SaaStr
OCTOBER 10, 2024
So Thomasz Tunguz put together a great chart summarizing one of my top worries over the past 24+ months in SaaS. He summarized the M&A (acquisitions) of The Top 10 Software Acquirers. And what you can see is there is really almost no liquidity for startups and scale-ups in SaaS and Cloud at the moment. And there hasn’t been for a while: It was great times for SaaS liquidity in late 2020 through the end of 2021.
Tom Tunguz
OCTOBER 9, 2024
Klarna, the Swedish fintech giant, is making waves by churning from industry-standard software like Salesforce and Workday in favor of building its own internal systems with AI. After their success with AI customer support automation which manages 2/3 of their customer inquiries , Klarna is now doubling down on this strategy. Klarna is betting AI-enabled software is the future of internal tools.
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Inturact
OCTOBER 7, 2024
In SaaS, the faster you move a prospect from initial interest to a closed deal, the better. However, shortening the sales cycle without sacrificing quality or conversion rates is a delicate balancing act.
Subscription Flow
OCTOBER 10, 2024
Billing system migration is the process of replacing your existing billing system with a new one. Companies opt for this process to adopt new tools, and upgrade their functionality. Billing system migration is painstaking without a proper plan in place. Some of the pitfalls that come with unplanned billing migration are faulty revenue reporting, data duplication, and customer churn.
Advertiser: ZoomInfo
Savvy B2B marketers know that a great account-based marketing (ABM) strategy leads to higher ROI and sustainable growth. In this guide, we’ll cover: What makes for a successful ABM strategy? What are the key elements and capabilities of ABM that can make a real difference? How is AI changing workflows and driving functionality? This Martech Intelligence Report on Enterprise Account-Based Marketing examines the state of ABM in 2024 and what to consider when implementing ABM software.
Sparktoro
OCTOBER 7, 2024
A recent Wall Street Journal made the top of feeds in the digital marketing world, claiming that Google is on the precipice of losing the lead in the search advertising wars. Supposedly, in 2025, for the first time, Google may fall under 50% of market share in search advertising (according to an eMarketer report the WSJ cites).
SaaS Brief brings together the best content for SaaS professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Sales Hacker
OCTOBER 8, 2024
Eli Schwartz is an SEO expert and consultant with over a decade of experience driving successful SEO and growth programs for both B2B and B2C companies. He has worked with major brands like Shutterstock, Gusto, WordPress, Quora, Mixpanel, and Zendesk to build and execute global SEO strategies that dramatically increase their visibility at scale. Previously, Eli led the SEO team at SurveyMonkey, growing organic search from nearly zero to one of the largest growth channels at the company.
Groove HQ
OCTOBER 9, 2024
We’re willing to bet your customer support agents have a lot on their plates. Juggling tickets, switching between apps, searching for information in disparate places… They’re working hard, but are they working effectively? If your team spends more time on tedious tasks than actually helping customers, you’re wasting valuable resources.
ChurnZero
OCTOBER 10, 2024
This guest post is by Kristen Hayer, CEO and founder of The Success League. As a discipline that’s shifting from new to established, customer success is facing some interesting headwinds right now. Economic uncertainty is affecting purchasing decisions. This is pretty universal, but the new Customer Success Leadership Study found that two-thirds of CS teams’ purchasing is delayed by three months or longer.
Chargebee
OCTOBER 9, 2024
Acquiring new customers is a critical driver of growth and revenue. Marketing and sales teams are structured to generate leads and close deals, keeping the pipeline flowing and ensuring a steady stream of new business. However, too much focus on acquisition can eclipse retaining your existing customers, which is important for efficient growth.
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For SaaS businesses, improving retention is one of the easiest and most effective ways to drive revenue and profits. With a clear link between failed payments and customer churn, having a robust failed payment recovery solution isn’t optional—it’s essential. Achieving your retention goals starts with the right solution.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 11, 2024
Dear SaaStr: If a startup is at $1.5M ARR and is looking to hire an experienced COO how much equity should they give him/her? 0%. I think $1.5m ARR is too early for an experienced COO in 95 cases out of 100 — unless it’s a total rocketship and you plan to be at $10m+ ARR within 12 months. At $1.5m ARR you should still be the COO. You should find, hire, and manage the VPs of Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Product and Engineering and even Finance yourself.
