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  • Best SaaS Affiliate Marketing Software

    It’s no secret that software as a service (SaaS) has become a common fixture in our daily lives, used for both professional and personal functions. Whether it be a task manager for the workplace, payment services for social outings or tracking health progress for individual goals; SaaS is now intertwined with our everyday routines. Getting your customers and website visitors to promote your product is a difficult task. One way to encourage them is to offer a commission on every product they sell. This is known as affiliate marketing.  

    Affiliate marketing is a profitable channel where you can acquire more customers easily and increase your revenue tremendously. To set up a hitch-free affiliate marketing for your SaaS product, you need a robust SaaS affiliate marketing software that can take care of your marketing needs. In this article, we reviewed 5 best SaaS affiliate marketing software that will help you drive more customers and revenue for your product.

    Relevant read:

    Tapfiliate

    Tapfiliate
    Tapfiliate

    The first SaaS affiliate marketing software on the list is Tapfiliate. It is an easy-to-use affiliate marketing software. There are no transaction fees and you can reward, track and give incentives to your affiliates as desire. It offers a 14-day free trial. Tapfiliate makes it incredibly easy to grow your social reach across the web with rich, engaging branded content.

    Features:

    • Offers personal referral links, coupons, banners, and other brand materials to your affiliate
    • Create engaging social media posts for your affiliates
    • Motivate affiliates by setting targets based on the number of sales they make.
    • Set up automated emails and Web hooks using Zapier app
    • Automate or approve commissions manually
    • 34 Super easy copy/paste integrations, including Zapier.

    Tapfiliate SaaS affiliate marketing software offers three pricing plans – Essential – $69/month, Pro – $149/month and enterprise – custom price.

    Tapfiliate plan
    Tapfiliate plan

    LeadDyno

    LeadDyno
    LeadDyno

    LeadDyno is the second SaaS affiliate marketing software on the list. You can set up your affiliate marketing account in minutes. So, you can start recruiting your affiliates immediately. You can link to the affiliate sign up page right from your website and your social media channels. LeadDyno will even help to promote your affiliate sign up page in their network of influencers and affiliates so you can quickly get the initial traction you need to take off.

    Features:

    • Personalize your affiliate dashboard with the look and feel of your website
    • A quick “Plug and Play” with your e-commerce provider
    • Affiliates have their personal dashboards
    • Use LeadDyno to Track Online Marketing Success
    • 10 levels of commission payments and tracking
    • You can use LeadDyno for Google Adwords Conversion Tracking too
    • Automatically invite customers to join the affiliate program
    • Send out automated emails to affiliates as at when needed

    LeadDyno SaaS affiliate marketing software has three plans. Starter – $49/month (Up to 3000 unique visitors per month), Biz Builder – $59/month (Up to 4500 unique visitors per month) and the Accelerator – $79/month (Up to 7500 unique visitors per month).

    LeadDyno plans
    LeadDyno plan

    OSI Affiliate

    OSI Affiliate
    OSI Affiliate

    With OSI Affiliates, you can easily create an affiliate program and integrate it with your website. Once that is done, customers can refer your products to friends and family members. This will help you to get more website traffic, leads and paying customers.
    It is easy to setup and help tickets are responded in 24 hours. OSI Affiliates allows you to have a customer affiliate page at yourdomain. Biggest weakness here is the inability to be able to group affiliate into tiers and pay certain people a higher commission without creating a new campaign.

    Features:

    • Get customers to promote your product on social media channels
    • Give out promo codes and coupons to users
    • Your customers can easily promote on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin
    • Turn every customer into an affiliate with the auto-sign up
    • Reward your affiliates with commissions, coupons, discounts, and gift cards
    • Easily find your most loyal customers by sending out a one question email survey
    • Motivate your affiliates with contests

    OSI Affiliate SaaS affiliate marketing software has three plans – Basic – $470.00/year, Professional – $970.00 and Premium – $2470.00

    OSI Affiliate payment
    OSI Affiliate plan

    Also read:

    iDevdirect

    iDevdirect
    iDevdirect

    Idevdirect is an easy-to-use SaaS affiliate marketing software you can use for your business. With its feature-rich platform, Idevdirect helps you to create customized commission payouts. It offers an extensive list of marketing tools at your disposal. It helps you to grow your sales, increase website traffic and enhance your SEO.

    Features:

    • Offer affiliates marketing tools such as social media, videos, banners, and QR codes
    • Provides date range reporting with charts and graphs
    • Make it your own with editable content
    • Structure your payout system using different options such as coupon code commission, per product, commissioning and pay per click or pay per lead or action
    • Get desired color scheme and logo
    • Avoid frauds with its built-in security features like Advanced fraud protection tools, Proprietary password hashing and Adjustable tracking expiration
    • Integrate with almost everything

    Idevaffiliate SaaS affiliate marketing software has two pricing options. One for cloud and the other for self-hosted. The self-hosted plan starts at $199 (one-time fee), the cloud is $39/month, cloud social is $49 / month and cloud premium is $59/month.

    Idev Affiliate pricing
    Idev Affiliate pricing

    Zesty.io

    Zesty.io
    Zesty.io

    Zesty.io has gained a lot of traction lately for its affiliate marketing program and is enjoying subsequent growth as a result. It is one of the most robust SaaS programs out there that offers plenty of opportunity for its affiliates to promote and earn along the way.

    Features:

    • Zesty.io supports its affiliate partners by providing them with innovative technology
    • Unrelenting support
    • Incredible revenue opportunities
    • Exceptional training to do justice to their product.
    • The client is able to deliver enterprise-grade websites quickly and with relative ease
    • Zesty has its own in-app communication tool that helps the users to build better client relationships and gain quick insights on the company’s products and features.

    Zesty.io SaaS affiliate marketing software has three pricing options. The small project plan starts at $50/month, the business plan is $475/month, mid-size enterprise is $3500 / month and custom enterprise plan.

    Zesty.io pricing
    Zesty.io pricing

    Conclusion

    In this article, we reviewed 5 best SaaS affiliate marketing software that will help you drive more customers and revenue for your product. It’s your turn. Which of the SaaS affiliate marketing software mentioned above is your favorite? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

  • What are a few things a VC notices in a pitch

    Venture Capital (VC) is a type of private equity and a form of financing that is provided by companies and business entities to comparatively small, new and emerging firms that are seen as a potential of having a high growth in future  – be it in numbers of employees, annual turnover, or both.

    So a venture capital can also be defined simply as a private (or institutional) investment made into the early stage of start-up companies. We have also covered startups from Kolkata, Lucknow and other major cities of India.

    Any venture involves some amount of risk and uncertainties with respect to the expectations of gains and profits and is therefore sometimes referred to as Risk Capital or Potential Risk Capital. Venture Capital is the money that is invested in businesses that are small but have huge potential and the people who invest this money are called Venture Capitalists.

    The venture capital investment is made when a venture capitalist buys shares of such company or firm and becomes a financial partner in the business and has some stakes in it. The venture capital investment involves high risk, long term horizon, an equity participation and capital gains. It has a lack of liquidity. Venture Capital investments are made in creative and innovative projects, and the Venture Capitalists are a part of the management of the company.

    Also Read :

    Venture capital is about capturing the value between the startup phase and the public company phase.
    – Fred Wilson, Venture Capitalist

    So, if you are new upcoming business person with a start-up idea that has potential and growth prospects, Venture Capital funding is a way of kick starting your business. There is a process that needs to be followed typically for the funding process and it has four phases.

    a)       Idea Generation – this is the initial step in approaching a Venture Capital and you have to submit a business plan which will include the relevant details and information about your business proposal. A detailed analysis will be done by a VC to decide whether to take up the project or not.

    b)       Introductory Meeting – once your business proposal is selected by the VC from previous stage, there will be a one-to-one meeting that is called for discussing the project further in details. After the meeting, the VC will decide whether to move forward with your project or reject it. It is very important for the presentation to be as interesting and attention grabbing as possible.

    c)       Due Diligence – depending upon the nature of the business, the due diligence phase will vary. This stage involves solving of queries related to customer references, product and other business strategies that needs evaluations, management interviews, and other such exchanges of information during the given time period.

    d)       Term Sheets and Funding – if the business proposal passes the due diligence then the VC offers a term sheet (which is a non-binding document explaining the terms and conditions of the investment contract). The term sheet is usually negotiable and the consent of all the parties is must. They should all agree. And after the completion of legal documents and legal due diligence the funds are made available.

