With most buyer-seller transactions, calculating the cost of a product or service is fairly simple. There are no complicated formulas for determining the monetary value of a pizza or a movie ticket; you simply pay the business’s advertised price. When it comes to Medicare’s payment for rehab therapy services, however, things aren’t always so simple. Yes, I’m talking about the dreaded 8-Minute Rule (a.k.a. the Rule of Eights). So, here’s a rundown of the rule as well as how it works in WebPT—followed by a comprehensive FAQ.
How to cut your Cost Per Lead with Google Ads
Friday, 14 September 2018
This post was originally published on this site
As the old saying goes, “you have to spend money to make money” — but no one said you have to spend an arm and a leg. In fact, many online advertisers using Google Ads pay more for leads than they really have to. There are many reasons for this, but most of them boil down to issues with audience targeting and conversion tracking. By avoiding these pitfalls, you’ll be able to better target users who are the most likely to turn into customers, allowing you to convert more site visits to leads, customers and purchases and pay less for each one.
The optimal cost per lead (CPL) or cost per acquisition (CPA) for your business depends on average sales sizes and the specific margins you are operating on. CPL reflects the price you pay for online users who qualify as leads by filling out a contact form, calling your business, subscribing to your email newsletter, or taking another valuable action you assign. CPA, on the other hand, reflects the cost to acquire one new customer, whether that’s a user of your product, or an individual purchase.
If you’re not sure what your target CPL or CPA should be, you can get started by looking at the figures you do know. For CPL, simply divide your total advertising cost for a given campaign or ad group by the number of leads generated by that campaign or ad group. You can similarly calculate CPA by dividing the number of clicks on your ads that led to a new customer by the cost of running those ads. Determining your current CPL or CPA is a crucial first step in lowering your advertising costs in the long run.
Figure out how people are finding you
There are a number of strategies that are effective to reduce CPL and CPA. (For clarity’s sake, I’ll just refer to CPL from here on out.) The first thing you should do is take a closer look at the actual queries people are putting into a Google search when they’re clicking your ads. By digging into your keyword data to discover what actual queries prospective customers are using, you’ll start to identify negative keywords that will improve the efficiency of your spend and drop your CPL.
It will be easier to uncover CPL patterns in your keyword data if you’ve assigned all of your keywords to separate ad groups. This account structure will enable you to optimize for CPL at a more granular level. In particular, you’ll be able to see how the individual keywords contribute to your campaign’s overall performance. As a result, it will be easier for you to distribute your marketing budget according to how the individual keywords in those ad groups are performing.
To get started analyzing your CPL data, take a look at the Search Terms Report. This report details all of the search terms that people have used that resulted in your ad being shown. In reviewing the report, you might discover that the people who are engaging with your ads were searching for something completely unrelated to your business. Or you might find that certain keywords are converting at much higher rates than others. As you go about this process, it’s important to remember how the costs associated with your keywords affect your CPL.
If a search term you are targeting has a high cost-per-click, but a low conversion rate, then the average CPL of that keyword will be higher. Alternatively, if a search term has a low cost-per-click and a high conversion rate, then your cost-per-lead will be much lower. Of course, that latter type of keyword is the one you want to allocate more of your budget to. Sorting out your high and low performing keywords can take a while to iron out just right. So experiment with different types of keywords, taking full advantage of the data included in your search terms report to hone in on the ones that are best for your business.
The power of precision
At Logical Position, we recommend that our clients reduce CPL by using one particular type of keyword: long-tail. These keywords are simply ones that are highly specific (and therefore longer in length). “Men’s black nylon running shoes,” or “biomedical patent attorney in New York” are examples of long-tails.
Compared to broader keywords (like “men’s shoes” or “lawyers in New York”), long-tails generally result in lower CPLs. This is partly because there are fewer advertisers bidding up the keywords’ CPCs, and partly because the people searching those keywords are more sure about what they want — and therefore more likely to convert. Getting more into the mind of your customers by imagining what keywords they might search is one key way to reduce CPL, but it’s not the whole story.
After all, not everyone who clicks on an ad or calls a business from an ad ends up making a purchase. So how can we better understand what went wrong? By taking advantage of CallRail’s Keyword Call Tracking and Recording features, it’s possible to identify which of your keywords lead to successful phone calls, which don’t, and why.
For example, if you noticed that all of the people who called you after searching a particular keyword were actually looking for something your business doesn’t offer, you would want to check your ad text for relevance. If the text seemed somewhat misleading, you could adjust it with the hopes that people who view your ad in the future will have a better idea of what your business offers. As a result, you could decrease your number of unqualified leads and, ultimately, reduce CPL.
Another way to gain greater insight into your ads’ effectiveness is with CallRail’s Multichannel Attribution feature. In practice, this service makes it possible to see all the online interactions that a customer had with your business before making a call. You could know, for example, see that a customer first visited your site through a Google search ad, then through an organic search, and then again through a remarketing ad before finally calling. Being able to see the path a customer takes before converting allows you to better evaluate the number of leads each channel brings and, therefore, the CPLs associated with each.
Clearly, the process of optimizing your CPL and CPA can be tricky and, depending on the number of channels you’re utilizing, quite involved. But when you pair Google Ads with CallRail, you’ll be able to understand your customers’ decision-making behavior in ways that make the process easier. Short of reading their clients’ minds directly, a business couldn’t ask for better insight into how effective their marketing efforts are at generating high-quality leads at lower costs.
This is a guest post from Ryan Garrow, an Enterprise Strategist at Logical Position and a driving force behind its rapid growth and nationally-recognized success.
If you’d like to see how call tracking can help you reduce CPL and earn better leads, begin your 14-day free trial of CallRail or request a personalized demo.
The post How to cut your Cost Per Lead with Google Ads appeared first on CallRail.
