Why Is Everyone Talking About SaaS and Its Tools?

A subset of cloud computing, SaaS eliminates the need to do things manually. It also saves you a butt load of time and money developing in-house applications for essential functions like email marketing, CRM, chat interfaces, etc. 

Leveraging SaaS applications created by external firms end up costing you less, and it is not your headache to keep those apps updated with the latest feature developments and plugins. What’s more, the SaaS space is noisy and diverse, with multitudes of applications doing the rounds. 

While it is good to be spoilt for choice, you need to shortlist various tools that cater to needs such as email marketing, accounting, customer retention, pricing, project management, accounting, and much more.  

Top SaaS Tools for Online Business

If you run an online company or are building one, you must pick a mix of SaaS tools that are fast loading, user-friendly, and cost-effective. And, top tool names are what this article compiles for you. 

Check out our list of SaaS apps handpicked for online businesses to ensure every aspect of operations is looked after.

Top Pick for Email Marketing Automation

SendX

Be sure to welcome SendX into your online marketing fold. An affordable and intuitive email marketing software, SendX will automate email campaigns for you along with offering a comprehensive library of free email templates. Start designing, scheduling, and tracking newsletters, discount coupons, product launches, or any other type of campaign over email with the help of this software.

Don’t have an email list yet? With SendX, you can build one from scratch? How? This SaaS tool assists with crafting pop-ups and in-line forms that can be sent out to the few email addresses you have, where you can incentivize the reader to refer your brand to their friends and fill out their contact details.

The feature story for SendX does not end here! If you are a marketer for an online company, you understand the criticality of tracking your campaign’s success. SendX allows you to test the efficacy of your email marketing campaign by auto-generating custom performance reports. One such example is the Heatmap report, which throws light on the CTAs working for the target audience.

Archifolio – architecture portfolio builder:

Thinking about starting your own architectural practice? Already managing architecture projects? The road to getting clients starts with your portfolio website, so it has to be on point.

Archifolio allows architects and interior designers to build their stunning portfolios in a matter of minutes. Not weeks, not days, but on your lunch break. It’s a personal portfolio builder specifically for creatives working in architecture or interior design.

Try Archifolio to get:

• a fully customizable, blazing-fast portfolio website,
• unlimited storage for your unlimited ideas,
• industry-specific guiding questions and writing prompts, and
• the possibility to export your site to PDF, to name a few of the features.

You can build your Archifolio site completely for free. Ready to start today?

Top Pick for Team Collaboration

Slack

When you are conducting your entire business online, you receive a great deal of feedback from customers in real-time for which you can take corrective action instantly, but not without the help of your team members. Imagine getting in touch with your IT department to rectify a glitch immediately over email or chat. Even calling does not work at times because many team members need to work on the problem that also requires a visual.

This is where Slack comes in handy. An anomaly of sorts, this application works like a hybrid chat/email messaging tool. Slack allows you to chat with multiple people together – video calling included, and also lets you share all sorts of files while on call. What’s more, it works seamlessly on any handheld device. It has an intuitive UI, and you get a lot of features for free. 

Fyle:

Fyle is an expense report software that decrypts the age-old problem of expense management and corporate card reconciliation. It’s the first expense software in the industry to allow real-time spend management on cards you already own. This means effortless spend management minus the need to switch cards. Also, Fyle integrates with accounting software like SoftLedger, QuickBooks Online, NetSuite, Xero, and more! This ensures effortless employee expense reporting, easy credit card reconciliations, and no financial leaks in your system.

Top Pick for CRM

Hubspot

You already knew we were going to pick HubSpot for this category, didn’t you? Simply because there is nothing quite like it for inbound marketing. This SaaS app offers an exhaustive suite of tools that simplifies customer management and marketing. Hubspot also provides a comprehensive variety of training resources for subscribers that make it easier to use.

While the full version of Hubspot ranges between US$50 to US$1200 depending on the number of features and users you add, you can subscribe to their basic version for free – but only after providing a business email address. 

