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Software eCommerce – A New World Order
Content Marketing, Revenue GrowthRevenue Architects recently released a white paper exploring the rapidly evolving nature of software eCommerce and sharing insights on how to manage this change for maximum revenue growth.
Abstract & Download
With the increasing use of the Internet for eCommerce, many pundits had announced the death of the distribution channel for software perhaps assuming that software would be digitally distributed directly to the end user. But now, more than ever, channels serve an increasingly important role for the software industry. And within just a few years it will likely change more than any other channel in businesses globally.
Independent software vendors (ISVs) will need to understand these changes and the underlying technology needed to support them. For example, ISVs must continue to manage their existing channels, many of which are undergoing dramatic change, while taking advantage of new on-line app-stores and affiliate style eMarketplaces. The corresponding vendor technology solutions for software eCommerce are different from traditional e-Retailing solutions. Therefore ISVs must also leverage the right solution type, providing both multi-channel management and deep software trade functionality.
RIAs Under Threat: 5 Steps to Systematic Marketing
Financial Advisor Marketing, Revenue Growth, Social MediaIn a recent post in Bank Investment Consultant, Margarida Correia points out that financial advisors face threats from direct providers like Charles Schwab and Fidelity – the very firms that are in many cases are providing the underlying services for the RIA.
Image from Reuters.com
Yet the article also points out a positive:
“It’s not all gloom and doom for advisors, though. Despite the inroads direct account providers have made, financial advisors still offer more robust services and can differentiate themselves by offering more personalized advice, including detailed financial planning, according to Cerulli.
“Advisors can differentiate themselves by creating a personal brand,” said Wolf. They can create a “client niche,” something that would set them apart from what the “bigger, broader firms are offering,” Wolf said.”
More Evidence of Ineffective Marketing
In an earlier survey by ByAllAccounts, Inc., the majority of financial advisors report low effectiveness of their marketing efforts, despite placing a high value on marketing.
It is clear that advisors are by and large not focusing their efforts on the most efficient marketing strategies. A large number of survey respondents still depend strongly on word of mouth and referrals for new business, and very few have dedicated marketing staff. Further, while most do advisors incorporate their websites into their marketing strategy, they also reported finding their website marketing strategy to be neutral or ineffective.
Some Strategies to Consider
Advisors should improve their websites first. In our presentations with Advisor Groups, we always point out how “all roads lead back to the website” . Make sure your website is designed solidly, well branded, and brings more dynamic content. There are also a number of related tools and strategies that advisors can take advantage of to improve marketing effectiveness, even if working with a limited budget.
Take a more systematic approach to marketing. Here are five steps:
Revenue Architects helps financial advisors develop these strategies as well as select and operate the marketing technology systems that will work best for their firm based on ambition for AUM, target market and available resources. Reach us at revenuearchitects.com.
Welcoming "Things We Think"
Financial Advisor Marketing, Revenue Growth, Social MediaThis post is being shared this week in our updated Newsletter which we plan to publish about once a month. The newsletter is designed to be easy to scan at a glance so readers can click only articles of interest. Articles are pulled from “Things We Think”, the Revenue Architects Blog. The blog is named after the 2001 Viant weblog.
Image via Wikipedia
Viant was an innovative company designed from the ground up to build digital businesses. We also created Revenue Architects from the ground up – to address our client’s revenue agenda. We thought the name worked.
The Business Issue
The pursuit of top-line revenue growth is more challenging than ever. The web, social media and mobile technologies have transformed buyer process. Businesses must integrate marketing and sales and better engage the web to capture, deepen and expand relationships. Yet, executing successfully requires a wide range of talent – from creative design and branding to content creation and technology. At the same time, some of the best experts are working independently from the traditional agency. We flexibly and adaptively bring these expert teams to our clients – helping them capture customer value with new marketing and sales.
2012 Momentum
Thanks to great clients, a great team and an extended expert network, Revenue Architects enjoyed a solid 2011 and is off to a great start in 2012. We continually refine our business model to ensure we are positioned to adaptively deliver marketing support for our client’s growth agenda. We are celebrating new members of the team, expansion of our client base, an updated website and new offices in downtown Boston. Here are some highlights:
Welcome to “Things We Think” and our newsletter. We hope you are able to enjoy some of the perspectives and thank you to all that helped Revenue Architects have a successful 2011 and start for 2012.
Test Driving Revenue Grader – Swiss Style
Revenue GrowthIt is great to be kicking off the Revenue Grader development project working with our partners Icicle Technologies.
Revenue Grader will be an entertaining yet informative way for business leaders to quickly and easily measure their potential for revenue performance. By self-scoring maturity levels across three main domains of a revenue architecture (Revenue Strategy, Revenue Systems and Revenue Programs), leaders can rate maturity levels, identify gaps and map priorities for a marketing plan.
We decided to test drive the Revenue Grader with a set of B2B mid-market companies working with the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce (SACC).
About the SACC:
“The Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce plays a vital and active role in assisting Swiss companies in the United States and U.S. companies in Switzerland to expand their business. The Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce is a not-for-profit organization.”
About the Workshop
The workshop for the SACC will explore the opportunities and challenges for small and medium sized B2B companies seeking to develop strategies to leverage social media and digital marketing to expand their businesses. This will be an interactive 6-hour workshop and will be limited to 8 companies and will include:
Marketo & Eloqua: Some Lead Nurture Metrics
Inbound Marketing, Revenue GrowthHere are some metrics that Marketo and Eloqua suggest as what you might expect from successful lead nurture programs. Given the complexity of effectively implementing a personalized lead nurture program, it is interesting to see where the impacts might be and what benefits you might expect.
Marketo pointed to these metrics in a recent webinar invitation:
Eloqua points to the following metrics and a case study in one of their white paper guides:
From The Economist: Some Facebook Facts
Revenue Growth, Social MediaBelow are some interesting facts and opinions about Facebook curated from the current Economist article.
“Last year the company had sales of $3.7 billion, a little below recent estimates, and made a net profit of $1 billion.”
“The network boasts 845m users, which, were Facebook a country, would make it the world’s third most populous, behind China and India.”
“Every day 250m photos are uploaded to the site. One out of every seven minutes spent online is on Facebook, according to comScore, a research firm.”
“Facebook accessible to ever more people. (The Boston Consulting Group reckons that around 3 billion people will be online by 2016, up from 1.6 billion in 2010.) The second is the rise of the mobile phone. Already more than 425m people are tapping into Facebook on these devices and in future most of the social network’s growth will come from the mobile web. Together, these trends could propel the number of users beyond 1 billion.”
“People are now spending far more time on Facebook than on rival web services such as Google (see chart 2) and why it has benefited from strong network effects. ”
Another interesting perspective- will a new hot social network take over? Tumblr? Twitter?
“One is that people stop using Facebook, either because they lose interest or because they are put off by its behaviour. As News Corporation discovered to its cost after it splashed out $580m on Myspace in 2005, network effects can also go quickly into reverse. Once large numbers of people started leaving the service, which became more cluttered than a teenager’s bedroom, it proved hard to stem the tide. Last year, News Corp sold the business for just $35m.”