Customer Service – Dutch Uncles

How Chargebee Is Tapping into India’s Hot Market for Cloud Service

Arunima Sharma — Sat, 22 May 2021 11:35:04 +0000

Humble beginnings have worked as a launchpad for some of the most accomplished Ventures we witness today, whether it is Starbucks which was founded by three students of San Francisco or Apple which was started in a garage by a college dropout. A similar narrative was followed by Chargebee, a company started in 2011 with the aim to help SaaS and E-commerce businesses streamline their revenue operations. Its founder and CEO Krish Subramanian started his career as a programmer earning a modest Rs.3,500 a month. Subramanian, along with his three friends Saravanan KP, Rajaraman Santha and Thiyagarajan T, started with two things – an idea that had potential and the zeal to harvest that potential. These four men today are the founders of a company valued at $1.4 billion headquartered in San Francisco.

Assembling The Dream Team: Four Brilliant People Who Shared The Same Goal

Unlike other ventures which start with just an idea, Chargebee started with the coming together of four passionate people with business acumen who really wanted to do something of their own.

By 2009, Subramanian was doing perfectly fine with his career and was heading teams in TCS and Cognizant. It was only after he was offered a long-term opportunity to make an account and build it in the US, something that would need five-seven years that he chose to come back to India and build his own company with his friend Rajaraman in Chennai. The team was soon joined by Rajaraman’s roommate, Thiyagu who was taking a sabbatical from Zoho, a SaaS giant based in Chennai. By May 2011, both Krish and Rajaraman had quit their jobs and joined Thiyagu to build the product full time.

During this time Saravanan KP, who was Rajaraman and Thiyagu’s friend and mentor at Zoho, tried convincing them to stay, but instead saw the potential in the team and left Zoho to join them.These four men started hunting and building on viable product ideas.

The founders chose to build Chargebee as a company inspired by businesses like Fog Creek Software who, according to Subramanian, didn’t focus on having a unique product rather focused on bringing a smart set of people together, enabling them to make decisions and figure out solutions. The team was further encouraged by the launch of Freshworks in 2010 whose co-founder Shan Krishnasamy was close to Rajaraman as both of them had worked together for Advent Net previously.

This connection facilitated a discussion between the co-founders of the two companies and Freshworks whose current net worth is $3.5 billion became one of the first customers of Chargebee.

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Unlike other ventures which start with an idea, Chargebee started with the coming together of four passionate people with business acumen who really wanted to do something of their own

Chargebee Gets Funded: Journey Hurdles and Introspection

From the very beginning, the founders believed that a strong foundation of the team was indispensable for the growth of a company, it is with this belief that the team which started with zero managed to give India its 11th unicorn in 2021 and raised $125 million in its recent Series G funding. The road from point A to today was not straight and smooth, it took a lot of patience and hardwork to successfully make it past the curves and tunnels.

In October 2012, Chargebee raised its first angel round of investment, however, this was a year before the company received its first major funding from Accel. The company was introduced to Shekhar Kirani from Accel via Freshworks. For a very long time, whenever Shekhar used to take a flight to Chennai to meet the Freshworks team, his day would start with a short breakfast meeting with the Chargebee team at a vegetarian restaurant recommended by Subramanian.

Shekhar Kirani wrote in one of his blogs about one thing that Rajaraman said that he still remembers. Rajaraman said that one day Kirani would visit Chennai to specifically meet the Chargebee team and they would then be the one’s offering the breakfast slot to some other start-up.

While in the meeting Shekhar always urged Chargebee to ask deeper questions like, who is interested in buying the product within an organisation? How did they discover Chargebee? What tools/systems did they use before this? It was the ‘why’ questions Shekhar asked that got them to think about the recurring value proposition and arrive at several crucial insights. The founders of Chargebee believe that the questions Kirani raised and the problems he presented really led the company to introspect, work its way to the solutions and therefore it helped them majorly in getting the basics right. In 2012, after a lot of grilling, Shekhar finally invested in Chargebee and this happened only when the company had figured out what it was, who it was for, and why the customers should choose it and not someone else.

Since then, the company has been growing at an exponential rate with every funding series. It raised $5 million in 2015, $14 million in 2019, $55 million in 2020, and finally earned the unicorn status with $125 million raised this year. Its major investors are Accel, Insight Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, and Tiger Global Management.

Chargebee’s Identity and Clout

The Chargebee team wanted to be a company whose main focus was the success of its customers. This was accomplished by making sure that they are available for their customers 24/7. Secondly, the team at a very initial stage understood that since the product relied heavily on working with other products, the Application Programming Interface should not be just as smooth as butter but also ridiculously easy.

Lastly, they realised how crucial their company is for the customers. If Chargebee went down, even for a small while, customers were hit where it hurts most that is their revenues. To make sure this doesn’t happen the team integrated with several payment gateways like Paypal, Amazon Pay, GoCardless, and many more across 150+ countries so that their crashes wouldn’t affect the functioning Chargebee.

The founders of the company have also seamlessly integrated with firms like Mail Chimp, Google Analytics, Slack, Salesforce, to make their operations efficient across different departments such as Sales, Finance, Marketing, etc.

Surviving and Thriving In A Sea Full Of Competition

The company, since its inception, has survived against behemoths like Stripe, a company valued at $95 billion, and other giants like Chargify, Zuora, Braintree, a few names from a long list. One thing that has helped the company sail through these competition-heavy waters is a clear understanding of its purpose and what the customer is expecting from the other end. However, at an initial stage what motivated Chargebee to compete with such big firms was the fact that they started working with very few overheads because of AWS. Chargebee’s entire server load was zero in its first year and cost $100 per month. As a SaaS-based model, it didn’t have to dump all its savings into infrastructure and this meant that it could still compete with large companies who already had millions of dollars in funding. Chargebee and Stripe who compete in the market also work with each other, which helps meet the strategic objectives of both companies.

One of the main advantages of Chargebee, when compared to other companies, is its user-friendly interface, its flexibility, and its customization options. The company has created the option of creating custom fields for the Customer and Subscription objects. This option can be used to track additional information about a customer or their subscription. Chargebee has always kept its approach flexible, it accommodates all the sudden pricing changes a company might have to go through. Through it, companies can run their entire recurring billing process on auto-pilot. All they have to do is schedule calendar billing dates and the Chargebee team takes care of the rest whether it is – proration, taxation, invoice consolidation.

In 2020, the customer reviews ranked Chargebee the number one finance software, not only this, over the next five years the company is predicted to grow at a rate of 17.5 per cent.

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Chargebee raised $5 million in 2015, $14 million in 2019, $55 million in 2020, and finally earned the unicorn status with $125 million raised this year.