- Published in Canal Partners News, News
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News You Can Use: 5G push continues, Bitcoin crackdown coming
Thursday, 13 September 2018
This post was originally published on this site
It’s that time again: News You Can Use! Here on the CallRail blog, we like to do periodical roundups of the latest headlines in marketing and technology, and break down what these developments might mean for your company in the short- and long-term with some tech news analysis.
After all, staying on top of the latest news isn’t just good civics — it’s good for business. With that throat-clearing out of the way, let’s get to the news.
1) 5G upgrade cycle continues with $3.5bn T-Mobile-Ericsson deal (Reuters)
We spoke about the coming 5G upgrade cycle in a previous edition of News You Can Use, when T-Mobile and Nokia announced a manufacturing partnership to produce next-generation 5G wireless hardware. T-Mobile is continuing to bet big on 5G, as they’ve just announced a similar partnership with Swedish telecom manufacturer Ericsson.
Like their deal with Nokia, T-Mobile will be serving as the main supply chain for a new class of 5G cellular hardware to be rolled out across the globe. Telecom companies tout that 5G technology will offer greater range, speeds, and ease-of-use over the current 4G standard.
As with the previous announcement, this deal is more great news for business and marketers: Ever-increasing connectivity via always-online smart devices will offer you plenty of ways to make sure you’re always top-of-mind for customers.
2) U.S. DOJ to investigate social media platforms for alleged bias (Washington Post)
The U.S. Department of Justice has warned that social media companies may be “intentionally stifling free speech” and harming competition. The announcement — which did not identify the offending policies or acts of censorship in question — echoes recent complaints made by the U.S. president that social media platforms are biased against certain political views.
The DOJ made its announcement at the conclusion of a fraught Senate hearing, in which Facebook and Twitter executives faced sharp questioning over whether the platforms are purposefully limiting the reach of specific viewpoints.
Legal experts and technology analysts have raised concerns that these mounting allegations of as-yet-unproven bias will have a chilling effect on free speech. “This could be a very serious broadside against the entire Internet industry coordinated by multiple layers of government,” said Eric Goldman, co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University.
Businesses and marketers should keep a close eye on an upcoming meeting of US attorneys general about the issue. Any kind of broad regulatory action taken against platforms like Google, Twitter, or Facebook could have serious repercussions for how the industry operates.
3) EU Parliament greenlights controversial copyright reforms (NBC News)
In a move that critics have decried as a “catastrophe for free speech,” the European Union Parliament has voted to proceed with a controversial set of copyright reforms that may force Google, Facebook, and other platforms to share more revenue with content creators.
Under the EU Parliament’s proposed guidelines, tech platforms would also be fully liable for copyright-infringing material hosted on their platforms. Previously, lawmakers had rejected the hardline proposal when it was brought before the European Parliament in a late-July session.
At issue are two main points of contention: First, companies like Google and Facebook would be forced to pay publishers for displaying news snippets under the proposed regulations. The other issue is mandatory upload filtering, which would require platforms like YouTube, Dropbox, Github, and Instagram to deploy filters to prevent users from uploading copyrighted materials.
The outcome of this process could have wide-ranging implications for Europe and beyond, forcing a fundamental restructuring of these tech platforms in order for them to operate in the EU. In a worst-case scenario, these tech platforms could opt to pull out of the EU entirely (as they’ve threatened before).
4) Wall St. regulators signal launch of wider crackdown on cryptocurrencies (Reuters)
Wall Street watchdogs have announced a series of punitive actions against against companies involved with or trading in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The sudden burst of activity — which includes big regulatory fines for a handful of firms — signals the start of what analysts expect will be a wide-ranging effort to regulate the use of cryptocurrencies.
Securities regulators are taking an increasingly close look the use of cryptocurrencies, arguing that most forms of the virtual payment tokens can be considered financial securities under current U.S. law. If upheld in court, that precedent would make the issuance, sale, or trading of cryptocurrency subject to federal law and regulations.
Cryptocurrency is considered a white-hot (if somewhat unstable) investment asset, due to the near-total absence of oversight surrounding its use. While the dreaded R-word of regulation often sends investors running in the opposite direction, formal regulation of cryptocurrency could end up being a net positive for investors who aren’t algorithm-assisted flash traders, or members of high-end financial firms.
5) U.S. ‘smart speaker’ adoption growing at brisk pace (TechCrunch)
Ownership of ‘smart speaker’ devices — like Amazon Echo or Google Home — is growing at a brisk pace in the U.S. according to new research by Adobe Analytics. The company found that as of August 2018, an estimated 32 percent of consumers now own a smart speaker device. That number represents a sharp jump from the 28 percent of consumers reported in January of this year.
That amounts to a 14 percent increase in a little more than a half-year. Impressively, this growth occurred during months outside of the holiday sales season, the period that has accounted for nearly 80 percent of smart speaker sales. Adobe is also predicting that by the close of the 2018 holiday season, nearly half of all U.S. consumers will own a smart speaker device.
And perhaps most tantalizingly of all, the report revealed that 30 percent of smart speaker owners have used their device for shopping or ordering items. Additionally, 47 percent of respondents said they use their device for product research, 43 percent use them to create shopping lists, and 32 percent use them for price-comparison.
As we’ve noted before on the CallRail blog, the intersection of speech-recognition and mobile technology is a new, exciting, and largely unexplored frontier in marketing and e-commerce. Marketers will soon find ways to leverage this technology and ensure their products are always presented to the right audience at the right time, making the path to purchase simpler than ever.
Do you have thoughts about how these developments could affect your business? Head over to the CallRail Community to connect with other marketing professionals and share your opinion.
The post News You Can Use: 5G push continues, Bitcoin crackdown coming appeared first on CallRail.
