Software Stack Editor

5 Effective Sales Copy Examples

Software Stack Editor · April 9, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - Pipedrive is a robust CRM platform, offering automation, contact data collection, webhooks, AI-powered sales assistant, email communications, email marketing, and customisable sales pipeline workflows.

Crafting compelling sales copy is the key to turning a browser into a customer. It’s like having a conversation with your potential buyer where you understand their needs and present your product as the solution.

Effective sales copy should grab your audience’s attention and convince them to buy. Getting this right involves many components, from understanding your audience to storytelling.

In this article, we’ll explore the art and science of writing effective sales copy. We’ll provide actionable tips and real-world examples that spotlight this crucial skill.

What is sales copy (and what makes it effective)?

Sales copy is content written to persuade readers to take a specific action, like purchasing a product or service. It’s an important part of any marketing campaign.

Business owners and marketers use it on websites, landing pages, ads, emails and for social media selling.

Effective sales copy communicates the benefits and unique selling points of your product or service. It also encourages prospective customers to choose your offering over alternatives.

To accomplish these goals, great sales copy often:

Grabs attention with a captivating headline
Identifies the audience’s problem or need
Presents the product or service as the solution
Highlights key benefits and features
Includes social proof, like testimonials or endorsements, to build trust
Has a clear and persuasive call to action (CTA) that urges the reader to take the next step

Writing sales copy requires a deep understanding of the target audience, including their needs, desires and potential objections. The goal is to craft a message that resonates with them.

Good sales copy is clear, concise and focused. It avoids generic claims in favor of specific, relatable benefits (more on this later).

How to write sales copy in five steps (with examples)

Writing effective sales copy is a blend of art and science. It requires an understanding of the target audience, clear knowledge of the product or service and the ability to persuade through words. Here are the steps for crafting compelling sales copy:

1. Understand your target audience and offerings

The first step is to understand exactly who your audience is. What are their needs, pain points, desires and behaviors?

The answers help you visualize your ideal customer and tailor your messaging to them.

Learn your audience inside and out

To understand your audience better, analyze who’s likely to benefit from your offerings the most. Here’s what the process looks like:

Research. Collect data through techniques like surveys, focus groups and by analyzing customer feedback. Look into demographics (age, gender, location), psychographics (interests, values) and behaviors (purchasing habits, online activity). Perform market research to understand your competition.
Create buyer personas. Create detailed profiles for your ideal customers. For example, say you’re marketing a productivity app. You could have personas like “Startup Susan”, a tech entrepreneur in her 30s looking to optimize her team’s workflow, and “Freelancer Frank”, a self-employed writer seeking better time management tools.
Identify pain points and desires. Understand what challenges your personas face and what they want to achieve. Shaun might want to reduce project delivery times without overworking his team. Frank might want to find more time for creative writing while juggling administrative tasks.
Match your offering to these needs. Tailor your sales copy to explain how your product or service addresses the pain points and fulfills the desires of your buyer personas.

Better understand your customers with our Buyer Persona Templates

Use these templates to ensure your solution always aligns with your customers’ interests and needs

Define your unique selling proposition

To define your unique selling proposition (USP), identify what makes your product or service unique compared to competitors. Your sales copy should highlight the benefits and features that set you apart.

Here are a few tips for defining your USP:

Analyze your competitors. Understand your direct and indirect competitors. Evaluate their offerings and how they compare with yours. List their strengths, weaknesses, pricing models and marketing strategies.
Find gaps. Look for areas where your competitors’ offerings are weak or absent, as these gaps are opportunities for you to fill.
Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Focus on what you do best, whether that’s unique product features, exceptional customer service or expertise in a particular area. Be realistic about how your offerings might compete.
Outline your value proposition. Based on your new understanding, define the core value that you offer. Your value proposition should be specific and clear.

Dropbox has a compelling value proposition: “Get to all your files from anywhere, on any device, and share them with anyone.”

It informs customers about Dropbox’s capabilities, focusing on benefits like accessibility, convenience and sharing capabilities. It also addresses a key pain point: users’ inability to access files from different devices or places.

2. Craft compelling headlines

Your headline is often the first thing people see, so it needs to grab their attention and make them want to read more. Headlines should address a need, offer a solution or invoke curiosity.

Here are a few strategies to achieve this:

Use numbers and lists. Numbers grab attention because they promise something specific and quantifiable. Lists are easy to digest. A list-based headline could be: “7 Life-Changing Cleaning Products to Make Your Home Sparkle”.
Ask questions. Questions provoke curiosity or challenge existing beliefs. If your headline poses an interesting question to your audience, they’ll read on to find the answer. For instance, the headline “Are You Making These SEO Mistakes?” could make your article compelling to content marketers.
Be specific. The more specific your headlines are, the more credible and compelling your offer appears. For example, instead of saying “Lose Weight Fast” you could write “Lose 10 Pounds in 30 Days With Our Proven Plan”.
Use strong adjectives and verbs. Using words that trigger emotional responses or convey strong actions can make your sales copy more persuasive and memorable. The headline “Discover the Secret to Unstoppable Energy” uses the power word “unstoppable” to spark intrigue and excitement.
Highlight the benefit. Start your headline by clearly stating your value proposition. Grab attention immediately by proposing a solution to a problem. Dollar Shave Club’s famous line, “Shave Time. Shave Money” clearly communicates the dual benefits of cost and time savings.
Create urgency. Craft headlines that create a sense of urgency to encourage quick action. Do this by using time-sensitive language. Booking.com often uses this strategy with headers like, “Only 2 rooms left at this price!” to encourage fast bookings.
Invoke curiosity. Tease your readers into wanting to know more without giving everything away. For instance, in the ad for the US School of Music below, the headline, “They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano But When I Started To Play!” compels the reader to find out what happens next.