Tom Tunguz
OCTOBER 7, 2024
Recently, Thomas Laffont of Coatue highlighted a non-obvious impact of the M&A slowdown after this preamble : “Ironically and I think somewhat perversely one of the byproducts of constraining big companies from buying small companies is it hurts small companies. This point is clear & straightforward. Less demand for an asset decreases price. 2023 & 2024 are two of the three lowest in the last 12 years in both activity & value across the ten largest strategic software buyers
Clouded Judgement
OCTOBER 11, 2024
Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date! Subscribe now Budget Flush Coming? Something that has been on my mind recently - will we see a larger than normal budget flush at the end of this year? First - what is a budget flush? A budget flush occurs when companies rush to spend remaining budgeted funds before the fiscal year ends, often due to a "use it or lose it" mentality.
User Pilot
OCTOBER 10, 2024
Can you imagine what the ideal SaaS customer onboarding process looks like? When done well, it can be the difference between a user becoming a loyal customer or churning after the first week. That’s why we’ll go over what onboarding is in SaaS and analyze 8 onboarding examples from reputable SaaS companies to learn what they’re doing right (or wrong).
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Simplify omnichannel payments with a solution that unifies every channel through your platform. By integrating front-end systems like online, mobile, and in-store payments with robust back-end infrastructure, you can deliver a seamless payments experience without the need for heavy engineering. Omnitoken technology enhances security by tokenizing card transactions for reuse, enabling merchants to drive cross-selling opportunities.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 10, 2024
Dear SaaStr: I’m at $50m ARR Losing $10m A Year. We are growing about 20% and have limited cash in the bank. How Do I Get to Break-Even Fast? 1/ You probably have 50+ sellers at $50m ARR. You probably need half of them. That’s tough but true. Cut anyone below mid-pack. Concentrate leads in those that close the best. Especially when growth slows, you almost always do better concentrating leads in your top closers.
Buffer Resources
OCTOBER 10, 2024
Call me strange, but the About Us page is one of the first web pages I visit after discovering a brand or a creator. I want to know the people behind the curtain — their core values, the company’s origin story, and brand identity. Turns out, I’m not alone: A study by HubSpot found 31 percent of participants saying that an About Us page is one of the most important elements of a business website.
The Moz Blog
OCTOBER 9, 2024
Keyword intent is the key to understanding your audience's needs. Discover how to decode search queries and deliver exactly what they're looking for.
User Pilot
OCTOBER 7, 2024
What is an end-to-end customer experience? It’s the complete customer experience that covers all the interactions between a user and your business, from initial contact to post-purchase. Improving end-to-end CX requires you to design a seamless experience across multiple channels, including email, company website, and the product. Why is an end-to-end customer experience important?
Speaker: David Warren and Kevin O'Neill Stoll
Transitioning to a usage-based business model offers powerful growth opportunities but comes with unique challenges. How do you validate strategies, reduce risks, and ensure alignment with customer value? Join us for a deep dive into designing effective pilots that test the waters and drive success in usage-based revenue. Discover how to develop a pilot that captures real customer feedback, aligns internal teams with usage metrics, and rethinks sales incentives to prioritize lasting customer eng
SaaStr
OCTOBER 9, 2024
So Zscaler is a security juggernaut well known to everyone in the industry, but for whatever reasons, it doesn’t quite get as much attention outside of it. Wiz’s epic growth — and saying No to Google’s $22B offer — gets the attention. More obscure (but still important) vendors like Darktrace get attention due to their founder.
Buffer Resources
OCTOBER 7, 2024
Your Facebook cover photo is one of the first things people will see when visiting your brand's Facebook Page. You only get one shot to make a good impression. Read on to learn the Facebook cover photo dimensions, find out how to create a perfect cover photo, and get inspired by winning Facebook cover photo ideas and examples. What’s the ideal Facebook cover photo size?