Top Pick for Project Management

CHMS:

Church Management Software (ChMS) is a crucial SaaS tool for religious organizations. It simplifies administrative tasks, enhances community engagement, and facilitates efficient event scheduling, financial tracking, and member communication.
ChMS empowers religious institutions to focus on their mission while managing their operations seamlessly. It’s an essential tool for any thriving online religious community.

Teamwork:

Teamwork is a project management software built to help agencies manage the entire lifecycle of their client work in one place. Growing a client work business is tough and getting tougher. It involves juggling multiple projects at once, managing clients, keeping teams productive, streamlining processes and continually improving profit margins. Businesses need a single solution that manages the entire lifecycle of a client, from quote to cash, in one easy-to-use, effective platform. 

Teamwork gives you the tools and reports you need to maximize your resources –  and your profitability. The platform provides world-class project management with all the features you would expect but also provides integrated time tracking to improve project planning, financial management, robust reporting, and free access for clients, to ensure your projects are delivered on time and on budget.

Teamwork makes it easy to find the right plan for your team. Teamwork offers a range of pricing plans. Starting with the Starter plan at $5.99 and scaling up to the Grow plan at $19.99 per month.

Basecamp

Many online companies love Basecamp for their project management features. There will always be employees working remotely or from a different city but will require a virtual base or control center to park submissions and update project status.

This is where Basecamp kicks in! It is one of the more advanced project management tools used to share files, monitor deadlines, schedule tasks, and much more. The interface is straightforward, and the software comes at a flat rate of US$99 per month. 

ProofHub

In days of hybrid work, managing widely distributed team members and tracking tasks and projects is something that not every project manager dreams of! Without using the right tools, how are you supposed to know who’s on to what and whether your projects are progressing as planned? 

Well, ProofHub is your all-in-one solution! It helps project teams (of all sizes) achieve efficient project management and seamless team collaboration through a suite of work management and team collaboration features. ProofHub enables both in-office and remote teams to manage various aspects of work without having to switch various applications. 

Ease of usage, intuitive interface, and minimal learning curve of ProofHub enable even less tech-savvy users to get familiar in minimum time. Some valuable features encouraging work management and team collaboration include – Chat, Online proofing, Task management, Timesheets, Real-time updates, Gantt charts, Forms, Reporting, and Notes. 

Fixed pricing plans (starting from $45 per month when billed annually, with unlimited users) make ProofHub a pocket-friendly SaaS solution for managing projects and teams from any location.  

Financial Cents:

Project management software is an essential tool for project managers and teams looking to improve project outcomes, especially for those remote teams. Various types of project management software are available, ranging from simple to complex systems catering to specific industries. Suppose you are looking for project management in the accounting industry.

Well, Financial Cents is the right solution for you!

Financial cents is an accounting practice management software where it helps accounting firms organize employees, projects to client management. Its features are project management, workflow automation, organizing emails, client database, document management, employees time tracker, billing and it also has a client portal. Even with a lot of features, the software is easy-to-use that comes with a friendly pricing of $49 a month.

Top Pick for Payment Processing

Square

If you run an online business, a lot rides on how seamless is your payment gateway. Square, in that sense, tops our list. This tool is excellent at processing payments, organizing payroll, conducting inventory management, and offering customer spending analytics.

Square is indeed the only payment gateway that connects to a free online store feature, which automatically allows Square payments.

Top Pick for Gathering Data

Survey Monkey

A reasonably well-established SaaS management tool, Survey Monkey allows companies to create and deploy online surveys without a hitch and collate data in a clean and understandable format. Floating a primary survey and gathering analytics for it is entirely free of charge but is limited in terms of scope.

The full version, costing only US$25 per month, allows you to send surveys with endless questions to several customers or readers all at once. Google Forms is also a good alternative if you want a simple data collection or surveying tool.

Zonka Feedback:

Zonka Feedback is an all-in-one feedback management software that enables you to measure, track, and grow customer satisfaction. In addition, you can also measure employee satisfaction, customer effort, and other metrics. Zonka Feedback is easy to use with a comprehensive user interface, including a feedback form, NPS feedback, and many other metrics. Use the tool to create surveys for various industries and gather customer experience on the go.