The above strategies create headlines that draw attention and convince your target audience to read on. Your next step? Create persuasive body copy that seals the deal.

3. Write persuasive body copy

Once you’ve written your headlines, you need to write body copy that captivates your readers. The goal of a headline is to draw your audience in, and the goal of body copy is to convince them to purchase.

Here are some tricks that skilled copywriters use to improve their body copy on sales pages.

Speak directly to the reader

Refer to your audience as “you” to make it feel like you’re having a one-on-one conversation. A personal touch like this can make the reader feel seen and understood, increasing the persuasive power of your message.

For instance, in this example ad, Trello addresses its target audience of project managers.

It talks about how the tool affects “your tasks, teammates, and tools”, making it personal.

Identify benefits, not just features

Features matter in product descriptions, but the benefits are what sell. Features describe what your product or service does.

Benefits explain how the product makes the customer’s life better, easier or more enjoyable. On product pages, focus on how the features will positively impact them.

Example: A feature might be “our vacuum cleaner has a HEPA filter”, but the benefit is that users can “breathe easier with cleaner air in your home, thanks to our advanced HEPA filter technology”.

Use storytelling

Stories connect on an emotional level. Incorporate customer stories or hypothetical scenarios that show potential customers how your offerings solve a problem or improve a situation.

For instance, this website copy comes from a company that makes sustainable juice drinks. Instead of describing its products, the company tells a story about its history.

Using this story helps them connect to people with similar values and may increase the likelihood of those who share said values becoming repeat customers.

Address the audience’s pain points

Speak directly to the problems or issues your target audience faces. Empathize with their situation, then show how your product or service solves their problem(s).

Consider this copy from the meditation app Headspace. It highlights some of the problems people want to address with meditation and mindfulness, like mental health, stress reduction and sleep quality.

Highlighting why people use the app shows new audience members how Headspace could help them and makes them more likely to convert.

Address objections proactively

Try to overcome sales objections before they arise. If you can think of anything your customers might see as a problem, include the solution in your sales copy. Doing so builds trust and can remove barriers to purchase.

Example: One objection to new tech is that it’s hard to get working. Your copy could address this by saying, “Worried about setup? Our plug-and-play solution gets you up and running in minutes, no tech expertise required”.

Incorporate social proof

Knowing that others have had a positive experience with your product or service can be incredibly persuasive and reassuring. To capitalize on this, include testimonials, reviews, endorsements or case studies in your sales copy to build trust and credibility.

Take a look at these endorsements from the Copyhackers website:

Testimonials from top thought leaders in the copywriting industry give the company credibility.

Keep it clear and simplify complex information

Avoid jargon and keep your language simple. Long-winded sentences can lose your reader’s attention. Ensure your message is easy to understand and follow. Be direct and to the point.

For instance, cloud services can be confusing. Dropbox, therefore, simplifies its message.

Dropbox’s copy clearly explains that you can easily organize and securely access files.

Use these copywriting tips to improve readability

To go along with the strategies above, here are a few small but effective things to make your copy stand out:

Use short sentences and paragraphs
Stick with conversational language
Include subheadings, bullet points and lists to break up the text
Use active voice
Leverage white space and avoid clutter
Highlight key points with bold or italic text
Use a logical flow of ideas
Conduct readability tests using tools like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor

4. Close with powerful calls to action (CTAs)

Your sales copy should lead to a specific action you want the reader to take, like “Buy Now”, “Sign Up” or “Learn More” – this is the call to action, one of the most important parts of sales copy and digital marketing.

A CTA guides the reader to the next steps. It might encourage them to purchase, sign up for more information or contact your business. Without this direction, even interested readers may not take any action.

Here’s how to make an irresistible CTA:

Use action-oriented verbs. Start your CTA with a verb that demands action. For example, “Buy”, “Download”, “Subscribe” or “Start”. A clear directive like this is the first step toward converting readers.
Create a sense of urgency. Doubling down on a sense of urgency can improve your CTA effectiveness. Words that signal urgency or scarcity like “Now” or “Today” can encourage readers to act immediately.
Reiterate the benefit. Restate the benefits of the solution mentioned in your headline and body copy in the CTA. You could say, “Download Now to Simplify Your Workflow”, for example.
Make it stand out. Use visuals to make your CTA pop, like bright or contrasting colors and a placement that draws the reader’s eye. Designing the CTA as a button can help, as they’re harder to miss.
Personalize where possible. Increase the relevance of a CTA by tailoring it to the reader’s experience. One way to do this is to make the CTA fit the page’s context or the reader’s place in the customer journey. For example, use “Start Your Free Trial” instead of a generic “Click Here”.
Offer assurance. If applicable, include phrases that reduce the buyer’s perceived risk. Examples include “No credit card required” or “Unsubscribe at any time”. Sentences like these help alleviate fears and make taking the next step feel like less of a commitment.
Ensure mobile-friendliness. Make your CTA easy to click (or tap) and visible on smaller screens. Responsive website design is vital to making your CTA accessible to everyone. The same applies to your email campaigns.
Keep it above the fold. Place your most important CTA where readers can see it without scrolling. A visible primary CTA that immediately captures attention means that readers who aren’t going to scroll down may still click.
Give something away to encourage action. Offer something of value to make your readers more inclined to do something in return. You could offer helpful information, a free sample or a no-strings-attached trial.

Now that you have all the pieces, it’s time to test and refine your copy to get the most out of it.

Next, we’ll look at how to optimize your sales copy.

5. Test and tweak your sales copy for success

Like all content, the first draft of your sales copy will probably need tweaking before it’s fully effective – that’s where testing and optimization strategies come in. You can get an idea of what works and what doesn’t, then improve your sales copy.

Here are some ways to test and optimize your sales copy, as well as a few creative ideas to try out with your audience:

Use A/B testing

A/B testing, or split testing, is a powerful way to improve all types of copy, including content marketing, email marketing, ads and more.

To perform A/B testing, create two versions of your sales copy (A and B) that differ in one way. The difference might be the headline, call to action (CTA) or the placement of customer testimonials.

Then, randomly present these versions to your audience and analyze which performs better.

Track KPIs like conversions, clicks or other relevant metrics. Gather feedback and be prepared to tweak your copy based on the responses and conversion rates you see.

A/B testing should be a part of any solid marketing campaign.

When it comes to your email marketing strategy, test different subject lines, body copy, or CTA placements to see which versions achieve better open and click-through rates.

Perform search engine optimization (SEO)

If your sales copy is online, ensure it’s optimized for search engines so your target audience can find it. SEO and web design have many aspects and the rules change constantly.

It’s worth reading a few in-depth SEO guides to understand current best practices. Google’s SEO starter guide is a good place to begin.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

Research and use relevant keywords in your copy
Create high-quality and relevant content that answers important questions
Perform on-page optimization with title tags, meta descriptions and header tags within the content
Optimize for mobile screens and have an easy-to-navigate site structure
Ensure that your web pages load quickly and seamlessly on any device

Make use of heatmaps and conversion paths

To optimize the sales copy on your website, utilize heatmap tools. These show where your users click on your pages, how far they scroll and what they focus on. Using this data, you can see what elements attract attention and what parts readers ignore. You can optimize your copy and layout based on your findings.

Use website visitor tracking to see how users navigate your website and reach your sales copy. By analyzing these pathways, you may identify places where users drop off or paths that lead to high conversion rates.

For instance, they might follow a link on your home page to a dead end and then leave your site.

If this were the case, you could then remove that link or optimize the page it leads to. The optimized page could include sales copy and a CTA that drives the visitor further down the buyer’s journey.

Incorporate visual elements

Visual aids can help explain complex information and make a lasting impression. Where possible, include images, charts, videos or infographics to complement your content and highlight the benefits of your product.

One example is before-and-after images. These are used in adverts to show the efficacy of a given solution. For example, they could show the effectiveness of a cleaning product before and after use, like the image below.

Collect customer feedback

Seeking direct customer feedback is a great way to determine how people view your content. You can collect feedback with customer surveys or by asking for a review. Try to understand what they liked, what convinced them and what they found confusing or unappealing.

Once you have these details, you can refine your messaging to make it resonate more with your target audience.

Final thoughts

The key to successful sales copy lies not just in what you say but also in how you say it. Using these strategies when writing copy can help you create more persuasive, engaging and compelling content. It will resonate with your audience, address their needs and guide them toward purchasing.

If Pipedrive is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

GoCardless extends strategic partnership with Sage, boosting global reach and unlocking new growth opportunities

Software Stack Editor · April 9, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - GoCardless is a payment services provider - highlights include low processing rates, no monthly fee for the basic account, month-to-month billing without early termination fees, and extensive support for international payments. It’s optimized for direct bank payments, offering security and flexibility

LONDON, NEW YORK, PARIS, 10 April 2024 — Bank payment company GoCardless has announced the renewal and expansion of its strategic partnership with Sage, the global leader in accounting, financial, HR, and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses.

The latest agreement, which builds on a successful six-year collaboration, will open up new markets and segments for GoCardless. At the same time, it will bring bank payments to even more businesses within the Sage customer base through new integrations with Sage’s flagship cloud accounting solutions for small and medium businesses (SMBs) – Sage Accounting and Sage Intacct.

The integration of GoCardless with Sage Intacct puts the fintech in a strategic position to:

tap into Sage’s extensive customer base in North America and Australia for the first time
extend its reach to corporate and enterprise merchants using Sage Intacct in the UK and Europe
strengthen its coverage for smaller businesses through the new Sage Accounting integration, building on existing integrations with Sage 50 and Sage 200.

