Category: Guest Blogging

Big Data Analytics Solutions: The Data Management Revolution

Posted on by Prashant Gurav

With the emerging options provided by big data solution providers, it has become an interesting field to analyze considering its future aspects in every industry.

At present, big data solutions have become more powerful than any other analytics of the past and various business executives are ready to measure its precise level.

The big data solutions companies have led the world to make smart decisions and to project better results, hence it has become convenient to make effective interventions in every industry that was earlier dominated by intuition rather than data and calculations.

It is also significant that real-time information has made it possible for the big data analytics service providers to remain much more ahead than the competitors.

Definition of big data

The utility of big data is almost seen everywhere and it can be defined as a structured or unstructured assembly of voluminous data that can inundate the day-to-day processes of any business.

This service also provides insight to business owners to make proper strategies. In general big data refers to the collection of data from various digital or traditional sources representing the source of its ongoing Discovery and predictive analysis.

Over the years, big data has grown exponentially, especially in the fields of cloud computing, multimedia computing, social media platforms, mobile development and many more.

What makes big data analytics solutions different?

Several factors make big data consulting services different from the corresponding solutions. This includes:

  • Volume – in simple terms large numbers of data are developed now as compared to before and rough estimates are above 50,000 million.
  • Velocity – the data which is created with the utilization of big data services is incredibly faster and it can be said that it is close to the real-time factors.
  • Variety – large numbers of big data services companies play a key role in manufacturing the data and it comes from various sources for forums, including social data. It also involves the information which is generated from social networks like Twitter, Facebook and so on. Much of the data which is available from these resources is unstructured, that is it lacks organized structure in a database which refers to the problem of analysis.

Milestones in the big data consulting services

The big data consulting services have enough potential to revolutionize data management. Given its features, various business managers can easily measure their processes and translate the efficiencies during decision making.

The tech giants like Google or Amazon are already taking this path.

The utilization of big data services can easily transform the traditional business segments for small as well as large businesses.

The service has equal utility in supply chain management to understand the defects and customer services, intervening reliable solutions to its handlers. Let us see how they are indulging the real-time dynamics-

1. Improving the predictions

The big data services companies can easily make accurate information available across platforms, sharing the latest updates with everyone.

The analytics of big data powered by advanced Management solutions give the organizations a comprehensive profile of the customer and enables them to deliver the ultimate customer experience.

2. Driving the sales

Big data solutions have the potential to drive sales for any business platform generating the maximum value from the data available from customers, vendors and products.

The big data solution providers provide the ability to the companies to aggregate their data from multiple resources in real-time.These results enhance customer engagement effectively through interactions and marketing programs.

3. Reduction in cost

The big data consulting services help the companies decrease their overhead and other expenses in real-time. The tools offered by big data can increase the overall efficiency of the operations, along with reducing the cost.

Also, it does not alter the primary goal of the enterprises.

4. Fraud detection

One of the most incredible benefits of Big Data analytics is that it can actively check for any fraudulent activity. Its systems also rely on machine learning algorithms that have a distinctive pattern for detecting anomalies.

The tools offered by the big data solutions enable financial platforms to spot any stolen card or false purchase even before the cardholder knows that something has gone wrong.

5. Customer Acquisition And Retention

Accumulating customer data is one of the crucial aspects of understanding who matters to your business. The more customer data gathered means the more you understand the behaviour of your customer base and have the ability to devise more personalized and effective customer acquisition campaigns.

With big data analysis, enterprises can also track specific behaviors of current customers who are on the verge of leaving and work on identifying their needs and concerns.

Conclusion

It is essential to understand that despite the advantages of big data analytics solutions, its vision is still critical for various platforms to utilize its complete efficiencies because if any big data solutions companies select the unreliable platform, then it can ultimately lead to failure.

Considering the emerging dynamics of big data analytics service providers, it can be said that these services are shaping the future of various business management processes and also helping to create a reliable management revolution.

How To Build An eCommerce Marketing Plan?

