It was the early days of my SEO career. I used to work for a Digital Marketing agency. I was handling a brand new website there.
As the website was new, thus my primary focus was working on on-page & technical SEO. I spent most of my time building Content strategy and fixing Site architecture.
But there was pressure from the client-side, as they want to strengthen their link profile too.
Whereas, Our Agency did not have the resources to build high-quality relevant links. Thus, they outsourced the complete Link building work to another agency.
End of the first month, they have created around 60 links. ( Most of them were profile links, blog commenting and web 2.0)
End of the 2nd month, they doubled the number of similar kinds of shitty links.
But DR remained 0.
There is no significant improvement in the 3rd month as well.
As a result, My agency lost the client.
But, It does not mean those profile links, blog commenting and web 2.0 do not work today.
It still works, Only if you are doing it strategically.
Thus, before outsourcing your link building campaign, ask the following questions to yourself.
At Startuptalky, we were able to generate 5000 daily pageviews without building significant links. (We got some natural links due to our quality of content and created very few profiles and blog commenting links.)
Links work as fuel to your traffic. Thus build a strong foundation with your content and proper On-page SEO first, and bring decent organic traffic. You can always invest later in Link building to boost your traffic and Domain Authority.
2. Do you have the budget to hire a professional link builder, a professional content writer, and the maintenance cost of tools?
If the answer is yes, then go for it and launch your link building outreach campaign.
If the answer is no, then simply outsource. You need professionals to bring results and get your ROI back. Else, end up losing your money and time.
3. Are you passionate about different techniques of Link building & want to pursue a career upon that?
If you are passionate about link building, then do it by yourself. You can explore this field in your own way and may end up with your own link building methodologies.
4. Do you have the time to invest in a link building campaign?
If you don’t have time or you have other important tasks to run your business smoothly. Then outsourcing to the right person or agency is the best option for you.
5. Is your business heavily dependent on SEO?
If SEO is the core of your business. Then always hire an expert. Not just to build high-quality links but also to ensure that you are not building spammy links which may affect your website badly. No matter what Google says, Link is still a key factor to outrank your competitor and scale your website traffic.
6. How to Choose the right Link building provider?
If you are about to hire a link builder or any agency, here are a few questions you should ask them.
1. Ask about their process. How will they create links?
2. Ask them to share some relevant sites from where they will create links for you. Then check and verify the quality of those websites.
Check the right metrics
3. Always ask for sample links and check their indexing status.
4. Confirm the duration of the live links.
5. Avoid people who send you the list of hundreds of profiles, directory submission, and PBN links. Also, ignore who offers you guest posts in bulk on low-quality irrelevant sites with cheap prices.
However, you need to understand link building is not a one-time investment. It’s a process. It takes time and money.
Thus don’t invest in link building randomly. Keep tracking and measuring the KPIs. Analyse what results they are bringing.
According to my experience, there is no single way to get success in SEO. It’s about finding the winning process that will work best for your website. Till then, keep experimenting and keep hustling.
FAQ
What is link building?
Link building is a search engine optimization technique that increases your search engine ranking. Having a good number of links to a website indicates that the content there is valuable.
How much does link building cost?
You can expect to pay around $100-$250 per hour or $2,000 – $8,000 per month on average.
Is link building still relevant to SEO?
Yes, Link building is a crucial part of any successful SEO strategy.
RHA Technologies is India’s unique IT consulting and technology partner to SMEs, and startups. RHA Technologies provides empathetic and synergistic technology solutions and services to help organizations to realize and strengthen their innovation, differentiation, valuation, and market offering by designing, developing, and implementing successful digital transformation and adoption journey.
RHA Technologies built deep tech SaaS products and platforms by combining technical and vertical domain expertise to help businesses accelerate and leverage both core and disruptive technologies like analytics and cloud (SMAC), blockchain, AI/ML, IoT, to deliver end to end smart solutions and services to businesses across industries.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Arun Meena (Founder & CEO of RHA Technologies), a stalwart from the field of deep expertise in the tech services industry.
1. Do give us an insight into the backdrop of a startup – like its operations, business model, revenue model & growth hacks. Also, highlight these metrics about RHA Technologies
An HBR study showed that companies that are equipped with both business and technical skills are disproportionately more likely to introduce new-to-the market innovations than firms that have only one of these skills. Thus, Tech Co-founder is one of the most critical and difficult elements to integrate in the founding structure of Start-ups. They provide a unique set of commitment, experience, vision, relationship, and skills inputs that cannot be trusted or expected from a CTO. Many of the technology competitive issues that non-tech founders struggle with, become springboards with the presence of a trusted and qualified tech co-founder. The result is better valuation, easier funding, and faster business success. RHA Technologies brings this advantage to all start-ups and SMEs.
RHA Technologies thus for the first time in India enables the unique trust dependent outsourced tech co-founder offering for Start-ups and SMEs. In addition, the organisation also offers the traditional model of outsourced product development to MNCs and start-ups.
Our technology consulting, digital transformation, and technology services and solutions for the founders of start-ups and SMEs are rooted in empathy and synergy. This enables the client organisations to realize and strengthen their innovation, differentiation, valuation, and market offering and is the unique edge provided by RHA Technologies.
Our customer centricity and domain expertise enabled us to secure an MNC client along with two start-ups as outsourced tech cofounder / CTO in the first 3 months itself. The organisation has since created rapid momentum despite the pandemic. The initial small team of passionate technologists, has within a year, transformed itself in to seventy strong professionals with expertise across wide spectrum of technologies. The organizational value system has enabled a larger client base and more importantly further strengthened our customer centricity in our phase of rapid expansion.
RHA Technologies Logo
2. We would love to know about the financial numbers of RHA Technologies including revenue, YoY growth, profit, valuation, funding, net worth etc.,
Let’s Build Together! Defines how we at RHA Technologies approach business, clients, employees, and partners.
Our financial numbers is something, which we can’t disclose, but our overall numbers are very healthy. Our goal is to remain sustainable without any dependency on any external funding. For the coming year, we see a good overall YoY growth without hampering our profits.
3. How does RHA Technologies help organizations in implementing a successful digital transformation and adoption journey?
Innovate, Transform, Accelerate, process of RHA Technologies helps create a holistic agile IT strategy that optimizes the client’s business through technology and digital transformation. Digital transformation is more than implementing technology in the organisation. We use solutions around AI/ML, Cloud, IoT, Mobile, Automation, Data, and Blockchain to transform organizations across processes, business models, customer experience, and products and services. RHA Technologies team’s experience with multiple organisations including MNC clients in Education, Real Estate, BFSI, Media & Entertainment, Social Media and new age businesses, brings an unparalleled expertise to client founders.
We help our clients realize the potential of digital transformation as both a business growth enabler and a means to save costs. Our digital transformation process thus helps clients in a) access to a broader market b) improve customer services c) improve supply chain efficiencies and d) reduce time or cost intensive manual work.
Clients are able to work with SMAC (Social, mobile, analytics, and cloud) and IoT to ensure constant innovation for market edge. Digital transformation provides them insights about every area of their business be it cost, best customers, seasonality, bundling, discounts, wasted discounts, supplier efficiency, supplier quality/cost, logistics costs, etc. which accelerates innovations in services / products and thus revenues and profitability.
4. What changes you witnessed in the industry in the pre & post Covid era. What trends did you observe? What does the future like? In addition, advice to the start-ups in the field of analytics/blockchain/AI/ML/IoT will be much appreciated.
I launched RHA Technologies during the pandemic in May 2020; and the client response and organisation growth has kept pace with my expectations for the first year of operations. For us it was about fulfilling an acute market need, and the pandemic despite its widespread impact on the human morale and economy, did no deter us from our mission.
Many clients observed a slowdown in their business. However, what is noteworthy is their focus on the future. They have seen the acceleration of digital forces globally and the success of digitally nimble in quickly recovering business growth at the expense of others. Thus, clients are committing strongly to digital transformation albeit with focus on practicality, value for money along with return on investment, and tangible business benefits in the short and medium term.
The key areas of digital transformation that are firmly in the radar of clients are:
Big Data, Advanced Analytics, and Decision Intelligence – According to Gartner by 2023, more than 33% of large organizations will have analysts practicing decision intelligence, including decision modelling.
Block chain beyond crypto – we have started seeing real use cases for block chain technology beyond payments in supply chain, contract management, medical records, claim processing, property records, etc. Block chain has a lot of potential to redefine business processes across industries.