This enhanced partnership means that millions of Sage’s SMB customers around the world are now able to leverage GoCardless’ Direct Debit and open banking payment capabilities, helping to streamline the payment collection process. The integration allows businesses to manage one-off and recurring payments with greater efficiency and control, while cutting down on manual admin. By using bank payments through GoCardless, businesses can also avoid the costly fees and high rates of payment failure often associated with traditional card payments.

Seb Hempstead, VP of Partnerships at GoCardless, said: “We’re excited to build on our long-term relationship with Sage, a valued partner with a shared mission to help businesses thrive. By combining Sage’s industry-leading technology with our expertise in bank payments, we can help millions of merchants reclaim their time and money so they can stress less and get on with growing their business.

“The new agreement also represents a huge strategic opportunity, giving us more exposure to corporate and enterprise businesses in all of the markets where we operate. We look forward to growing together with Sage over the next few years.”

Chip Mahan, Global Head Payments & Banking at Sage, said: “Partnering with GoCardless reinforces the strength of our global partner ecosystem, bringing innovative payment solutions directly into Sage Intacct and Sage Accounting. This collaboration is more than just expanding our product capabilities; it’s about delivering real value to businesses, enabling secure, streamlined financial processes, and fostering growth in new and existing markets. Our combined efforts will provide customers with a seamless payment experience, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to supporting their success.”

The GoCardless integration is now live for Sage Accounting customers in the UK and for Sage Intacct customers in the US, Canada, UK and France.

Building GoCardless’s partner strategy

The news builds on GoCardless’ partner strategy to acquire customers at scale. The fintech currently works with a roster of more than 350 partners, allowing businesses to seamlessly integrate GoCardless into the software they already use so they can manage their payment and other business activities in one place.

Notes to editor

GoCardless and Sage have a long-standing partnership, with Sage also using GoCardless for bank payments and open banking Account Information Services (AIS) through the fintech’s Bank Account Data offering.

About GoCardless

GoCardless is a global bank payment company. We help more than 85,000 businesses, from start-ups to household names, collect both recurring and one-off payments, without the chasing, stress or expensive fees. Each year GoCardless processes more than US$35 billion of payments across 30+ countries. Our acquisition of Nordigen means we’re also helping businesses make faster and more informed decisions through easy access to bank account data. We are headquartered in the UK, with additional offices in Australia, France, Latvia and the United States. For more information, please visit www.gocardless.com and follow us on Twitter @GoCardless.

© 2023 GoCardless Ltd. All Rights Reserved. GoCardless is a registered trademark of GoCardless Ltd in multiple countries. Third party trademarks mentioned above are owned by their respective companies. Unless explicitly identified as such, nothing in this press release should be construed to the contrary, or as an approval, endorsement or sponsorship by any third parties of GoCardless Ltd. or any aspect of this press release.

If GoCardless is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Use CasesSmartSuite Solution Standards for 2024This blog serves a comprehensive guide for Partners and Solution Builders to follow when setting up and configuring a Solution, so that it is displayed & utilized in it’s fullest form. 5 minutesSmartSuite Staff

Software Stack Editor · April 9, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - You definitely can't pigeon-hole SmartSuite as it does so much! It's a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, and manage workflows, projects, and everyday tasks. With features like automations, integrations, and AI capabilities, it streamlines work processes and empowers teams to achieve their goals. It's also available in 15 languages.

In our latest SmartSuite Showcase episode, hosted by Nate Montgomery, we explore the essential documentation standards for crafting new solutions tailored to your team’s needs. Departing from our usual use case examples, this comprehensive guide provides valuable insights into setting up solutions effectively, incorporating best practices gleaned from engaged customers. From naming conventions to configuring views, this video offers a thorough walkthrough to ensure your solutions are optimized for success.

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Effective Solution Naming
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A crucial first step in solution setup is naming. Opt for concise titles, typically under three words, accurately reflecting the solution’s purpose or workflow. This ensures clarity, memorability, and alignment with your business objectives.

Comprehensive Solution Guides

A well-documented solution includes detailed guides outlining its purpose, tables, and workflow. Provide descriptions of each table, clarifying their roles and how records flow through them. Supplement with supporting resources such as instructional videos for enhanced usability.

Strategic Table Configuration

Tables should accurately represent tracked items and feature concise names, ideally under two words. Customize record terminology to ensure relevance and clarity. Maintain consistency and relevance to facilitate user understanding.

Tailored Views for Enhanced Usability

‍Configure six to ten views per table, catering to item characteristics. Choose descriptive names reflecting each view’s configuration and purpose. Utilize view descriptions to provide context, enhancing user comprehension.

Organized Record Views for Easy Navigation

Incorporate sections within record views to organize information effectively. Strategically group fields to guide users logically through the data. Customize page layouts based on field nature to present information efficiently.

Diverse View Types for Varied Insights

From grid views for comprehensive overviews to map views for geographical visualization, leverage diverse view types to meet specific needs. Tailor views to display relevant data accurately, ensuring users gain valuable insights.