Top Pick for Business Intelligence

Google Analytics

Let’s face it! There is not much point to marketing unless you can figure out how impactful they have been in engaging your target audience. Also, learning about what your leads want and bridging their need gaps is essential. But, to figure out such valuable information, you need a robust business intelligence tool. And, Google Analytics is it!

This freemium (free + premium) SaaS application provides tools that help you analyze customer and business data on a single screen. With Google Analytics, you can measure various customer traffic metrics, divide visitors by location, age, or other such criteria and create detailed reports to understand the efficacy of your personalized marketing campaigns.

Simply put, there are very few SaaS tools out there that let you visualize performance data quite like Google Analytics. If you want to delve deeper into what your prospects want or how are customers already engaging with your brand, Google Analytics is the business intelligence tool for you!    

Top Pick for Website Building

Wix

Undoubtedly, every business today requires a digital presence in the form of a user-friendly website. And, Wix helps you build one! It is a popular SaaS tool that allows brands to build user-friendly websites at a nominal expense. Wix also has several templates that may be free of charge.

One of the best parts about this website builder is that you don’t require any coding. So, whether you are a first-time builder or a veteran, you can always turn to Wix for state-of-the-art web design. This tool offers three variants through which you can create your website. These include – 

• Wix ADI
• Wix Editor
• Wix Code 

Each option offers a level of advanced functionalities. A great deal of customization is also possible with Wix. For example, when you want to sell on Wix and other marketplaces, you can use integrating plugins like Wix eBay integration, Wix Etsy integration

Top Pick for Customer Support

Freshdesk

Sure, you know how critical the business function of customer support is. But, are you using the right application to carry this task with flair. If not, then towards Freshdesk! This award-winning SaaS tool can assist your business with customer support and ticketing systems.    

Freshdesk is replete with a robust range of intuitive features like multi-channel collaboration, reporting, etc., that you can leverage for providing exceptional customer service. This cloud-based software is often used by small and large corporations alike. 

Additionally, Freshdesk also integrates seamlessly with live chat, cell phone support, and other real-time engagement channels. It supports customer engagement over iOS as well as Android Devices.

Top Pick for All-Round Management

Google Workspace

We saved the best for the last! Google’s Workspace includes a bunch of tools for businesses around the world. Whether you choose Google Analytics to track the traffic on your website, Google Docs for collaborative cloud sharing or editing of write-ups and images, or integrate Gmail with your company’s email, your SaaS portfolio is incomplete without Google Workspace. 

Google’s SaaS gamut has various tools – some of which you pay for, while a lot of it is free. There is no real alternative to Google Workspace, and understandably so.

Top Pick for Team Collaboration Tool

We all know that team collaboration is complicated and messy! But here comes an amazing team collaboration tool for your rescue to make your cross-department communication easier and faster. Use its SaaS version via the internet, deploy its on-premise on your air-gapped or local networks, take its Chat APIs or go with the custom application; all comes at quite an affordable price tag with a power-packed feature stack.

It anyways provides all the basic messaging and calling facilities like direct messaging, group conversations, audio voice calling, video conferencing, and more. But the real work productive features like Fork out, jointly code, advanced group calling, chat area filters, in-app help, powerful admin dashboard, etc, helps the teams to conclude the project conversations faster.

Moreover, Troop Messenger also allows its users to work on their daily apps like Google Drive, OneDrive and alternatives by letting them integrate into the tool. Besides, you can also use product management software to allow your team to collaborate effectively.

Pixpa:

Pixpa is an all-in-one platform for creators and small businesses to create beautiful, professional websites complete with a built-in online store, blog, and client galleries. Pixpa’s versatile platform has everything you need to showcase your work, share ideas and sell your stuff online, without any coding knowledge.