Chargebee Believes in Evolving

Since its establishment Chargebee not only survived in the market but also showcased exceptional growth, this was only possible because they always had room to evolve and improve. An example can be the introduction of the ‘Freemium Plan’. In 2016 when the founders realised that they were undervaluing their amazing product against the competitors which further led the customers to doubt its abilities as well. So, they brought major pricing changes and also introduced the Freemium Plan which enabled the early businesses to enjoy the benefits of its platform. Another example can be that of the strategy they used during the pandemic, they employed an ‘Adaptive Marketing Strategy’, a kind of strategy which is designed to conquer these changes and turn them into opportunities for growth. The strategy focused on being fluid so that they could quickly understand the needs of the customer, work on those aspirations, and mould themselves to fit into these changes.

The Company Has Come A Long Way

Through constant effort and change, gradually, a company that was born in Chennai with four friends sipping coffee at a restaurant has turned itself into a big name in the field of subscription management and recurring billing solutions. Chargebee today works with 18,000 customers with its major clients being Freshworks, Calendly, Fujitsu Linux Academy, and operates across 160 different countries. It is a source of employment for 452 people and this year generated a revenue of $33.7 million.

Through its constant innovation, passion towards customer success and of course a wonderful human resource has been able to retain and expand its customer base.

The success of Chargebee can be a source of inspiration for us. When you are taking that first step in establishing a business, remember that Chargebee started with zero funds and zero customers, but what they had was the zeal, passion and knowledge which is required to drive a company to its pinnacle.

For more inspiring stories, check out our Inspire section!

The post How Chargebee Is Tapping into India’s Hot Market for Cloud Service appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

What are Key Performance Indicators: A Basic Guide

Roopali Kotwal — Sat, 22 May 2021 05:35:04 +0000

Have you ever thought about what sets a good start-up apart from a great start-up? Well, the difference starts with the ways of working of the business in a start-up. It is true that a performance management system should be in place for an individual in an organisation so is it for the organisation itself irrespective of the fact that the organisation is large or small. In the context of a start-up, the progress of performance of the start-ups shall be measured and tracked by the KPIs that must be set at its early stage. The ‘measurement of outcomes of activities performed’ in a start-up is very important. The ability to analyse and understand the performance indicators of a start-up shall define the success of the start-up. Also, it will play a crucial role in converting a good start-up into a great one.

KPIs: Full form & Meaning

KPIs is abbreviated for Key Performance Indicators. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Key Success Indicators (KSIs), Business Metrics or Key Business Performance Metrics, these terms are used interchangeably and they serve the same role i.e. to track and measure the overall health and performance of a company.

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The ability to analyse and understand the performance indicators of a start-up shall define the success of the start-up. And, it will play a crucial role in converting a good start-up into a great one.

KPIs: What is their role and why are they required?

KPIs help to identify problem areas and measure the performance of the business. KPIs constructed well, provide management and potential investors an analytical snapshot of the state or we can see the overall condition of the company.

KPIs track the revenue (average profit, total revenue and new customer revenue), employment statistics (i.e. employee turnover and employee performance), marketing effectiveness like sales generation, efficiency and performance of an individual (employee or his/her manager), processes/departments and therefore performance of the company as a whole.

KPIs vs KRAs

Read the abbreviations aloud! And, yes, read them again. People often get confused between these two terms: KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and KRAs (Key Responsibility or Result Areas). Both KPIs and KRAs measure and track the performance of the business. However, they both are different and yet important. They are different approaches to meet the business goals and objectives.

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KPIs work like a compass. They keep a track of the business if it is headed in the right direction or not.

How do you identify the KPIs that are relevant for your start-up?

Here are the key stages or steps to identify or choose the right or correct KPIs for a start-up business:

Select and review the KPIs that align and directly contribute to the business objectives
The selected KPIs shall meet the criteria of a good KPI. Ask yourself the below questions and, If the answer to most of the questions is ‘No’, you may need to change or replace these with new and more relevant KPIs:
- If the chosen KPIs can be easily quantified?
- Will they drive the change you want to see?
- Are the KPIs achievable, actionable? Could they be measured in a timely and accurate manner?
- Do these KPIs contribute to different prospects like customer, financial, internal process, learning and growth?
- Will these KPIs be relevant in the future?
Set short and long term KPIs
Share the KPI with the stakeholders and assign the responsibility for each KPI
Analyse and Evaluate current performance
Review of KPIs on periodic intervals i.e. may be weekly, monthly or quarterly basis

After reviewing the progress, you may need to evolve the KPIs. Hence, keep a flexible approach to review and readjust the KPIs if needed.

KPIs: What are the types and list of KPIs in a start-up?

Different areas or departments in a business such as sales, customer retention, cost of customer acquisition, cash flow, conversation rate, employee engagement, employee satisfaction, profit margin, website traffic, employee productivity, inventory Size can be analyzed by various kinds of KPIs. However, depending on the type of business, KPIs selection in a start-up may be different. Let us take a look at some of the key metrics or KPIs in a start-up business:

Active Users or Monthly Active Users (MAU)

Companies with apps and online games or social networking sites, use Monthly Active Users as a KPI to count the number of unique users who visit their company website on a monthly basis. Websites recognise MAU by identifying users’ contact number, email address and username.

Customer Churn Rate (CCR)

CCR means percentage of customers lost during a given or specific period i.e. they have stopped making purchases or unsubscribed from company services. Low churn means current customers are happy and believe that the product provided by the company is solving a problem. For SaaS or mobile Apps, a churned customer is one who cancels their subscription. And for e-commerce, churn rate means customers who fail or do-not make a repeat purchase within an average time frame. That period may vary from 90-120 days.

Customer Lifetime Value or Lifetime Value (LTV)

LTV represents the total revenue or an estimate of the revenue a customer will bring in or spend in your business or on your product or services during their lifetime.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

With CAC, a start-up can gauge how much they are spending on acquiring each customer. It reflects the money spent on marketing and salaries. CAC and LTV combination is frequently used to compare metrics particularly for SaaS companies.

Gross Merchandise volume (GMV)

GMV is the term used in online retailing business. It denotes the total monetary value of the sales for the merchandise sold through a specific marketplace over a certain period of time.

Gross Profit Margin (GPM)

GPM is the percentage of revenue that is actual profit before adjusting the operating cost such as marketing, overhead and salaries. GPM is determined by revenue and cost of goods sold (COGS).

First Time Response (FRT)

FTR is the difference between the time elapsed between a customer raising a ticket for a service or an issue/problem and an agent’s or customer support staff’s first response to it. Mostly average first response time is measured in business hours unless the customer support is open 24/7.