Robotic Process Automation – Robotic Process Automation is the process creating software ‘robots’ that can execute the repetitive day-to-day tasks and help organisations decrease costs and free employees’ valuable time.
IoT – Internet of Things has been growing in relevance and usage in the past decade and continues to be one of the hottest digital transformation trends.
Conversational AI – one of the most visible forms of AI and ML experience is in the form of Conversational AI. Conversational artificial intelligence is designed to understand, process, and respond to human voice while delivering an increasingly natural experience-managing context and sentiment.
5. What marketing strategies did you employ? How does it target the right segment of customers? Does RHA Technologies have any partnerships in place?
For us at RHA Technologies marketing has been about creating the positive word of mouth where new clients feel confident in collaborating us. Therefore, our people and their value system of “Let’s Build Together” has been the biggest element of marketing. In addition, we have leveraged market communication to communicate our offerings and domain expertise. Contrary to conventional practice, we have not been aggressive on social media in this phase
This strategy has given us the market respect and clients that has enabled us to rapidly expand our business and the talent base.
6. With the growing technological advancement, how do you keep up with the pace? A piece of advice on this matter will be much appreciated.
Keeping pace with technological advancement around us is a major element of our competency where we help clients compete with the best. Our mantra for this has been to hire talent that has an innate curiosity, desire to continually learn and upgrade, along with the work ethic to act on the learnings.
7. Who do you see as the major competitor of RHA Technologies? How do you look to stand out from them with the relative market share you own? Do highlight the USP of the company.
We are in a Blue Ocean with our Tech Co-founder offering and therefore we ourselves are our biggest competitors. For our traditional model of outsourced product development business, the competition is widespread. It is our value system and the attitude of “Let’s Build Together” that gives us the edge. We work alongside our clients as trusted advisors to deliver value at every stage.
We provide seamless technology solutions and services to help organizations innovate and realize their business goals. Clients become more innovative, competitive, and differentiated by leveraging our digital transformation and adoption journey.
8. Right People. Right Place’ – What are the career perspectives at RHA Technologies for freshers? What is the company’s hiring process and culture?
Talent is the core of our value proposition, and we hire people who have innate curiosity, desire to continually learn and upgrade along with the work ethic to act on the learnings.
We have a lot opening for both freshers and people with experiences. Now a days technology are getting redundant in a shorter timeframe therefore when we hire people our focus is hire people with good analytical skills and willingness to learn.
9. Where do you see RHA Technologies in the next 5 years? Any business expansion plans.
Five years is a long time in this digital age. In line with our Let’s Build Together! approach we will strive to develop into a family of clients, employees, and partners that have grown together. This is the approach that has helped us to grow to a team of 70 from the founding set in a year’s time with corresponding number of clients. We will continue to build on this momentum for the future towards being an industry benchmark for collaborative, innovative, value driven organisation.
Like many other technology inventions that leaves the human existence shell-shocked, the new technology called as SaaS (Software as a service) has come into existence to simplify the human lives and its growth has reached the global world.
Software as a service, as the name suggests, is a software delivery method that is available for a huge number of customers by a service provider or a business owner over the internet. In a simple way, this platform is subscription based which is rented for customers on a monthly or yearly basis instead of purchasing it once and for all. SaaS applications have been around for a while now, many businesses are using it as a part of their service to the customer.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a new software deployment model and an on-demand-service providing a reliable environment for renting and using the applications for a particular period of duration and for managing their payments and billings.
SaaS is nearly taking over the cloud computing market, the global public cloud service market is projected to grow to more than $200 billion in 2019 from $175.8 billion in 2018.
Microsoft leads the annual growth rate with 45 %, followed by Oracle at 43 % and SAP at 36 %.
Traditionally software applications were hosted on user’s hardware within their premise. They had to go through the lengthy maintenance of hardware and software. There are were continuous upgrades, follow-ups, recovery testing and software license management to handle. By doing this, it had become cumbersome to manage the business.
SaaS is software that is a cloud-based service. It means whenever the user is wants to use the service, they don’t need to download it, install or update it. Free from all the hassle, they can access it simply on their internet browser. It allows the users to connect to and use cloud based applications over the internet.
End users are not directly responsible for anything in this process, they only use programs to get their tasks done. As the organizations are involved in providing the applications, they pay for their customer’s use of the applications too.
According to a research, over 20% of Enterprise software has moved to SaaS. There are many examples of established enterprises likeSalesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, HubSpot, GitHub, Shopify and many others who are dominating the SaaS market.
Software which fulfills the needs of a specific industry (for example- healthcare, agriculture, e-commerce, real estate, finance, research and development). It requires less capital because it does not require any upfront licensing fees, due to which it is very feasible to adopt. The products which focus on a software categories like marketing, sales, developer tools and HR.
Security, the reason why most enterprises are now moving to SaaS is that it is highly secure in nature, all the customer’s files, reports and data are secured on a higher level.
Accessibility, one of the major benefits of the SaaS system is that it is highly accessible to the user with a good Internet connection and you can work on your device no matter where you are located.
Cost effective, it is a pay-as-you-use-the-service pricing, so the user can pay only for the service that they need without making any upfront infrastructure investments.
SaaS has a scalable service delivery infrastructure that allows the organizations to adapt their requirements to meet the respective customers escalating needs.
SaaS provides hassle free IT experience to the users. Using SaaS helps in reduction of 15% in IT spending and a 16.7% reduction in IT maintenance costs.
Growth of SaaS Industry in India
Users are adopting the subscription based pricing model to fight the upcoming business competition. Established enterprises are also embracing the Software as a Service business model to satisfy their needs. The result facilitates the healthy competition among SaaS vendors to take their businesses to a particular reach.
Growth of Software as a Service
90 % of businesses are offering SaaS solutions using social media. Recently, The number of user’s engagement in the SaaS products has increased rapidly. Its not the case that just the small firms are adopting the SaaS products but the large enterprises are also leveraging SaaS technologies to boost their business.
A research says that organizations with over 250 employees use over 100 SaaS applications. On an average, small firms of up to 50 employees use up between 25-50 SaaS apps. Therefore, the growth rate of SaaS usage is almost consistent across organizations of all sizes. The growth is driven by product development methodologies such as Agile and DevOps, as well as the availability of SaaS products in the enterprise IT market segment.
The anticipated number of Software as a Service (SaaS) startups in India have almost tripled in the last five years. Right from 3,000 in 2014 to 8,336 in May 2019 and this number is only predicted to grow in future. India currently accounts for 2.6 % of the global SaaS market.
According to a global report published of SaaS, an average company spent $343,000 on SaaS in 2018 and 78 % increase from the previous year.The first generation of Indian SaaS startup market has already proved that they have effectively been able to sell software to the world remotely from India. This further proves that geographical barriers aren’t a constraint anymore, provided the products and trade experiences are good to the customers.
How SaaS is Affecting the Modern Business
The acceptance of SaaS technology has made it become mobile and it has affected the market in number ways.
Restructuring the nature of work
SaaS offers a common platform where users can easily manage and collaborate their supply chain. With the cloud technologies, the single purpose is to optimize the application resources. Simplifying, if the user is not on the cloud, he/she will not be able to share information or business processes with other participants.
Financial insights and assistance
Many businesses have shifted from the complex way of organizing. From ERP to cloud which makes them connect effortlessly with project management, design, supply chain, purchasing and so on. Also, numerous businesses are turning to a cloud-based Enterprise Performance Management making it an integral part of their daily operations. This will help the users as well as organizers to plan their finances in the long run and achieve their long-term goals.
Integration of Services
Integration of a variety of services to the cloud is changing the competitive market. Right from simple service integrations on your mobile phones to more complex integrations of voice-activated remote controls, there is a wide array of services that companies integrate into the cloud when launching or redesigning a product.
Managing the workforce
Cloud computing had a tremendous impact on the way people actually work. A better communication flow has made the business processes and functions more transparent. Every form of management is immediate and social, right from training and learning to project management and recruiting has taken a whole new form. Since the workforce is the strength and foundation of the entire system, organizations will be focusing on finding the most efficient way to manage and engage their employees.
Using automation to search for results of every campaign
Most marketing campaigns need to struggle to create attractive content that will create a strong customer base. When running a marketing campaign, marketers have to automate a number of tasks such as emailing or social media. This is where the technology of marketing automation enters the game. A cloud-based marketing automation allows marketers to plan and track results of their marketing campaigns.