Building your website on Pixpa is super easy. Begin by signing up for a 15-day full featured trial. Pick a template of your choice as the starting point. Pixpa offers a multitude of stunning, pixel-perfect, mobile friendly templates.

You can customize your site design using a simple and powerful visual style editor. Adding pages to your website is a breeze with Pixpa’s drag-and-drop page builder. With a host of built-in tools such as SEO manager, Marketing Pop Ups, Announcement Bar and much more, you don’t need any extra plugins to start growing your traffic and converting more leads.

Top Pick for Call Management Software:

8×8:

When it comes to reaching out consumers and providing your callers with quick resolution for queries, you need a call management software that isn’t only user-friendly, but also inclusive, convenient, smooth, and integration ready. Think of a caller who has a complaint about one of the products you sell and is in need of a quick solution.

You’d need a call management software that is cloud-based, has all the previous information of that particular user’s interaction, history and also allows for easy switching, routing, and transfer of information, all in one window. 8×8’s call management software is just like that, and more.

It offers consumers easy access to information they seek and agents an end-to-end solution where they can view, access, share, and search information on a single interface. What’s amazing is the ability of this software to be easily handled, installed, and updated. It’s packed with interactive features, attractive UI, and a ton of other features that make the job easy and help provide exceptional customer support.

To Sum Up

Believe it or not, the SaaS space is noisy with cloud-based applications after applications. But, we have sorted through a bit of the maze so that you can have your primary SaaS infrastructure in place. Remember, there are various SaaS tools for numerous categories like ad management, time-sheeting, etc. which you may need as your operations grow further.

But, until then, these top tools have got you covered!

The post Top SaaS Tools for Online Business appeared first on Botsify.

It’s been proven that e-mails are the way forward, with numbers backing them up. 87% of marketers depend on emails to nurture their audiences. Building an active email list will ensure you have a steady revenue of income as well as an audience that reacts positively to your timely messages in their inbox. Your email list will ensure that you, as a marketer, can differentiate your customers based on their behavioral patterns and purchasing capabilities.

We’ve compiled a neat list of email building methods for you to use. If you feel that you’ve better suggestions on other techniques, feel free to drop it in the comments, and we’ll take a look!

What is List Building?

Email list building is not a one-stop solution. It is a continuous process of analyzing, comparing and editing to get the best return on investment possible. In simpler words, email list building is nurturing an audience online to get them to subscribe to your emails. Over time, you can send them marketing emails, product launches, company updates, birthday wishes and more.

List building is a process where you increase your audience and/or customers online and segregate them into different lists. Once you answer the question what is email marketing, the next step is working on your email list. These lists can be differentiated based on parameters such as “frequent buyers,” “new customers,” “offer customers” and more. You can then hyper-target your emails to these separate audience lists and get them to visit your website and explore or link them to the online store to browse or purchase from your catalog.

Why Should You Own Your Audience?

Email marketing is one way with which you can connect with your audience and also understand how they interact with their favorite brands. 49% of consumers revealed that they would love to receive promotional emails from their favorite brands weekly. Consumers love feeling special, and emails are one way you can do that for them. Today’s hyper-digital world means that mobile phones play a significant role even when it comes to email marketing.

Adding videos to your emails increases their chances of being opened by 300%! While social media is a great way to market your brand online, it isn’t conclusive as these media trends keep changing over time. Audiences and preferences, along with the ever-changing algorithm, meaning that you’re never fully in control over who sees your posts and daily content. It can be hard to keep track of engagement rates and a lot of the other parameters.

With email marketing, however, you’ll be able to access your contact’s details and not depend on any particular channel to communicate anything with them. It’s all in your hands, and the only dependency from your end is choosing a great email service provider. Thankfully, there are some awesome email marketing software like Mailchimp available to make your job easier.

Basic Pre Requisites for Building an Engaging Email List:

To build an email list requires a bit of groundwork to help you get started. If you’re building from scratch, you can keep track of a few of the prerequisites that will help you understand how you can improve with this method:

1. Relevant traffic:

A target audience that allows you to send relevant emails is important. You need to do the research and understand who your target audience is before you begin the process of designing an email. Once you attract the relevant audience with your marketing efforts, your emails will get a better response rate from them.