Revenue Churn Rate (RCR)

RCR is the percentage of the revenue lost in a given period of time due to cancellation or any downgrades. SaaS companies measure this KPI as monthly recurring revenue (MMR) churn.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

MRR is one of the most important KPIs for a company that is selling subscriptions. Every new customer addition means a certain amount of money a company will earn every month provided the customer stays as a client. This metrics shows the profitability of a company as well as predicts the expected revenue for the following month.

Revenue Growth Rate

Revenue growth rate measures the month-over-month percentage increase in revenue. It indicates how quickly a start-up is growing.

Conversion Rate

Conversion Rate measures the success of any marketing campaign. Conversion rate calculates the percentage of the number of visitors who take a desired action or complete a goal on your company website. The higher conversion rate reflects the successful marketing campaigns.

Lead Conversion Rate – This is one of the most important top-of-the-funnel conversion metrics. Lead conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who arrive at the company website and are captured as ‘leads’. It indicates the ability of an organisation to attract the right target audience.

Activation Rate – It measures the percentage of people who successfully complete a definite milestone in the company’s on-boarding process. A milestone may vary as per the company business. For instance, a social platform may track the percentage of users who add the first friend in their friend list. Similarly, a music-streaming application may track the number of users creating their first playlist.

Average Revenue Per User or Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU)

ARPU measures the revenue generated per user/customer or per unit. The term is mostly used by companies that offer subscription services to clients. For instance, internet service providers or telephone service providers.

Conclusion

KPIs work like a compass. They keep a track of the business if it is headed in the right direction or not. What works for a start-up and what doesn’t, can be clearly indicated by tracking the KPIs regularly to avoid repeated mistakes in any business. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or Business Metrics as stated above could be classified in various categories such as People Metrics, Customer Metrics and Financial Metrics. However, all these metrics shall comfort the start-ups to know the cause of poor performance, failure, success and results of the action performed and know the improvement areas.

The stated business metrics or KPIs are useful for start-ups in its various stages. However, to be a successful entrepreneur it is vital to narrow down to choose the right KPIs and prioritize them as per the need/growth of the company. Keep it very simple to select the KPIs i.e. make it easy to understand the performance indicators and choose SMART Key Performance Indicators i.e. KPIs that are specific, measurable, attainable/achievable, realistic and time-bound.

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E-Commerce Employment Trends 2021

Anju Nambiar — Thu, 20 May 2021 06:05:05 +0000

What’s trending in the E-commerce job market?

There has never been a better time for the e-commerce industry. Online orders are in full swing and e-commerce stores are scrambling to fulfill orders that are pouring in the tens of thousands. In 2021, the job market is seeing similar trends as last year with the demand for technically savvy digital marketing and customer service professionals. There are some very interesting job roles that demand qualified, skilled candidates who can handle immense volume of orders and can contribute to the curation of diverse product catalogues while ensuring high customer loyalty.

In-demand e-commerce professionals in 2021

Consumer Retention

Earning loyalty of consumers is everything if you want to get repeat orders from customers who are regular at your e-commerce store. Consumer retention is a job market trend in e-commerce where recruiters are looking for consumer retention professionals who can maintain a consumer base, build loyalty, and make sure they shop back through targeted strategies.

Consumer Satisfaction Management

Consumer satisfaction management entails running a successful e-commerce contact centre where customer service representatives interact with customers on various channels and resolve issues so fast that the speed of order fulfilment can be doubled up.

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E-commerce firms are potentially looking for candidates who can analyse large volumes of customer behavioural data and glean insights from them.

Analytics

There is great demand for Analytics as a skill in the e-commerce job market. E-commerce firms are potentially looking for candidates who can analyse large volumes of customer behavioural data and glean insights from them. Data management and pattern recognition skill sets come under Analytics which are most sought-after in the ecommerce sector. The demand for analytics professionals in e-commerce stands at 14.4% and has increased considerably. This is because early-stage e-commerce start-ups are adopting analytics from the very onset.

Customer service

Customer service will forever be the biggest important job market demand in e-commerce. Online shops need to create a humane experience for consumers and customer service is the frontline of this mission. Customer service jobs require responding to multiple customer queries, resolving their issues, and ensuring they go through a stellar experience while shopping on your site.

UI/UX Design

UI/UX Design is a hot job market trend in e-commerce. The need for professionals who can create a seamless platform for shoppers that can give them the product with exact specifications with less effort requires great website design. In order for the site to be tailored to the browsing histories of specific consumers, UI/UX designing is crucial since it facilitates high quality consumer experience.

Digital Marketing

The next most critical job market trend in ecommerce is the demand for digital marketing professionals well versed in consumer demands, digital promotions, and product marketing.

Warehouse and Logistics

Without proper logistics, the purpose of running an online store is lost. Since order fulfilment is the biggest part of successful e-commerce. Warehouse and Inventory Management is a permanent trend in the e-commerce job market since the need for qualified personnel who can successfully fulfill large volumes of orders is very high.

How do other sectors benefit?

eCommerce has skyrocketed in growth, craving the way for brighter employment opportunities across all sectors it encompasses. eCommerce being an ever-expanding market, job creation will be an ongoing process implying several sectors, industries and businesses can benefit from this booming market place. The ecommerce employment landscape has evolved radically, and there is more to what meets the eye. Both the operational as well as the software and app facet provides opportunities for various sectors and channels such as technology, content, creative, design, audio-video production, customer service, training, logistics and transport, packaging, printing etc.

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How Does a New Business Get Its First Client?

Tanisha Achrekar — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 08:35:04 +0000

Establishing your business from the scratch is a thrilling and overwhelming experience. Getting your product or service ready for the market is only half the battle. Finding clients or customers who are willing to give your product or service a try can sometimes be a real struggle. Even with the best of products and services, clients do not magically appear. Below are some ways a new business will be able to get its first client.

Four techniques to get your first client

Use your network to your advantage

The first place to look for to get your client is by tapping on your existing network. Be it the business community you are a part of or your friends or even friends of friends. Talk about your product or service and learn about their views on it. Don’t play too aggressive and try to make a sale in the initial stage of your business. Focus on learning rather than selling, you don’t want to seem too desperate. If your product or service naturally catches their attention, they are bound to be your first client in no time. Also, your circle is a great place to practice your pitch. Many times small business owners find inventors in their circle through effortless pitching.

Create an online presence

The Internet connects billions of people on various platforms. Look for the place on the Internet where your business belongs. Several online communities and platforms are supporting small businesses and looking for new products or services. In these online platforms, you will find business advice, clients, inventors and overall build a stronger network.