    Considering that there is a high risk involved in the venture capital investments but also a high return expected from it, one should do a thorough study of the project being considered, weighing the risk return ratio that are expected. One needs to do the homework both on the venture capital being targeted and the business requirements. As during the time of pitching, the Venture Capitalists have to be impressed by your presentation and give you the required financing thereafter. It is especially important for budding entrepreneur to preform excellently as the collaboration will yield loads for him.

    So let us discuss what are a few things a VC notices in a pitch for your presentation about the business project, and while we are doing that we will also see how you can get the VC impressed and be in your favor.

    a. Basic adequacy and professionalism that is reflected in your conduct

    You represent your business as its CEO and the CEO is supposed to stand out, you should be able to make an impression on the VC that he/she remembers you. So the formal attire, the eloquence and the way you behave is important. It is a simple characteristic but it is indeed of utmost importance.

    b. Confidently deliver your presentation

    You should come to the investors meetings rehearsed and prepared. The VC immediately notices that you have come prepared or not. Don’t blow your shot by heckling or using a sentence that gives the VC an impression that you didn’t come prepared or are unserious about it. The VC will not move forward with you unless you are prepared well.

    c. Be punctual

    You have to arrive on time for the meeting, so try to come at least 15 minutes early. Consider well in advance about the traffic, other delays that might occur, and then proceed with a well thought provision of time. Give a through overview to your slides and arrange them. Do all this before making your way to the conference room. That way you are prepped and ready to go.

    d. Carry Hard Copies

    The business firm might be willing to invest lakhs in your project, but all that depends upon the pitching at the end. And your pitching depends on the slides and decks of your presentation. Life is full of uncertainties, but you can be prepared for the ones you can foresee. If your electronic mediums give up, or are not connecting, this might turn out to be very disastrous. But if you carry hard copies printed out, you can carry on with the presentation. It is very helpful in case of emergencies and shows the VC that are responsible and care about the presentation. A positive impact is made and it shows your credibility.

    e. Make first impression within seven seconds

    While being in the conference room, conduct yourself as professionally as you can. Stand up (to show respect) and extend your hand when the investor enters the room. Smile and look the investors confidently, and introduce yourself. These simple steps work long ways.

    f. Rule of Four

    You should use rule of four while presenting, which means that you should stand up if you are presenting to more than four people. It shows the amount of due respect to the audience you are catering to. Not doing so will work against you tremendously.

    g. Prepare follow-up questions

    It is important to win the trust and faith of the investors, and by answering the questions asked during the presentation it communicated your knowledge to huge extents. So be prepared to answer questions you see that could be asked.

    Also Read : How does Crowdfunding Work to Raise Money for Startup

    So there you have it, a few factors that you need to be concerned about as the VC will notice these during the pitch.

  • How to Track Customer Acquisition in SaaS – SaaS Customer Acquisition Strategy

    We’d all love to drive Bentley’s and live in mansions overlooking the beach, but not if it means spending the money your family relies on to buy food. Similarly, every business wants to get as many customers as possible, but not if it means going broke in the process. In order to achieve that balance, a crucial metric for businesses (especially startups) to track is customer acquisition cost (CAC).

    Achieving sustainable growth for a SaaS company means constantly acquiring new customers and keeping them around for as long as possible. While this may sound simple, it can be incredibly challenging to find new opportunities for growth and customer acquisition in the crowded SaaS industry. If you’re too cautious about your CAC, you will likely be missing out on customers and future revenue. Yet, if you spend too freely, you won’t be profitable and will likely end up in the dead pool.

    This article will walk you through the saas customer acquisition strategy.

    Also read: Boonbox- Taking Online Shopping to Rural India

    What is Customer Acquisition Cost?

    Put simply, customer acquisition cost (CAC) is – you guessed it – the cost of acquiring a new customer. To compute the cost to acquire a customer, CAC, you would take your entire cost of sales and marketing over a given period, including salaries and other headcount related expenses, and divide it by the number of customers that you acquired in that period.

    It doesn’t take a genius to understand that business model failure comes when CAC (the cost to acquire customers) exceeds LTV (the ability to monetize those customers).
    A well-balanced business model requires that CAC is significantly less than LTV:

    Example of balanced business model
    Well Balanced Business Model

    Here are some typical industry standard cost of customer acquisition values, the amount of money each company spends on average on marketing and advertising to acquire just one new customer:

    Travel: Priceline.com – $7
    Telecom: Sprint PCS – $315
    Retail: Barnesandnoble.com – $10
    Financial: TD Waterhouse – $175

    Relevant read: 8 Ways to Toggle SaaS Customer Retention

    How CAC works?

    Let’s say you run a company called ABC, which sells movie inspired accessories.
    From June to December 2019, you spent $100,000 on sales (mainly sales team salaries) and marketing (Google ad spend, Facebook ads, content creation, marketing team salaries).
    In that same time frame, you made 10,000 sales.

    calculating CAC
    CAC Calculation

    Dividing $100,000 by 10,000 gets you 10. So, for this time period, ABC has a CAC of $100.

    Relevant read: Kapture CRM – A Single Platform to Manage the Sales and Service Teams

    Why Is CAC so Important?

    Understanding CAC is critical for businesses of all sizes. However, it’s particularly relevant to startups that are in the early stages of scaling up or trying to woo potential investors. Once you know your CAC, you can evaluate the cost of growing the business and the value each new customer brings.
    To acquire new customers, most SaaS companies devote a substantial amount of time and money before they see a full return on their investment. Examining just how many months of revenue from a customer are actually needed to recover these costs becomes essential as your business grows, as it may take much longer than you think for your company to recover CAC and actually begin to profit.

    Graph of revenue and cost

    Tracking Customer Acquisition allows for a better control of your spending and makes sure you’re being profitable on specific channels.

    Also read: Must-Read Startup Books For Students

    Why is SaaS Customer Acquisition So Difficult?

    The average length of the sales cycle for a SaaS company is nearly 3 months. That’s quite a long time to be chasing someone down and asking them to buy something from you. If you consider some of the factors that lead to this extended buying process though, you’ll see that it makes quite a bit of sense for customers to take their time:

    High Cost

    SaaS solutions aren’t usually very cheap. Even with less expensive tools, customers must factor in the recurring charges that go along with the SaaS subscription-based payment model. This can add up to be a significant amount of money for some customers.

    Privacy Concerns

    Because SaaS solutions are based in the cloud, new customers can sometimes be reticent about allowing an unknown tool process their (or their customers’) personal data on external servers without learning more first.

    Complexity

    Most SaaS tools are built with deep sets of features and complicated use cases to solve complex problems for which customers may not even know the extent of their needs.

    Too Many Options

    The SaaS industry has exploded in the past 10 years, meaning customers have usually have several different choices when choosing a SaaS solution.

    All of these factors act as barriers to customer acquisition. This is why SaaS customers require an extra level of care and education (or nurturing) to incrementally move them towards a purchase decision

    Relevant read: Tally Dekho – A simple Tool for Accounting

    How to Track Leads through the Stages of SaaS Customer Acquisition?

    There are 4 unique stages that leads go through before making a purchase and becoming SaaS customer:

    Awareness

    Prospects first become aware of your business. This is usually the stage in which leads find you through a blog post or other content. Often, they’re not looking for a solution at this stage, and they may not even be aware that they have the problem your product solves.

    Engagement

    Potential customers start regularly consuming your content, subscribe to your newsletter, and maybe even download an eBook or other resource from you. They are more aware of the problem you solve and begin questioning whether they need a solution.

    • Exploration: After learning that they have a problem and need a solution, prospects will do research on their options. This usually means visiting your pricing page, reaching out to sales, requesting a quote, or signing up for a free trial or free account to test out the product.
    • Conversion/Retention: Once prospects have fully explored all of the options you offer, they sign up for the plan that’s right for them and become a paying customer. Now it’s all about making sure they succeed with your tool and continue to be an active user.