The Moz Blog
OCTOBER 11, 2024
In this episode, Bernard explains why SEO content has a packaging problem, introducing concepts such as perspectives to help address the issue.
User Pilot
OCTOBER 10, 2024
Callbell is a multi-channel communication platform that helps businesses manage their customer interactions across various messaging apps, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Telegram. We chatted with Pedro Ribeiro , the Account Executive at Callbell, about how the company used Userpilot’s engagement features to drive meaningful interactions.
Advertiser: ZoomInfo
Over the last two years, there’s been a 76 percent increase in AI adoption across sales organizations. The reason for its rise? AI increases teams’ productivity by predicting and automating actions that require manual effort. In other words, the research that takes reps hours, AI can do in seconds. For sales teams, AI opens up a world of new possibilities, including automating outreach, identifying best-fit buyers, and keeping CRMs flush with fresh data.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 7, 2024
Most of the best VP of Sales have been fired once. It’s not always on their LinkedIn, they don’t always bring it up, but it’s part of it. Sometimes, it’s for a mismatch of skills vs. opportunity. You can crush it one place and struggle in another. Sometimes, for the best sales leaders, it’s a mismatch on passion. And that one time is often good — for you.
Buffer Resources
OCTOBER 8, 2024
Learning how to schedule Instagram posts is one of the best productivity hacks for busy creators, social media managers, and business owners today. And the benefits of scheduled Instagram posts go far beyond just saving you time — although that sounds pretty great though, doesn't it? In this guide, I’ll cover the biggest advantages of scheduling Instagram posts and explain exactly how to schedule posts on Instagram to improve your posting consistency and content performance.
Kellblog
OCTOBER 7, 2024
Since It Costs A Lot to Win, and Even More to Lose [1] It’s hard for a DNA-level marketer and inveterate deadhead [2] to review a book that fuses both. While I first read Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead not long after its publication in 2010, I’d never wanted to write about it. There was too much to say, the subject too close to home, and the Dead were becoming passé anyway — who’d want to learn lessons from a band that supposedly peaked on 5/8/77 and that played
Groove HQ
OCTOBER 9, 2024
If you’re looking at Gmail alternatives, chances are you’re already outgrown your mailbox. You need features designed specifically for customer service – enabling proactive support and automating repetitive tasks. With standard email – Gmail or otherwise – you can’t collaborate on emails effectively with the rest of your team. Digging through a mound of unorganized messages […] The post 6 Best Gmail Alternatives for Customer Emails appeared first on Groove Blog.
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ClinicSense is a SaaS platform that supports over 7,000 massage therapists who use it for appointment management, payments, scheduling, marketing activities and more. Despite having a relatively low payment failure rate, the company discovered that the failures disrupted the customer experience. This often led to churn as customers decided to cancel or abandon their account, preventing ClinicSense from realizing the full lifetime value (LTV) of its users.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 9, 2024
ZoomInfo’s Season 2 of its Zoom Labs Podcast is up and we were fortunate enough to be the opening guest. Founder CEO Henry Schuck and I went deep on a lot of stuff you haven’t heard before: Who is the better CEO (Henry 10000x) — and why What AI has done to post-sales, and where it’s going in sales How AI will lead to radical transparency in sales Bootstrapped vs.
Buffer Resources
OCTOBER 9, 2024
Building a company from the ground up always takes time. Building a company in a new category that requires a lot of education while also trying to do so sustainably adds significant runway. That’s why, when I started thinking about securing funding to scale my supplement brand Rootless , I wanted to think creatively about our sources of capital beyond the traditional VC models that could set us on a different path and model of growth.
ChurnZero
OCTOBER 8, 2024
The big picture is clear. Customer success teams are critical to the health of SaaS organizations. Their top metrics are almost all revenue-driven. Companies with higher NRR are also more likely to invest in CS. But are CS teams’ goals, budgets, and tech stacks keeping up? Three of the 2024 Customer Success Leadership Study’s key findings suggest not. 2024 marks ChurnZero’s fifth annual report on the top trends in customer success; the largest and most definitive in the industry, with more
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