??Tackling 2023’s Top SaaS Challenges
What’s good, nerds
Welcome back to the newsletter that promises to never accidentally pick a public fight online with another country’s person of the year…
especially if the dust-up might cost a clean 9 figures ??
no disrespect intended, but maybe I’m just built different ?? ♂?
Anyway, here’s what you gotta know this week in the world of digital marketing:
→ Tackling 2023’s Top SaaS Challenges??
→ What’s Good @ Google ??
→ AI Insight ??
→ Scaling Your Content Strategy ??
→ Social Media Round-up ??
→ Automating Your Posting ??
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Tackling 2023’s Top SaaS Challenges ??
Anyone familiar with SaaS knows one thing: SaaS companies face unique challenges. Attracting customers, retaining customers, managing churn, optimizing pricing and packaging— these are just some of the stressors that keep the SaaS-er’s life on edge. Comes with the territory.
So, I appreciated this article, which makes the case that the biggest obstacle for SaaS companies is about balancing growth and profitability— a balance that would involve maintaining low customer acquisition costs (which seems reasonable) while increasing revenue (that’s where it gets tricky). Oh yeah, then there’s that whole security thing, too. SaaS Misconfigurations, SaaS-to-SaaS Access, Device-to-SaaS User Risk, Identity and Access Governance, Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR), and Gaining Full SaaS Ecosystem Security are all covered.
The article provides sound perspective from a real P.O.V.? Check it out.?
What’s Good @ Google ??
News, updates, and changes? At Google? Who could’ve guessed? But seriously, some things you gotta know this week:
→ Google has apparently been restoring old reviews it had previously deleted because of supposed policy violations and so on. Obvs, these reviews staging a comeback should almost definitely affect the overall rating of each business who has them, so keep an eye open.
→ A new ad campaign from Google called "Performance Max" is hitting the hotel industry. The plan? To utilize machine learning to optimize bids and target across multiple channels and ad formats.
→ Another new update helps users identify reliable sources of information in search results as distinct from misinformation… The main goal, they’re saying, is to improve reliability on important topics (finance, health, etc.). How will they manage it? Well, like so many sites before it: a "verified" label. On top of that? Partnering with? independent fact-checkers.
→ John Mueller from Google dropped his take re: whether hyphens in domain names have an impact on SEO. He says hyphens can make domain names more readable, but they can also make them more difficult to remember. All of this affects user experience and, so the story goes, impacts click-through rates… Click through to learn how.
→ Google’s new design update for desktop search features site names and favicons. On top of that, website names will be found on top of URLs. Google has also introduced a "Sponsored" label for ads on desktop search, which appears before the website's name. This label helps users distinguish between organic results and paid advertisements.
Scaling Your Content Marketing ??
For basically every truly successful content marketing strategy, the time will come to scale up.? ? Content marketing will never die. Very few channels come through with the same consistency re: increasing sales and awareness. FWIW: under 10% of marketers plan to stop investing in it, a whopping 90% either staying consistent or ramping up.
This article looks into the best way to approach content marketing operations, explaining how to scale up. Points emphasized:
→ define a goal / prepare a strategy
→ create a content calendar and document milestone
→ build a team of the right people and partners
→ automate whatever you can
→ measure performance
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Those are some keys, but read the whole piece for a more detailed take on these tips and tools as they pertain to each step of the scaling strategy. The article is full of good advice: use data to your advantage; create a style guide; don’t forget your keyword research; team up with pro writers and content strategists, etc. These tips and more are explained in-depth in the article. Dig it!
Social Media Round-up ??
→ Stepping away from breaking news in the world of social media for just a second to remind you: if you’re not already cashing in on TikTok, you haven’t been reading this newsletter closely enough… This article gives you a glimpse at what it takes to start earning off TikTok's Creator Fund— aka 10K followers and 100K views in 30 days. Also, it touches on other ways to make bank on the app: virtual gifts during live streams, sponsorships, affiliate marketing, and merchandise sales. Worth a look. If you’re still not convinced this piece might help you understand TikTok's benefits for businesses from a digital marketing perspective: reach a growing international audience, especially teenagers and young adults; unique opportunity to show “the authentic side” of brands via behind-the-scenes tours, film Q&A sessions, and taking part in whatever insane trends somehow get huge. Influencer marketing on TikTok is more affordable than alternatives and lo-fi is appreciated. Any random thing has a chance to go viral on TikTok, which makes it a must-bet— exposure helps.