Efficient Form Design for Seamless Data Collection

Craft forms with user-friendly names and clear instructions. Customize fields and appearance to suit external user needs. Enhance usability with help text and conditional logic, streamlining data collection processes.

Streamlined Dashboard Integration for Enhanced Visibility

Integrate dashboards to centralize access to resources and monitor metrics effectively. Prioritize metric widgets for summarizing data and promoting comparisons. Utilize embedded grid views to provide detailed data insights within dashboards.

Conclusion

By adhering to these documentation standards and leveraging SmartSuite’s unique features, you can configure solutions that optimize operations and foster collaboration. Embrace these best practices to ensure your solutions are tailored for success. For detailed documentation and steps, refer to the link in the description. Thank you for watching, and stay tuned for more insights from SmartSuite.

See further documentation here.

If Smartsuite is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Looking for fresh ideas in your business? Why not try a hackathon?

Software Stack Editor · April 9, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

As nearly a thousand of our employees around the globe down tools this week for one of our twice-yearly hackathons, I’ve been reflecting on the purpose and benefits of this practice.

Hackathons have been a fixture in the tech world for decades. But today the concept is widely utilised in fields as diverse as businesses, healthcare, education and social impact to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues.

Hackathons – which signifies the act to hack by applying one’s technical and creative skills in bursts of continuous and intensive efforts as one would in a marathon – are popular for a number of reasons.

The benefits of hackathons

Firstly, they’re a great and proven way to solve problems. According to Mckinsey, when done well a 24-hour hackathon can shave the time it takes to bring a new product to market by up to 50%. In some instances, hackathons have led to massive breakthroughs – the eureka moments – that only occur with the pressure of a dedicated code-a-thon. For Facebook, it was the breakthrough idea of today’s ubiquitous ‘like’ button.

They also create moments for genuine connection and collaboration. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has accredited internal hackathons as a core driver of culture since taking over the business in 2014. Hackathons that encourage participation across all levels of the organisation to tackle a collective challenge can inspire creative thinking and collaboration. Employees who participate in hackathons also report positive effects on their career paths, networks and skills development.

But, perhaps most importantly, they generate lots and lots of ideas. While some of these ideas may not be immediately feasible or tangible to the business, they can help to inspire future projects or directions for the company. In many hackathons, there is an acceptance of failure as a natural part of the creative process. Participants are encouraged to take risks and explore the bold ideas that they might hesitate to do in more formal work settings.

Top hacks for hackathons

We’ve run regular Hackathons at Xero since we were founded in 2006. They’re one of the ways that we look to solve problems for not just our customers and partners, but internally, too. At Xero, hackathons are not restricted to just our product and technology teams, but open to everyone across the business. In fact, last year, one of the winning ideas was from our People Experience team, who created a hack for building connection and driving improvement across our people processes.

Twice a year, we invite our teams to take part in a hackathon week. The challenge is simple: first, find a small, specific problem. It could be a niggling issue that our customers face or an internal system within our company that’s causing a pain point. Then, teams work together to come up with an innovative solution that can be built and released to customers in a short period of time.

We encourage Xero employees participating in hackathons to think outside their comfort zone and area of expertise. We give them the whole week to experiment with new skills and technologies, collaborate with others across regions and functions, and of course have lots of fun! The most recent Hackathon late last year saw over 650 employees participate. We were able to make over a dozen improvements to existing products, and teams unearthed new features that have a direct impact on our customers’ productivity.

Each company will have its own formula for hackathons depending on its goals and objectives, but there are a few characteristics that can help to make hackathons a success, which we’ve seen over the years at Xero.

A clearly defined problem

A clearly defined problem has three elements:

An understanding of your customer (either internal or external), and what their needs, desires and challenges are
It must be aligned to the company strategy
There needs to be flexibility for moonshots or left of field ideas

Remember, a hackathon is not a brainstorm – it’s a process designed to generate novel solutions for real-world problems that the company is trying to solve for its customers.

Who should be involved?

Some companies, such as Xero, open up hackathons to multi-disciplinary teams, with individuals from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise. Some hackathons may strictly involve participation from developers or engineers, for more technical goals. Others like the United States Air Force may open up hackathons for community participation.

Internally, leveraging input from customer facing teams, such as customer experience and go-to-market teams provides critical insight into the issues that customers and partners face. Employees from teams such as Finance, Legal, People Experience and Security can all add expertise to ensure a well-rounded approach to a hack. And, it’s not just internal teams that can add value to hackathons. Making the most of key external partners to help hackathon teams get the best out of the tools available to them can play a huge part in a team’s success. Partners providing key platform services can provide essential training and support.

The right tools are vital

Teams need to have the freedom to experiment as they iterate on their ideas throughout the week. Having access to technical sandboxes that allow for low risk experimentation, especially when it comes to newer technologies like GenAI, are really important.

Celebrate and follow up

It’s important to acknowledge the efforts and contributions of all participants, as well as share the actions you plan to take to implement the successful ideas. Seek feedback and suggestions on how to improve future hackathons, and capture all ideas, no matter how big or small.