    Also read: The 10 Best Tools for Graphic Designers

    Things to Consider

    While tracking Customer Acquisition may sound simple at first, here are just some of the things you’ll need to consider:
    1. Ability to clean the data whenever necessary
    2. Ability to cater for your own business needs (targeting Accounts VS Users)
    3. Ability to integrate with other software (e.g. CRM, Payment Processors)
    4. Ability to manage all the Ad Platforms you use
    5. Ability to monitor all costs (CAC calculation)
    6. Ability to choose and switch between Attribution Models

    Relevant read: List of Top Startups in Bangalore

    Strategies for Reducing Customer Acquisition Cost

    If your CAC is higher than you’d like (or can afford), something’s got to change. Here are a few strategies you can use to reduce CAC and improve your bottom line.

    1. Conversion Rate Optimization

    Optimizing your website can increase your revenue and lower your CAC by making it easier for visitors to convert. This is particularly important for e-commerce sites that might be losing out on sales even if their traffic is high.
    Check that your site loads quickly, displays properly on mobile devices, and that your checkout process is simple and bug-free. You should also perform A/B testing on your landing page copy to find out what works best for your target market.

    2. Using influencer marketing, even for B2B

    The phenomenon of influencer marketing doesn’t start and end with Instagram models, especially not in the SaaS space.
    An “influencer” is simply someone who can lend their credibility, and in doing so boost an organization’s reputation. In the B2C world, celebrities will often sell just about anything.
    The audience for B2B influencers is different. Influencers have a reputation, so they won’t be promoting junk. They will seek to partner with superior products that align with their brand and are disrupting their space.

    3. Reward Referrals

    If you can get consistent referrals from existing customers, your average CAC will drop significantly. Say, for instance, a customer who cost you $15 to acquire refers two new customers. This brings your CAC down from $15 to $5 because you landed three new customers for the cost of one.
    Implement an attractive referral program that gets more customers to spread the word about your business – not just because they enjoy your product or service, but also because you’re offering a referral bonus to sweeten the deal. This could be something as simple as a discount code for their next purchase or a temporary upgrade to your premium service for referring new users.

    4. Building product-led growth into the marketing strategy (the flywheel)

    Startup unicorns have built insanely good products that catch on faster than any marketer can sell them. What does a product-led growth campaign look like out in the wild? Take Expensify, for example. As part of their marketing efforts, they directly targeted people who submit expense reports. Their slogan was “Expense reports that don’t suck.” Instead of looking mainly at buyers, they tried to hone in on a more specific user pain point.
    The Slack platform allows users to invite others into their workspace. Dropbox has a functionality where you can add a new user to unlock more space. The Ice Bucket Challenge raised $100 million in 30 days. All of these are examples of product-led growth.

    Look at the level of touch required to complete a sale. Some products are easily understood, while others may require a careful walk-through by a sales person. Sometimes, the customer will want a trial with their own data. Consider every possible way to minimize this. For example:

    • Create demo videos that answer every likely sales question.
    • List the common sales objections that come up in the sales cycle, and provide answers to these on the web site.
    • Try using customer references to avoid the need for a trial.
    • If your customers are going to compare you to the competition as part of their process, consider doing this for them, with a section of your site that has a comparison matrix with appropriate check marks.

    Also read: Life Story of Sundar Pichai: The Hurdles and the Success

    The Key to SaaS Customer Acquisition

    Tackling the SaaS customer acquisition cycle is not for the faint of heart. It requires a lot of work, and most importantly, a deep understanding of your customer and their needs to create a SaaS acquisition strategy that works.

    Jason Lemkin
    JASON LEMKIN, FOUNDER, SAASTR

    “A rough rule of thumb is successful SaaS companies are spending about 20%-30% of the fully calculated CLTV on customer acquisition.”
    JASON LEMKIN, FOUNDER, SAASTR

    So, if a SaaS customer LTV is $1,000, then their customer acquisition costs should be in the range of $200 to $300 to stay competitive. Or put another way, ⅓ to ⅕ LTV.

    When you’re applying these principles in your own acquisition efforts, be sure to always put your customer’s needs first. By focusing on their benefits and what they’re looking for in a solution, leads will be much more receptive to your messages. Keep this in mind and find ways to guide them through the acquisition process with helpful interventions that come at the right time and add value to their experience. This will lead to much more success in the long run.

    Also read: BookMyShow – The Indian Startup That Did Not Have A Smooth Sail

    Comment your views and if you know any other tip to track customer acquisition, please let me know in the comment section.

  • Why You Should Use Contests as a Marketing Tool To Generate Leads For Your Business

    Competitions are a great way to challenge oneself and others also. Also, holding such competition is an awesome way to promote your brand and also for customer engagement. As per a survey, 52 percent of consumers are motivated to stay connected with a brand by contests or being asked for their input about current or new products. Thanks to social media which gives one of the most effective and lucrative ways to interact with our customers. Hence, startups can use this strategy to gain more attraction in less budget.

    In addition, contests enable you to engage your audience because in contests you and your customers both interact with each other which ultimately deepen the connection. If you want to increase your audience base as well as get content for your business then user-generated content (UGC) Promotion like photo and video contests can be the best option to just do that. Here is the reason why to use contests as a marketing tool.

    Some of The Reasons Which Made the Companies Decide to Run Competitions As a Marketing Strategy:

    Why You Should Use Content as a Marketing Tool.
    Why You Should Use Content as a Marketing Tool.
    1. Generate leads and sales
    2. Drive traffic online and offline
    3. Increase brand equity
    4. Engage and delight customers
    5. Grow fan base, generate opt-ins and subscribers
    6. Gain user data and insight
    7. Collect consumer-generated content

    This allows the brand to recognize and reward loyal customers (as well as those all-important new ones). Ultimately, competitions can be a quick, low-cost incentive to encourage your customers to do some of your marketing for you.

    Now There are Two Types of Promotion:

    The 2 common types of promotions include

    1. Sweepstakes (chance-based promotion) – When conducting sweepstakes, it keeps the call to action clear and the forms easy to fill out.
    2. Contest (skill-based promotion) – For contests, there may be a public voting or closed judging or a combination of both. In this method be sure that the criteria for winning are clearly articulated and readily available.

    In either model, consider rewarding participants with coupons, discounts or smaller prizes to reward their time and effort, if even they don’t win the grand prize.

    Also Read:

    Promotional Law Basics

    Running promotions involves adhering to laws and the guidelines of individual channels/ social media network. Promotion containing all 3 (prize, chance, and consideration) is deemed to be an illegal lottery. Either eliminate chance or consideration. To keep everything legal, you’ll also need to disclaim the platform that you’re on, stating that they don’t sponsor the contest. This will be found in the terms of service of whichever platform you’re posting on. If you’re going to do anything related to kids, make sure you have something saying that the legal guardian is the one that’s entering because there are some legalities around that. Also, clear out all the rules and regulations related to the contest, making it transparent for the participant.

    For Example:

    Facebook promotion guidelines include the following Don’ts:

    1. Administer a promotion directly on your Page or use Facebook features as an entry or voting mechanism.
    2. Automatically enter someone for Liking, posting a photo or comment.
    3. Use a like button for voting.
    4. Use Facebook channels to notify the winners.
    5. For Twitter, the 140 character limit can make disclosure of material and policy items challenging. Make sure to host the information on your website and link to it often.

    Also Read:

    How To Run a Successful Social Media Contest To Get The Desired Result?

    Begin with the end

    The first rule of running any marketing campaign is to know what you want. So start planning to establish a clear goal before to achieve the highest engagement. It can be anything from trying to get newsletter subscription, expose certain products, gain brand loyalty, more fans, followers on social media or increased traffic to your site and blog. Then, work on the prototype where you have decided to increase the marketing, especially using the contest as a method.

    Select the type of content

    Integrate your brand messages into the contest – whether it’s adding product information that may catch people’s attention into the contest itself or throwing other posts to your Facebook page with interesting information about your brand.

    Choose the right platform

    Based on the goal, find where your target audience hangs out. You can promote your content across all social media platforms; however, choose the primary platform as the place you’ll collect data.

    Have Clear Contest Rules

    For example, if the contest is for the number of Facebook likes a photo receives, make sure to specify that multiple votes from the same IP address will be discounted. And if you’d like to reuse images submitted as part of a contest, be sure to clearly state that in the contest rules as well. It will save you a lot of time afterwards!

    Also Read:

    How Long Should You Run Your Contest?

    Typically a contest should run for at least 2 weeks but not more than a month. Entries started to tail off at the 12-day mark, before picking up again right before the end of the contest.

    What to Give Away?