→ Reddit has introduced a new 'Watch' feed feature for video content, and is working on an updated UI, which will be less cluttered and more focused on discovery. Watch for ad offerings and targeting tools to level up.
→ re: Meta… looks like Facebook is integrating instant messaging back into the main app? Interesting move, could devalue Messenger, and should be a consideration for FB strategies moving forward. Also liked this piece on repurposing Instagram content, which can really extend the reach of your content while saving time and resources + boosting engagement and site traffic. Check the piece for strategies for repurposing content.
→ If you haven’t started investing in LinkedIn Ads, here are some tips for beginners. Haters gonna hate, but LinkedIn has 740 million+ members and offers a solid choice of ad formats, including sponsored content, sponsored messaging, and dynamic ads.
→ Over @ Twitter: Elon Musk went through with another huge wave of layoffs, including people maintaining the company's Twitter API. Immediately post lay-off, one mistake caused Twitter API to malfunction, causing chaos for tons of third-party apps and services reliant on the site’s API. Hate to have to note it, but Musk also found himself apologizing to a former Twitter executive in Iceland suffering from muscular dystrophy after mocking— and firing— him in a series of tweets. Oof.
→ catch Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky launching on the App Store as a “private beta.” Worth knowing for SEOs: Bluesky has no ads for now, and users will- apparently- retain the option to “never have ads.”
→ F*ck yeah: YouTube softened their stance on profanity & monetization (finally) and will soon be phasing out its overlay ads in favor of other ad formats such as sponsored cards and video ad sequencing.
Automating Your Posting ??
Speaking of social media (and rounding up?), here’s another reminder that automation can optimize- and should be optimizing already- your team’s social media performance. This article is a good reminder that by centralizing all efforts into one system, higher-level work can be- and has consistently been- achieved.
As the article details, there are tons of social media publishing tools, many of which differ in features. And functionality… and quality. Whatever you choose, you gotta be able to schedule posts across numerous social media sites, utilize tags and menchies, and streamline content publishing through social media distribution.
Beyond that, automating posting is one thing, but this post details how the tech also allows for gathering data on engagement and making decisions about additional content based on this data.
Once again, if you’re not already automating at least some of your posting— good chance you haven’t been paying enough attention to the newsletter.
AI Insight ??
→ Google's AI-powered search results are “stalling” and “scrambling.” Not good! Streets are saying this is leading to inaccurate, irrelevant search results for Google users. Not good! Some experts are speculating that an overload of data- or issues with Google's algorithms- is to blame. Google’s on it, but these problems clearly need some intelligent resolution
→ HubSpot just dropped new AI-powered tools, fueled by OpenAI's ChatGPT language model. ChatGPT and its crew just keep innovating, as businesses learn to find the right balance re: automating tasks / personalizing customer interaction at scale. HubSpot's new AI tools do some cool stuff, though, including automatically generating personalized email subject lines and content, based on the recipient's interests and past behavior
→ Some are asking: will ChatGPT take my job? Recent studies suggest: ChatGPT, sir, probably not. According to the study, while 72.3% of marketing jobs are seriously likely to include automation, many in the industry also know to see AI as a tool, not an end in itself
→ OpenAI's new tool, Codex, might be a monumental shift... This technology would definitely save devs some time / streamline their work processes and increasing productivity
→ Marketing tech company Soci just dropped an announcement re: raising $120 million in a Series D funding round. Leveraging AI to help companies streamline their marketing efforts, other goals fall out of this like: personalizing customer experiences, improving engagement across social media platforms, and more.?
This Week's Pod ??????
Just a reminder that Dom Wells joined us on this week’s pod. Great conversation about the journey from a niche site portfolio to trading on the NASDAQ. He’s a real one.?
PS: This episode was sponsored by Ahrefs.com, spy on your competitors using the #1 SEO tool on the market.
Here are the links:
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