Using analytics to aim for customer satisfaction
With the rise of technologies in the business world, customer satisfaction has become the top priority for most organizations. To be able to find out about the customer behavior as well as the company’s profitability and overall performance, companies use cloud-based analytics.
SaaS is taking over the cloud computing market. Gartner predicts that the service-based cloud application industry will be worth $143.7 billion by 2022.
SaaS, or “Software as a Service” simplifies the user experience by cutting down the need to install software, allowing access to the application via an internet browser instead.
Started a SaaS-based business or have a brilliant SaaS idea to implement? Great! But worried about raising funding?
It is all indeed a game of numbers,
getting more new customers than customers not renewing or cancelling.
Getting paid subscription sign-ups rather than trail sign ups
What new ideas can you apply for boosting growth and customer retention without taxing your funds?
Various low-cost ideas can be applied in most business models with ease. Here are some growth hacks to help your SaaS start-up.
Give away a valuable incentive and start charging early
You want people to use your services, think about giving away something useful. Offering free trials and giveaway gadgets have become very common. So what else can you do?
When customers switch to your service, they import information. So, how about offering them some extra storage? Or a bonus for every referral, after all, who doesn’t like some money?
Get your existing customers involved and do the precious marketing for you. Offer them something that is linked to your service and connects them directly with your business.
On the other hand, don’t be hesitant to charge for your service. You may think expanding the customer base is important but earning revenue is just as necessary.
Believe in your product and put it to the test. Most people don’t value things that are available free of cost. Also, this would help reduce your risk in the investment.
Don’t invest a huge amount of money in launching the product, but start at a modest level and continue building up. Your customers demonstrate their faith in you by buying, while this also drives away freebie users.
Meet up with potential customers, attend seminars, webinars, forums, and use them to understand the market better.
Use analytics tool for your website, you will get to know your visitor, areas of interest, and content effectiveness, it will be a good exercise to identify customers
Finally, use retargeting techniques to bring previous visitors, churned or likely leaving customers back to the fold, and sign up for your service.
Revenue of software as a service (SaaS) companies in India
Create engrossing content, keep engaging and increase your reach
Content is compelling and engaging and has the power to bring people back for more. Also, it is a fantastic way to stand apart in a crowd especially in a competitive space.
But the quality of the information matters, so you have to believe in the idea. You must produce quality work regularly and most of all information should be freely accessible.
Share your knowledge about the industry, introduce your solution, and present a valid case to your intended audience, this will garner their attention.
This will work in building an email list, and once sufficient numbers are reached higher traffic and brand awareness will follow. This should be good for business growth and ultimately revenue.
Listen to your customers
You will have a lot of voices talking to you, but the most important ones are your customers. So, listen you must. What are the best ways to contact you?
Start with welcome call minutes within minutes of customer signing up. Get feedback on your marketing funnel, personalize your solution support. You will obtain real-time experience data and know if you are reaching the intended crowd.
Offer weekly contact points i.e. Q&A sessions, Webinars, pre-recorded pieces of training, etc. to demonstrate, explain, and help your customers embrace the product. Your SaaS solution has to be embedded in customers’ business fabric, so let them learn the benefits and improvements as it develops.
Pay special attention to subscribers, as they are serious about your product and care about it. They have paid to utilize the facility, thus should be given preference and special privileges like access to new features.
Listening to your customer will make them feel valued and create a personal connection with your company. Another good way to increase and retain your customers.
Ever heard the proverb “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”, well a direct example would be when your partner with your competitors. You and your new partner(s) can work and play together.
You will have plenty of smaller competitors usually and few big players in the SaaS marketplace. Instead of quibbling over the pool of customers, it may be worth combining forces to take on big players.
Another way would be to actually partner with the big players. Becoming a direct competitor would be a difficult task. So it may be a better idea to work with them, like offering a peripheral utility. This would increase traffic, your brand awareness, and revenue growth.
FAQ
What is B2B SaaS?
B2B SaaS stands for business-to-business Software-as-a-Service. It encompasses cloud-based software used by businesses for various tasks, such as accounting, office productivity, customer relationship management (CRM).
What are the top SaaS companies?
HubSpot, Microsoft, Asana, and Shopify are some of the top SaaS companies.
Why do SaaS companies fail?
Most SaaS businesses fail because they are simply not solving any existing problem and a lack of market.
Conclusion
Setting up a business is a difficult task, continuous growth is even harder. All of this needs you to have belief in your product, a flexible approach, and lots of smart work. You can implement these to attract and retain the correct clientele; create your brand in the market, get useful feedback to effectively manage decision making, and fulfill your goal of a prosperous business.
Sending and receiving Emails counts as a regular activity in a business.
Every business professional wants to sign-off with their signature that can add to brand awareness. It enhances your marketing campaigns’ popularity and leaves a great impact on the viewer.
Meet, Scribe. An online email signature tool that will nail every signature of yours as per the occasion.
Scribe is a web-based tool that helps you to add promo banners and C.T.A.s (call to action) for attractive product branding by inputting your very own email signature.
Tool Name
Scribe
Scribe Official Website
scribe-mail.com
Free Plan
Available
Best For
Brand promotion and marketing agencies
Scribe Developer
Clement Scribe
Alexa Ranking (Global)
#450,221
With Scribe, Users can easily use inbuilt C.T.A.s in the template features where you only have to add a Title, a connection, your picture, and a straight link for your audience that directs to your thriving marketing channel.
More good news to you guys!
Now let’s discover what Scribe has to offer?
Scribe – Features
Smartly carved Email Signatures
Doesn’t that sound like a miracle that Scribe can transform your email signature into an attractive marketing channel to get more potential customers? Worth giving a shot.
Enhancement in Brand Awareness and Sales
We all want to see our brand getting more popular and attracting more sales, but with Scribe, you can add a call to action or a banner for the promotion of your signatures.
And after that, you also can track and examine the conversion rate with inbuilt Scribe analytics and also shape your DNS to escalate email deliverability.
Schedule Creative Marketing Campaigns
Organizing marketing campaigns is the thing that we constantly do. With Scribe, you can schedule various creative marketing campaigns with different C.T.A.s that you can launch as and when you want to.
Personalized Signatures for Every Department
Here in Scribe, Users get to manage the email signatures of their co-workers by creating a separate department for a perfectly customized marketing message.
Plus you also get to update every information related to signatures between departments in just one click.
Brand Consistency
Here in Scribe, you get a full package of several eye-catchy signature templates to create your own option of customizing them as per the need of your branding.
No Coding Required
The other good news is that with Scribe any person with or without coding knowledge can create a noteworthy and unique email signature with an easy to use interface.
Scribe – Competitors
Mailbum
MySignature
Signature.email
MySigMail
Sigstr
Htmlsig
Scribe – Review
As we just read, Scribe turns out to be an amazing and reliable tool to bring in more audience to your marketing channel and impress them with your creative brand awareness and personalized email signatures.
Scribe email signatures will also let you schedule the pre-designed marketing campaigns that you can launch whenever.
Moreover, for doing all of this, you don’t have to be a master of coding. A person with zero knowledge of coding can also get fabulous email signatures and make their brand noticeable at the platform.
Scribe – Pricing
Normal Price
Scribe Appsumo Deal
$288.00/year
$69.00/lifetime (single pack)
Scribe – Appsumo Deal
Personalized Email Signature
Call to Action (C.T.A.) and Promotional Banners
Creative Brand Awareness and Sales option
Track Conversion Rate
Schedule Marketing Campaigns
Customized Email signatures for every Department
One-click installation
No coding is required.
Closing Note
So as far as we’ve figured that Scribe is an amazing online web-based email signature tool that will enable you to create your personalized email signatures. And you can also turn that email signature into an incredible marketing channel.
Scribe signatures not only designs email signatures but also has this C.T.A. option and carves pretty good promotion banners.
Scribe is a web-based tool that lets you create and design your personalized email signatures to a noteworthy marketing channel with C.T.A.s and banners for product promotion.
Is there a free trial available in Scribe?
Yes. There is a free trial for seven days in Scribe.
Can you track the conversion rate in Scribe?
Absolutely yes. You can track the conversion rate in Scribe.
Which email services are supported by Scribe?
Email Service Providers like Gmail, G-suite, Outlook, Exchange 365, MacMail, Firefox Thunderbird are supported in Scribe.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.
Software as a service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the Internet. SaaS is one of three main categories of cloud computing, alongside infrastructure as a service and platform as a service (IaaS and PaaS).
