Q&A from FastSpring's Webinar: 5 Ways to Effectively Grow Your Software Business in 2019

1. Webinar Q&A
5 Ways to Grow Your Software Business in 2019 and Beyond
1. What are some other strategies you would suggest for increasing growth and
revenue in 2019?
Social media serves as a great ecosystem for testing. This is often a place where
we test minor tweaks to our messaging, gauge content interest, and promote
our employer branding in an effort to help with recruitment and brand
awareness. The key is to find the right social media networks that work best for
your business.
Another useful strategy is email marketing. Email is still a great channel for
engaging with target audiences. In fact, MarketingSherpa reports that 61% of
consumers enjoy receiving promotional emails weekly. Emails are perfect for
sharing special promotions, product updates, or company news.
2. What are the essential roles on the marketing team that can help make these
strategies work?
Every marketing team is different. It all comes down to the skillsets you have
available. Often, we marketers end up wearing many hats, but some of the key
roles for a successful marketing team include: Content Manager (and maybe
another member to provide additional content support!), SEO Manager, Web
Developer, Marketing Operations Manager, Marketing Programs Manager, and
Designer.
3. How often do you evaluate the performance of these strategies?
You want to go into your reports early and often so you can spot trends quickly
and make necessary adjustments. At a minimum you should review your
marketing performance on a weekly basis. Once you get in the habit of
measuring everything, you will be able to make smarter predictions and adapt to
fluctuations based on seasonality and audience preferences.

2. 4. What are some tips for getting a customer to agree to participating in a
testimonial?
Selecting a customer for a testimonial is all about strategy. You want to find a
customer who is first and foremost, happy with their experience. Secondly, you
want to select a customer that has a good story and is willing to chat with your
content team. Some great sources for customer testimonials include positive
reviews from review sites. You can respond to a glowing review with your team’s
contact information to learn more about the customer. You can rely on your
customer support teams to help you identify positive customer interactions that
may develop into great customer testimonials. Or you can look through your
customer list to identify any key brand advocates or influencers that are already
using your product and would be willing to participate.
5. How do you determine success of an A/B test?
A/B testing is very much a science. With tools like Google Optimize or
Optimizely, you can easily set up a test that measures a control and variant for
statistical significance. Once it is clear there is a “winner” then you know the A/B
test has successfully run its course. When you A/B test, make sure you are being
very specific about what you are testing. Too many variants, and you will not be
able to determine whether it is the new CTA button or the updated messaging
that is driving the higher conversion rate. Keep it simple!
6. How often do you recommend we create long-form content?
Every business is different. Our goal at FastSpring is to develop at least two
pieces of long-form content every quarter. It’s more important that you
consistently develop long-form content rather than just churn out long-form
content for the sake of creating content. At the end of the day, you really want
to focus on developing the content that is going to inform, educate, and
(hopefully) entertain your audience. Measuring the effectiveness of your
content will help you better understand the preferences and needs of your
customers.
7. Do you recommend working with freelancers to help with content creation?
It is important for content to be owned in-house. However, that shouldn’t
prevent you from working with trusted third-party partners—agencies or
individual freelancers—to help with developing content. Once you have set

3. messaging, branding, and voice/tone in place, it is much easier to get outside
sources up and running to help with smaller content tasks like blog writing. Be
very selective with who you choose to partner with externally. Finding the right
freelance writer takes time and patience—especially if you are in a niche market.
8. How often do you ask for reviews from customers?
Just like with testimonials, asking for reviews can be a tricky business. Too often
and you end up causing friction. Too little and you may not get any significant
engagement. The key is consistency. We have seen great success with setting up
Net Promoter Score surveys at key points in the customer lifecycle—at the 30,
60, and 90-day mark to start. You want to be able to get the feedback you need
from your customers at crucial moments—for example, if a customer is
dissatisfied with their experience, you want to get that feedback right away so
you can take the necessary steps to address their concerns. It’s all about building
that relationship with the customer.