    The general idea here is to give away something that is valuable enough for most people in your market to stand up and take notice. For some markets, this might be an item in the INR 10,000 – INR 15,000 range, and for others, it might be as small as INR 2500. You can also give away something that a large percentage of your market will want. Don’t make it something obscure. You want the item to be inherently valuable and also broadly desired, to maximize the reach of your content.

    Executing the Competition

    Moderate submission entries, many platforms have built-in options for moderation. Make sure to approve all images for photo contests before they get posted, in case there is inappropriate material. You can drive heaps of wild engagement with a social media contest. It just takes a bit of planning and execution to make it a smashing success.

    Also Read:

    Conclusion

    Contests are really helpful in generating a huge number of leads and bring success if executed properly and keeping the public in mind. Comment below, if you have used contests as a method for marketing at any point of time in your brand promotion and how much success it has become in terms of the promotion of your brand in the public eye.

  • Mr Sainath Maharatta – Founder of StrongHumanNetwork | StartupTalker

    StartupTalky is one of the strongest community in India and we have a lot of professionals who are doing great in their lives. To share their learnings and inspire as many people as we can, we are interviewing all the StartupTalkers in our “Know the StartupTalker” series.

    Today, we have Mr Sainath Maharatta as our interviewee. Sainath Maharatta is the founder of StrongHumanNetwork. You will learn a lot from this story of Sainath Maharatta in his own words.

    Who Are You?

    I am a millennial kid born in 1990 in Hyderabad. My schooling and college and 1st 2 years of my professional experience have been in and around Hyderabad. I have graduated in computer science. I was preparing to pursue MBA since my college days. Later I worked with an IT company and then became a probationary officer in state bank group. While I was working as a probationary officer in the state bank, I got admission into IIM Calcutta.

    At IIM Calcutta, I was very active in campus activities through quiz club, marketing club and hostel activities which helped me sharpen my leadership skills.

    I Interned in a sales & marketing role in a Startup and FMCG environment in Mumbai. Later I was hired as a manager reporting to the founding team at stayzilla.com ( which was a direct competitor to OYO while I was working). After a year stint at stayzilla, I moved to Hyderabad in a sales role at Paytm.

    I was responsible for building the distribution network of Paytm in AP and Telangana upcountry and was at the helm of things during demonetization. I got an opportunity to see and work on things on the ground during demonetisation. I saw how the whole country, administration and private sector players like Paytm were mobilized and worked during this time which gave me a hope that anything can be changed if we know how to do it.

    How did you come up with the name of your Startup?

    I was working with a lot of youngsters during this time and was very successful in my work. During this time I went through a deep introspection phase where I recognised the core qualities in me which were making me successful across all the aspects of my life. One day I wrote all these qualities on a board – confidence, self-awareness, fair world exposure, willingness to work on myself, chasing excellence. When I thought of an adjective which I would like to identify with, “Strong” came to my mind. That was a key moment in my life where I discovered the StrongHuman Framework.

    What did you do just after getting the idea?

    During my discussions with friends, I found that this framework can be a universal formula which can help anyone to improve their lives. Also because of my business and startup background, I could see that a profitable organisation can be built around this concept and hence StrongHumanNetwork was born.

    In the last 2 years, we have taken SHN’s concept to thousands of people across the globe and it was received with open arms and warmth across. People were inspired by this idea and a lot of people invested in this idea. Till date, people have invested more than 60 lakhs (Excluding my investment) into this project.

    As we are a sustainable profitable organisation, our main aim from the inception was to find out the right product-market fit. During this process, we did a lot of product-market trails through an offline sales team-driven model, college workshop, corporate training models and finally found our product-market fit through the digital lifestyle membership model executed through a 5-level structure which is open for individuals across the globe.

    As of now, we have 100 paid members spread across the globe who come from very highly acclaimed educational & professional backgrounds. Most of our members have a Postgraduate degree from reputed colleges and have management experience. Many of them are located in countries like USA and Australia apart from India. We are currently offering lifestyle memberships to select professionals, senior professionals, Life coaches and world-renowned leadership experts at Level 3,4 & 5.

    To become a lifestyle member, one has to accomplish the StrongHuman Challenge – a 21 day paid self-awareness challenge.

    One can register themselves on www.shn.life in the suitable category, we will review their profile and if they are eligible they would be invited to take the StrongHuman Challenge.

    Also Read: These are the 10 Best Real Estate Business Ideas for India

    What is Your Typical Day Like?

    I generally start my day with meditation, walk in nature followed by listening to Carnatic music. Then I read the regular newspaper and economic times to stay up to date with current happenings. My work starts with talking to highly accomplished individuals through networks like LinkedIn where I bounce ideas and perspectives and identify the right individuals to join SHN.

    As an entrepreneur, I deal with uncertainty on a day to day basis and I need to be aware of the situation and not let the situation control me. Whenever I feel overpowered by situations, I go to meditation or listen to inspiring talks by Sadhguru, J Krishnamurthi, Tom Bilyeu, Gary Vaynerchuk etc.

    What are your job responsibilities and how they have changed over time?

    Post-MBA, my primary job has been problem-solving through planning, execution and people management. Before my startup journey, I was solving problems in a controlled environment of the company. Now as a startup, it is like transitioning from a man-made park into a forest – the real world. Now I solve things in the real world. When you are facing the real-world you need much more awareness to understand the situation and do the right thing.

    In a corporate environment, you have a certain power which comes through the position you are placed in the organisation and you need to act according to that and people’s behaviour is also shaped by your position of power.

    As an entrepreneur in real-world, your designation has no values unless backed by legible, constructive behaviour and results. Everyone around you behaves the way they want and it is your job to carefully analyse people and situations and do your best.

    A startup goes through different phases, such as zero to one phase, 1 to 10 phase, 10 to 100 phase and so on. You need a different skillset at each level. Zero to 1 phase is the toughest which builds you as a person and lays the foundation. 9/10 entrepreneurs don’t make beyond this phase due to multiple reasons, but a major reason is a lack of adequate self-awareness and awareness of people and the world around. Some times you learn it the hard way and luck also plays a role in this journey.

    Any Struggle/Challenges you have faced in your professional/ startup life and how did you overcome it?

    When we were at the inception stage of SHN, I tried to move as fast as possible with the given resources and people. Also, I believed that you can motivate anyone to be the best version. Later I came across situations which made me understand that there needs to be an innate willingness from the person, without which nothing can be done. Some times when someone has already come to certain conclusions, things won’t move despite your best efforts and intentions.

    I understood that team building needs a lot of judgement and forming the right team is also a time taking process as we have to nurture the relationships and trust.

    Also Read: These are the 8 Best Ways to use Reddit For the Business

    What are Your Superpowers?

    Self-awareness is my superpower. Over the last 2 years, this has improved more. I can see situations just the way they are and this gives me an immense power to handle it the way I want to.

    World-exposure is also a big strength. I love to read and consume content from very different subjects starting from business, international & national politics, spirituality, history, artificial intelligence and other technologies. This helps me in connecting the dots – a very important skill in the current situation.

    Another important skill I have is problem-solving. I can analyse any kind of problem and can say what kind of solution is required and come up with probable ways to solve it.

    Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?

    YouTube & LinkedIn are 2 of the most important tools I would recommend. YouTube has a lot of thought-provoking content which can blow your mind. You need to tap into the right channels. LinkedIn is a very important tool for anyone who wants to grow professionally. It allows you to participate in sensible, thought to provoke discussions and develop the right professional network,

    Who or what has shaped who you are?

    If I have to speak of personalities who inspired me and keep inspiring me, I would say as a child, APJ Abdul kalam inspired me a lot. His book “Wings of Fire” was the 1st book where I learned about leadership. Also a lot of contemporary personalities who have worked through the tough times to success such as our PM Modi, K Chandrashekar Rao, who lead a long Telangana movement to become the current CM of Telangana inspire me.

    Also Read: Click Here to Know How to Hire the Best Freelance Content Writer to Scale Your Content Marketing

    Any hack/ learning which make your professional life easy/productive?

    Put your ego aside and start thinking from the opposite person’s point of view. This will give you solutions to most of your problems and expedite things.

    What’s your workspace setup like?

    It consists of visuals which inspire me and a board where I write the most important thoughts which drive me.

    Fashion Day
    Fashion Day

    What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? Or a quote that inspires you the most?