- Published in Canal Partners News, News
How data-driven marketing makes your agency indispensable
Thursday, 13 September 2018
This post was originally published on this site
In 2018, digital marketing isn’t groundbreaking anymore — especially for agencies. The industry has advanced to a point where if you aren’t doing some kind of digital marketing, you’re falling behind the times (and your competitors).
That said, simply offering digital marketing services doesn’t cut it either. There are hundreds upon hundreds of agencies in the United States alone, so differentiation is key. But what’s an agency to do when there isn’t much room to stand out purely in terms of service offerings? Sure, great brand messaging and unique approaches can help. But at the end of the day, most agencies offer essentially the same range of services.
Your potential clients are no longer going to be impressed by SEO or paid media savvy alone. They also need to see real results, and you need to be able to prove your value and establish trust. That’s where data-driven marketing comes in — when done right, it can make your agency indispensable.
Data-driven marketing: How to use it strategically
In an agency setting, data-driven marketing relies heavily on reporting. While the metrics included in each report will largely depend on the client or the project, here are some rules of thumb worth following:
1) Avoid vanity metrics
As your clients become more in-tune with digital marketing and analytics themselves, they’ll become more critical of the data you choose to present to them — and rightfully so! To stay transparent from the get-go, steer clear of vanity metrics. These are metrics that only offer a surface-level analysis of marketing campaigns, and can leave your clients demanding better proof of attribution.
Instead, make sure your reports turn your vanity metrics into actionable metrics that best prove the value of your work.
2) Beef up your presentations
It may be tempting to just put some charts and text boxes in a Powerpoint and call it a day, but well-planned presentations really do make a difference when it comes to convincing key stakeholders. Even the most amazing data findings can easily get buried in a presentation lacking narrative, context, or human-friendly design.
Check out these 10 data presentation tips to make sure your findings are presented as effectively as possible.
3) Consider all parts of a marketing touchpoint
Calculating ROI is important, but if you want to stand out, consider other important parts of a marketing touchpoint. For example, you can pretty easily figure out CPC (cost per click) for a search engine marketing campaign. But what about measuring the effectiveness of landing page content? (For metrics, think time on page or bounce rate).
Including this ‘softer’ information can help you look past more obvious metrics like CPC, and provide your clients with helpful feedback about what kind of content resonates best with their audience.
4) Look beyond numbers
In data-driven marketing we tend to get hung up on quantitative data, but qualitative data can be equally insightful. In fact, it often does a better job of figuring out the ‘why’ behind the numbers you see in Google Analytics (or whatever analytics tool you use).
For example, consider this case study with Australian digital agency Webfirm. Initially, they used CallRail to track phone call conversions on the campaigns they ran for their clients, allowing them to increase phone call conversions by 50 percent. But what about the callers who dropped out of the sales funnel entirely? Webfirm realized that the call recording feature allowed them to find the gaps in their team’s expertise that were causing leads to be lost. This qualitative data, in tandem with the quantitative results, helped Webfirm go above and beyond your average digital agency, proving their value and trustworthiness in the process.
When done right, data-driven marketing can help you go from an agency to a trusted partner. And in today’s agency climate, there’s nothing more important.
Interested in learning more about how call tracking can help you be indispensable to your clients? Check out CallRail for agencies.
The post How data-driven marketing makes your agency indispensable appeared first on CallRail.
- Published in Canal Partners News, News
The 8-Minute Rule: What it is and How it Works in WebPT
Thursday, 13 September 2018
- Published in Canal Partners News, News
6 Steps to Get Your Field Service Company Ready for the New Privacy Laws
Wednesday, 12 September 2018
- Published in Canal Partners News, News
20 GIFs That Perfectly Describe What It’s Like to be an Occupational Therapist
Wednesday, 12 September 2018
- Published in Canal Partners News, News
30 of the Best SaaS Partner Programs (and Why They Are So Good)
Wednesday, 12 September 2018
These 30 top SaaS providers run the best partner programs in the business—here’s how you can do the same.
With so many new SaaS providers hitting the market every month, running some form of partner program feels like table stakes.
After all, partnering up with other companies that share customer bases can be a huge asset in amplifying your sales and marketing. Partnering allows you to leverage a well-known brand with a broad network to grow your own customer base more quickly than would be possible on your own.
Surprisingly, though, many SaaS providers shy away from building their own partner programs, as they may not provide as direct a path to revenue. As AppDirect co-CEO Daniel Saks points out, “80% of on-premise software vendors operate a channel program to enable other companies to sell their products, while only 20% of SaaS vendors operate similar programs.” The vast majority of SaaS providers, then, can benefit from building out their own partner program.
If you’re struggling to design a partner program that works for your SaaS company, don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Helping over 10,000 vendors create successful partner programs has given us unique insight into what works (and doesn’t work) when creating a partner program—and we want to share what we’ve learned with you.
To help illustrate how you can design a successful partner program of your own, we’ve put together a list of 30 of the best SaaS partner programs out there. Each of these companies operates a comprehensive partner program, providing benefits to their partners ranging from the free use of software to referral commissions—even helping them celebrate their wins on social media. Study them, learn from them, and apply their best practices in your own partner programs.
3 Types of SaaS Partner Programs
Every software company is different, and likewise, every partner program is different. When it comes to building out your partner program, there isn’t a right or wrong answer – what works for one company might not work for your own.
Some companies, like Slack, choose to focus on only one type of partnership. Others, like Shopify, offer a much wider range of opportunities for partners. In fact, the majority of the 30 SaaS partner programs reviewed below provide benefits across multiple different areas.
Partnerships generally fall into one of three areas:
1. Referral Partners
Referral partners will generate and pass leads to your SaaS company in return for commission payments. Usually, these commissions are a percentage of revenue from the customer, most frequently for the first few months of the customer’s contract, but they can extend up to one year or longer.