Hackathons are here to stay

Hackathons have expanded far beyond their tech origins and are here to stay. They are a proven way to break down organisational silos, challenge ways of working, flex the creative muscle of the workforce, and solve customer challenges, while also empowering individuals and small teams to choose what they want to hack, strengthening a sense of ownership and commitment.

They can also be a nice change of pace for teams that are constantly delivery or deadline focused. Being able to work on a passion project a couple of times a year has really wide-reaching benefits, allowing our people to stretch their figurative legs a little, and fill their cup with some variety, teamwork, and a change of focus.

The post Looking for fresh ideas in your business? Why not try a hackathon? appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

The 15 Best Mighty Networks Alternatives Reviewed

Software Stack Editor · April 9, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - LearnWorlds is a market leading platform for online training. It stands out with native SCORM support, allowing seamless integration of e-learning content. It offers an intuitive course builder, interactive video player with transcripts, and EU-specific payment gateways.

Mighty Networks is an online community platform with built-in course and website builders. With Mighty Networks, you can sell courses and memberships while bringing the members of your community together. Mighty Networks is addressed to anyone who already has or wants to create and grow an online audience under their own brand.

Its key advantage versus having a group on a social media platform such as Facebook Groups or Forum-like websites is that it eliminates the noise and distractions these platforms have and allows you to build your own branded website, while offering monetization options and a “private space” for your community.

Mighty Networks undoubtedly stands out for its strong community features that even similar platforms lack. But, it comes with more than a few shortcomings in terms of educational features and customization capabilities.

In this post, we’re reviewing the top 15 alternatives to Mighty Networks for course creators.

But first, allow us to present to you LearnWorlds as the best Mighty Networks alternative – a more comprehensive solution for edupreneurs, content creators, coaches, and even small businesses looking to create an engaged learning community!

Try LearnWorlds today with a 30-day free trial and discover why it’s as close to an all-in-one platform as it gets!

Your professional looking Academy in a few clicks

Start FREE Trial

Top Mighty Networks Competitors

1Learnworlds
2Hivebrite
3BuddyPress
4Circle
5Kajabi
6Thinkific
7Patreon
8Podia
9MemberVault
10Uscreen
11Discord
12Bettermode
13Facebook
14ToucanTech
15Disciple

Mighty Networks Pricing & Plans

Mighty Networks offers a free trial and five pricing plans and charges transaction fees on all pricing plans. The Mighty Pro plan allows you to build your own branded, native mobile app.

*Pricing information retrieved from Mighty Networks in April 2024.

Mighty Networks Advantages & Disadvantages

A screenshot of Mighty Networks' home page showcasing their mobile capabilities.

Let’s see in detail the strong suits and weak points of Mighty Networks.

Mighty Networks Advantages

As expected, Mighty Networks has strong community features. For example, you can organize your group members into categories (e.g., based on their profession) and also into subgroups, with each group having access to the content most relevant to them.

Members can upload their own content, follow other members, and chat privately. They also have control over the type of notifications they receive and where they receive them.

Mighty Networks Disadvantages

Mighty Networks falls short in educational features and, perhaps more surprisingly, in marketing and selling. More specifically, there’s no provision for a payment plan, creators can choose among predefined prices only, there’s no integration with PayPal, and the only currency accepted is USD.

Another downside is that only members of your community can buy the courses.

Best Mighty Networks Alternatives for Your Online Courses

Although Mighty Networks is a very good community-building platform, it’s definitely worth taking a look at some more options.

In this section, we review the top 15 Mighty Networks alternatives for you.

1. LearnWorlds – Our Top Choice

If you’re serious about educating your audience or customers while also providing ample social learning opportunities, LearnWorlds is a far more versatile and integrated platform than Mighty Networks.

LearnWorlds is a social online course platform. It comes with an impressive and customizable website builder that features industry-leading templates — perfect for your niche online learning business– so you can create a stunning website and landing pages exactly like you imagined them.

The platform’s built-in eLearning capabilities are quite impressive too: built-in community, AI Assistant for content creation, interactive videos, multiple learner assessment options, certificates, badges, gradebook, automations, a plethora of customization options, and integrations with video conferencing tools. All and more the tools you need to provide personalized and unparalleled learning experiences for your learners.

LearnWorlds’ community and social features are built-in along with the e-commerce & e-learning capabilities, making it a more powerful all-in-one platform than the competition. You can enable the community as a standalone feature or boost community engagement with comments while taking an online course.

Pros

Built-in community
Advanced elearning features (courses, analytics, assessments and more)
Customizable website builder
White-labeled website
Native mobile app for Android & iOS
Advanced learning features
Webinar support (Zoom & Webex)
Multiple selling options and payment gateways
Webhooks & API
Exceptional customer support
Real-time reporting

Cons

Slight learning curve
Less advanced community features
You need a paid Zoom license for live-streaming

How much does LearnWorlds cost?

LearnWorlds offers a 30-day free trial and 3 main plans:

*Pricing information retrieved from LearnWorlds in April 2024.

LearnWorlds is a much cheaper and, considering its rich features, wiser alternative to Mighty Networks for creators who prioritize learning as much as building an online community.