    A quote which I read during the initial phases of SHN –

    I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that. Then I realized I am somebody

    What are you currently reading, or what do you recommend?

    I am deeply researching on yoga, consciousness and future of humanity through the content of people like Deepak Chopra, J Krishnamurti and Yuval Noah Harari

    Also Read: Here Are Some Businesses Which You Can Start With Rs. 1 Lac Investment

    How do you keep track of what you have to do?

    I love using boards. Whenever I have a lot of things to do, I write them on a board and prioritize and get it done.

    If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?

    I would not do anything different as I believe I got the perfect launchpad for what I am currently doing

    Anything else you would like to share?

    StrongHumanNetwork is a lifestyle concept and a global network of individuals focused on personal growth. It helps individuals transform their career, relationships, health & fitness through StrongHuman Lifestyle which enhances one’s confidence, self-awareness, emotional intelligence and world exposure. SHN offers lifestyle membership to individuals who accomplish the StrongHuman Challenge.

  • Top Knowledge Base Softwares

    Back in the old days and before the Internet, manufacturers used to ship products with a giant manual. It’s like a book with hundreds of pages that includes instructions about how to use the product. Of course, no one bothers to read them anyway. Today, we have knowledge base systems. Unlike those old bulky manuals, a knowledge base website is much more innovative. It provides users a place to find answers to questions and guides related to a product, all by themselves.
    A knowledge base is a self-serve online library of information about a product, service, department, or topic.

    Effective Knowledge Base

    It’s important to know what kind of features to include in your knowledge base to make it more effective.

    1. Search Function – Users need to be able to search for articles and guides on your knowledge base to find solutions to their problems. As a result, a properly functioning search system provides is a must-have.
    2. A User Feedback System – A great way to improve your knowledge base is to get feedback from users. A simple thumbs-up system is more than enough to learn if an article in your knowledge base was helpful to users or not.
    3. Front–end website – The front end of your knowledge base is much like a normal website, except with a focus on categories, navigation and documentation formatting. Here are the main front-end features:
      i.   Main page focused on top-level categories and search
      ii.  Clear navigation menu with multi-layer categories visible
      iii.  Article call-outs, code snippets, warnings, and article metadata
    4. Simple Backend Dashboard – Being able to easily create hundreds of articles, guides, tutorials, questions, and much more using a simple and easy-to-use back-end system will go a long way to serve your customers better.
    5. Analytics & Reports – With analytics, you can learn which knowledge base posts perform better and which creates more bounces. This will allow you to keep improving your knowledge base and create more helpful guides.
    6. Easily Manageable Categories – With lots of knowledge articles in one database, you could easily get lost while updating and adding new content. A simple archive and categorization system help keep the entire knowledge base organized. As well as make it easier to browse.

    Also read:

    To help you save time and money we rounded up a list of 5 best knowledge base system software. Whether you have a SaaS startup or a single product website, this list has knowledge base solutions for all.

    Top Knowledge Base Softwares

    Freshdesk

    Freshdesk is a cloud-based knowledge base helpdesk software which helps small sized businesses build relationships with their customers easily. Freshdesk also helps enterprise businesses to collaborate better across the globe, and enables more efficient businesses processes for better customer experiences. If you are looking for an intuitive, easy-to-use knowledge base software, Freshdesk may be the right choice for you.

    Freshdesk
    Freshdesk

    Rich text editors will have wider variety of formatting options allowing you to structure your content and answers better, better support for embedding images to show rather than tell, and will be easier to create and use than a software with just plain text editor. Freshdesk is one of the few Knowledge Base software providers which gives a rich text editor for free.

    Freshdesk allow you to maintain different versions of a solution article and host the same article in multiple languages so customers can access the one they want. Also, Freshdesk give you virtually unlimited space to host your tutorials in, charging you for the number of users and portals you have.

    Zendesk

    Zendesk Guide offers a knowledge base that is simple to customize and use – as either an internal knowledge base, an IT knowledge base, an agent-only knowledge base or a customer facing FAQ resource. And because it’s always available, customers and agents can serve themselves with the right information at the right time.

    Zendesk
    Zendesk

    Build out a web-based knowledge base without worrying too much about the details. Drafts save if you’re in the middle of a work in progress, and rich formatting ensures that articles are easy to read. If you’re building an internal knowledge base, content can quickly be restricted to certain groups. Zendesk makes knowledge management software that’s simple to use and accessible for everyone. And the freedom to translate your articles into over 40 different languages provides a localized experience that’s right for everyone.

    Relevant read:

    Document360

    Document360 helps your team create, collaborate, and publish a self-service knowledge base for your software with ease. It is simple and clean. The focus is on your content, making sure that readability is great. You can access it anywhere. It has a responsive knowledge base tool across all devices – desktop, tablet and mobile. It also provides security as you can create custom roles, define their scope of access and usage in a granular level.

    Document360
    Document360

    Your customers want to use your self-service Knowledge base than reaching out to your support team. Document360 helps you reduce support tickets by providing solution on the go.

    Zoho Connect

    Zoho Connect is a team collaboration software that brings people and the resources they need to one place, making it easier to get work done. From keeping your workplace communication organized, to managing the resources your team needs, to staying in sync with your other apps, Zoho Connect makes your team’s work easier.

    Zoho connect
    Zoho connect

    People-on your team and outside it, like your partners, vendors, and clients- make your business successful. Keep them in the loop by creating an external network, and get your team working together with them with the help of Zoho Connect. Also, with integrations with other applications like Asana, GitHub, Google Drive, and more, you’ll get all the notifications from them, right within your Zoho Connect group.

    Zoho Connect also provides you features to know how members are interacting within a network, get the numbers on most active groups and members, posts and comments made, and blog posts with activity graphs.

    WordPress

    WordPress is a free and open-source content management software (CMS) you can use to build all kinds of websites, including complex knowledge bases. What makes WordPress a great choice for knowledge base platforms is its extensibility. With the help of WordPress plugins, you can add new features, functions, and integrate third-party apps with your knowledge base in just a few clicks.

    Wordpress
    WordPress

    Compared to other knowledge base software, WordPress is much cheaper to setup and use. It is extensible, means you can easily add and extend features using WordPress plugins. Including third-party integrations like Zapier and HubSpot. You can easily manage articles, media, and categories using the beginner-friendly WordPress admin dashboard. When using WordPress you’re in full control of your knowledge base. You don’t have to abide by the rules of a corporate company.

    Must read:

    Conclusion

    Now, that you know what is knowledge base software and also some of the best knowledge base software solutions, it is time for you to choose the right one that matches your needs. Hope this article will help you in knowing more about the top knowledge management software and indeed assist you in choosing the right one. Which tool are you using? Please let us know in the comments section below.

  • Computerized Medicine and how it will change India

    The advent of computers has left no field untouched. Computers are being increasingly used in the area of medicine where it could soon replace the normal physician or surgeon. While the tools aren’t leaving the operation theatre anytime soon, their company is going to change to 3D printers, VR or Virtual Reality Interfaces and nano-robots.

    Market Overview
    Market Size
    Scope of Computerised Medicine
    Possible Innovation and Future Scope
    Conclusion

    In a few years, it could be considered extremely mainstream to see patients being diagnosed with “wearable” electronics and electronic armbands barring any direct involvement of a physician. Devices which, once inserted into the human body, working as “sensors” to detect illness symptoms can turn into reality. Maybe diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancers could be detected early on. The possibilities remain endless.

    Market Overview

    Computerised medicine will accumulate Artificial Intelligence(AI) which can revolutionise the sector. The knowledge of AI is currently being harnessed effectively, and the forever rising field of health care is leveraging it to attain greater goods for humanity.

    The projection for computer vision in healthcare can reach to USD 2550 million by 2027 from USD 210 million in 2018, standing at a CAGR of 31.9% during the forecast period. The growth of this market is mainly accelerated by the rising demand for computer vision systems in the healthcare industry, big data in medicine, initiatives by government to increase the adoption of AI-based technologies, and the use of computer vision in precision medicine.

    Segments which are expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the computer vision in healthcare market are medical imaging and diagnostics. The key reasons to use computer vision for medical imaging & diagnostics, are increase in quality, accuracy, early detection and predictability of certain diseases. When it comes to end users, healthcare providers account for the largest in the healthcare market.