Shopify is a great example of a referral program, offering partners a generous 20% commission on any referred customer’s subscription fees for as long as they remain a customer.
2. Strategic / Technical Partners
Technical partnerships involve working together towards a common goal or sharing information and integrating technology for the benefit of both partners.
Take Slack, for example. Through strategic partnerships with enterprise companies like ServiceNow and Google, Slack is able to expand their offering to include more enterprise customers and connect their tool with the products and services their customers are already using.
3. Sales / Support Partners
These partners might recommend your product and company to their customers when it makes sense. They will also provide co-marketing resources, shared training and development resources, and certifications.
Marketo focuses their partner program around providing strong sales and marketing support. They provide partners with access to a partner community, an ongoing series of monthly training webinars, joint sales and marketing materials, and even subcontracting work to their highest-tier partners.
What the Best SaaS Partner Programs Have in Common
Looking over the list of the best SaaS partner programs, a few common themes jump out:
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- All 30 companies offer co-marketing support for their partners.
- 25 out of 30 companies offer a partner portal to help manage their partner relationships.
- All but three programs are free to join. Only the largest enterprise programs (Salesforce, HubSpot, and PayPal) have partner fees.
- Two-thirds of partner programs pay partners for referrals, although frequently this is only offered to higher-tier partners. Partner programs that don’t offer compensation for referrals are usually smaller companies, with Marketo being the surprising exception.
- Likewise, two-thirds of SaaS companies list their partners publicly, although once again this benefit is frequently only offered to higher-tier partners.
- All but a handful of SaaS partner programs provide some form of sales training, although only half provide hands-on sales support.
Overall, each of the 30 partner programs offered a mix of services for partners, while utilizing the strengths and weaknesses of both parties involved.
So without further ado, here are 30 of the best partner programs offered by SaaS companies in no particular order:
30 of the Best SaaS Partner Programs
1. Podia’s Refer-a-Creator Program
Podia makes it easy for content creators to build their online business. Their friendly platform offers independent creators everything they need to start hosting and selling online courses, memberships, and digital downloads, without the headache of setting up things like billing and hosting themselves.
Since Podia sells directly to independent creators and small businesses, their Refer-a-Creator Program focuses on referrals. The program is easy for existing customers to join, and they offer a 30% referral commission for the lifetime of referred customers. Their team also works hard to help customers promote their referral links, providing ideas for blog posts and newsletters, instructions for adding referral links to partners’ sites, and even joint webinars with partners which are promoted to their own mailing list.
Key Takeaway: Make it easy for partners to join your program, and they’ll be more likely to refer customers in return.
2. HubSpot’s Sales and Marketing Growth Stack
HubSpot, being a very broad product, has split their partner program into three parts:
- Marketing Agency Partners: HubSpot provides assistance for agencies offering inbound marketing services to their clients.
- Sales Partners: HubSpot provides assistance for CRM service providers and sales consultants who want to sell HubSpot services and earn commissions.
- Integration Partners: HubSpot’s Connect Program helps companies integrate their own technology with HubSpot’s software.
HubSpot offers a strong referral commission of 20% monthly for a customer’s first year as well as a dedicated partner manager, a partner toolkit to manage referral leads, online training, and a public listing in HubSpot’s partner directory. The one downside is that HubSpot’s partner program costs $50 per month to join.
Key Takeaway: Splitting your partner program by purpose makes it easier for both you and your partners to manage.
3. Shopify’s Ecommerce Expert Program
Shopify’s partner program is one of the most thorough offerings when compared to most SaaS companies. Whether you’re a freelancer or an agency, they offer a wide variety of perks, including discounts on products and services from leading software companies. Shopify’s Partner Academy includes courses, study guides, and exams to help both developers and consultants make the most of the platform.
Shopify partners have access to a dedicated partner dashboard to manage referrals, view commission payments, find resources, and submit Shopify Plus leads. Shopify Experts are listed in a public directory on their site. Shopify also offers generous referral commissions, paying out 20% of the referred customer’s monthly subscription fees for the life of their subscription. App and theme developers also earn between 50-80% of one-time sales or subscription fees from sales of their products.
Key Takeaway: Comprehensive documentation on your product takes effort, but helps your partners integrate easily with your product.
4. MailChimp’s Email Automation Platform
MailChimp’s partner program is surprisingly limited given the scope of the product. They provide partners with priority email and live chat support, educational resources, and a dedicated newsletter, along with a partner listing in their Experts Directory. However, the referral commissions are quite low—MailChimp only pays $30 one time for each referral.
Key Takeaway: Offering a public directory of partners can help customers find the help they’re looking for.
5. Atlassian’s Solutions Partner Program
Atlassian makes collaboration tools for teams of all sizes, including the popular issue management tool Jira and knowledge base tool Confluence. Atlassian offers a tiered Solution Partner Program—all tiers include partner portal access, access to certification and training programs, a listing on Atlassian’s partner directory, and free access to Atlassian products for internal use. Higher tiers also include referral bonuses, product discounts, and a dedicated channel manager. Partners can graduate to higher tiers by meeting sales goals and completing Atlassian’s training programs.
Key Takeaway: Creating tiers based on performance means that you can reward partners based on their contributions to your business.
6. PayPal’s End-to-End Payment Solution
PayPal provides end-to-end payment management for online businesses of all sizes.
PayPal’s partner program provides partners with co-marketing opportunities, live support for customers, reporting, revenue share for referrals, an online partner directory, and more. Partners can get started by contacting a PayPal Partner Expert here.
Key Takeaway: Comprehensive partner programs can often be confusing for potential partners. Making it easy to contact a partner expert can help ease their mind.
7. Marketo’s Premier Partner Program
Like HubSpot, Marketo is one of the big players in marketing automation, and they have a comprehensive partner program to match the varied needs of their customers.
