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AMB: Let’s start with HubSpot. Talk a little bit about what you do and what value you bring your customers.

ML: We really encourage inbound marketers to “create marketing people love.” Practically speaking, HubSpot is an all-in-one inbound marketing software platform. So where some companies just do social media or emails or landing pages or design, HubSpot does all of those things.

But more than just software, HubSpot advocates inbound marketing as a philosophy: our customers, our blog readers, and our social media followers all become part of a broader ecosystem of marketers who believe in a new way of spreading your message. We’re enabling marketers globally to create remarkable content that really engages people so they can convert strangers into visitors, visitors into leads, and then leads into ongoing relationships, and accompany that content with a broader strategy to align marketing and sales, delight customers, and improve the efficiency of their marketing efforts.

The way I think about it is we’re demystifying the world of online marketing.

AMB: In your 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Annual Report, you called inbound marketing an “ideology.” What did you mean by that?

ML: Inbound marketing is not just another tool; it’s a whole way of looking at marketing. Sometimes marketers chase the next flashy thing. So they’ll hire an inbound marketer to sit next to the web designer and “do” inbound marketing. But inbound marketing isn’t something you “do”; it’s the way you do it. It’s how you look at all of your marketing.

You ask yourself: How can I create a system that brings people in? How can I design a website that creates a thought process? How can I create a call to action? It’s about understanding how all the pieces work together.

AMB: Why should marketers care about creating marketing people love?

ML: Because I believe marketing people love is the only type of marketing that actually works. We’re all so connected now. We all have our little constituencies. If I love Bavarian cake frosting, I can go out and find people who love Bavarian cake frosting. Creating marketing people love is about caring—deeply caring—about what you’re doing. It’s about finding the audience that’s going to be innately engaged with your content. And it’s about figuring out how to translate your passion into words.

A lot of times when marketers get online, they start talking like marketers instead of like people. A man would never walk up to a girl in a bar and say, “Looking for the man of your dreams? Your search is over!” I believe the heart of creating marketing people love is knowing how to talk about the essence of what you do. You’re not trying to trick people into a click. There’s no bait-and-switch. It’s a very authentic way of saying, “Look, here’s who we are, here’s what we do, and here’s why you should engage with us.”

AMB: Do you think inbound marketing can fit into a strategy for a SaaS provider?

ML: I really do. There’s just no way to compete on price anymore. There’s always going to be someone who’s better, faster, and cheaper. And you don’t really want price to be the differentiating factor anyway. If you can be the company that customers trust to tell them the truth, that understands their customers’ business, that knows their industry, then you’re not competing on price anymore. It’s a game changer.

AMB: How has word of mouth changed over the years?

ML: Well, it’s all gone online. Social media is the new word of mouth. Twenty-seven percent of all the time spent online is spent on social media sites. And not just that, but people have fundamentally changed the way they buy products. There’s an Accenture report out now that says 63 percent of consumers research companies and brands online. I used to call my father when I wanted to buy a car, but now I look at Consumer Reports. When I need a cab, I get an Uber. And on and on.

The other interesting thing is that we’re right on the cusp of Millenials having purchasing power, which I believe will have an even greater effect on word of mouth marketing than what we’ve already seen. We have to figure out ways of monetizing those conversations. That’s where analytic tools become really important because you can see where and how your audience is engaging with you. You can identify what your fans are talking about, and you can start using their language.

Information isn’t scarce these days; attention is scarce. And more and more people are looking to their social circles to tell them what brands to follow and what to care about.

AMB: Is there a forward-thinking idea that most SaaS providers aren’t adopting?

ML: If SaaS providers aren’t thinking about inbound marketing, they should be. Marketers are just now realizing that customers don’t want a fragmented experience—they want one unified approach and interaction. Inbound marketing facilitates that for companies large and small. The next part is figuring out how to tie all of these disparate channels together. If you have an inbound philosophy about nurturing emails and listening on social and creating great content, how do you combine all of those things?