If you are looking for more than a community management system, and more of an LMS (Learning Management System) to monetize your audience with online courses, LearnWorlds is the right choice for you!

Compare LearnWorlds with Mighty Networks

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2. Hivebrite vs. Mighty Networks

A powerful online community platform, Hivebrite provides educational institutions, non-profits, and businesses with the tools they need to create, engage, and grow their community.

With Hiverbrite, you can control whether your community is open to anyone or invite-only. Hivebrite also offers advanced database management, with filters, profile update tracker, and much more. Another cool community feature is direct messaging, RSS feed and the personalized weekly newsletter. Members can upload content, but you’re still in control – you get instantly notified and can edit or delete content as you see fit.

Hivebrite features powerful email and engagement analytics to see how your campaigns are performing and how engaged community members are, identifying the most active users.

It also gives you the option to build a fully branded mobile app available on Android and iOS. The mobile app features geolocation, so community members can discover and connect with members close to them.

Hivebrite allows you to sell memberships, create donation pages, and also charge per online event.

All is well and good so far, but you may have noticed that Hivebrite is heavily community-oriented. This means that it lacks learning features like gamification, gradebook, quizzes, or learner analytics. It also lacks integration with marketing tools and doesn’t offer any options to promote your offerings via affiliate marketing.

Pros

Privacy settings
User content moderation
Advanced database management
Branded mobile app
Engagement analytics
Paid events

Cons

Doesn’t support SCORM content
Lack of learning features
Lack of learning analytics
Basic website customization
Unclear pricing
Few integrations

How much does Hivebrite cost?

Hivebrite doesn’t disclose its prices on the website. To get a quote, you need to request a demo.

Some sources claim that pricing begins at $500-$600 per month.

3. BuddyPress vs. Mighty Networks

BuddyPress is a free community WordPress plugin that you can add to your WordPress site and build an online community. BuddyPress allows you to build different groups within the community and has features that resemble social media profiles, friendships, direct messaging, and activity dashboards.

On the downside, BuddyPress can help you create a social networking platform and nothing more. If you want to create and sell courses or memberships, you must use an WordPress LMS plugin. Depending on the features it offers, you may need several plugins to get where you need, like email and marketing tools and payment gateways.

Although in theory, you can use several add-ons to add more features, BuddyPress doesn’t play well with all themes, so that limits your options.

Pros

User-friendly
Rich community features
Ability to add third-party plugins to extend its functionalities
Free to download

Cons

Available only if you have a WordPress site
Doesn’t work well with all themes and plugins
Limited support
It’s not a comprehensive solution

How much does BuddyPress cost?

BuddyPress is free and sustained by a community of volunteers.

4. Circle vs. Mighty Networks

Circle is a community platform that doesn’t disappoint: private chat rooms, private messaging, live streams, searchable member database, and events are just of the few community features you’ll find. It’s addressed to coaches, businesses, clubs and organizations, and creators who want to build an online audience.

When it comes to marketing and sales, Circle is a much stronger tool than Mighty Networks, as it features upsells, coupons and discounts, and flexible pricing. It allows for subscriptions starting with a weekly option. It also supports more than 1000 integrations to boost its functionalities.

Though you can upload video, audio, and text files, and host live events, Circle doesn’t have further learning features to engage your audience and monitor learning. Like most community platforms we’ve reviewed today, it’s a great option to bring together your audience, but it’s not built for online education.

Pros

Single Sign-On
Rich community features
Multiple selling and promotion options
White label
Private Circle community

Cons

No white-label mobile app
Limited preset settings
Supports basic learning content only
No learning analytics

How much does Circle cost?

Circle offers a 14-day free trial and has 5 pricing plans:

*Pricing information retrieved from Circle in April 2024.

5. Kajabi vs. Mighty Networks

Screenshot of Kajabi showing a yoga pose on the homepage.

Kajabi is an all-in-one course platform that enables you to build your website, create sales funnels and automated marketing campaigns, and sell online courses, memberships, and digital products in one place.

Kajabi has stronger sales and marketing tools than Mighty Networks but it lacks advanced community management features. Its learning features and customization capabilities are not impressive either, with key features such as interactive content and advanced quizzing missing from the platform.

Pros

Automated sales funnels
Built-in marketing tool
Easy to use
Good for selling other digital products as well
Good customer support

Cons

Expensive
Lack of advanced community features
Basic learning features
Limited website and course customization

How much does Kajabi cost?

Kajabi offers a 14-day free trial. Other than that, it’s one of the most expensive course creation platforms.

*Pricing information retrieved from Kajabi in April 2024.

Compare Kajabi to LearnWorlds

Compare Kajabi to Teachable

6. Thinkific vs. Mighty Networks

Screenshot of Thinkific's website showing Xayli Barclay

Thinkific is an intuitive course creation platform with sales and marketing features that enable creators to successfully market and sell their courses. It lacks the advanced community features of Mighty Networks but it’s superior in terms of elearning capabilities, as it offers quizzes and certificates. It also offers selling and payment options, like digital downloads and installments.