Through their Premier Partner program, they provide expert training as well as co-marketing and co-sales material, access to partner-only webinars, and participation in Partner Days. Higher-tier partners also receive free sandbox access, joint collateral, a dedicated Partner Success Manager, and more. Partners are also entitled to access the Marketing Nation, Marketo’s community of marketing professionals, where partners can share best practices and meet other partners.
Key Takeaway: Building a community of like-minded partners and customers fosters relationships and inspires new ideas.
8. Slack’s Communication Platform Partner Program
Slack provides a well-run integrations program for partners, working with over 1,000 SaaS products to help users be more efficient and productive in their communications. Their partner list includes some big names, like Salesforce and Google, so partners can be sure the program is well run.
Slack’s partner program isn’t open to just anyone – to join the program, potential partners must submit a complete application and be accepted into the partner program. The benefits for integration partners are huge, with access to 9 million weekly active users and a listing in the public Slack apps directory to help users find the functionality they’re looking for. To help support app developers, Slack provides partners with detailed documentation on their API and platform.
Key Takeaway: Partner applications help ensure customers can rely on your partners, especially for mission-critical products.
9. Acquia’s Open Source Content Management System
Acquia is one of the leading web content management tools, allowing users to build, deploy, manage, and massively scale content experiences. Acquia is the platform behind some of the biggest sites on the web, with customers ranging from Princess Cruises to the Australian Government.
By joining Acquia’s partner program, partners can gain access to a public directory of over 1,000 Acquia partners, referral commissions, access to a partner portal and sales enablement tools, co-marketing materials, and a dedicated partner manager for higher tiers. They also include testimonials and case studies from existing partners on their site, to boost trust and engagement with potential partners.
Key Takeaway: Case studies and testimonials from existing partners can help encourage potential partners who might be on the fence to join your partner program.
10. Pantheon’s Hosting and DevOps Tools
Pantheon allows marketers and developers to build, host, and manage high-performance websites without the hassle of hiring full-time operational staff to manage the site. Marketers can publish new campaigns and fresh content without IT support, and agencies can speed up their developer productivity and centrally manage client sites.
Pantheon partners also receive free hosting for development sites along with their own agency website, access to a developer dashboard and site management tools, access to additional monitoring tools like New Relic, priority support, assisted migrations, custom training workshops, and more. Higher-tier partners can receive up to 10% commissions for referrals, joint business planning, and access to special strategic partner events.
Pantheon provides a directory of trusted agencies, and if you’re looking to hire an agency, they’ll also help you find the perfect match for your needs. They’ll even give your clients a shout-out on social media when you go live with a client site.
Key Takeaway: Value-added services for partners, like assisted migrations, are easy ways to create value without increasing development costs.
11. Xero’s Partner Program for Accounting Practices
Xero provides simple online accounting software for small businesses with popular features that include invoicing, inventory management, payroll, and more. Given how central accounting is to a company’s workflow, Xero integrates with over 700 other business applications, ranging from time-tracking to ecommerce and point-of-sale management.
Xero has one of the most user-friendly partner programs out there. The more points you earn, the higher your partner status level and the more benefits you receive. Points are earned through referrals, being added on a client’s account as an advisor, or using Xero in your own accounting practice.
Basic partners receive a free subscription to Xero for their own practice, a dedicated account manager and 24/7 priority support, access to co-marketing resources, and online training opportunities. Higher-tier partners also receive up to a 30% discount on subscriptions that can be passed onto the client, a listing in the Xero advisor directory, assistance with client migrations and implementation, and marketing funding. Partners can also become “Xero Champions” by hitting certain criteria, unlocking a special champion designation in the partner directory, lead sharing, and content co-development opportunities.
Key Takeaway: Make it easy for partners to understand the criteria for reaching certain program tiers, as well as the benefits they’ll receive at each level.
12. Leanplum’s Mobile Marketing Platform
Leanplum makes it easy for SaaS companies to increase user engagement through in-app messages, automated emails, and text messages, helping to increase lifetime value and create lasting customer relationships. They provide a full suite of mobile marketing tools, including push notifications, automated email marketing, and in-app messages.
Leanplum’s partner program includes access to dedicated marketing, sales, and technical support for the product. Leanplum also provides a public directory of Leanplum partners, and they frequently team up with partners to co-produce content or host events.
Key Takeaway: Co-marketing efforts like joint webinars with partners help drive results for both you and your partners.
13. Seventh Sense’s Email Send Time Optimization Tools
Seventh Sense helps agencies increase their email open rate and engagement for their clients by optimizing email send time and frequency. Seventh Sense integrates with HubSpot and Marketo to find the best days and times to send email campaigns, making sure to send them when they’ve got the best chance of being read. Additionally, they can also help time phone call scheduling within HubSpot.
Seventh Sense partners enjoy access to training and sales resources, including an Agency Playbook full of proven processes and strategies to help increase sales. Partners are also listed in a public directory of Seventh Sense partners. Finally, Seventh Sense is part of HubSpot’s Apps for Agency Services Program, offering their software for free to Platinum and Diamond HubSpot agencies.
Key Takeaway: Partner community programs like HubSpot’s Apps for Agency Services provide a low-risk way to expand your offerings while increasing the reach of your own product.
14. Pipedrive’s Sales-Focused CRM Tool
Pipedrive is a sales CRM built for ease-of-use. Where Pipedrive excels is in its integrations with the ability to connect directly with over 100 other software tools.
Pipedrive’s partner program is free to join and offers a generous referral commission of 33% for the first year. In addition to the basic Affiliate program, Pipedrive also offers an Expert program for partners that want to make Pipedrive a core offering in their business. Expert partners must pass a certification test and hit quarterly retention goals, but in return, they are rewarded with a public directory listing on Pipedrive’s site, 20% referral commissions for life, and a free Pipedrive demo account.