Posted on by Nicol Garrison

Running an eCommerce website means you’re fighting for your piece of the market with some seriously strong competitors. Regardless of what you’re selling, you’re bound to face the competition and realize you need to up your game if you want to stand out. This is why you need to invest your efforts in developing a strong marketing plan.

Your marketing plan will help you achieve your goals. You’ll be able to raise brand awareness, increase sales, and earn your place on the market. If you’re not sure how to write a marketing plan for your eCommerce, just keep reading.

We’ll walk you through each step.

Walk Each Step

Source: Pexels

1. Analyze Your Competitors

The first thing you need to do before you start developing your marketing strategy is to detect your biggest competition.
You’re not doing this to copy what they’re doing. On the contrary. You’re doing this to be able to stand out from them.

So, make sure that you:

  • analyze the market
  • detect your direct competition
  • analyze their marketing efforts, strategies, customer relationship, and tools they’re using

Once you do this, you’ll be able to see a pattern and think outside the box to avoid becoming just another eCommerce.

2. Use Content Marketing

Content Marketing is the building block of your marketing strategy. Content marketing is about creating useful, informative, or entertaining content to draw attention to your brand.

The key steps of content marketing are the following:

  • Keyword Research

Find specific keywords your target audience might be interested in. Choose those that are easy to rank and avoid general keywords.

  • Content Creation & Blogging

A blog is the center of your content marketing strategy. There, you’ll publish blog posts covering topics your target audience is interested in. Your blog posts need to; answer questions, solve problems, provide guidance, inform, teach, provide value, cover trending topics.

  • Promoting Your Content

Your blog is not the only place where you promote your content. Use social media such as Instagram and Facebook to further boost your content engagement.

Content marketing will help you raise brand awareness and reach those people who don’t even know your eCommerce exists.

3. Use Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the oldest, yet most effective marketing strategies.

Email marketing gives you a chance to connect to your current and potential customers and make sure they become loyal to your brand.

Using email marketing, you can send emails such as:

  • Welcome emails
  • abandoned cart reminder
  • special offer note
  • coupons
  • birthday cards and discounts
  • sale notifications
  • recommended products that just arrived

Email marketing is closely related to personalization since you’ll be using personalized data about each customer to create those special offers and specific emails.

Email Marketing

Source: Gmail printscreen

4. Use Instagram Product Tagging

Instagram

Did you know that Instagram has more than 1 billion active users globally? This social media platform is absolutely essential for your eCommerce marketing and here’s why.

Instagram offers you the option of using product tagging. It’s a quick and effective way to get your customers from your social media post to your website and a shopping bag.

Here’s how it works:

  • you post an image of your products on Instagram
  • you tag each product on the image
  • the tag shows the name of the product as well as the price
  • if the customer is interested in buying, all the have to do is click the tag
  • the tag takes them directly to the product they choose, on your eCommerce website

They don’t have to search for it and waste time during which they might even give up on the sale.

Instagram product tagging is a brilliant strategy you need to use.

5. Use Videos

Videos are an extremely popular form of content. This is because more and more people are instantly bored when they see huge chunks of text and like to be provided with this form of instant information that videos offer.

You can create different types of videos, test them, and see what resonates best with your audience. We strongly recommend:

  • product videos showing how a product is used
  • how-to-videos giving advice on how to use the product properly
  • interviews with influencers or experts in your niche
  • “behind the scene” videos showing your offices, team members, or the process of creating a product
  • educational videos providing information your target audience might be interested in

“Videos are great because they are visual, entertaining, and attention-grabbing. Every eCommerce should invest in creating videos as one of the primary forms of content they share,” says Daniel Faber, a digital marketing specialist and writer at Studicus.

Share your videos on your blog, IGTV, YouTube Channel and all the other platforms you’re using.

6. Show Product Reviews

It’s one thing when you promote your brand, but it’s a whole other thing when your customers do it for you.

People who are shopping online like to check how other customers felt about the product before they make the purchase. In fact, nearly 95%of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase.