Also, another online strategy to get people in is blogging. Blogs provide significant results in the long run. Build your blog around your product/service and if possible launch it before you launch your product/service. A blog is a great way to tell the story of your product and generate demand. As your blog will create enough traffic beforehand and as it is related to what you are selling, you may find your first customer in that traffic itself. Also, crafting content is a great way to boost your Google ranking.

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The first place to look for to get your client is by tapping on your existing network.

Use affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a powerful tool for getting more users. The best part of it is that this is a low-risk way but the rewards are often great. In affiliate marketing, you do not pay for the traffic driven to your website but only for the actual conversions. Dozens of times the products marketed by the affiliate are bought by the customers. An affiliate works on a commission that it gets for bringing in consumers.

Consider providing free product/service

Just started a business, and give out free stuff? It might seem a lot to ask for but people love free products or services. When the goal of your business is to be heard as much as possible and get your product out there, giving out free stuff is worth a try. If you are confident that after using your product or service, people will come back for more, giving free products or trials is worth a shot. Create a strategy on how you will provide free products/services to your targeted audience. If it seems financially too burdening you can offer a first-time discount to your customers. Psychologically free or discounted products appeal to the human brain and you might end up getting not only your first customer but many more along the way.

Be prepared and have faith in your business. As long as you put in the work, you will get your first client. Embrace and learn from the failures that come along the way. Giving up is not an option here, experiment with the above techniques and see which one works the best for your business.

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Which Are the New Customer Segments for Restaurants and Food Services?

Anju Nambiar — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 12:35:04 +0000

Segmenting customers in restaurants and food services has its benefits for small businesses, especially in the current environment. Customer segmentation allows you to target exclusive groups of customers, something that’s highly relevant for food businesses during the pandemic.

Absence of the niche restaurants customer segment

The niche customer segment in restaurants and food services, especially those who used to visit specialty restaurants are now absent. Fine dining and star category restaurants offering continental cuisine will see a total wipe out of their customer segment. Typically, this segment consisted of customers who appreciated and enjoyed the experience of professionally served, fine-tasting food.

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Customer segmentation allows you to target exclusive groups of customers, something that’s highly relevant for restaurants and food businesses during the pandemic.

The health customer segment for restaurants

Legacy F&B companies are entering the health segment and moving towards creating sustainable food products. The health customer segment includes customers who gained awareness about the importance of immunity-boosting foods during the pandemic. They have also undergone a lifestyle transformation.

The health customer segment prefers home consumption of self-cooked restaurant-like recipes. Small restaurants can attract the health conscious customer segment by offering nutritious menu items.

The new-gen street food customers

When it seemed like street food in India was thriving like there was no end to it, Covid put an end to the dreams of aspiring street food vendors who hoped to make it big. But the street food customer segment has not diminished, just evolved into hygiene and health-conscious worshippers of lip-smacking Indian street food delicacies. To cater to this segment, street food services are turning into cloud kitchens.

A Bengaluru-based start-up ‘Samosa Party’ has tapped into this new customer segment. They have moved the street food service to a cloud kitchen and successfully raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-series A funding round backed by Inflection Point Ventures.

Home canteen customers

Canteen services had to stop catering which was particularly hard both for staff as well as customers. However, that has not altered the taste palette of canteen customers one bit. In fact, this customer segment has turned home-based, with canteen services providing home delivery. And customers are feasting on delicious meals in the privacy of their home.

Canteen and eatery outlets specialising in seafood or meals have switched to providing takeaways and deliveries rather than serving for large groups. Food delivery apps have also become inclusive of canteen services offering regional cuisine which works great for small businesses in this sector.

The canteen customer segment is placing regular (daily or weekly) takeaway or home delivery orders for regional meals.

What’s in it for me?

Restaurants are still in their struggle phase and small businesses/start-ups will find that the climate is unfavourable for starting operations. If you are a restaurants and food services start-up, it’s advisable to offer discounts (if affordable) on food orders or takeaway (reconsider dine-in) to balance the disruption in the market. Customers are drawn to discounts in the present scenario.

Start-ups in states with restrictions, curfews and lockdowns need to standby for suitable alternatives by the government.

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How to Add New Customers to Your Business?

Preeti Verma — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 10:35:03 +0000

Have you ever caught in a situation where you juggled to bring in new customers into your business? The journey from finding new customers to loyal customers can be a taxing task. So where to start from if you are looking for more customers?

Learning to generate new sales leads is an essential skill for an entrepreneur. Even if you do not consider yourself a salesperson in a literal sense, still you need to understand the business pyramid. You need to understand that the possibilities of finding new customers range from calling them from the phone book to buying lists of potential customers. Now, this has extended further to using newer internet techniques like search engine optimisation (SEO) to drive new business to once website.

To build a marketing plan to reach new customers, you need to better understand first who you are already selling to? What are their demographics and what are their buying behaviours? Market research runs the extent from simple qualitative research to in-depth analysis. It can be done in no time and without putting a hole in your pocket. This can be done by sending surveys to your existing customers using various online survey tools. This market research can involve extensive interviews with customers, depending on the questions you are trying to ask and your research budget. This can also involve qualitative studies on how target customers feel about your business, its products and services.

There is a possibility that certain products and services may appeal to one audience but not to another. So, understanding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in your target market is crucial. Here are the few ways to attract new customers. Let’s understand them in detail.

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A reliable way to attract new customers is to show them how well you look after your current customers. Show your customers genuine concern and communicate with them on a regular basis

Choose the Best Channels to Attract New Customers

It is best for the business to meet potential customers on the channels they frequently visit. Are they on social media? Would they prefer email? You can determine how your customers prefer to be contacted by gathering data from your existing customers. However, do not put all your eggs in one basket! These days customers are joining several new platforms daily. A multi-channel marketing strategy is always best for attracting new customers.

There are huge benefits of social media that can be ignored easily. Most of us can handle Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn, but what if you’re not reaching the right audience? A reliable way to tap into a whole new group is to explore new social media sites, especially ones where your customers are hanging out. Joining these social platforms will surely increase the traffic of your business’s online presence. But the audiences on social media can vary a lot from site to site, so do your research, find your market, and follow where they are!

Deals Sites Can Help in a Big Way

Daily deals sites are another trend that are picking up fast. Websites like Cashkaro, Nearbuy.com, Grabon.in, Mydala.com and more can add value to your business. You offer a discounted price, while they promote to their deal-loving audiences. Daily deals sites are great for getting first-timers in the door. Consumers are much more likely to try something new when it is a steal offer, which in return gives you the opportunity to turn one-timers into repeats.