2. Optimized website:

Your audience that’s visiting the site must begin to take action over time. Whether that’s in the form of placing an order, clicking on a blog link or adding an item to a wish-list, all of these forms a significant part of the CRO or Conversion Rate Optimization. Find an excellent bait to attract your customers onto your website via your email strategy to make the most of your strategy.
By getting your audience to browse your website, you’re increasing traffic which is directly related to the chances of a purchase. Revenue has to be the ultimate goal and delightful customer experience on your site will ensure you get a good chunk in the bank.

3. Lead capturing tool:

Since you’re getting traffic onto your website, you need a good tool to capture email addresses and details as well. There are plenty of methods to do so, with landing pages, pop-up forms and online forms as well. The best way to go about this is to try out different methods until you find one that works effectively.

Capturing your audience’s emails will make it easier to market your company’s products and services and also find space in their inboxes. This increases the chances of a purchase over time, giving your business it’s a much-needed boost in revenue.

Actionable Techniques To Start Owning Your Audience:

So, without further ado, here’s what you need to do to begin nurturing your audience and building a solid email list

1. The Right Pop-Ups Make A Big Difference:

Pop-ups allow your users to quickly subscribe to your website and receive regular communication from your company. They’re also a great way to help them download upgrades to your content and grab their attention just before they exit the page.

A great way to use your pop-up is by posting a certain piece of content and then inviting people to come over and sign up to the mailing list. This way, you know that they’re interested in seeing this particular topic and can keep them in a separate list for articles or content related to the same.

The people from this list can be placed in the general newsletter list of your brand as well and help digital managers communicate more about your company towards them.

2. Give Them Premium Infographics:

If you’re a company that’s into analytics, then you have got a gold mine of data that you’re sitting on! A lot of companies generally have access to premium data about the industry they’re working in. If you have the budget, hire an excellent graphic designer and create some awesome infographics for your customers.

This will give your customers more insight into your industry and also interest them in knowing more about your company in general. Once you’re able to provide them with such premium information, they’re going to look forward to your newsletters and infographics, and you can leverage the same to sell as well.

3. Allow Them To Opt-In And Out:

Customers don’t enjoy being hoarded with multiple emails and newsletters, especially if they don’t remember signing up for them. It’s important that you specify what you’re providing them. If they’re okay with being sent regular emails, then you know for sure that they’re interested in your brand and will more likely return to interact.

Giving them this option is the best thing you could do because it is ethical and also a legal requirement in some countries. The least you could do is add a “No thanks” option for readers to choose when your lead-gen form appears on their screen.

4. Wish Them On Special Occasions:

If your users have entered their birthdays or anniversaries on your forms, then you can leverage that information to your advantage. Send out exclusive emails to subscribers on these select dates along with a gift card or some reward. You’ll be able to increase the chance of purchase as well as stay fresh in their minds as a brand that cares.

Of course, you shouldn’t go overboard and demand their important dates from them. Leave it as an option to choose so that they can opt for it if they want to. Also, specify why you’re taking this information so they can trust you with it.

5. Share Real Testimonials On Email:

Social proof plays a substantial role in getting more visitors to your website and highlights the best qualities of your brand. If you’ve 10,000 people reading your blog, that’s certainly something worth letting everyone know.

You can promote these numbers with the help of a sidebar that’s located on your website and also include testimonials and visitor figures every month. These pieces of information will give your site the credibility it needs to stand apart and also gain the trust of any new visitor or potential customer. Ultimately, it increases social proof, and that plays a big role in gaining new followers for your emails.

Conclusion:

So, we’ve shared a list of what we think are some of the best techniques to help you nurture your audience and build a tremendous online audience. Remember to always give your customers the space they need to consume your content and yourself the same to create unique content.

Get yourself a great email service provider by comparing a few and you’ll be well on your way to building effective lists that get you the revenue you deserve.

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