This is why you need to ensure you have other people:

  • leaving reviews
  • leaving comments
  • leaving images of the product they’ve received

Product review

Source: Romwe

This way, you’ll encourage other customers to trust your eCommerce and go on with their initial shopping intentions.

Final Thoughts

Building an eCommerce marketing plan requires doing proper market analysis, and using several different strategies and tools. With some effort and dedication, you’ll be able to create a unique and effective marketing plan for your eCommerce.
Use the advice provided above and start working on your new marketing plan.

What Makes SaaS Marketing Unique And How To Do It Well

Posted on by Michael Dehoyos

Software as a Service (SaaS) marketing encompasses a specific niche in the eCommerce market, but a pretty large niche. According to surveys, 80% of businesses use at least one SaaS product, and 73% predict nearly all of their most-used services will be SaaS by the end of this year.

That being said, this multi-billion dollar industry operates on a unique model, and as a result, requires a unique marketing approach.

A SaaS business host software and make them available to users through the internet, often via a subscription fee.

This is why traditional marketing tips are not always applicable to SaaS marketing: there is no physical product to showcase, the service is often constantly changing and updating, or it is highly specialized to suit a handful of companies.

Even the few users who fully appreciate the usefulness of the software don’t necessarily “own” the product.

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It’s due to all of these unique challenges that a specific breed of SaaS marketing has emerged. Some of these tips will seem counter intuitive to some marketers, but they are all designed to highlight the strengths of SaaS.

More Than Free Samples

If you can conjure up any examples of SaaS products, the first thing you’ll likely notice is that they’re all free, at least for a time.

Free trials are the lifeblood of SaaS, as it gives users the chance to try out the software, get hooked and convince them to continue onto the full subscription.

Compare this to traditional marketing: most companies wouldn’t dream of giving out complete access to their product for free.

That is the difference between direct ownership and SaaS, one relies on the specific instance of sale while the other is a long game that relies on protracted investment and engagement.

Make It Quick

Another thing that sets apart SaaS from regular products is the speed of sales. In B2C SaaS interactions, the time between a customer discovering your service and signing up for a free trial is often a matter of hours.

This is one of the advantages of the free trial: it encourages your customers to engage quickly because there is practically no barrier to entry. Often customers will look to SaaS products because they solve a particular need that has suddenly arisen, rather than a long decision process.

Seeing as 89% of SaaS businesses depend on new customer acquisition for growth, capitalizing on this sudden need is essential.

This means the way you make sales has to facilitate this speed of entry. A SaaS customer will usually make a purchase decision not long after visiting your product’s landing page.

Compare this to product marketing, which could mean days or weeks of research and deliberation, allowing for a more wide-net internet presence.

For SaaS landing pages it is more important than ever to sell your product succinctly, after which try to put as few barriers as possible between your landing page and your checkout page.

Stand Out, But Not With Price

As the SaaS market is expanding os rapidly, you can be pretty sure that, whatever your product offers, there will be competitors out there offering similar services.

It begs the question: how do you stand out in such a crowded market? The first inclination might be to undercut on price.

It’s a common tactic from traditional product marketing; offering the same product for less; and while some statistics show a 1% price reduction boosts sales by 11%, it’s not always a sustainable tactic in the SaaS game.

Due to the iterative and constantly updating nature of SaaS, you might be able to offer the cheapest option for some time but eventually, another company can come in and undercut you, dragging the price down for the whole market.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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If you base your offer on pricing then suddenly you don’t have a leg to stand on. Much better is to advertise the quality of your features first, something that takes a lot more work to beat.

The Way Forward

This is only the beginning of what makes SaaS marketing, what gets your customers in the door. The hard part is continuing to engage them in your service, and that’s all down to the quality of your product.

Put the quality of your software first and the marketing will follow.

How to Generate New Leads With LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Posted on by Stephen Hakami

LinkedIn has changed the game for professionals. More specifically, for salespeople and marketers.

It has tools and features that help sales teams generate hundreds of solid leads for outbound marketing in literal minutes.

