you can create a sales plan that will balance the effects of seasonality on your business: 

1. Adjust for the impact of seasonality when forecasting sales

To fine-tune your approach to sales forecasting, begin by letting past performance guide you regarding what is likely to happen. Looking at historical data when planning might seem counterintuitive, but the pattern of your previous cash flow holds the clue to accurately anticipating your future needs. As you pay attention to the revenue flow, it helps to point you to established trends. 

These analytical "buckets" should include revenue per product, revenue per customer type (such as new and/or existing customers), and revenue per channel (such as subscriptions, licensing, or one-time sales). Having this information provides insight into not only how the current year is likely to play out, but also whether you are on track for hitting your targets next year. 

Even though your past performance will provide keen insights into your future, don't assume that what happened before will definitely happen again. Set up a system of continuous review for benchmarking your actual results against your forecasts. That enables you to adjust accordingly, ensuring you are scaling appropriately. 

As you go through this exercise, include employees from all areas of the company, from marketing and operations to finance and human resources. Fostering cross-functionality helps prevent silos from developing.

When allowed to flourish, silos threaten internal communications, undermine support of common goals, and confuse the customer journey because business units become focused on the processes that serve only their interactions with clients. When all your business units work together, it helps ensure your firm fully understands what your customer needs are today and how well you are meeting them. Ideally, you want a customer to have a unified experience with each department. 

2. Take a seasonal approach to managing your sales team

As your sales flow diminishes in the offseason, it can be hard on the sales staff. The sales team suddenly has extra time on its hands and possibly reduced income. Not closing deals can feel demoralizing, given that what makes good salespeople is their goal-orientation. But that makes slower periods an excellent time to refocus that competitive spirit on learning new skills and revamping the sales strategy to help your reps sell better and smarter in the coming season. 

From reviewing what offerings and wording worked well in sealing new deals to looking into what kept leads from converting, have your salespeople revisit the sales strategy. They should also look for points of difficulty in moving an opportunity to the next stage in the sales process.

You should also consider seasonal employment during peak times. Strategically, it might not make sense to incur the cost of maintaining full staffing year-round. With today's gig economy, staffing up for your peak season with independent contractors can be more cost-efficient than committing to permanent full-time employees. The hiring process is less complicated and time-consuming, and it eliminates the need to offer full benefits. 

However, your temporary staff will need some measure of training. Also, the nature and expectations around employment need to be carefully spelled out in any contract you offer to alleviate misunderstandings about which employees at your company qualify for benefits. Where you do maintain full-time commissioned sales staff, you might want to consider structuring your compensation program to normalize the seasonal sales flow by offering recoverable draws.

 To pay your sales representatives a reasonable amount during downtimes, "overpay" for performance in that period. A recoverable draw is an advance that is subtracted from future commissions. This enables you to provide a consistent stream of income, even when commissions are light. Effectively, it's like making a loan against future sales.

However, to avoid a situation where more is drawn than earned for an extended period, your contracts should detail how repayment for advancements is treated. Without this specification, you might unintentionally offer nonrecoverable draws, which means there would be no repayment.

3. Identify opportunities to develop the revenue pipeline to nurture leads during the offseason

It's important to stay in contact with leads and current and past customers during the offseason. In 2018, only 31% of small business owners considered driving sales a top goal, and a mere 25% planned to focus on retaining and re-engaging clients. Using your offseason to focus on both could create a competitive advantage.

When your primary line of business is seasonal, finding complementary products or services to offer during slow times helps even out your revenue. For instance, a fruit grower might still have an opportunity to create sales in the winter months by selling preserves and jams as holiday or hostess gifts. 

Regardless of whether you decide to try extending your product line, staying in touch and working to build your customer base in the offseason should be part of the sales plan. Many businesses do this through pre-sale offers with special pricing. Trading referrals for early-season rebates might be another promotion that can extend your season.

Emailed newsletters and social media posts also help keep the conversation going. Offering tips on equipment maintenance or perhaps reviewing new product launches can help you stay top of mind. For instance, if you owned a golf pro shop in the midwest, you might send your mailing list information about and reviews of the latest in club grips or offer special pricing in February for regripping clubs ahead of a spring break getaway.

In reaching out to current or previous customers, you might find places you underperformed. Whether it's uncovering new training tools, reassessing the customer journey, or unrolling a new sales strategy, use your slower periods to really dive into the data and plot improvements where needed. 

When you own a business, planning your sales strategy is never done — especially if your business relies on a short window of opportunity to get through the year. By planning ahead, managing your costs and nurturing leads, your business can reduce costs while strengthening your customer relationships. When the sales traffic resumes, be ready to have your best season ever.
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