Zapier is a software development company. Zapier is an online automation tool that connects your favorite apps, such as Gmail, Slack, Mailchimp, and more. It offers a SaaS-tool that connects applications and automates workflows. Zapier’s product allows users to move data and automate tasks. Know more about Zapier’s company profile here in this article.
Zapier is a developer of an online platform designed to link web-based applications. The company’s online platform connects and automates the applications used by the people and helps them to synchronize data between web applications, enabling users to make the work easier and integrate web applications at a single click of the mouse.
Zapier is a web application that allows the user to move data and automate the tasks. Its a team of 250+ people living and working remotely in 24+ countries.
We’re working hard to build a diverse and collaborative team that can empathize with each other to solve hard problems and build a product we can be proud of.
Zapier – Recent News
As of October 2020, Zapier announced its availability in Microsoft Teams.
We’re excited to announce that we’ve launched an app for Microsoft Teams. You can now view, create, and edit Zaps right within Teams.
Zapier – Logo and its Meaning
Company Logo of Zapier
The Zapier logo is made of two parts: the logo (Zapier and the asterisk) and the logomark (just the asterisk). But the Zapier brand is more than just these two visual elements. It is a symbol for making automation easy for busy people.
Zapier – Founder and History
Zapier was started in Columbia, Missouri by co-founders Wade Foster, Bryan Helmig, and Mike Knoop as part of the first Startup Weekend Columbia in 2011.
Wade Foster, Bryan Helmig & Mike Knoop | Co-Founders, Zapier
After initially submitting an application for the Winter 2012 funding cycle and being rejected, they then built their initial prototype with 25 apps, and were accepted to Y Combinator startup seed accelerator in the Summer 2012 funding cycle. As a result of the acceptance, the company was relocated to Mountain View, California in Spring 2012. In October of the same year, Zapier received a $1.3 million seed funding round led by global venture investment firm Bessemer Venture Partners. Zapier reached profitability in 2014.
In March 2017, the company offered a “de-location package”, consisting of $10,000 in moving reimbursement to employees who desired to move away from the San Francisco Bay Area. After the announcement, job applications increased by 50%.
“We’re just some humans who think computers should do more work.”
The spirit of this mission is whimsical and humble, but there’s a bold message behind it. We’re given only one life to live, and it would be a cruel fate to spend much of it doing menial tasks — paper work, importing and exporting information between apps, copying and pasting text. Computers are better at these tasks, and Zapier believes removing them from your workflow empowers you to focus on the work that really matters and that only you can do.
Zapier – Business Model
Zapier’s unorthodox approach to finding users wasn’t the only thing unorthodox about their beta. They didn’t just get people to give their unfinished product a try. They got people to pay for the privilege. For a tech beta, most companies just say “sign up, it’s free, all you have to do is give us advice… we’ll take anyone’s advice.” They just beg for customers.
We made people pay a one-time fee to get into our beta. For the first few people, we charged $100 for access to the beta for as long as the beta lasts. And that number moved around; we charged as little as $1, and eventually it settled in around $5 or $10 to get into the beta towards the end.
It’s not that we wanted to make money off of the beta, it’s that we wanted people who really thought this was important enough to pay for and spend some time with us for. The last thing we wanted was a bunch of tire kickers who are just trying it out for fun but had no plans to use it on an ongoing basis.
So that little hurdle of just paying a little bit of money got them some really high quality early users who went above and beyond in terms of providing feedback to us on the things that mattered.
Zapier’s automation service is growing faster than ever with 3 million registered users, up from 2 million in January and one million in May 2016. Annual recurring revenue has also grown by nearly 50% since January 2020, from $35 million to $50 million. Zapier’s estimated annual revenue is currently $54.4M per year. Zapier’s total funding is $2.6M. Zapier’s pricing is $239 per year.
Zapier – Funding and Investors
Zapier has raised a total of $1.4M in funding over 2 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jan 14, 2021 from a Secondary Market round. Zapier is funded by 6 investors. Sequoia Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners are the most recent investors.
Year
Round
Amount
Lead Investors
Jan 14, 2021
Secondary Market
–
Sequoia Capital
Oct 31, 2012
Seed Round
Oct 31, 2012
–
Zapier – Competitors
Top competitors of Zapier are Integromat, Automate, Microsoft Flow, Workato and IFTTT.
Zapier – which, rhymes with “happier,” in case you were wondering – wasn’t an overnight success. First, Wade Foster and Bryan had to recruit Bryan’s friend Mike Knoop to the team, who would go on to become Zapier’s third co-founder and CPO. Together, they built a “demo-able” version of their app in a few weeks and presented it at Columbia, Missouri’s first-ever startup competition in October 2011.
The pair’s complementary skill sets helped them work well together as a duo, and they began taking on projects together. Then, one day, in September of 2011, Bryan messaged Wade with an idea. The rest, as they say, is history.
The app, which Bryan had dubbed “API Mixer,” took first place in the competition – and that’s when Zapier’s co-founders began to treat their creation as more than just a side project. They changed the name, applied to the accelerator program Y Combinator, got rejected, then applied againand got accepted. Zapier officially launched in June of 2012, offering integrations with 34 apps.
Today, Zapier has integrations with over 2,000 apps, adding 600 partners in 2019 alone (with Microsoft Teams, Google Ads, and DocuSign being a few notable mentions).
Zapier – Future Plans
Just two years after launching – with only one round of Series A funding totaling $1.3 million – Zapier pulled off a feat that takes many companies years to achieve: profitability. And when you look at the company’s annual recurring revenue (the revenue they earn from product subscriptions in a given calendar year) it’s easy to see how that was possible. Between 2016 and 2018, Zapier’s ARR grew from approximately $10 million to more than $50 million.
Zapier is continuing to prove itself as a tech powerhouse. This year, the company placed 24th on Forbes’ annual Cloud 100 list, which ranks the world’s top private cloud computing companies. And while Zapier’s customer-centricity, transparency, and work ethic, have helped propel the company to where it is today, their actual product offering – automation – has them poised for longevity.
Businesses are doubling-down on digital transformation and recognizing the power of automation. In fact, McKinsey estimates that automation could increase global productivity growth by up to 1.4% annually.
“Automation is one of the most pivotal topics of the next decade. People and businesses are proactively seeking smarter, better ways to drive tangible results in less time…we’re able to give businesses of all sizes valuable time back in their day so they can focus on their most important goals,” said Wade.
Zapier – FAQs
What is Zapier?
Zapier is an online automation tool that connects your favorite apps, such as Gmail, Slack, Mailchimp, and more.
How does Zapier work?
You can connect two or more apps to automate repetitive tasks without coding or relying on developers to build the integration. Or you can have Zapier automate this for you, saving you time and effort.
What apps work with Zapier?
You can integrate with apps such as Facebook Lead Ads, Slack, Quickbooks, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar & many more!
Who founded Zapier?
Zapier was started in Columbia, Missouri by co-founders Wade Foster, Bryan Helmig, and Mike Knoop as part of the first Startup Weekend Columbia in 2011.
Which companies does Zapier compete with?
Top competitors of Zapier are Integromat, Automate, Microsoft Flow, Workato and IFTTT.
Is Zapier for free?
Zapier offers a free level of service, albeit with some limitations. With this account, you can perform up to 100 tasks per month, but you can only have five Zaps active at any given time. To clarify, a task is a completed action within a Zap.
Is Zapier safe to use?
Zapier takes the security of your data seriously. Credentials that you use to connect your accounts to Zapier are protected with bank-level encryption. The only action that Zapier takes on your accounts is those necessary to run the Zaps you create.
Zapier – Conclusion
Zapier is an online automation tool that connects your apps and services. You can connect two or more apps to automate repetitive tasks without coding or relying on developers to build the integration. This guide walks you through key concepts to help you get started with Zapier. We’re just some humans who think computers should do more work for you! Zapier lets you connect the apps you use to complete routine tasks automatically. Free up time to focus on what’s important to you and Zap away your busywork.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.
Task management is the process of overseeing a task’s complete life cycle, from planning to tracking to execution. It assists teams in keeping track of activities from the start, defining deadlines, prioritizing projects, and assigning them to the appropriate individuals. It guarantees that projects are finished on schedule and on budget.
Evernote is task management, note-taking, organization, and archiving application. Evernote Corporation, based in Redwood City, California, is the company behind it. In this post, you will learn more about the Evernote corporate profile.