What Is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an account type with features to improve your cold outreach campaigns.

Some of the features include the Buyer’s Circle, account targeting, and the How You’re Connected tool.

The most notable feature is the Advanced Search. It’s like Google, but for finding leads on LinkedIn. With this tool, you can use several filters to get extremely specific in the profiles that appear in search results.

How To Generate Leads With Sales Navigator

I’m going to take you through the step-by-step process for generating leads with this account. But these won’t just be any leads — these will be really good leads.

1. Set up a lead list

Before you generate leads, you need a place to put the good ones. So you can create a lead list within your Sales Nav account and any bookmarked profiles go on this organized list.

To make your first lead list, Lists → Lead Lists and click “Create Lead List” in the middle of the page. Then just title your lead list and you’ll be ready to start finding profiles.

2. Filter your searches

To find relevant leads, you need to filter your searches. This is where the benefits of Sales Navigator come to fruition.

With Advanced Search, you can filter by:

  • Industry
  • Location
  • Professional background
  • Keywords
  • 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc degree connections
  • And many more…

This allows you to find the people who are more likely to be interested in buying what you’re selling. It helps you find your target audience.

3. Bookmark leads

Once you have your tailored-to-you search results, you can add those profiles to your leads list that you set up in step one. This will basically bookmark those people and companies. You can then organize that list and even get notifications for when people on your list have a job change or view your content.

You can either add the leads one at a time, or you can import every search results item all at once. The former option lets you get to know each lead, the latter option saves time.

4. Write a message template

Once you have your list of leads, you can then start contacting them as part of your sales outreach strategy. And the best first step is to write a template that you can adjust according to each recipient.

There are two ways to contact leads: LinkedIn’s InMail messages or emails.

InMail can be convenient and effective, but it does have some limitations. You only get 20 InMail messages per month and each message is restricted to 300 characters.

Emails, on the other hand, are unlimited in quantity and length. And cold emails work.

Here are some general tips for writing an effective message or email template:

  • Write a short subject line (just a few words)
  • Personalize the greeting and the opening line (this is possibly the most important aspect of your messaging)
  • Keep the email short (professionals are crunched for time as it is)
  • End with a clear call-to-action, usually to respond to your message
  • Use one font type and one color to avoid overwhelm
  • Run the message template through Grammarly

If you’ll be using email don’t include links in the initial cold email. Spam filters may snag it. And if they don’t, it will look a little too spammy. Let it be a genuine interaction.

Words you can use to increase your response rate include things like “try,” “free,” “download,” and “reserve.”

5. Start contacting your leads

Now that you have your leads and a message template, you can start reaching out to these professionals.

If you’re going to send cold emails, find a LinkedIn email finder to extract and export the email addresses of the people on your leads list. Then you can start copying and pasting that template you made, personalizing it for each person.

And that’s how you generate new leads — reliable leads — with LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

How to Management Database Performance For Your Startups

Posted on by Ariya Stark

Database management can be daunting for startups if you do not look at the vital aspects. You will not be able to achieve the results you want for your company, and this will leave a negative impression of your company.

Even breaches in legislation will cost your business, dear. Database management experts suggest if you are a business startup and new to the field, you should keep in mind the following tips for improvement.

Make your database your friend not a foe for your startup business

The following are some simple tips for you to improve the performance of your database for your business startup:

  • Control your database and do not allow the database to control your business:

    Data management should be the onus of a whole department, especially in a large company or the job of one person in smaller business units.

    However, its responsibility should be entrusted to one person and not everybody. Ensure that each data management task has been defined and assigned to one person who knows his role when it comes to responsibility.

    The procedures for data management should be defined well so that it does not break into deep chaos for your startup business when the relevant people are on leave or vacation.

  • Pay attention to the minute details:

    Good data management lies in paying attention to minute and extensive details. You should incorporate uniform data entry policies in the business so that everyone follows the same rules.

    For this purpose, train your staff to ensure standardized policies are being followed. Monitor your staff regularly to ensure they are following these standardized procedures.