I think the new era of big data is going to be very interesting because it’s going to provide marketers with a lot of context about their audience that they don’t have yet. My TV can already learn what I want to watch. My house can learn what temperatures I prefer. I think the next phase of marketing is creating marketing aimed at individual people.

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1) Marketing

Hubspot: All of your inbound marketing efforts can take place in the comprehensive Hubspot portal. It’s where your website lives, your blogs are written, case studies/white papers are hosted and where email marketing campaigns can be tracked and managed. The Hubspot social publishing application is an added marketing bonus that allows you to schedule content across social channels. Also, it offers tremendous customer service for technical issues and responses are sent in a timely manner when any problems arise.

“Raise your hand if you know a business that would like more visitors to its website, more leads for its sales team — and more customers to fuel growth. Chances are your hand is up. We all know businesses that want to grow,” Hubspot writes on their homepage.

2) Internal Communication

Slack: Slack is a messaging app that connects all of your communication in one place. It’s where employees communicate about tasks and share files. Slack’s customizable channels are essential for each department within your business funnel (and some fun categories, for internal culture):

It’s free for small businesses, but enterprise licenses can be purchased for companies exceeding the threshold of users and need upgraded file sharing capabilities. They also offer hundreds of integrations that make business life even easier. Slack has become so popular amongst it’s users that their marketing team started a Twitter account dedicated to retweeting all of the praise they’ve been receiving: @SlackLove.

3) CRM

Salesforce: Salesforce helps companies track and manage leads.  You can utilize Salesforce from the very first interaction your client has with you to making that conversion you want.  It’s an essential part of giving your business a streamlined process for leads that yield quick, timely results.

“The Salesforce Customer Success Platform helps companies connect to their customers in a whole new way with our sales, service, marketing, community, and analytics apps.”

4) Engineering

Pivotal Tracker: Pivotal Tracker takes the jumbled web of engineering assignments and turns them into a perfectly manicured dashboard. The software organizes tasks by order of priority and creates a transparent location for all of your engineering projects. Integrations are a large part of what Pivotal Tracker does, and they tie into some of the biggest engineering platforms like Google and GitHub. And they pride themselves on their clients’ ability to learn how their system works in a matter of minutes.

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It might come as a surprise, but SaaS businesses may be the best candidates for a referral program. Think about it: They’re reliant on maintaining a low churn rate, keeping the costs of customer acquisition down, and being able to track metrics easily.

While we know we don’t need to tell you that referral software works wonders for a SaaS company, we’re pretty SaaS-y … so we’ll do it anyway.

1. Referral Programs Help Decrease Churn Rate

Churn rate is arguably the most effective metric for measuring the health of a SaaS provider. Without a low churn rate, the number of new sign-ups is irrelevant because their likely departure keeps your business from collecting a recurring source of revenue.

On the other hand, customers referred by trusted sources have a 37 percent higher retention rate than the average buyer. Meaning, when a referred customer signs up, they’re in it for the long haul. And for a SaaS company that’s dependent on a long-term commitment from sign-ups, that can really make or break the business.

2. Referral Programs Keep the Cost of Acquiring Customers (CAC) Down

Again, referred customers are more valuable for your business than customers who arrive at your site by chance. Consider the implications for your CAC: With more referrals, marketing costs are reduced because you’re attracting new business via existing customers, not paid outbound advertising. Also keep in mind that customer referrals are inherently viral. In other words, when a SaaS loops in a customer referral, they’re not getting just one customer. They’re actually getting that customer and the potential business of said customer’s entire social network. As your loyal customers refer others to your brand, a SaaS can easily build publicity and a stronger brand name—both of which are critical to retaining a user’s trust and support.

3. You Can Easily Track Actionable Metrics

Metrics are an extremely important component of any successful online business, but especially so for a SaaS provider. After all, a SaaS company operates entirely online and thus requires an intimate understanding of their online customer base. Setting up a referral program on your own can be tricky, as well as time intensive. Plus, without referral software you won’t have access to the comprehensive suite of metrics that it provides.