Evernote is a software and service business that allows users to take, organize, and locate information on a variety of platforms. The firm creates software and tools that shape the way people and teams operate.
Document scanning and searching, note templates, task listing, and archiving are all services provided by the company. Users from all across the world use Evernote.
People may make notes using text, sketches, pictures, music, or stored online information in the application. Notebooks hold notes, which may be categorized, annotated, altered, searched, attached to, and downloaded.
Evernote is cross-platform, for Android, iOS, macOS, and Microsoft Windows. It is free to use with monthly usage limits and offers paid plans for expanded or lifted limits.
Evernote 10 is a major overhaul of the desktop client. When it was first published, it deleted nearly all preferences and therefore the ability to tailor the program to the needs of the user. This includes the option to modify global (system-wide) shortcuts, which posed significant issues for users who did not speak English. In late 2020, it was announced in the Evernote discussion thread that upgrades to v10 will be released to fix the issues—v10.5.7 had solved some, but not all of the issues—with advice that customers revert to an older version.
Evernote – Recent News
As of July 2021, Evernote has unveiled new pricing and functionality options. Many of the app’s latest updates — some of which were implemented earlier this year and others which are brand-new — are really pretty excellent, offering additional functionality while attempting to address the notion that the app has become too top-heavy.
A new configurable and beautiful homepage includes a scratch pad, pinned notes or notebooks, the new task listing, and a calendar, as well as a fast glimpse of your most recent notes. You may easily link notes with dates on your Google Calendar using the calendar.
Evernote – Founder and History
Stepan Pachikov | Founder, Evernote
EverNote Corporation (‘EverNote’ stylized with a capital ‘N’ by then) began marketing software for Windows desktop PCs, Tablet PCs, and handheld devices after being founded in 2000 by Stepan Pachikov, a Russian-American computer entrepreneur of Azerbaijani descent. EverNote Corporation (‘EverNote’ stylized with a capital ‘N’ by then) started marketing handwriting recognition software ritePen and notetaking and web clipping application EverNote
Starting with Evernote (now with lower-case ‘n’) 3.0 in 2008, the business moved its attention to the Web, cellphones, and the Apple Mac under the leadership of new CEO Phil Libin. The Evernote Web service launched into open beta on June 24, 2008, and reached 11 million users in July 2011.
In October 2010, DoCoMo Capital, Morgenthaler Ventures, and Sequoia Capital joined a $20 million investment round lead by DoCoMo Capital. Since then, the business has secured another $50 million from Sequoia Capital and Morgenthaler Ventures, as well as another $70 million from Meritech Capital and CBC Capital. Evernote secured an additional $85 million in financing on November 30, 2012, headed by AGC Equity Partners/m8 Capital and Valiant Capital Partners. Evernote received an extra $20 million in investment from Nikkei, Inc. on November 9, 2014.
Evernote – Logo and its Meaning
Evernote Logo
The app’s main function is to save and recall the notes you make, which is why the Elephant symbol was chosen because elephants have a remarkable capacity to remember things. “An elephant never forgets,” as they say.
Evernote – Mission
Evernote’s mission is to help individuals and groups to remember everything, turn ideas into action, and work effortlessly together.
Evernote – Business Model
The firm operates on a freemium model, which allows customers to check out the basic product for free before upgrading to the premium service if they become addicted. It’s a strong motivator to create the most appealing, competitive, and addicting product possible.
Evernote’s business approach also prioritizes one crucial concept: they are authentic to themselves. The software was released barely a year after Facebook was first made available to the entire public when social media was still seen as the only kid of the day. Evernote understood that the only way for their program to become as beneficial as possible was for users to interact with it socially.
Evernote – Revenue and Growth
Evernote’s 75 million users and $1 billion value demonstrate that they’ve figured out how to expand in their own way. So, what exactly is it? How did they get the first 100,000 people to sign up?
Evernote CEO Phil Libin does not consider his company to be only a multi-platform post-it note storage software. Rather, he refers to the business as your “intellectual brain” and “the truth about how you live your life, your memories’ experience, what they mean to you, and how you may utilize them to make yourself more productive and happy. We put a lot of emphasis on creating a great user experience.”
Blinkist – The service that summarises books Members of Blinkist can sync their marked text sections to Evernote. This occurs in each book’s notes, which include the title of the book as the note title.
Deutsche Telekom – Evernote and Deutsche Telekom established collaboration on March 25, 2013, to give one year of free Evernote Premium access to German customers. The collaboration was expanded to include more European markets in January 2014.
Moleskine –Moleskine and Evernote collaborated in August 2012 to create a digital-friendly notebook with specifically designed pages and stickers for smartphone synchronization.
Samsung – A complimentary one-year membership to Evernote Premium was offered with every Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phablets.
Telefónica Digital – Telefónica Digital and Evernote announced a worldwide cooperation deal on August 13, 2013, providing Brazilian consumers free access to Evernote Premium for a year, according to The New York Times. Telefónica subscribers in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, the United Kingdom, and Spain were also offered the incentive as part of this worldwide arrangement.
“Silicon Valley is addicted to momentum,” Evernote CEO Ian Small said, by way of explaining how his company had come to be, as he put it, stuck. “And to have momentum, you need to keep shipping things, and to keep shipping things, you need to keep pushing problems sometimes into the corner and look the other way. And eventually, the problem gets bigger than the room that you’re in.”
Evernote had five separate applications, each with its own set of functionality, design touches, and technological difficulties, in the beginning, each was managed by five different teams for five different platforms.
Evernote is a household name on the inside, but they still don’t have a say in what their customers actually want. And, even though a great freemium procurement strategy has acquired 225 million consumers for them, they aren’t taking advantage of that base at all.
Trying to please everyone resulted in stagnation and a lack of concentration, making it increasingly difficult to compete when new services entered the market.
None of us are happy to enter 2020 still asking you to be patient. But the good news is that we’ve now got ourselves (and you!) onto the launching pad.
Along with the ongoing re-architecture and data migration they’ve been doing in the cloud, the re-engineered web client (in limited release), new mobile clients (in first preview), and (as yet unreleased) new clients for Windows, Mac, and (yes!) Linux will set Evernote up to innovate and ship with quality at a pace we haven’t seen in a long time.
What’s more, the “finish line” for repairing the fundamentals isn’t actually a finish line at all. It’s the start of a new race: the race to bring Evernote to a whole new level of innovation and development. Evernote has already begun running that race in some quiet parts of the firm, and the team is excited to share their progress with the rest of the world when the time comes.
Evernote – FAQs
What does Evernote do?
Evernote is a task-management, note-taking, organization, and archiving software.
Who Founded Evernote?
Stepan Pachikov, a Russian-American computer entrepreneur of Azerbaijani ancestry, developed Evernote in 2000.
How does Evernote make money?
The firm operates on a freemium model, which allows customers to check out the basic product for free before upgrading to the premium service if they become addicted.
Is Evernote for free?
Evernote’s basic edition is free, but it restricts you to 60MB of new notes per month, only allows you to sync between two devices, and lacks advanced capabilities.
Can I trust Evernote?
Users entrust Evernote with billions of notes, projects, and ideas. That confidence is predicated on our ability to keep that information private and secure.
Can you use Evernote offline?
When you have an internet connection, Evernote will sync all of your notes and notebooks across all of your devices.
Evernote – Conclusion
Evernote offers a variety of services. It has everything you’ll need to keep your life in order, including excellent note-taking, project planning, and quick access to what you need when you need it. It was created to solve a rising challenge that technology has aided in the creation of, such as how to prosper in a world where the amount and velocity of information are continually expanding.
People nowadays are inundated with information and more concerned about how to use it. Evernote assists people in focusing on what matters most to achieve progress. Different viewpoints, the business argues, lead to greater ideas. Evernote is always trying to build a more trusting and collaborative atmosphere within the firm, one in which all workers can be their true selves.
We live in an era that is marked by rapid evolution in digital technology. This is brought by thorough changes in organizational and business processes as well as digital models to harness innumerable opportunities provided by these digital transformations.
There isn’t a specific recipe for digital transformation, some may opt for automation while others may introduce new apps that would significantly change consumer behavior. Whatever the case may be, it is always centered around data.
Data, that is, vital information regarding your customers and business, should be the priority in your business strategy.
Workiom is a great cloud-based collaboration tool and an online database for everyone. With Workiom you can customize your working space within a few clicks as well as create and link your data sets to one another.