Make it Realise that Customer is The King

Make your customer realise that they are the king and they are important as an individual. In most industries, consumers want to know if they will be taken care of or not. They want to feel like they aren’t just the mode for the business. A reliable way to attract new customers is to show them how well you look after your current customers. Show your customers genuine concern and communicate with them on a regular basis. These communications don’t need to be business related, but it can be personal. This will give the customer an impression that you are sincerely concerned to talk to them. Sometimes selling things is not important, but making contacts for the business matter.

Create A Multi-Faceted Plan

Okay, it is a little obvious. But it is important enough to need saying. There is no one, right way to build your customer base. Different customers will react differently to the same marketing campaign. The important thing is to use a variety of channels and tactics to reach your audience. Casting a wide net is the best way to appeal to a diverse audience and reel in as many new customers as you can.

It is advisable to create a multi-faceted plan of attack that will allow you to reach and entice the largest number of people and yield your business the most growth. The easiest way to combine different marketing tactics is to use both online and offline strategies. Send out e-mails and direct mailings. You can also combine different strategies within your online marketing. Experiment with email, social media, word-of-mouth advertisement, etc. and decide which channels work the best for you. This strategy has two keys: Make sure you’re consistent across platforms, and use analytics and metrics to track your success on different media.

Offer Discounts & Promotions to New Customers

Consumers these days are looking for good value and deals. Excite them by offering introductory discounts into your business. Offer special offers such as buy two and get one free, or buy two and get one for half-price, or free gift wrapping for the first three purchases. Bargains like these can attract new customers, who have been considering doing business with you but needed an incentive to actually change customers’ shopping habits. Then keep tracking what they buy and which offers they redeemed so you can better target them with future marketing messages that will build up their loyalty towards your products. Send personalised messages or emailers regarding the discounts and offers.

Ask For Referrals

The important part in any business is to gain their customers loyalty. Once you successfully achieve a customer’s loyalty, take a step ahead and ask them for referrals. Remember your current customers are one of the best sources of new customers. But you can’t be passive and wait for them to bring colleagues, friends, and family to your business. Instead, take control and create a systemised approach to actively solicit referrals from your satisfied customers. Build referral-generating activities into the sales process. Send follow-up emails and thank you notes to make sure your customers are happy with their purchases and make them feel special. And then follow that up with another email asking for referrals. Consider offering incentives if the sale price warrants it.

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Approach networking with a “how can I help you?” attitude, rather than thinking, “what is in it for me?” always help. People love to interact with friendly, socially active person

Reconnect with Old Customers

Revisit your old customers contact list. The old customers can be those who haven’t done business with you for a while. Create a regular schedule to do this, may be on a monthly or quarterly basis, or select customers you haven’t seen in the past six months. Reach out to them through email, direct mail, text, or message them with a ‘we miss you’ reminder. In the same way, you can lure them with some kind of deal or promotion to make them visit your store again.

Approach Networking

There is no better way to raise brand awareness than meeting new people, telling them who you are and what you do. Join your trade association, your local chamber of commerce, and networking organisations to interact with people regularly. Attend Meetup events. If you own a local business, even going to PTA meetings can be a good networking opportunity. Approach networking with a “how can I help you?” attitude, rather than thinking, “what is in it for me?” always help. People love to interact with friendly, socially active people.

Keep Updating your Website

With the changing trends and customers buying behaviours, online search is the primary way both consumers and B2B (business-to-business) buyers find new businesses. This means your website has to do the heavy lifting so customers can find you. Your company should popup, when they are trying to find something online. Review your search engine marketing and search engine optimisation tactics and techniques. Similarly, make sure your website is mobile-friendly.

Even your site design makes a difference. Too many graphics can slow your site’s load speed, which is a customer turnoff. If you don’t have the in-house expertise, hire a website design company and/or SEO expert to help.

Team up with Complementary Businesses

Join hands with businesses that have a similar customer base. But they shouldn’t be directly competitive. Together you both can strategize how you can market to one another’s customers to drive new business in a smart way to attract new customers while not spending a fortune. For instance, if you are into women clothing business, then working with a business that sells women jewelry or accessories would be a great partnership.

Promote your Expertise

By showcasing your industry expertise, you can generate interest and even create buzz, which can help you attract new customers as well as get more business from your existing client base. Volunteering to speak on industry panels, giving a webinar or workshop, speaking at industry events or to groups your target customers belong to, or holding educational sessions are just a few ways you can make a good impression with potential new customers and clients. This technique works particularly well for B2B business owners.

Benefits of Online Ratings & Review Sites

Consumers, both in the B2B and B2C (business to consumer) worlds, frequently turn to online ratings and review sites before they will do business with a company they are not familiar with. So, make sure you monitor those sites and respond to any complaints. Make the most of positive reviews by linking to them on your website and app. Post signage in your store, office, restaurant, or other location encouraging customers to add their perspectives. Social proofs such as reviews or comments, positive ratings are powerful tools these days. New customers are more likely to give your business a try if they see others praising it. I personally shop for those products or brands that are highly appreciated or have good ratings.

Participate in Community Events

Surveys show most people like to support local, independent businesses. Raise your profile in your community by participating in charity events and organisations. Sponsor a local fun run, organise a holiday ‘toys for kids’ drive, or supply a Little League team in your city with equipment. All this raises your profile, which helps attract new customers. Think of these strategies as a starter list. Add your own ideas. The key is to get started now so that when next financial year rolls around, you are already selling to an expanded customer base!

The post How to Add New Customers to Your Business? appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Innovation Leader, Salesforce Mastering Customer Service Management

Naina Sood — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 08:35:04 +0000

For years, organisations have been devising new methods and technologies to keep strengthening the customer relationship. The concept of SaaS-based Customer Service Management (CRM) solution has been championed by Salesforce, and the reason why there are many cloud-based solutions in the market today is because of them.

What Is Customer Service Management (CRM)?

In essence, CRM is any tool or technique used to gather customer data, and to provide a better user client experience. It refers to practices, strategies, and technologies that companies use to manage and analyse customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of improving business relationships with them, assisting in customer retention, and driving sales growth.

What Salesforce Offer, How It Mastered The Craft?

Salesforce engages in the design and development of cloud-based enterprise software for CRM. Its solutions include sales force automation, customer service and support, marketing automation, digital commerce, community management, collaboration, industry-specific solutions, and salesforce platform.

Salesforce was the first company to sell a CRM in the cloud. It had set out to make a product that was simpler and easier to use than the bulky products that were available.

Instead of adopting a hostile attitude toward its competitors, Salesforce leaned in. They built a platform where developers could build custom applications on top of Salesforce, and created a central community where Salesforce users could build and sell their apps.

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Salesforce has focused on improving their CRM by quickly adopting and integrating the newest technology and making it available to customers of all sizes.