Key Takeaway: Separating your affiliate and reseller programs makes it easy for partners to join the best program for them.
15. Amplitude’s Product Analytics Platform
Amplitude is a product analytics company, helping SaaS providers understand user behavior, reduce churn, and ship the right features quickly.
To join Amplitude’s partner program, potential partners must pass the Amplitude Certification tests and meet certain business collaboration requirements. In exchange, partners are provided with dedicated sales support for pitches and early customer conversations, opportunities to join in on marketing events, training and certification, and a listing in Amplitude’s public partner directory. The one downside is that Amplitude does not offer commissions on referrals.
Key Takeaway: Certification requirements help ensure you only work with best-in-class partners.
16. Databox’s KPI Reporting Software
Databox lets you track your company’s performance in one place. By connecting all your data sources, including Google Analytics, HubSpot, Salesforce, AdWords, and more, companies can choose from a library of pre-made dashboard templates or build their own, tracking performance and discovering insights in minutes.
Agencies can partner with Databox to collect and report on metrics for up to 10 clients for free. Additionally, Databox provides partners with co-marketing resources, lead sharing, online training, and more. Agencies can also contribute report templates to the Databox directory and receive lead data when others utilize those templates. A public directory of Databox partners is available as well as a public template gallery.
Key Takeaway: Offering a free program tier for partners can open the door for additional revenue opportunities in the future.
17. Sprout Social’s Social Media Management Solution
If you’ve done anything in the social media management space, you’ve probably come across Sprout Social at some point. They’re one of the leading social media management tools, providing publishing, reporting, and management across all the major social platforms.
Sprout Social partners with agencies of all sizes, providing marketing, sales, and support services including co-marketing resources, sales support, partner certifications, and listings in their Agency Directory. Their pricing is also customized based on the size of the partner agency, making them an affordable option for smaller agencies – something unique in the industry. Sprout offers a generous 20% lifetime commission for referrals.
Key Takeaway: Scaling your pricing based on partner agency size can help make your product an affordable option for smaller agencies.
18. Unbounce’s Landing Page Builder
Unbounce makes it easy for all users to build, launch, and optimize custom landing pages using their drag-and-drop page builder. If you’re an agency, Unbounce makes it easy to help your clients grow leads and sales without the cost and effort of working with a full development team.
Unbounce’s partner program offers partnership opportunities for agencies and also integration partnerships for app developers. Unbounce maintains a list of Unbounce app integration partners but not agency partners. They do, however, offer an Agency Success team for agency partners.
Key Takeaway: Integrating your product with adjacent tools lets you better meet the varied needs of your customers.
19. Zendesk’s Customer Service and Engagement Platform
Zendesk helps companies turn interactions into lasting relationships through their integrated platform of customer support, knowledge base, and live chat tools.
Zendesk’s partner program ticks a lot of boxes, offering benefits across three different tiers: Referral Partner, Solution Provider, and Business Service Provider. Technology partners can build apps to integrate with Zendesk as well. All partners receive access to online sales training, commissions for referrals, a dedicated partner manager, and more. Higher tiers are eligible for instructor-led product training, marketing funds, and joint business planning. Zendesk also maintains a public directory of Zendesk client services & partners.
Key Takeaway: Clear documentation on your partner programs can help partners understand how they will benefit, especially when you offer multiple different programs.
20. Uberflip’s Content Experience Platform
Uberflip lets SaaS companies build compelling content for their audiences. By combining the clients’ content into one dynamic Content Hub, SaaS companies can get better results from the content they already have, increasing lead generation and engagement. The platform also lets companies use AI-powered content recommendations to recommend personalized content for their audience.
Uberflip’s partner program, while small, is powerful. They provide a public directory of certified partners and a free sandbox account for all partner tiers as well as 10% revenue share on referrals. Higher-tier partners receive more benefits, including custom pricing for partners, co-branded marketing and sales materials, a dedicated channel manager, priority support, and even free tickets to their annual Conex conference.
Key Takeaway: Offering a free sandbox account to partners can help partners both to grow their own business, and to better learn and understand your product.
21. Wistia’s Video Hosting Service
When it comes to video hosting, Wistia is the best tool on the market. Wistia helps agencies run video marketing campaigns for their clients and provides video analytics to help agencies prove the ROI of their services. Customers and agencies can track who’s watching which videos and for how long—invaluable data for a sales team.
Like most SaaS companies here, Wistia’s partner program is tiered and free to join. All partners have access to sales training, comparative data and case studies, and an internal agency community and directory. Higher tiers require partners to bring in increasing monthly revenue from referrals but unlock benefits, including public directory listings, dedicated sales coaches, the ability to guest post on Wistia’s blog, and an invitation to speak at partner events. While there’s no cost to join the program, Wistia doesn’t offer commissions on referrals.
Key Takeaway: Focus your partner program page on benefits, not features, to best sell the program to potential partners.
22. Vidyard’s Online Video Marketing Platform
Vidyard helps turn video viewers into customers with advanced video tools for sales, marketing, and customer support teams. Partner agencies can deliver personalized video strategy and marketing services to their clients as well as help them measure their campaign success through Vidyard’s integrated reporting system.
Each Vidyard partner is paired with a dedicated Partner Success Manager, a Channel Program Manager to assist with co-marketing activities, free versions of their video sales tools, and specialized training in personalized video creation, video marketing automation, and sales enablement. Vidyard provides a directory of Vidyard experts sorted by specialty.
Key Takeaway: Enterprise level partnerships require more hands-on support from your partnership team.
23. Klaviyo’s Data-Driven Email Marketing Tool
When it comes to data-driven ecommerce email marketing, Klaviyo is one of the best tools on the market. They fill the gaps left by the big ecommerce providers, providing data-driven email marketing and Facebook Ads management tools that are both easy for clients to use and easy for agency partners to support.