This way you can easily assign and monitor tasks, search and sort records, publish the results to external websites, and much more. Organize the workflow for your team just the way you want it with Workiom.
With Workiom, you can create and customize your workspace the way you want it. No more silos and isolated data to manage separately.
Data organization
Arrange your data the way you need with Workiom’s advanced views and filtering options. Create new structures and viewing options with Workiom’s part spreadsheet and part relational database.
Project management
Task and project management is an integral part of every workflow. Workiom allows you to manage all tasks connected to your projects, clients, orders, and products.
Workiom – Roles and Permissions dashboard
Automation
Save time and money by focusing on your business and delegating repetitive work to Workiom. You can effortlessly automate your workflow process with triggers, actions, and conditions.
Tracking and reporting performance
Create reports and dashboards based on your data. Always stay up-to-date with your business data and bring transparency to your workflow.
Inter-workspace integration
Workiom lets you link data within the same workspace, across multiple apps and platforms. This feature allows users to sync and share data with various departments a breeze.
Zapier
You can seamlessly share data with third-party integrations using Zapier and get the best out of Workiom.
Custom fields
Design lists by choosing from field types and other options. You can either add or edit new data fields as you go. This feature provides the user with extensive information on every record.
Data linking and representation
You can link your data with tasks to avoid duplication and you have the option to see your data in the form of advanced grids, Kanban boards, or calendars. Choose whatever view you are comfortable with.
Two-factor authentication
All the data you collect and store inside your apps are encrypted and secured with two-factor authentication so you can rest assured that your data is safe. You also have the option to limit access for your clients and team members so they only get to see what you want to share.
Are unlimited records mentioned on the deal page, are contacts in the CRM counted as records?
Yes, CRM contacts are counted as records. There are no constraints or limits.
Will setting a New Role will take out one seat from available teammates?
It is up to the user to create as many roles required. Users have the option to assign multiple roles for a single user. The seats are, however, counted per user account. A single account can be used by multiple users or people.
Can a deleted guest be replace by another guest? Can we make several projects?
Yes, Workiom allows you to be able to delete and replace guest users. Yes, you can have several projects or apps.
What is the difference between ‘Guest users’ and ‘Teammates’?
The guest user will have only commenting and viewing access to the data, additional it can also submit private forms. As this feature is still in beta mode, it will be tested and rolled out soon.
Workiom – Conclusion
Workiom has become a staple of the industry as it can be used by multiple departments and professionals. For instance, Workiom helps marketing teams streamline the creative production process by automating tasks and assignments. It also organizes all marketing assets by category and links them to various posts and articles.
Workiom can also be used by product managers, designers, testers, UX researchers who need an online workspace that can be flexible enough to let all members work together. It allows users to design their own workflow and manage their progress in a collaborative team effort.
It’s one of the toughest jobs to generate new leads for your software, product, or service. But how many of your leads and sign-ups are you successfully converting to customers? Hell, you’ve optimized your homepage, your landing pages. You’ve done your SEO homework. You’ve sweat blood and tears writing blog post after blog post.
Do you know how many new blog posts are being published? More than 3 million blog posts. Every single day. Is video content marketing a better strategy than blogging? You’ll be surprised when diving into the statistics.
That’s why I came up with the 3 easiest steps to create kickass video tutorials for saas with 10 best examples in order to make your video marketing strategy successful. So, let’s dive in.
In simple terms we can define video marketing as the way to market a product or service using the video. Video marketing, especially for SaaS companies, involves “utilizing video through the funnel to attract, convert and delight customers,” explained Ed Laczynski, CEO of Zype. Video marketing has lot more advantages over a written content as it engages the users more than 88% on your website as reported by Forbes. In addition to it, the message tried to transmit through video retains 95% more than compared to 10% when they read the text.
Types of Video Tutorials
Demo/Explainer Videos
Case Studies and Testimonials
Social Videos
Expert Interviews and Trending News
Customer Support
Why Video Marketing Works?
Do you know what the average attention span is today? 8.5 seconds. That’s shorter than the attention span of a goldfish. Which is 9 seconds. While those exact figures may or may not be true, we can certainly agree that attention spans have been declining rapidly.
So how about all your precious blog posts, your content marketing? According to TIME magazine, 55% of Visitors Read Your Articles For 15 Seconds or Less. And according to Nielsen, web users spend 80% of time above the fold:
How about online video? Put out a 6 to 12-minute video, and 5 out of 10 people will watch to the very end, according to WISTIA:
Video Length vs Avg Engagement
With video, you have up to 12 minutes of undivided attention from your potential customers! So how do you intrigue your customers and draw them into your videos?
Just follow some simple rules:
Show up yourself in the video, in person, and you will build trust and rapport.
Address your customers pains & challenges, and they will start to connect with you.
Show the benefits of your product/service.
Show how you help your customers get where they want, and they will sign up. And buy.
That’s the secret how you generate new leads and increase your conversions
Video tutorials are the best way of showcasing your software or SaaS. Think of video tutorials as your 24/7 sales & support reps. Always working for you. The good news is that you don’t need to be a video or marketing pro. You don’t even need expensive gear. There’s only one thing you need to get right. That one thing is scripting your video tutorial so your potential customers can see the benefits your software has for them. For their company. For their life. As vivid as possible. Throughout the whole tutorial.
Steps to Create the Perfect Video Tutorial for SaaS
Step 1:
Create video tutorials featuring your customer. Not your product
Video tutorials should educate your customer. Show him what your software or service does. How it works. But that doesn’t mean that the tutorial should be all about your product. Or its features. Or your company. I’ll be blunt: Your customers aren’t interested in your software or its features at all. They didn’t wake up in the morning, thinking “oh my god, I need to have that “.
All your customers care about is themselves. They want to know what’s in it for them. How your software helps them solve the big problems they’re facing. How your service helps them get where they want. Your customers are interested in the final results they can achieve. Your product is a pure means to get them there. And if they could get the same results without you, without the hassle of migrating and implementing your software, they’d be even happier.
Credit card processing services Square hit all the right buttons in their testimonial video with a sweet and short 30-second long edit. Portraying a convincing reason why Square is better than alternative solutions, it’s easy to see how the testimonial will help other prospects to choose Square as their card processing solution. Not to mention, we can all take away how such a simple video can be so effective. Watch below.
Square
It’s about your customer, his problems, his goals. When you’re walking in your customers’ shoes, the perspective shifts. That means you should really know your potential customers, their needs, their challenges, what they aspire to. In marketing speech, that’s knowing your buyer persona. When you have a clear picture of your customer, you can start communicating and connecting with them on a whole new level. Always remember that whatever you are doing, whether it’s in marketing, sales or support, should be about your client. It is never about your product or company.
Step 2:
Translate every feature into the benefit your customer gets out of it
Now that you’ve seen the power of benefits to attract and convert your customers, how do you find those benefits? Once you’ve got all the information, it’s actually quite easy. First, you need to know two areas by heart:
The features – It doesn’t matter whether big or small, get to know all the features of your software, product or service.
Your customers’ needs – What are your customers struggling with? What gets on their nerves? What do they want to achieve?
Benefits arise when a feature meets one (or several) customer needs. When looking at your features, try to be as specific and detailed as possible. Stick the formula to your monitor: “Feature + Need = Benefit”. And that video tutorial? How about naming it “How to get the important things done first with software X “. Now your (potential) customers can immediately see what’s in it for them. And those who are feeling that pain right now, they’re going to watch it. Some of them will sign up for a trial. And some of these will become happy new customers. The benefits of video marketing are endless.
In the end, it’s not just about an intriguing name for the tutorial video, that makes people click and watch it. It’s about weaving those benefits into your tutorial video from the very start to the end.
Motivate your customers with benefits throughout the entire tutorial video
With the benefits clear ahead of us, let’s put these to work. Our goal is to attract (potential) customers to watch our tutorial, ideally until the very end. That gives us all the time we need to show benefits and features, and build trust and connection.
So instead of chasing the potential customers away with boring details about the feature, start off the video tutorial by painting a vivid picture of the benefits. Then back them up immediately with a short summary of the feature. Because if you keep “drooling” over the benefits, it sounds like empty promises. That’s why in the end, benefits and features go best together. It’s like the perfect couple.
Cloud-based software Salesforce utilizes video content to demonstrate their Salesforce Essentials software that helps small businesses quickly get started and grow. Engaging from the onset, Salesforce paces their application demo with eye-catching illustrations, light background music and a detailed narrative that helps their prospects and customers to understand the product, what it’s used for and what it can do. Watch below.