  • Data management security:

    Like home security, where you will never leave your front door open, data management security plays a crucial role in your business.

    The data of your organization is very valuable. You need to invest in its security, and for this compliance to minimum legislation is essential.

    You should not share every detail of your data with everyone working in the business. The system should function on a need-to-know system only. Restricted access is mandatory to ensure your data does not fall into the wrong people with malicious intent.

    Make sure all your staff maintains a password policy, and they also use password generators to update their passwords regularly. There are some startup businesses that follow the trend of bringing your own device.

    Make sure that you have a uniform policy set for the unit that related to the downloading of data to laptops or memory sticks.

  • Invest in data management to get the optimal performance out of it:

    Professionals from RemoteDBA.com, an esteemed company in the field of data management and other services in the USA, states that simply putting names into the customer database of a business is not adequate enough to keep it updated.

    As a business owner, you need to fix a periodic maintenance plan and schedule to ensure that all the addresses of your customers are correct. There should be no duplicate information present.

    If you are not careful, your database will begin to decay at an alarming process. In addition to the above, your business should fix dates at periodic intervals to reassess the performance of your database for your business goals, maybe twice in a year.

    This helps you to ascertain whether the database is suitable for the purpose of the business. You should consult an experienced data specialist to check whether data enhancement will cover missing data like phone numbers or the metrics of marketing like the size of employees in your unit.

    Be open to explore technologies that are new so that your business is able to stay updated with all the potential possibilities to give it a strategic edge in the market with success.

  • Back up of data:

    One of the essential rules of data management is to back up information at regular intervals. Regular backups help you to protect your business against any malicious or accidental data loss because of:

    • Hardware failures
    • Media or software flaws in the system
    • Malicious hacking or software being infected with a virus
    • Power failures and
    • Human mistakes or errors

You must ensure that data backups are run at periodic intervals and maintain a schedule for it.

Once-daily is good enough for your small business. The data management system should be tested regularly at least once every week.

Make sure you are able to recover data and consider the best technologies to permit your business to have a copy of the data onsite even though the process is tedious.

This step will safeguard your business from important data loss in the event of corruption of data system files.

Is outsourcing the right choice?

Many small business units and startups consider whether outsourcing is the right choice for them? If you are able to give the data management system of your business the effort and the time it needs, you do not have to consider outsourcing.

However, if you are a busy business owner or do not have the right person to manage the data management system of your business, you must take the help of professional outsourced companies to do the job for you. In this way, you effectively are able to alleviate tensions and focus on important matters of your business in peace.

Therefore, in conclusion, when it comes to improving the data management system of your business startup, make sure that you assign responsibilities to a person in the organization as part of the business’s data management plan.

Give importance to the minute details of the data management system, especially when it comes to training, procedures, and monitoring. Make sure that data security for your system is high.

Evaluate the performance of your data management system at regular intervals. Never forget to take backups of data regularly.

Maintain a schedule for this. In case you are not able to take care of the data management system yourself, consider the advantages that outsourcing might offer you. Speak to credible companies and entrust the responsibility of data management services to alleviate stress!

How To Put Together A Top-Tier SaaS Marketing Strategy

Posted on by Jainish Vora

According to Cisco‘s Global Cloud Index, by this year, SaaS will deliver 75 % of cloud workflows.​ Isn’t it amazing? This data depicts the growing pace of the SaaS business model and the competition created by it in the industry. SaaS companies are finding it very difficult to stand out in the industry by providing products and services distinct from their competitors.

Well, for this reason, we have come up with top-tier SaaS marketing strategies to help companies lead the competition.

SaaS marketing is more complicated than product marketing since you don’t have a tangible product to offer. Yes, it is more difficult to tell someone that your software can help them in their daily process than selling a pair of shoes.

What Is SaaS Marketing?

SaaS Marketing

SaaS marketing refers to the strategies implemented to promote software-as-a-service companies. SaaS marketing is exclusively unusual from promoting physical products since it has a varied customer base, distinct pricing strategies, complexity in their offerings, etc.