Integrating Solutions

Salesforce has focused on improving their CRM by quickly adopting and integrating the newest technology and making it available to customers of all sizes. At the same time, they keep adding new cloud services to serve a wide breadth of use cases and compete with other enterprise providers, like Microsoft and Oracle. For instance, the Salesforce CRM has an interesting marketplace – AppExchange which has many scalable pre-integrated apps. Based on the size of your company, you can select the application usage and payment.

Manifold Business Activities

Salesforce CRM services are not only meant for customer relations and management. They enable better improvement of sales, revenues, collaboration means, marketing deals, customer support services, and so on. They play a great role in marketing, HR, sales, customer support, management, application integration, and many other departments of a business. This innovation helps organisations in enhancing all the business segments.

Why is Salesforce in a Better Position Than Peers?

The company’s leadership in the CRM market is a product of its foresight and commitment to innovation. The company leads in exploring newly-opened frontiers like AI, cloud computing, and mobile technology which puts the company in an advanced position compared to its competitors.

As Salesforce faces competition from other CRMs and other business software, they keep creating more ‘clouds’, or products that serve specific functions, to get users into the Salesforce suite. Once they start using one product, it’s easier to cross-sell them on others. The product sprawl has helped the company compete with other large cloud CRMs.

What’s in it for me ?

For a developer/start-up, there are four key takeaways from Salesforce’s CRM story:

Develop something that is easy to navigate. People love using Salesforce because it is easy to customise.

Keep striving to make your product better. Even after 21 years, Salesforce has not stopped innovating, experimenting and focussing aggressively on new technologies to keep their customer happy.

Experiment with free tools. Free tools, or free tiers like Salesforce’s very first CRM, can help get your product in front of a wide audience and allow users to explore the value of your product for themselves. Keep pruning. It’s important to evaluate and remove any features that add more difficulty for your users—even if you are attached to them.

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Effective Ways to Use Technology in Your Small Business

Shalmoli Sarkar — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 02:35:04 +0000

A small business in India is shy in implementing technology as it believes that incorporating technology brings in complexities. But that is not true. Small businesses get entangled in the redundant processes of handling finances, scheduling meetings, handling customer queries, managing invoices, purchase orders, etc. All of these activities consume a considerable amount of time and human intervention can make errors, no matter how diligent your employees are. Implementing technology ensures greater efficiency and versatility, making it a natural progression for processes. Below are some pockets to explore where the inclusion of technology will prove to be cost-effective, increase productivity and reduce dependence on manpower.

Technology for better productivity

Businesses when they begin new, a single individual handles myriad responsibilities that demand enormous multitasking. Handling myriad functions by the same person can be a labourious task if he is a business developer who is into recruitment, and marketing as well. In such conditions, the use of project management tools or time tracking tools becomes beneficial to the businesses, since it can give a better picture of how much time we allocate for a task and find out the gaps that consume most.

Building better customer relations

For any venture to survive, it needs sales to happen. Addressing customer complaints and building a loyal customer base should be at the top of any business’s priority list. A business owner should begin nurturing customer relationships right from day one with the help of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. A CRM software gathers information at a central place that has the customer’s overall purchase history, customer info, and every customer interaction with your business, which can be shared with your employees as well. With CRM software in place, every question, every service request, and past detail of customers is at your fingertips, which benefits the business by understanding the customer better, identifying cross-selling and up-selling opportunities better, and acquire new customers. It is designed to help businesses to improve customer relationships and increase customer lifetime value.

Managing financials

Management of financials is the most vital part of any business where nobody can afford a single error. To streamline your accounting and bookkeeping process its accuracy and security should be paramount. Businesses should depend on the accounting software to automate the process of payrolls, receivables, and payables, efficient filing of taxes online, and other financially sensitive tasks. Further, businesses can implement cash flow management software to forecast cash flow based on past transactions and historical financial data within the software.

Learn, share and collaborate

The pandemic has pushed the workforce indoors which necessitates the use of cloud solutions to easily share, collaborate important documents with your remote workforce. Sharing documents through cloud solutions helps make changes and communicate them on the spot and share accordingly. This brings flexibility and seamless collaboration among employees. Implementing teleconferencing solutions and web conferences are an excellent medium to conduct meetings, inductions programmes as well as offer business training to your remote workforce.

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First Step to Generate Leads: Key Perspectives You Can’t Miss

Avijit Dutta — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 09:19:54 +0000

The Demand Generation Context

Lead generation is a process, a set of activities required to fill the top of a marketing funnel. It is the process through which a ‘suspect’ is converted into a ‘prospect’. By definition, a suspect is a person or an entity who is outside the sales funnel but who essentially emits some signals (such as visiting your website, downloading content, sharing email and phone number, etc.) that (s)he might conform to our target audience. However, we have to validate our assumption and qualify a suspect into a ‘prospect’. Before we get to the challenges to generate leads there are three more questions, we need to clarify in order to establish the market segment your product can be categorised. Those are:

What is your average revenue per account per annum (ARPA)?
How many accounts do you need to create $100Mn in ARR?
Who is your target customer? Is it a retail user, an SMB or an Enterprise?

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Lead generation is a process, a set of activities required to fill the top of a marketing funnel. It is the process through which a ‘suspect’ is converted into a ‘prospect’.

**Christoph Janz of Point Nine Capital described 8 following types of products:**

1. A microbe: charging $1 a year per account to 100 Mn users e.g., WhatsApp
2. A fly: charging $10 a year per account to 10 Mn users, e.g., Yelp, Brainly
3. A mouse: charging $100 a year per account to 1 Mn users, e.g., Evernote, Mailchimp
4. A rabbit: charging $1K a year per account to 100K users, e.g., Shopify, Kajabi
5. A deer: charging $10K a year per account to 10K users, e.g.,Hubspot, Atlassian
6. An elephant: charging $100K a year per account, e.g., Salesforce, Demandware
7. A brontosaurus: charging $1M a year per account, e.g., Veeva, Workday, and
8. A whale: charging $100M a year per account, e.g., Palantir

Most SaaS companies selling to SMBs start as a rabbit and try to become a deer over time. A rabbit requires an automated no-touch sales process whereas a deer would need an inside sales organisation. For those who do not know the difference, an inside sales organisation has Sales Reps (SDRs) who sell to inbound leads remotely over call and a demo over the internet. A low-touch or no-touch sales process avoids using a human to close sales. The reason is that the LTV coming from the low-ticket size does not permit the availing cost of a sales team. The elephants, brontosaurus and the whale fall under the domain of hardcore enterprise sales with a longer sales cycle and requirement of face-to-face dedicated sales executives (ABS, Account-Based Sales).