    Also Read: Embedded BI Solutions for SaaS

    Predictions are that registrations by healthcare providers would be the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Factors such as the growing adoption of computer vision solutions in hospitals and focus of companies on developing AI and computer vision tools to improve hospital operations are push growth in the end user segment.

    Market Size

    The Indian pharmaceutical sector stood at a value of US$ 33 billion in 2017. Expansion at a CAGR of 22.4 per cent over 2015–20 to reach US$ 55 billion is expected.

    Pharmaceutical exports were at US$ 17.27 billion in FY18 and have marked at US$ 19.14 billion in FY19. Pharmaceutical exports combine bulk drugs, formulations, intermediates, biologicals, Ayush & herbal products.

    US generics market valued at US$ 70-80 million include 30% (by volume) and around 10% (value) by India.

    The country’s biotechnology industry including bio-pharmaceuticals, bio-services, bio-agriculture, bio-industry and bioinformatics can grow at an average growth rate of around 30% a year and reach US$ 100 billion by 2025.

    The global computerised medicine market is estimated to be worth USD 5.1 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 6.6 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 4.6% from 2019 to 2025. Strong growth in the next 6 years because of rising incidents of chronic diseases, implantable devices, rise in expenditure on healthcare across the world, and increase in elderly population.

    Scope of Computerised Medicine

    There is tremendous scope for computerised medicine as the sector keeps on growing. Medical tourism, chronic ailment treatments, discovery of new diseases, study of origination of diseases are some of the key driving factors.

    Data Analysis

    Research involves collection of humongous amount of data. This data needs to be compiled, analyzed and interpreted. Application of certain statistical approaches Certain statistical is required. These can be time consuming therefore the use of AI would fasten the process of availability of data for further research.

    Laboratory Computing

    Clinical laboratory aims to provide accurate results in short time. THIS includes blood chemistry, photometry, microbiology, etc. Results must match with the correct patient and should be accurate. Quick access to laboratory system contributes to efficient care for patients.

    Computer Assisted Decision making (CMD)
    An innovative interactive computer system can directly assists doctors on tough clinical decisions. It can support doctors, complementing their natural abilities to make judgment added with computer’s vast memory, reliability and accuracy capabilities.

    Care of critically ill patients
    Optimization of chances of survival for critically ill patients includes various therapeutic treatments which requires frequent collection of variables to derive data. This data might lose significance if it isn’t presented in an accurate manner. In the intensive care unit it is now possible to computerise the total management of data recorded on the patients.

    Computer assisted therapy Monitoring of dosages regimens of potentially toxic drugs is required. The physician can plan dosage regimens by selecting a target peak total body concentration of a drug.

    Medical imaging
    The high importance of CT scan, MRI, ultrasound, and gamma cameras lead to the development of dedicated hardware/software. Three dimensional images of living human anatomy, regional physiology and biochemistry in health and diseases are in use.

    Possible Innovation and Future Scope

    Use of mixed reality
    Surgeons can use AR to project life-saving information into their eyesight during operations, VR in psychiatry to treat phobias efficiently, and mixed reality is able to bring revolutionary novelties to medical education, or pre-operative surgical planning, among others.

    Brain-computer interfaces for the paralyzed
    Brain implants today are now equal to laser eye surgery decades ago, retinal chips for perfect eyesight, memory chip bestowing you with almost limitless memory are all innovations in line.
    Neuroprosthetics have made their way into the market, implants for people with Parkinson’s disease send electrical pulses deep into the brain, activating some of the pathways involved in motor control.

    3D printing of drugs
    3D printing has grown manifolds, biotechnology industry is working on printing out living cells.
    3D drugs will dissolve faster than traditional drugs. This will also help in giving drugs attractive shapes so that they can be consumed by children easily.

    Immunotherapy
    Immunotherapy has taken cancer treatment to a storm by leveraging the immune system to fight tumors. In particular, immune checkpoint inhibitors have demonstrate great potential in the treatment of solid-tumor types, such as melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer. Someday immunotherapy might eradicate cancer from the world.

    The global digital health market was at $179.6 billion in 2016, as reported by Transparency Market Research (TMR). Rise at a CAGR of 13.4% between 2017 and 2025 is projected, reaching $536.6 billion by the end of 2025.
    Medicine spending in India is expected to grow by 9-12 per cent over the next five years, leading India to become one of the top 10 countries in terms of medicine spending.

    Conclusion

    The computerised medicine industry is growing manifolds at strong rates. Improvement in accuracy and quality of treatments is the aim for addition of technology in the medical scenario. The possibilities are endless.

  • How to Convert Blog Traffic to Leads?

    Are you struggling to increase free trial signups? You’re not alone. Of course, if you have a SaaS product, you’ll eventually want to increase your conversion rates to get paying customers, but the process of getting a sustainable user base starts by getting more people to take free trials and check out demos. If you don’t, your business won’t last very long, because you won’t make the revenue you need to keep it going.
    Blogs are a popular, effective, and affordable way to bring people to your digital domain. That’s the good news. But the bad news is that traffic generation is only half the battle. Page views, likes, tweets, and comments are nice, but none of them are the ultimate goal. You need to convert that traffic into leads.

    Obviously, growing an audience isn’t enough. Content marketing is about delivering value while paving the way for the sale. It’s very rare that a first-time visitor of your blog will immediately buy your product. Thus, instead of hoping that visitors will somehow rediscover your blog later, you want to take actionable steps towards building a communication channel – so you don’t lose them.
    Here are several ways you can capture leads to build a relationship with your audience and ultimately convert them into new customers.

    The Reader to Revenue Strategy

    Here’s a super simple framework for understanding how you’re converting readers into customers. You convert readers to customers in just 2 ways:

    1. Through direct links to sales pages
    2. By capturing reader emails and emailing them.

    That’s it. Once you put your conversion strategy into that simple framework, you can move on to measuring how both funnels are doing and then increasing the conversion rate.

    Also read:

    Methods to convert your blog traffic to leads

    Offer an Irresistible Incentive

    One of the main challenges with converting blog traffic is driving visitors to your main website. When you think of it, that’s not why they came to the blog for in the first place. And chances are they aren’t that much interested in your product or service. But you can motivate them to be by presenting an irresistible incentive.

    An incentive is something that can motivate a person to take action. It works for a simple reason – it helps making the decision easier. In online marketing an incentive is typically an appealing element such as discount, bonus, special offer or promise constructed to stimulate a desired action. Whatever incentive you choose though, for it to work you need to communicate it to visitors. And there are 4 main ways to do that:

    • Display a Static Ad
    • Use A Scrolling Ad
    • Display a Notification Bar
    • Play on Visitors’ Curiosity with a Navigation Link

    Improve your pitch

    You’ve heard of an elevator pitch, right? It’s how you concisely pitch a prospect in less time than it takes to ride an elevator cab to the destination floor.

    Elevator pitch
    Elevator pitch

    Elevator pitches work in digital marketing, too. In fact, they’re often more effective than long, drawn-out pitches. You just need to know what works for your audience.

    Let’s say, for instance, that you’re selling shoes. Most people know what shoes are, so you don’t need to explain how they work or what they’re for. You just need to bottom-line why they’re the best shoes for your audience. If you search for Nike running shoes on Amazon and click on one of the models, you get very scant product copy:

    Nike running shoes
    Nike running shoes

    That’s eight bullet points. Why? Because it’s all the prospective customer needs to know. How can you tell what pitch will work best with your audience? Test different pitches. Try long- and short-form pitches. Adjust the wording. Switch up your headlines and calls to action (CTAs).

    Newsletter signup

    You’ve put in the work to get people to your website; make sure you capture as much of it as possible. Walk them through the next step of becoming your customers. A newsletter signup is a great way to do this. There are a few methods you can use to motivate them to sign up for your newsletter. One way is a pop-up that opens on the screen when users have scrolled down to a specific piece of the content. Some great tools to set this up are JustUno or Popup Domination, either of which will open up a pop-up to attract visitors to subscribe to your newsletter, just like the one below:

    Newsletters
    Newsletters

    Another technique is to have an email newsletter sign-up option on the right-hand side of the blog. This is always visible while being a bit less “obnoxious” to visitors who are reading the blog post. Some great tools for this are Get Drip or Hubspot, which allow you to create side opt-in forms, like the one below:

    Subscribe popup
    Subscribe popup

    The cool thing about this pop-up is that it makes it easy for visitors to become subscribers because it gives them multiple options, depending on their preferred contact method.