Since SaaS marketing is distinctive, marketers should use distinct strategies for promotion.

SaaS Marketing Strategies to Improve Conversions

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Let us know a few considerations, to begin with efficiently promoting SaaS businesses. Explore available opportunities and see your brand stand out in a fierce competition.

1. Using Trials To Lure Customers

Focusing on customer acquisition is significant, and the best way to do this is by offering free trials to incentivize customers to sign up and begin using your offerings. Keep your sign-up process simple and don’t have the customers go through the pain of filling lengthy forms to get your product in their hands.

This is a promising way to let people know about the benefits your products offer. This helps them take the initial step to start using your product. After making the customers realize how valuable your product is, you can easily persuade them to continue with the paid plan.

The goal is to convince more people to make a purchase. Ensure that you offer a free plan for a considerable period to make them comprehend the integrity of your product.

2. Enhance Customer Experience

SaaS Strategy

Among all the crucial SaaS marketing strategies, this is advocated by the experts as most essential. Assure that your services are personalized to the extent possible to deliver outstanding customer experience.

Just as companies send a welcome email the moment, a new customer completes the sign-up procedure. You can consider sending reminder emails to the customers who were active once but are now slowly dropping.

Integrating a live chat option on the website is a great way to interact with your customers and solve their queries on the fly. This way, you can help them navigate through your site better and find answers to their queries at the earliest.

3. Get Featured On SaaS Review Sites To Get More Exposure

People contemplate looking at customer reviews and product ratings before deciding to purchase a product. This step is crucial to buy softwares since there are no tangible products, and people check comparable products available and read reviews before they make a verdict.

Getting featured on review sites, you can get more industry exposure for your offering. Search for the best review sites available in your country or field. A few websites make comparisons between varied products offered.

4. Display The Price Aptly

A vital aspect of the SaaS marketing strategy is to display the price of your product clearly. Consider including a pricing page on your company’s website and portray every detail in such a way so that consumers can quickly decide whether or not they can afford your product.

For instance, have a look at one of the popular SaaS provider Vimeo. They have clearly mentioned their varied pricing plans for their potential customers. It helps them make an informed choice about their spending.

5 Limit The Choices Offered

With too many choices offers, your customers can get confuse as to buy which one. It can also result in them abandoning a purchase. Make two to three variations of your plans to avoid confusion.

While mentioning different plans include their features and respective prices as well. This way, customers can quickly decide which plan will fulfill their needs better. Your pricing page should consist of the characteristics of every plan offered.

6. SEO Stays On Top For Lead Generation

SEO is the best strategy to generate the right amount of leads for a SaaS company. Content Marketing, SEO and Link Building Service goes hand in hand to increase traffic on your website and, at the same time, make your website visible to the target audience.

Search rankings of your website will increase by using on-page SEO techniques, and it also ensures that it is visible to the customers when they make a search query related to your business. SEO also helps to get good quality backlinks and drive referral traffic effectively to your website.

7. Rewarding Customers For Referrals

Rewarding Customers for Referrals

When it comes to generating leads, another proven marketing strategy that works for SaaS companies is Referral Marketing. Referrals are cited as a critical source of lead generation by maximum B2B marketers.

If you want this strategy to work for your business, then you will have to make your company referral-worthy. It is done by offering incentives to the customers who refer your product to other people in their circle.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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Running a loyalty program to offer rewards for referrals works well, or you can choose to provide incentives in some different ways to your customers who refer to your business in several ways.

Let us take an example of Dropbox, which offers extra storage of 16GB for referring each friend.

The Bottom Line

These worthwhile SaaS marketing strategies, if leveraged, will enhance customer acquisition and lead generation for SaaS businesses. Diverse offers avenues that marketers can explore to serve as beneficial SaaS marketing strategies, and there are endless possible combinations that work for numerous businesses.

All you have to do is to try different approaches, and with the help of consumer metrics, figure out what works. SaaS marketing is a paradise for marketers.