Which Segment Does Your Product Appeal To?

From the above discussion three different market segments emerge:

1. B2C: Individual users, low ticket, high volume: microbe, fly, mouse
2. SMB: Small & medium business owners, moderate ticket size, medium volume: rabbit and deer
3. Enterprise: Large enterprises, high ticket size, low volume: elephant, brontosaurus and whales

With this context, let us attempt to understand the challenges to generate leads as these three different segments of users carry different procurement mindsets since they follow different decision-making processes.

Usually, all these companies would use a combination of the following channels to generate leads. Let’s delve deeper into these channels for lead generation before discussing common challenges faced in respective channels

Common Channels To Generate Leads

Content Marketing

People connect with stories. And where do we look for stories? The answer is obvious, the internet, especially social media. People on an average check their smartphone about 150 times a day. These are opportunities to grab attention. And nothing works more than a well-crafted story i.e., content in the form of a video, gif, meme, blog, vlog etc. Content marketing is one of the key pillars of marketing today.

Influencer Marketing (paid)

You have a group of followers (tiny or big) in the real world. However, you can’t broadcast a message to these people instantly if you so desire. But the social networks on the internet have made it possible for anybody to communicate to his or her captive audience on the network instantly. Power to people, you might think. Therefore, every person in a network is a micro-influencer. The celebrities such as a film star, a singer, or a sports star might have influence over millions whereas a local influencer might have influence over a few thousands. The difference is in degree not in quality.

This phenomenon of networking clubbed with our innate human bias for a recommendation from a known, likable face have created a new form of marketing, influencer marketing. Today you can pay selected (micro-)influencers to endorse your product on his or her social network and generate (micro-)visibility which in turn generate leads for your product.

Search Engine Optimisation (organic)

When you publish your website, search engines such as Google sends a crawler program to your website. The crawler picks up keywords from your webpages and indexes those in the google search algorithm. Based on several qualifying criteria that google changes from time to time a rank is generated for your website for certain keywords. This entire ranking process is unpaid or organic because google doesn’t take money from you to do this work. It takes some time before you can expect good results from such SEO efforts. However, a higher organic ranking on certain keywords that are relevant for you increases visibility organically and helps your brand establish its authority. SEO should be there in the long-term marketing strategy of your product and brand.

Search Engine Marketing (Paid)

This is the bidding marketplace where you bid an amount for certain keywords in google search. You get instant results in higher ranks within the paid-search listing hence get a share of attention from your target audience. Search engines are a two-sided network where on one side the ‘free’ users share their ‘intent’ with google in terms of the search keywords and google indexes those search terms and sells those to the willing bidders on the other side of the network and make money in the process.

Email Marketing

Email marketing, if done well can be called one of the forever green pastures for your brand. In this you build a well curated list of emails collected from the internet traffic you get (either organically or through paid marketing) on your landing page in exchange of offering some value to them (e.g., an eBook, information, access to your basic product etc). These are usually people who self-select to opt-in your list of email followers therefore can be a very relevant, effective and sticky audience. Once your list grows to a significant number you may plan sending them occasional updates of your activities along with product promotions.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing helps you to build a funnel in the selected social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, twitter etc. It has both organic and paid options just as in search engine platforms. These efforts are a must for building a recall of your brand and continuously engaging with your target audience. It can also help you build your own community of earnest followers through groups and pages. You may also use a technique called retargeting to follow along a prospect who showed some interest in your content across the social media.

Affiliate Marketing

This is a performance driven reward system that rewards the source (read affiliate marketer) for bridging a lead into seller’s funnel. It can also be linked to final sales rather than just providing a lead. There are affiliate networks that consist of influencers, bloggers, large media sites that help capture a lead and redirect them to the seller’s website.

Structures Of The Sales Organizations

There can be another lens to view these channels and the lead these channels generate.

Based on the effort to generate the leads, say we create a 2×2 matrix. The x-axis is divided into inbound and outbound. Inbound means the prospects discover the product online and call/reach the company sales executive, whereas outbound means the company sales executives call the prospects/leads generated through other marketing campaigns. On the Y-axis we plot the type of leads: organic, if the leads come through non-paid sources such as word-of-mouth, organic search (SEO) etc. and paid, if the leads come through paid marketing sources such as google paid search (SEM), influencer marketing (paid) etc.

No-touch: B2C

In this segment, the LTV is too low to allow for a large spend on customer acquisition. We can’t even afford a human closing a sale. Therefore, automation is the only way. Moreover, the expectation is to generate leads which are organic rather than paid over a period of time making the low lifetime value justified in the business model.

For example, nobody from Facebook came and sold you an account, you got sold yourself. Though you might feel you are not ‘paying’ any money to them. But the fact is you are paying in another currency, your ‘attention’. That’s what Facebook sells on the other side of the network, to the advertisers who want to catch your attention.

Google follows a similar business model. When you sign up for Gmail you don’t pay in the basic plan but when you use google search you share your ‘intent’ with google and google sells your ‘intent’ (read search terms, keywords) to millions of willing bidders on the other side of the ‘screen’. That’s how they make money.

It’s the continued ‘presence’ of users like yourself on the network that makes these two-sided platforms ‘valuable’. Therefore, they will go to any extent to get your ‘attention’ and keep you ‘hooked’ to their screen, if possible, forever.

Inside-sales: Medium ticket B2C & SMB

In some sectors, the sales ticket size is usually moderate, not too small nor too large. In such a case we can afford to spend some budget on what we call an Inside Sales organisation. In such a case online marketing is considered to generate leads, however, there will be a group of sales executives who would call these leads to close the sales over the phone or the internet.

Imagine an insurance agent selling your car insurance. She is going to call you before your renewal date and try to sell you an insurance product. You will never meet her in person. This kind of a sales effort is a low-touch sale more formally called an Inside Sales. It is called ‘Inside’ because the sale executives would never go outside the office to sell the product. The entire sale happens remotely.

The cost of customer acquisition here is higher than that of no-touch sales but this higher cost is justified by the higher ticket size and higher margin of the product, say, the insurance premium.

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In this article we have set the context of digital marketing with respect to the nature of the business, and pricing of products.

Enterprise Sales: Enterprise

Finally, we come to the large ticket contracts which are sold to large enterprises. These are large annual contracts for build-operate models. Often the deal size goes into tens of millions of dollars. Of Course, the time to close such deals are longer, there are many people involved in such a purchase, therefore, such sales require a lot of human contacts, face-to-face meetings, requirement gathering, proposals, counter proposals etc.

Think of companies such as TCS, Wipro’s of the world in the software domain, GE, Bosch’s of the world in the manufacturing domain.