    Relevant read:

    Collect Immediate Feedback

    The best way to find out what’s working to increase free trial signups is to ask your visitors. Collecting feedback will help you tweak your marketing strategy and messaging to increased effectiveness. Options for collecting visitor feedback include using a customer survey and interacting with visitors via live chat, as in this example from Missinglettr.

    Feedback system
    Feedback system

    Popping up a survey just before people leave can help you find out why some people are ignoring your free trial. Then you’ll be able to adjust your marketing to get their interest next time around. Or you could email free trial signups immediately after they’ve signed up to ask what they’re hoping to get from the free trial. Again, that’s valuable information for future marketing.

    Call to Action

    Your blog posts need a call-to-action. Every one of them. You need to get your visitors to do something: sign up, download, click, read something else, subscribe, install, contact you, and so on. Giving prospects a clear action to take is the key to converting passive blog traffic into real, active, and engaged customers. This is arguably the most important persuasive skill you need as a marketer.

    A high-quality blog post without a compelling CTA is a lead lost. They’re already on your site. They’re already interested and engaged with you and your brand. So, give them more. A strong CTA is action oriented, benefit-to-them driven, visual, persuasive, and ideally creates a sense of urgency.

    Example of CTA - Dropbox
    Example of CTA – Dropbox

    I recommend including a clear call to action in every blog article you publish. Too many blog articles, even on the best blogs, don’t result in any action after a visitor reads them. Including social share buttons at the bottom of a blog article will help visitors easily share your article, further expanding the reach of the article. Having a contact us button with an action-oriented color, like orange, can make it easier for people to get in touch with you if they have comments or questions about what they just read.

    Lead magnets

    Lead magnet is anything that your potential customers will find valuable. You’re going to offer it for free in return for their email and consequently a chance to develop a relationship with them. A classic lead magnet example is an eBook.

    Lead magnets
    Lead magnet

    There are however many other content types you could use to collect visitors’ emails:

    • Free tools – Hubspot’s Marketing Grader is a good example. The tool allows you to grade the marketing effectiveness of your site, in exchange for an email of course.
    • Templates / Checklists – Whitespark offers a Review Handout Generator allowing users to print instructions on how to leave a Google review for their business.
    • Discounts – Many Ecommerce and B2C websites offer discounts for the first purchase if you sign up for their mailing list.
    • Email Courses – Create an educational resource your visitors need and offer it for a sign up. For example, Enchanting Marketing offers a free, 16-part writing course.

    Must read:

    Show off case studies, testimonials, and social proof

    Collect reviews from your customers, ask clients to create testimonial videos, and mention any high-profile clients you have (with their permission, of course). If a well-known person in your industry has tried your product and loved it, mention that fact on your homepage, landing pages, and elsewhere on your website.

    Social proof, case studies, and testimonials are all excellent ways to convince your website visitors to convert. You want them to know they aren’t betting on something new and untested. You want to infuse them with confidence.

    Conclusion

    Generating blog traffic is only half the game. It’s knowing how to convert blog traffic that differentiates winning marketers from the rest of the crowd. Apply the actionable strategies we’ve discussed, and you’ll start seeing how your blog can be an effective tool to win you the sales you seek.

  • How To Retarget Visitors and Bring Website Visitors Back with Retargeting Ads

    You might be able to attract a lot of traffic to your website. But unless you are just dependent upon the earning from advertisements on your website, that traffic means nothing to you. If your visitor is not converting into your customer, that traffic is just a group of people. But to convert those viewers into your customers, you need to give in something. You need to remind them what they need and what you can give, again and again.

    According to some sources, Retargeted ads average a CTR 10x higher than that of Display ads. And you must know that Retargeting can lift ad engagement rates up to 400%. According to web, 20% of marketers have a budget specifically for retargeting.

    Many businesses whether it is small or big are practicing retargeting as a important marketing approach to bring their website visitors back and to keep their potential customers reminding about their brand. So, to help you out with retargeting in this post we’ve mentioned everything you need to know about retargeting and at the end of this post you will get to know how to bring website visitors back with retargeting ads.

    What is Retargeting?

    Ever wondered why you see ads of a product you just visited the website of, on other websites? This is because they want you to remember them again and again. Advertisements are not there just to tell you about the products, their purpose is to remind you of the product again and again. When you see the ad, you might not notice it but it fits in your subconscious mind and whenever you are buying the product, you will more likely to buy that brand only. So, retargeting works the same way. When someone visits your website but forget to check out due to some circumstances, you can target them again and show your ads to them. This will bring that customer back to your website and generate a lead for you. You can even show that the price of your product is reduced to attract more people.

    Also Read:

    Advantages of Re-targeting

    Potential Customers

    Re-targeting helps you to reach potential customers. The system automatically recognizes the potential customer. Although the system is not accurate all the time, it will still give a great result in identifying the potential prospect.

    Brand Awareness

    When people will see your ad on other websites, again and again, it will increase your brand awareness. More the people know about you, more the people share about you.

    Generate leads

    When the potential prospect sees your advertisement many times a day on every other website, they will come back to your site. There is a very strong possibility that anyone who wants to buy some product will go for the brand he/she has been looking at all day.

    Cost-Effective

    Re-targeting gives a great ROI. Most of the people who need some particular product will get influenced by your ad. So, you will earn much more than you will spend on retargeting advertisements.

    The Second Impression

    You might get a chance to impress your prospect in the second try. If you think your website does not impress people and let them know the real power of your product, then you can show it in a better way in the re-targeting ads.

    Analytics

    You can easily check the stats of your advertisement. Not only CTR (Click through rate) but you can also see View Through Rate.

    Also Read:

    Limitations of Re-targeting

    Creepy

    Your re-targeted advertisement might feel creepy and annoying when people will see it again and again. Creepy in the way that not all people understand technology, so when they will see your re-targeted ad, they will assume their privacy is at risk. And it will annoy people when you show the same ad again and again.

    Time Consuming

    If you don’t want your prospect to get annoyed by your ads, then you will have to create so many advertisements, which is both, expensive and time-consuming.

    Waste of Advertising

    These ads will be shown to the people who already bought your product too. So, your happy customer may start hating your bran.

    How does it work?

    How does retargetng work?
    How does retargetng work?

    Probably the most important question. Re-targeting works as the system collects enough data to re-target the same user again. You can go to any re-targeting service and pay them to do this for you. When someone will visit your website, they will show your ads on their platform(s). However, some information might be needed, but the companies still do not put their hands into any sensitive user data. Therefore, there is nothing to worry about when you see some ads on websites or Facebook, etc.

    Best Tools/Services for Re-targeting·

    1. Google Adwords Remarketing
    2. Facebook Remarketing
    3. ReTargeter
    4. SiteScout
    5. Twitter
    6. Criteo
    7. Outbrain

    Tips to remember

    1. CTA: It’s not the first time I am using this term. Call to action is as important in marketing as air is to us. Include some CTA in your retargeting ads.
    2. Coupons: Provide coupons to the people who visited your website but didn’t buy anything. This might attract people as the reason for not buying the product, could be its price.
    3. Potential Customers: You can re-target the visitors who spend a lot of time on your website. They might be interested in your product
    4. Stop Ads: Stop showing those ads which are not performing well. These ads can cause negative results.
    5. Animated Ads: You can and you should use animated ads to grab people’s attention.

    Also Read:

    Conclusion

    Retargeting is one of the most important parts of the internet today. This was the most innovative internet technology ever. The important thing to remember is that retargeting doesn’t need too much data and it did not touch any of the private data of the user. You can choose any of the services out there. Google and Facebook are the best in this field though. You can even go for more than one platform, but this might cause a dispute in the companies, for your ad only. When you run an ad on more than one platform, all the campaigns will bid for a particular visitor. It is just like that your salesmen are fighting against each other to bring a customer to you. Each salesman will tell the customer to take their reference so that they get the commission. So, analyze the platforms carefully before bidding on the ads.

    Let us know how was your experience with retargeting. Share this post with all your friends. Don’t forget to turn on some eyes on more articles from StartupTalky. Thank you for visiting and reading this post on Startup Talky.com. Hope to see you soon.