Klaviyo’s partner program is strong, offering commissions on all referrals, a dedicated partner newsletter, and access to a Slack community filled with other marketing agencies. Higher tiers also benefit from co-marketing materials and activities and a listing in Klaviyo’s partner directory.
Key Takeaway: Peer-to-peer communities in tools like Slack give partners the opportunity to ask questions and share opinions with other like-minded partners.
24. WP Engine’s Managed WordPress Hosting Service
WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting provider. Since they specialize only in WordPress, they provide a more-focused solution to their customers. They’re best known for their fast performance and strong security.
WP Engine partners are eligible for access to a dedicated partner portal, advanced developer tools, co-branded landing pages, a listing in their partner directory, and free staging accounts. Higher-tier partners also receive dedicated sales support, lead sharing, co-marketing resources, and custom training. WP Engine provides separate public directories of consultants and agencies, making it easy for businesses both large and small to find the right partner.
Key Takeaway: A partner portal gives your partners and customers with self-help tools, marketing content, and training where and when they need it.
25. Zuora’s Subscription Management Platform
Zuora makes it easy for SaaS companies to launch and manage subscription payments on a massive scale.
Zuora partners of all tiers receive a listing in Zuora’s public partner directory as well as invitations to events. Higher-tier partners also receive premier support and training, co-marketing and co-sales materials, lead referrals from Zuora, a dedicated account manager, and more.
Key Takeaway: Higher-tier benefits like sales training can be offered to lower-tier partners for an additional fee.
26. Ruler Analytics’ Marketing Attribution Platform
Ruler Analytics helps marketing agencies collect the data they need to show ROI on their campaigns. Agencies can monitor not just call performance, but all channel, campaign, and keyword data in one location.
Ruler Analytics partners enjoy special monthly incentives to help introduce new clients to the platform as well as ongoing revenue share. They provide strong training and custom marketing materials to help partner agencies market their services as well as a white label version of Ruler with support for custom subdomains that agencies can utilize for their client reporting. In a unique twist, Ruler also offers additional revenue share for recruiting other partners, something many other SaaS platforms could stand to take advantage of.
Key Takeaway: Offering revenue share for recruiting additional partners is an easy way for your partner program to stand out.
27. Auth0’s Universal Authentication Platform
Auth0 makes it easy for SaaS providers to authenticate their users across web and mobile applications. Auth0 Technology Partners can utilize the Auth0 platform in their own B2B SaaS tools, and Solution Partners can consult, refer, and help customers build new apps or integrate the Auth0 platform into their existing apps.
Auth0’s partner program doesn’t provide a public directory of partners, but they do provide a lead form to inquire about partners that can help with specific issues. They also provide generous resale and referral commissions as well as strong pre- and post-sale support to ensure the success of their partners.
Key Takeaway: Offering generous referral commissions are important, especially when first starting your partner program.
28. Copper’s Productivity-Focused CRM Tool
Copper embeds your CRM right into Gmail, making it easy for agencies to update opportunities and manage their pipeline.
Becoming a Copper partner unlocks exclusive discounts and partner rewards as well as early access to new products and features. Copper also offers a Reseller Program with additional benefits for high-volume partners. Partners earn a one-time commission of a one-month licensing cost, once that customer has maintained their account for three months.
Key Takeaway: Your partners are often also your best users – be sure to tap them for their feedback when developing new product features.
29. Optimizely’s Conversion Rate Optimization Software
Optimizely’s A/B testing software allows SaaS companies to take the guesswork out of product development and marketing, making it easy to run and manage A/B tests to optimize conversions and product experience.
Partnering with Optimizely includes comprehensive developer support and enablement, a custom sandbox for experimentation, and access to Optimizely’s partner community and certifications through Optimizely Academy. Co-marketing resources are provided for partners along with a dedicated partner manager and joint sales collateral to help with sales enablement. All partners are listed in a public directory of Optimizely partners, and Optimizely will pay a 10-20% commission on the first year of customer revenue.
Key Takeaway: Offering a certification program can help increase your partners increase trust with their own customers.
30. SnapApp’s Interactive Content Solution
SnapApp is a popular tool for creating interactive and engaging content, including quizzes, calculators, surveys, and more, to help clients capture more leads. SnapApp also integrates closely with leading marketing automation providers and CRM solutions, allowing clients to collect an even deeper picture of the leads and prospects they collect using the tool.
SnapApp partners can utilize the tool for their own marketing at a discounted rate along with a sandbox for testing tool features and creating demos for clients and prospects.
While they don’t provide revenue share for new clients, SnapApp does provide education on interactive marketing best practices, comprehensive onboarding and platform training for partners, sales support, and co-marketing opportunities.
Key Takeaway: Arming your partners with educational content centered around your product and best practices helps them sell your product to their customers.
There you have it—30 of the best partner programs in SaaS. If you’re applying these lessons when building your own partner program (and we hope you do!), we’d love to hear from you.
The post 30 of the Best SaaS Partner Programs (and Why They Are So Good) appeared first on Partner Relationship Management Software (PRM).
- Published in Canal Partners News, News
What is an Ethics and Compliance Program, and Why is it Important to Rehabilitation Providers?
Tuesday, 11 September 2018
- Published in Canal Partners News, News
PetDesk Featured on the Apple App Store!
Monday, 10 September 2018
We’re so excited to announce that PetDesk is currently featured in the “New Apps We Love” section within the Apple App store! We’re deeply honored to have made it past the thousands of mobile applications that pass through the Apple…
The post PetDesk Featured on the Apple App Store! appeared first on PetDesk.
- Published in Canal Partners News, News
5 simple ways agencies can get their clients to increase ad spend
Monday, 10 September 2018
Convincing your clients to increase their ad spend is one of the toughest conversations you can have if you work at an SEM agency.