Salesforce Essentials Demo
Here’s the formula: Motivate with benefits, immediately back up with features. So do your homework, get to know the pains and challenges of your customers as well as your features. And then use the benefit + feature formula to create engaging video tutorials that attract and convert a flood of new customers and delight your existing ones.
What Makes a Great SaaS Promo Video?
Here are criteria for an effective and engaging piece of SaaS video marketing, which the best of the best always gets right:
It turns a complex idea into something simple – I bet your SaaS offering is pretty complicated. But any good SaaS video should trade confusing complexity for pleasing simplicity that leads to greater audience understanding.
It stands out from the crowd & communicates uniqueness – There are a lot of SaaS brands out there, and competition is fierce. Your video needs to get across your USP and make you seem different from the alternatives.
It makes the audience really feel their pain point – To gain new customers, you must show how they’re are worse off without your service. The best SaaS videos have a strong pain point that hits their audience where it hurts.
It encourages viewers to take action – What’s the point of a video that doesn’t cause a change in its audience? None. So, make sure yours encourages potential customers to start a free trial, get in touch, or just find out more.
It helps build a solid and consistent brand – Every SaaS company that’s found serious success has done so with a strong brand. To quickly earn a place in customers’ minds, your video content needs to support and reinforce your brand.
10 Great Examples of SaaS Customer On-boarding Videos
1. A Few Key Steps to Get Started (Xero)
Xero accounting software smartly focuses their onboarding video around a few key tasks that are crucial to getting started, which helps new customers avoid overwhelm. Financial and accounting SaaS companies can greatly streamline operations for users, but they do require a fair amount of set up on the front-end. Xero makes sure new customers don’t get stuck in a no-man’s land of not setting up their service and not understanding what it’s for.
2. Walking You Through Your First Task (Canva)
In this onboarding video, Canva walks you through creating your first design using their software. By centring their video around completing one task successfully, they’ve smartly avoided the boring features parade. Because who cares about what a bunch of features do? Your customers want to know what your service can do for them. Canva’s fast-paced onboarding video takes you through each step of creating a design and points out fun add-ons to inspire you to get designing.
3. A Mini-Movie Walkthrough (Band)
The onboarding video for the Band app is like a mini-movie. It opens on tiny people seen overhead who break out into groups. The video follows the activities of one group using the app to better communicate and share with each other, plus doing fun things like planning events and picking restaurants. By the end of the movie, it’s easy to want to join in the fun.
4. Friendly Tips for Your First Trip (Uber)
Uber’s onboarding video covers more than just how to take your first trip. It gives drivers the kind of handy tips they’d only know after having completed a number of rides. If you’re a driver who stumbled over your first few trips, you may be tempted to abandon Uber’s driving service altogether. Uber helps drivers reach their first success with a conversational tone and helpful hints that feel like we’re getting advice from a trusted friend.
5. Lively Instructions for a Complex Product (Penki)
Some onboarding experiences are more complicated than others. The Penki app creates 3D images with an iPhone and a camera set to long exposure. Not easy to explain. Much easier to show in a video. This live action onboarding video shows the clever creations possible with Penki through delightful instructions that flash across the screen.
6. Savvy Tips Worth Getting Excited About (GrubHub)
One of the potential pitfalls for a GrubHub driver? Driving on an empty stomach! This live-action onboarding video is narrated by a GrubHub driver on a typical delivery run — all the way from hopping in his car to pick up at the restaurant to delivering to the customer’s door. Right at the open, he promises some cool tips and tricks that keeps the audience hooked. The tips are underlined with catchy on-screen visuals, great for watching with no sound.
7. Walking in the Footsteps of a Real User (Sphere)
The Sphere app promises a “real experience” of one user from the moment he decided to sign up for the new social networking app. At five minutes, it runs on the long side, but it does give viewers a comprehensive experience of the app that would have been impossible to get so quickly any other way. In written format, this amount of information would’ve gone on for days and been tedious (at best!).
8. A Pretty Quick Glimpse (Ipsy)
Ipsy is a beauty shopping app that rewards you for purchasing on the app. This animated/live-action hybrid video introduces customers to the benefits of shopping for beauty items with Ipsy with a friendly narrator named Madeline. The video style is candid and more like one person talking to another person about a new discovery they’ve made. Clocking in at less than 30 seconds, this is one fast-paced intro that covers all the important points, yet teases the beautiful bonuses of Ipsy. A great example of leaving them wanting more.
9. App Tutorial Video (Tasker App)
If you’re just getting started on TaskRabbit, you’ve got a lot to learn about getting hired on the network (and using the app). This live-action onboarding video walks you through the basics of setting your availability and getting hired for your first task with. Although this is the typical close-up of a phone, it’s warmed up with a background of tools and upbeat music. By the end of this video, viewers will know everything from how to work with clients on the app to getting support from TaskRabbit if you hit a snag.
10. A World of Enticing Benefits (LifeWorks)
The LifeWorks app is a platform that enables companies to reward their employees. This video gives audiences a delightful romp through all the benefits that come with the LifeWorks app, from exclusive shopping discounts to gift card rewards. This client onboarding video even resembles a swoon-worthy Instagram feed at times. Who wouldn’t want to dip their toe into one of these picture-perfect vignettes?
Conclusion
So, keeping these things in mind, you can create a perfect video for your SaaS product and boost your video marketing. How is video marketing helping your SaaS to grow? Please share your stories in the comments section below.!
SaaS marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on promoting and acquiring leads for subscription-based products. SaaS, also known as Software as a Service, is a way in which businesses sell their products in cloud-based applications with regular updates and added functionality.
What does SaaS stand for?
Software as a service (SaaS) is a way of delivering applications over the Internet—as a service. Instead of installing and maintaining software, you simply access it via the Internet, freeing yourself from complex software and hardware management.
What are some examples of SaaS?
SaaS examples: BigCommerce, Dropbox, MailChimp, ZenDesk, DocuSign, Slack, Hubspot. PaaS examples: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, Google Apps, Salesforce, Windows Azure.
What is SaaS in cloud computing with example?
Software as a Service, also known as cloud application services, represents the most commonly utilized option for businesses in the cloud market. SaaS utilizes the internet to deliver applications, which are managed by a third-party vendor, to its users.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.
Online survey tools are software solutions that provide the ability to create, run and interpret various types of surveys either on the users own websites, on emails or on hosted web pages. SVMK Inc., doing business as SurveyMonkey, is an online survey development cloud-based software as a service company.
It was founded in 1999 by Ryan Finley and Chris Finley. The company provides surveys and a suite of paid back-end programs.
This article will give you a gist of SurveyMonkey’s journey so far in the market. Know more about the company profile of SurveyMonkey, growth, challenges faced by the company and many other interesting things about SurveyMonkey’s journey by reading this article.
SurveyMonkey (also known as SVMK) is a United States based company that provides survey software products and purpose-built solutions that help organizations engage with their customers, employees, and the markets they serve. Its data platform enables individuals and organizations to collect and analyze feedback, as well as create their own online surveys.
The company serves a range of industries, including financial services, internet, technology, healthcare, media and entertainment, consumer goods and retail, transportation and logistics, government agencies, manufacturing, energy, education, professional services, and non-profit organizations.
It is engaged in providing survey software products and purpose-built solutions that enable organizations to engage with their key constituents, including their customers, employees and the markets they serve. It offers a cloud-based SaaS platform that helps individuals and organizations design and distribute surveys. Products offered by the company enable individuals and organizations of all sizes to collect and analyze People Powered Data.
SurveyMonkey – Recent News
As of December 2020, SurveyMonkey, a leader in agile software solutions for customer experience, market research, and survey feedback, released its inaugural Social Impact Report outlining the company’s commitment and areas for improvement as it aims to be transparent about creating a more sustainable, fair, and society.
“I am confident that as a company and community, we can change what’s possible—and transform our teams, organizations, and the world for the better,” said Zander Lurie, chief executive officer of SurveyMonkey. “This report reflects the values and goals of the SurveyMonkey team: To raise the bar for human experiences by amplifying individual voices. There has never been a better time for all us to imagine the future we want to create and start building it together.”
As SurveyMonkey continues efforts to improve its positive social impact, examples from the report of the company’s actions include:
Created a more fair workplace by adding new benefits to better address all our workers needs.