  • Youngest Entrepreneurs of India

    Being creative takes courage. In today’s time, there is a constant cut-throat competition which one gets enrolled into without getting to even discover yourself first. It is at a very young age many parents decide what their kid’s future is going to be. To ace in this very race of success – you can either be a follower or a leader. A follower is obedient, patient and hard-working. A leader is also hard-working, but also innovative and a risk taker. And when one chooses the path of his own, it’s a road journey which is written by themselves.

    Our youth today is a bit demotivated and lethargic, so they starve for even a little bit of hope and inspiration. There are a huge amount of resources available, there is widespread internet connectivity, innumerable exchange of technology, knowledge and information, and all this it present right in front of you. You just have to grab it.

    Yes, it will require hard work and patience too, and some failures will be inevitable but you have to keep the faith in yourself and your idea.

    In this article we will discuss about the youngest entrepreneurs of India and try to give a little dosage of motivation to you through the way of their success stories.

    Shravan and Sanjay Kumaran

    Shravan and Sanjay Kumaran
    Shravan and Sanjay Kumaran | Youngest Entrepreneur India

    Shravan and Sanjay are siblings of the age 17 and 15 respectively. They are the youngest upcoming entrepreneurs of India. They together came up with “GoDimensions” which is a company that aims at developing a simple technological solution for the digital world. The brothers are also the youngest Mobile App Developers in India. The Kumaran brothers give due credit to “reading books and solving problems given to them” as the mantra to their success.

    Tilak Mehta

    Tilak Mehta
    Tilak Mehta | Youngest Entrepreneur India

    Tilak Mehta is a 13 year old boy who launched his company called Paper N Parcels in 2018 and it aims at easing courier services in Mumbai. His startup Paper N Parcels is dedicated to carrying small parcels and papers within Mumbai for assured intra-day delivery. It is amazing to note that he is still a student studying in 8 th standard. He is a budding entrepreneur who has founded a logistics startup, sold the idea to a banker and somehow convinced him to quit his job and join him as the Chief Executive. He also roped Dabbawalas to help him with the last-mile distribution.

    Also Read: 6 Easy-To-Learn Technical Skills Every Entrepreneur Should Know

    Trishneet Arora

    Trishneet Arora
    Trishneet Arora | Youngest Entrepreneur India

    Trishneet Arora is the founder and CEO of TAC Security which is a cyber-security company based in Mohali, and he is 25 years old only. He was 19 when he started TAC security in 2013 which performs vulnerability assessment and penetration testing for corporates and identifying weakness in their cyber security thereafter.

    Trishneet failed in 8th standard and signed up for distance education but failed again in 12th standard. He said he was never interested in studies and was always a backbencher. He taught himself how to “hack” at a very young age and wrote a book called “The Hacking Era” which was published in 2013.

    Trishneet knew he could make a profession out of hacking and went out to focus on digitization and organizations that were reaching out to ‘ethical hackers’ to build resilient defense systems against cyber attacks. And that underscored the potential of his business. The demand for such services are growing day by day and Tishneet is sure he will thrive in the future too.

    Kavita Shukla

    Kavita Shukla | Youngest Entrepreneur India

    Kavita Shukla holds a BA from Harvard University and is the founder and CEO of Freshglow Co. and the inventor of Freshpaper – a simple innovation taking on the massive global challenges of food waste. She holds four patents and is the youngest women ever to receive the biennial Index Design to Improve Life Award which is the world’s largest prize for design. Her work has also been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, Oprah Magazine, Glamour, The Today Show, and CNN. She was also featured on Forbes list of “30 under 30” and Time’s Magazine’s “5 Most Innovative Women in Food”.

    Also Read: The income of the Top Richest people in the world

    Deepak Ravindran

    Deepak Ravindran | Youngest Entrepreneur India

    Deepak Ravindran was a science student who loved computers. But he decided to drop out of college to pursue his first startup venture. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Innoz Technologies which is a service that provides wireless market and gives solutions for mobile search applications. Deepak started this business along with five of his friends. He also came up with SMSgyan – a text message based search engine which works on a format, and this service was started in 2011. He is also working on a new chat based delivery platform called “Lookup”, and it already has some big investors.

    Sreelakshmi Suresh

    Sreelakshmi Suresh
    Sreelaxmi Suresh | Youngest Entrepreneur India

    Sreelakshmi is the youngest web designer and CEO in the world, presently at the age of 21. She designed and developed the official website of her school located in Kozhikode, Kerala, when she was only 8 years old. She has many accolades to her name. She has received many national and international awards.

    At the age of 10, she designed and established eDesign which is a now venture web designing company that offers SEO, we design, and other such services. Sreelakshmi Suresh has come up with and developed over a 100 websites for renowned institutions and organizations across the nation.

    Also Read : Successful Women Entrepreneurs in India

    Akhilendra Sahu

    Akhilendra Sahu
    Akhillendra Sahu | Youngest Entrepreneur India

    Akhilendra Sahu is the founder and CEO of ASTNT Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and Technical Next Technologies. He did that at the age of 17. ASTNT is an India based company that provides digital marketing, web development, application development, SEO services and similar services. Technical Nest Technologies provides the best webhosting solutions in India. Akhilendra has many sub brands and his app is published on google play store. He also ranked no. 1 web designer in Madhya Pradesh, India.

    King Siddharth

    King Siddarth
    King Siddharth | Youngest Entrepreneur India

    Siddharth is an Entrepreneur, Product & Design Leader and Public Speaker, and is one of India’s top young entrepreneurs. Sidharth was also a drop out but he never stopped learning. He started an online magazine called “Friendz” at the age of 18.

    He is presently the head of product design at Instamojo – a website that helps small and medium sized businesses with their day-to-day needs like payments, credits, logistics, tax-compliances, etc. At present, they serve around 3 lakh businesses. He is also a speaker on entrepreneur design, career and life to college students and has given speeches at NIT, TEDx, NMIMS, and more such places.

    Also Read : How to grow a Bootstrapped Startup

    Arjun Rai

    Arjun Rai, Odyssey ads
    Arjun Rai | Youngest Entrepreneur India

    Arjun Rai has been an exemplary networker and worked on a few projects and startups of his own while he was still a student. He became COO of an online advertising company that was quickly growing in 2010 and is now looking to startup with Odysseys Ads.

    After graduating from New York Institute of Technology he has started two startups – The BizDen and FuelBrite.com. Arjun then went on to invest and build a startup which ventured in the tech space and is one of the leaders in visual project management called Canvs+. Arjun Rai is an inspiration for others who always believed that one should surround oneself with people who will motivate you to do great things and leave those people who can’t see others climbing the stairs of success.

    Ritesh Aggarwal

    Ritesh Aggarwal
    Ritesh Aggarwal | Youngest Entrepreneur India

    One of the most successful stories of entrepreneurs in India is that of Ritesh Aggarwal. Ritesh Aggarwal is the founder and CEO of OYO – the budget room service provider. He dropped out of college, as he seemed to always have a vision about having a business, and he launched his first startup called Oravel Stays at just the age of 18. It was budget hotel chain that provided B&B and later on it elevated to OYO rooms. At that time no other service offered a room which could be in a budget traveler. Ritesh started OYO with only eleven rooms in a Gurgaon hotel. And today OYO has 65,000 rooms in about 5,500 properties across 170 cities in India.

    Also Read : Top Entrepreneurs in India

    Advait Thakur

    Advait Thakur | Youngest Entrepreneur India

    Advait Thakur is a Computer programmer, Young Entrepreneur, AI Researcher. Advait Thakur is a founder of Apex Infosys Inida, Apex Business Solutions Digital Agency. He started using computer at age 6, he launched his first website at age 9. He started Apex Business Solutions Digital Agency in 2015 as a web development company that brings brands on the web.

    In 2017, at age fourteen, he built “Technology Quiz”. This is an app to help kids learn about Science & Technology for google assistance. Then, Advait was accepted for Google Assistant. He had also developed a personal assistant that controls IOT devices of house on voice commands with the help Google’s Open Source gRPC API. He is also member at IBM developer Works. He is also a former Senior Developer at #1 Android Forum, XDA-Developers.

    Also Read: 16 Must-Watch Bollywood Movies For Entrepreneurs

    Conclusion

    The story of these young entrepreneurs of India tells us that entrepreneurship is not about the age but about the mind set. If you really want to do it, you can do it either at the age of 10 or even at 80. All you need is a great mind set.

    If we left any Young Entrepreneur from India, do let us know in the comments so that we can cover their story in this list.