The customer acquisition cost in such a sales structure is very high and the high-ticket sales justify those. Leads are generated mainly through outbound activities, be it paid or organic using a strategy called Account Based Marketing (ABM).

In this article we have set the context of digital marketing with respect to the nature of the business, and pricing of products. We have logically deduced three different segments (B2C, SMB & Enterprise) in the market for such products. We have also explored their uniqueness and deliberated on the kind of sales strategy appropriate for each segment. This article sets the context well for the next topic we want to cover next. We will discuss the top 9 lead generation challenges and possible solutions in the upcoming article, so stay tuned.

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Unravelling the Mystery of Public Relations

DU Desk — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 18:11:34 +0000

Public Relations (PR) often gets confused with the stereotypical image of a person standing behind a podium and giving a rigid press release to the public in times of crisis. Yes, damage control is one of the roles of PR but it is just one part of the process. PR has a far wider scope and plays a very important role in the day-to-day functions of a company.

Defining Public Relation

Public relations are the process of strategically communicating with or disseminating information to individuals, organisations or the general public to build and maintain a good relationship. In simpler language, it is the process of giving out select bits of organisation-related information or communicating in such a way that people see you and your business as a trustworthy source.

Companies usually hire a PR firm or team and outsource it. If it is a smaller company, they would most likely form an internal team to handle matters. The team or individual, depending on the scenario, would draft a specialised plan to communicate messages to the public or other parties through multiple channels. This could include social media, press releases, interviews, articles and so on.

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The relationship that a company maintains with its shareholders and customers ultimately determines its success.

The Goal And Functions Of Public Relations

The main objective of Public Relations is to maintain a good reputation on behalf of the company in the eyes of the public. People invest in brands that they trust and view as honest and transparent, or at the very least values them as a customer. PR helps communicate this to not only the public but also stakeholders, employees and investors.

Public relations are not, however, advertising for your organisation. The function of it is not to write stories for the papers or push for paid promotions to get in the public’s good graces. It rather uses free or earned media like social media, magazines, news channels and TV programs like those talk shows that you see celebrities promoting their new movies on.

The Founder of Value 360 Communications, Kunal Kishore, says that it is all about staying relevant and integrating all the various multimedia and digital platforms that we have at our disposal. “It becomes about how you stay relevant in a digital economy? The entire consumption of content is happening digitally with consumers relying more and more on the Internet world…so it is about how you devise a strategy for the next 5 to 10 years that takes into account the changing digital ecosystem.”

Taking this into account Public Relation agencies or specialists analyse the public’s perception of the brand and draft up strategies to improve that image using the free media platforms. These strategies could include:

- - Writing press releases.
  - Preparing speeches for company representatives.
  - Planning and executing public outreach events and media interactions.
  - Coming up with crisis-scenario strategies for extreme damage control situations.
  - Handling the social media presence for the organisation.
  - Coordinating PR strategies with the employees of the organisation and making sure everyone is on the same page.
  - Dealing with government agencies and policies issues that may arise.
  - Handling relationships with investors and stakeholders.

Identifying Which Types Of PR, You Need

Every organisation is unique and has a variety of needs when it comes to image building. The great thing about PR is that it has a large scope to identify which ones are a priority for your organisation.

Marketing

This type of PR generally supports the advertising team and the marketing efforts so that brand awareness and brand image can grow parallelly. This could include special outreach campaigns, public awareness of any guerrilla marketing and so on. Usually takes place when a new product or service is being launched.

Customer/community

When you think of the generic version of PR, this is usually the image that pops into the mind. Handling the social aspects of the brand through community-oriented outreach programs goes a long way in strengthening the trust that people have in the business.

Things like go-green initiatives, educational seminars and blood drives help build that positive image. To successfully execute this, however, there needs to be proper analysis on the needs of a particular community or customer base.

Employee/investors

Contrary to popular belief there is such a thing as PR within an organisation. This process includes caring for the employees and hearing them out in an attempt to create a healthy workflow. On the other end, it also means making the investors happy, producing financial reports, media issues and general complaints. Think of it as greasing the wheels of the organisational beast.

Government

This is not as prevalent as the other types of PR but still an essential part of keeping the company on its feet. It also boosts the brand image if it is endorsed or recognised by the government. On another note, to operate within a country, the business has to show the government that they are fulfilling the lawful policies in place such as:

- - Employee protection and fair compensation.
  - Fair market competition policies.
  - Consumer protection

Where Is It Needed Most?

There are generally three points in a business’s lifespan where PR is crucial. The launch phase, the growth phase and the point of sustainability.

Launch phase

When you are just starting as a business, it is unlikely that you will have the industry clout to go head-to-head with your biggest competitors or have access to the audience that you are aiming for. You will generally have access to a pretty wide and varied demographic and that is okay. Just use PR to reach your intended audience through channels you know they are active on, as well as your social media and website.

This will slowly but surely help bring traction with media outlets as well, thereby boosting your industry clout and getting the brand name out into the public sphere.

Growth phase

The first phase was all about the trial-and-error approach. It was also an opportunity to gather tons of data on the audience you eventually want to target. This stage focuses on using that information to refine the targeting process. Use the information, see which channels and which demographic gave the most positive response and pour your PR efforts into that to help grow it.

Sustainable phase

Once you have achieved the level of brand-recognition you wanted and the reputation you expected, the job now shifts from building to sustaining. Being well-known as a brand is walking a fine line. It can be great for attention but at the same time, you come under tremendous scrutiny. So, at this stage, it is best to use the data that was previously collected, to keep an eye on policy trends, socio-political movements, and the needs of the customers to ensure that your brand is walking the right side of that line.

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Maintaining healthy public relations is like having a net to catch you and your business if things ever go sour financially or politically. A good reputation will often help the company get out of even the toughest of situations.

Some Things To Be Wary Of

The great thing about PR is that it offers a vast number of options and benefits when used right. For one, it helps build the credibility and reach that an organisation needs to establish with the public. A good strategy has the potential to open a business up to a massive audience base and help it branch out on a large scale. It is also very cost-effective when considering the scope of reach that it provides as opposed to traditional paid media and advertisements.

There are, however, a few bumps to watch out for on this relationship-building journey. Unlike traditional media, it is very hard to measure the level of success a message has when put out. No guarantees exist as such that a given message or strategy will work even if it had worked earlier. Even with a press release, the media outlet will only publish if they feel it is a newsworthy story. It is a leap of faith combined with intensive audience analysis and research.

It is not an easy task by any means but it sure is worth it. PR done right has amazing potential to skyrocket your brand into the big leagues. Check out our article on ‘branding’ to learn more on how to make the best of both worlds!

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