There can be multiple reasons behind your desire to increase your client’s budget. Maybe you’ve seen consistent success and are trying to ramp up their campaigns. Maybe you’re running a percentage-of-ad-spend pricing model and want more revenue in your own pocket. It’s even possible you’ve been struggling to produce results specifically because of the restraints a small budget creates.
Regardless of the reasons why, it’s important that you communicate how increasing their ad spend will benefit your clients. And this post will walk you through five simple ways you can (plus how to handle a few objections).
1. Getting results? Try scaling up
If you’ve been running the campaign successfully for some time, you may want to increase your client’s budget in order to further improve performance.
For example, let’s say that your monthly budget is $1,000 and you took over the campaign with a CPC (cost per click) of $5. This means that — if your budget is evenly dispersed throughout the month — the campaign generates 200 clicks. If you’re able to lower the CPC down to $2.50, then you should also double your traffic without increasing your budget.
Considering that they’re paying half of what they used to pay per click, you can then convince your client to increase their budget accordingly. Increasing their budget by a factor of two would increase clicks by a factor of four.
That’s an opportunity that a client will likely be more receptive to. Doubling down on wins is a great way to convince clients to increase their ad spend in a way that shows them direct results.
2. Show competitors’ budgets are higher
An argument that many marketers rely on to convince their clients to increase ad spend is that their competitors are spending more. Now, this is a great way to motivate your clients to spend more. And, especially in the pay-to-play word of PPC, allowing your competition to monopolize certain keywords certainly won’t help your CTR (click through rate) or CPA (cost per acquisition).
However, to convince your clients to expand your budget, you’ll need some proof. Thankfully, there’s plenty of competitive analysis tools out there for you to choose from. Here’s just a few to start:
If you can show how your client’s competition is drowning out your client’s ad visibility due to their larger budget, you should have a better chance of getting more ad spend to work with.
3. Prove current budget is too small for testing
Any PPC or CRO expert will tell you that the root of all success in paid advertising comes from diligent split testing. Sadly, one of the biggest mistakes that some PPC managers make is failing to give their split tests statistical significance. This is either because they’re not letting them run long enough, or failing to generate enough visibility to reach enough users to analyze.
Both of these are actually caused by too small of a budget. To run statistically significant split tests, you need to be able to generate enough traffic in a short enough amount of time before labeling them as wins or losses. Otherwise, you may be missing out on opportunities that you’ve deemed to slow-moving or ineffective, only because too few users were exposed to your new variant.
Convincing your client to increase their ad spend here should be easier than other situations, mainly because this is a problem that you’ll face rather immediately. Without enough budget, you’ll have a pretty difficult time getting any PPC campaign up and running, let alone optimized.
4. Increase the number of channels the client uses
We’ve mentioned how proving to your clients that their competitors spend more is a great way to convince them to increase ad spend. Well, showing them that their competitors are advertising across other channels is another great way.
It turns out that FOMO (fear of missing out) is actually a driving force when it comes to competitive PPC. No client wants to be missing out on possible views, clicks, and sales that their competition is capitalizing on. Worse than that, you don’t want your competition getting these leads without having to compete with you on the keyword bids for them.
Keep in mind that the more marketers are bidding on certain keywords, and the more traffic they generate, the higher the minimum bids will be. Which means that you missing out on any given paid channel is one less bidder in the market for your competition to fight with.
5. Create new goals for your team to chase
The last way agencies can convince their clients to increase ad spend is fairly straightforward. If you’ve consistently been hitting goals that your clients are setting for you, maybe it’s time to up the ante.
Setting goals that are a bit beyond your reach and will push your team to improve their campaigns even further will do two things for your agency-client relationship:
- It will show your client that you’re not resting on your laurels, but continually looking to grow their business
- It should open the door to discussions about increasing their ad spend to help with these newly-set and higher goals
Keep in mind that providing some tangible numbers behind these new goals and opportunities will be key in convincing your clients to increase their ad spend.
Much of the success in convincing your clients to increase their budget comes down to communication. Keep this in mind as you guide your clients through the conversation to make sure they understand you’re trying to grow their business, not just your bottom line.
6. Bonus: Handle objections with clarity
When raising the question of increased ad spend, you may run into some pushback from your clients. That’s only natural, as they’re the ones who’ll be spending more money. And nobody wants to throw more money into something that they aren’t certain will be generating more revenue in return.
There are countless different objections you may confront during this conversation. Below are just a few you may have to deal with:
- Why such a big increase? We won’t increase more than X%.
- I’m not seeing any results, why would I increase my budget?
- Can’t you get more clicks with the budget you already have?
Whether you’re dealing with arbitrary budget limits, a lack of results, or a stubborn client who simply doesn’t see the opportunity, the solution will usually be the same. And what is that solution? Strong tracking and communication between client and agency — so you can clearly show your clients the value of increasing ad spend.
Here are some more tips on how to handle objections your clients may have to increase ad spend. (Also, if your clients are objecting to adopting call tracking, here’s how to overcome that.)
Directly tying your performance to their newly generated revenue and business growth will make these conversations go much smoother.
Conclusion: Communicating value increases ad spend
In the end, convincing your clients to increase ad spend is all about communicating its value to them. The more clearly and more concisely you can explain how increasing ad spend will increase new winning opportunities, the better odds you’ll have at seeing that budget increase. Make sure that it’s the client’s growth that is prioritized, and soon enough you’ll see more trust, faith, and — most of all — budget.
Sean Thomas Martin is the Content Manager at KlientBoost — a PPC & CRO agency in Irvine, California specializing in rapid testing and conversion-centric design that generates ROI on top of revenue.
The post 5 simple ways agencies can get their clients to increase ad spend appeared first on CallRail.
- Published in Canal Partners News, News