4. More Than a Free Trial

Most SaaS businesses that utilize a referral or affiliate program offer a free trial as an incentive to refer. It’s quick and easy—but is it the best option? With referral software, your business will have the opportunity to reward customers in more creative ways. Perhaps you can try a tiered rewards system where customers are rewarded for referring five friends, or maybe you’ll offer one month of service to customers at no cost.

Sometimes a free trial simply isn’t enough. With comprehensive referral software in place, a SaaS provider has the ability to optimize the incentive structure to accommodate for their niche target base.

Referral marketing has gotten a little SaaS-y lately. But like Grandma always said, you can never have too much SaaS in your life … right?

Share your experience—what types of SaaS companies would you recommend to your friends?

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While you may not see milkmen or newspaper boys wandering around the neighborhood nowadays, subscription delivery services are far from being long gone. We speak from experience. A significant, and increasing, number of our referral software customers offer various subscription services.

More and more, online businesses have embraced the use of subscription delivery services to sell their products online. Subscription commerce is the new trendy business model due to consistent cash flow, high customer retention, and larger customer lifetime value.

But it’s difficult to launch a subscription commerce business without a little help from your friends (in this case, online subscription billing software). Here are the top five online billing software programs to help get any subscription company, from start-up to enterprise, up and running today.

Braintree

If you’re searching for an easy-to-manage API coupled with reasonable pricing, look no further than Braintree. The billing platform stores credit card data directly off of a merchant’s systems on secure servers, and it allows for cards to be recharged or refunded without getting bogged down by re-entering information. Braintree also supports international payments for businesses looking to go global. Pricing is a flat fee of a 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction with no service length commitment.

Chargify

Chargify provides a SaaS billing solution that handles everything from coupons and refunds, to email receipts and free-trial periods. They support billing your customers by credit card or invoicing for larger accounts. Prices start at $65/month for 20 customers, and trend upward to $1,299/month for 10,000 customers. Their service handles recurring transactions and one-time transactions. They have also recently added analytics and other userful metrics for subscription-based businesses. Chargify’s mobile app excels with tasteful design and an easy-to-understand user interface.

Recurly

This software was designed with subscription commerce in mind. Recurly offers customer communications management and an analytics dashboard, and it facilitates account changes with ease. The website states that Recurly can get you up and running in under 30 minutes. This is a bold claim, but one that the software certainly lives up to. Recurly integrates with other gateways, such as PayPal, to give shoppers a more comprehensive suite of payment options. Fees are 1.25 percent, plus 10 cents per transaction; monthly fees start at $69.

Stripe

Stripe’s biggest draw is it’s extremely simple pricing structure: 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction. There’s no setup fee, no monthly fees, no card storage fees, or fees for recurring billing. Users can subscribe customers via Stripe’s application programming interface (API), and the software takes care of the rest. It’s simple, easy-to-use, and cost effective. What’s not to like?

Zuora

Zuora is the billing platform of choice for enterprise-level businesses, providing comprehensive metrics, tax automation, and support for multiple currencies. You get Salesforce and NetSuite integration right out of the box, which saves companies time (read: money) by replacing outdated enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Zuora counts Pandora, Box.net, and Marketo among its many high-profile customers.

Each software comes with its own pluses and minuses. Ultimately your choice will depend on the size and complexity of your subscription commerce business.

Enhancing Your Subscription Billing with the Right Platform

Choosing the right subscription billing platform is crucial for businesses looking to optimize their revenue streams. Effective platforms automate key processes like invoicing, payment collection, and dunning management, reducing manual workload and minimizing errors. Tools like Stripe and Zuora stand out for their flexibility, offering customized pricing models and seamless integration with other business systems, making them ideal for businesses of all sizes.

Moreover, advanced platforms provide comprehensive analytics, allowing businesses to track important metrics like churn rates, MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue), and customer lifetime value. These insights empower companies to refine their subscription strategies, improve customer retention, and drive sustainable growth. Whether you’re managing a SaaS, e-commerce, or membership service, investing in a robust subscription billing platform can significantly enhance your operational efficiency and financial performance.

Request a demo for Ambassador’s platform and learn how it will boost your business growth.

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