Launched the GIGs (growth, impact, and goals) performance review program, reimagining the way employee performance reviews are conducted to create a culture that embraces the growth mindset and delivers on its employee value proposition.
Set public diversity goals at the end of 2019 and conducted a biennial gender and ethnicity pay equity study.
Partnered with The Justice Collective to analyze SurveyMonkey’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) practices, provided antiracist training to all employees, and continued to build a strategic approach to DE&I.
Launched its vendor diversity program, requiring diversity, equity and inclusion from its vendors and partners.
Partnered with nonprofit organization LeanIn.org to highlight barriers for women’s achievement in the workplace and beyond.
Donated more than $15 million in nonprofit donations through SurveyMonkey Contribute as an ongoing effort since its start in 2011. In 2020, SurveyMonkey launched Team Gives Back, a matching program that has generated $450,000 in donations by employees and the company through a double-matching initiative.
Made efforts to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions through installing energy-efficient fixtures in its spaces throughout the world.
Continued to invest in data privacy and security, implementing a comprehensive security framework that prioritizes the needs of its customers.
SurveyMonkey – Logo and its Meaning
“Our logomark, Goldie, is affectionately named after our beloved, late CEO, Dave Goldberg.”
Company Logo of SurveyMonkey
As a heartfelt tribute to Goldberg, the company retroactively named its simian logo/mascot “Goldie” after his nickname. SurveyMonkey is ONE word, always spelled with a capital “S” and “M”.
SurveyMonkey – Founder, History and Team
The company was owned by Ryan and Chris Finley until Spectrum Equity and Bain Capital acquired a majority interest in the company in 2009. Dave Goldberg joined SurveyMonkey in 2009.
Ryan launched the company in 1999 as a part-time project out of his apartment and established SurveyMonkey as the Internet’s most popular survey tool, used by individuals and organizations throughout the world.
In his current role, Ryan serves as a member of our board of directors. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Portland Art Museum. He studied Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his interests include architecture and design, eating good food, and searching for the perfect cup of espresso.
Zander Lurie was named CEO at SurveyMonkey in January 2016. He has served on SurveyMonkey’s board of directors since 2009, most recently as Chair. Zander began his career in the technology investment banking group at JPMorgan where he led equity transactions and mergers and acquisitions in the Internet sector. Zander co-founded a nonprofit organization called CoachArt which benefits ill children and their siblings in Northern and Southern California.
SurveyMonkey – Mission
SurveyMonkey’s mission statement says, “Our mission is to power the curious. We help organizations around the world turn feedback into action, fueling their ability to grow and innovate. We know that asking the right questions is the first step toward building a better world, and we believe in equality and in elevating all voices—especially the ones that might not otherwise be heard.”
The company believes that by harnessing the power of feedback they can change what’s possible—and transform their teams, organizations, communities, and the world into better, brighter futures.
SurveyMonkey operates on a freemium business model, according to the company’s website. This means that users can choose to opt for a free set of survey services or for a more powerful platform that requires a paid membership. As the company suggests, “we allow users to use our most basic tools for free, while designating our more advanced features and resources to our paid plans.”
SurveyMonkey also offers a suite of solutions to help customers do everything from customer satisfaction to manage grant applications. Users opting for the free SurveyMonkey services are able to generate surveys of up to 10 questions and 100 responses, and they are able to use some of the basic data processing tools. SurveyMonkey sees the free service as a way for customers to sample their products and to become acquainted with the feedback collection process in general.
The paid side of the freemium model offers users with many more options, including various types of survey logic, unlimited access to filters and crosstabs and more.
SurveyMonkey – Revenue and Growth
As of Q3 2020 key results : –
Total revenue was $95.4 million, an increase of 20% year-over-year.
GAAP operating margin was negative 23.7% and non-GAAP operating margin was 2.2%.
GAAP net loss was $26.1 million and GAAP basic and diluted net loss per share was $0.19. Non-GAAP net loss was $1.3 million and non-GAAP basic and diluted net loss per share was approximately $0.01.
Net cash provided by operating activities was $17.9 million and free cash flow was $16.2 million for 18.7% and 17.0% margin, respectively.
Cash and cash equivalents totaled $206.3 million and total debt was $214.1 million for net debt of $7.8 million as of September 30, 2020.
SurveyMonkey – Funding And Investors
SurveyMonkey has raised a total of $1.1B in funding over 5 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Dec 15, 2014 from a Private Equity round. SurveyMonkey is funded by 22 investors. Morgan Stanley and Chris Finley are the most recent investors.
Amount
Round
Amount
Lead Investors
Dec 15, 2014
Private Equity Round
$250M
–
Jan 16, 2013
Debt Financing
$350M
JP Morgan Chase
Jan 16, 2013
Private Equity Round
$444M
Tiger Global Management
Nov 3, 2010
Debt Financing
$100M
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
Apr 20, 2009
Venture Round
–
–
SurveyMonkey – Investments
SurveyMonkey has made 2 investments. Their most recent investment was on Nov 16, 2016, when Apptentive raised $3.6M.
SurveyMonkey has acquired 8 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was GetFeedback on Aug 5, 2019. They acquired GetFeedback for $68M.
Acquiree Name
Date
Amount
About Acquiree
GetFeedback
Aug 5, 2019
$68M
GetFeedback helps companies understand and improve customer experience by making it easy to create beautiful, branded surveys
Usabilla
Mar 5, 2019
$80M
Enterprise SaaS helping clients capture visual feedback and deploy targeted surveys to increase conversion on the web, in apps and emails
TechValidate Software
Jul 2015
–
TechValidate is a web-based marketing content automation software platform enabling B2B organizations to auto-generate marketing content.
Renzu
May 2015
–
Renzu is a small startup created by Zynga alums.
Fluidware
Aug 6, 2014
–
Fluidware is a new age enterprise software company specializing in web-based applications
MarketTools
Dec 14, 2011
–
MetrixLab provides consumer insights that drive smarter business decisions.
Wufoo
Apr 25, 2011
–
Wufoo is an online form builder that helps users create and design online forms and process simple payments.
Precision Polling
Jun 21, 2010
–
Precision Polling offers automated phone surveys and polls to assist research on political campaigns, non-profits, and conferences.
SurveyMonkey – Competitors
Top competitors of SurveyMonkey are Google Forms, Qualtrics Core XM, Google Surveys, Doodle, Alchemer, Zoho Survey, Typeform, and SurveySparrow.
SurveyMonkey – Drawbacks
More than 25 million people use SurveyMonkey, and the company recently went public, further enhancing the stability and predictability of the tool—especially for users who use SurveyMonkey as an integrated part of a larger workflow.
SurveyMonkey has decent rates, but not if you’re launching just one, or two, or three survey projects. The fact is, their basic license won’t get be sufficient if your survey has any mildly-complex logic branching. You’ll need a higher license level.
That’s prohibitively expensive for a startup with plans to run only a handful of surveys. With some panel providers, it’s the cost of more than 200 consumer survey responses!
The new features that SurveyMonkey is introducing into its products are varied, but they’re all in sync with the curiosity theme in that they’re designed to remove the barriers that stand between a company and the relevant data it would like to collect.
For starters, SurveyMonkey is simplifying the process of creating surveys that people will actually be willing to complete. A new feature called SurveyMonkey Genius analyzes surveys and make recommendations that may increase response rate.
SurveyMonkey also reworked the interface that people see when they take a survey for maximum efficiency, reducing the chances that someone will bail before completing one, especially on a smartphone.
It’s been a while since Dave Goldberg’s death, and, as SurveyMonkey has continued to grow, not everyone currently on staff was part of his era. But in ways both obvious and subtle, his impact persists.
“He will always have an inspirational place, But there’s no moping. I think Dave wouldn’t stand for it.”
SurveyMonkey – FAQs
What does SurveyMonkey do?
SurveyMonkey is a United States-based company that provides survey software products and purpose-built solutions that help organizations engage with their customers, employees, and the markets they serve.
Who founded SurveyMonkey?
Ryan Finley and Chris Finley founded SurveyMonkey.
What companies SurveyMonkey competes with?
Top competitors of SurveyMonkey are Google Forms, Qualtrics Core XM, Google Surveys, Doodle, Alchemer, Zoho Survey, Typeform, and SurveySparrow.
How does SurveyMonkey make money?
SurveyMonkey operates on a freemium business model, according to the company’s website. This means that users can choose to opt for a free set of survey services or for a more powerful platform that requires a paid membership.
Alan Joseph