Thinkific features beautiful, customizable website templates and is easy to use both for course creators and end users. It also supports tons of integrations to supercharge your course as you wish, it has zero transaction fees, and offers a free plan.

Pros

Free plan
Plenty of options to sell courses
No transaction fees
Easy to use

Cons

Gets exponentially more expensive
No email marketing tool
Community feature available only with Pro plan and above
Basic learning features
Mobile app offers only basic features

How much does Thinkific cost?

Thinkific offers a limited free plan for testing its platform. Here is Thinkific’s pricing breakdown:

*Pricing information retrieved from Thinkific in April 2024.

Want to see more Thinkific alternatives?
Compare Thinkific to LearnWorlds

7. Patreon vs. Mighty Networks

A screenshot of patreon's home page focusing on art memberships.

Patreon is a crowdfunding site (hence the name – “patronage”) that allows creators from podcasters and artists to writers and non-profits to create memberships and offer rewards to their patrons.

Creators can either sell memberships with a recurring monthly payment or they can charge per creation. They can get started for free and start paying a percentage of their monthly earnings (which differs depending on the plan they’ve chosen) once they start making money.

Patreon supports text, images, video, and audio, so it’s possible to sell simple courses using it. To help you with that, Patreon integrates with popular marketing tools like MailChimp and Discord. Patreon also offers a mobile app through which creators can chat live with their patrons.

Patreon could work as a free Mighty Networks competitor (free to start with, at least) as they both focus on helping creators connect with their community, even if Patreon is positioned as a crowdfunding platform.

Pros

Mobile app
Live chat with your audience
Free to start
Supports video and live streaming

Cons

Transaction fees
No learning analytics
No educational features
No phone customer support

How much does Patreon cost?

Patreon has 2 pricing plans, with each one offering more features and taking a larger percentage of the donations. Getting started on Patreon is free.

* Pricing information retrieved from Patreon in April 2024.

8. Podia vs. Mighty Networks

A screenshot of Podia showing selling digital products as a solution.

Another all-in-one platform, Podia stands out for its competitive pricing. If you want to sell simple video courses and digital downloads, it will do the job just right.

Podia’s marketing capabilities are far better than Mighty Networks’: it has a built-in email marketing tool that enables you to build sales funnels, create automated email campaigns, and send broadcast emails.

It also features customizable, professional-looking email templates to make this task a bit easier for you. And, Podia has several tricks up its sleeves to help you sell effectively: affiliate marketing, coupons, fast checkout, and upsells.

Podia’s built-in community is also quite engaging as it allows for user-generated content and interaction through comments and likes. Even so, it’s definitely many steps behind what Mighty Networks offers.

Another downside is that Podia comes with pretty basic functionalities and lacks advanced educational features.

Pros

Zero transaction fees
Low-cost
Robust email marketing tool
Chat widget
User-friendly

Cons

Lacks advanced features
Not great analytics or reporting
Limited website customization
No white labeling

How much does Podia cost?

Podia offers a free 14-day trial,a free plan with 8% transaction fees and limited features, and 3 paid plans:

*Pricing information retrieved from Podia in April 2024.

9. MemberVault vs. Mighty Networks

MemberVault, as the name suggests, is a membership site that supports courses, one-to-one services, and digital products, making it a good option for creators and coaches. It differentiates itself from other similar sites with its “binge and buy” marketplace. The marketplace, in combination with its strong engagement tracking feature, enables creators to identify warm and hot leads and send them targeted, personalized emails and offers.

MemberVault has more noteworthy learning features than Mighty Networks, like gamification, basic quizzing options, and dripped content.

That said, MemberVault’s learning features are still limited and it has no learner analytics. Another major downside, especially when compared to Mighty Networks, is that it doesn’t have a discussion feature.

Pros

Affiliate marketing and coupons
Drip content
Gamification
No transaction fees
Advanced engagement analytics

Cons

Only two payment gateways available (Stripe and PayPal)
No community building feature
Few learning features
No mobile app
Limited number of integrations

How much does MemberVault cost?

MemberVault offer a 7-day free trial and the following pricing plans:

*Pricing information retrieved from MemberVault in April 2024.

10. Uscreen vs. Mighty Networks

Uscreen is primarily a platform for video creators to monetize their content through e-commerce & memberships. But, it goes beyond just selling the video content and offers a complete community for video creators.

You can use it to create your own video platform, think Masterclass.com style video lessons on your own website. Uscreen also comes with TV & mobile applications, as well as exceptional video streaming features.

With Uscreen, you can either have a standalone community on your website or through the mobile app, or add social and commenting features on videos & streaming.

Overall, it is a very attractive, easy-to-use platform suitable for creators who care about the usability of their community, but comes at a steep cost and hidden fees. Uscreen is a premium offering, which is why they offer with a support team to help you develop your website and apps on higher plans. It’s suitable for video creators with a big following and little time to set up their community, but not a great option for smaller businesses.

Pros

Easy-to-use
Great user interface
Ecommerce and monetization features
Mobile & TV Apps

Cons

Expensive for their features
Hidden fees & per user fees
Customer support is lacking

How much does Uscreen cost?

Uscreen’s pricing seems pretty straightforward by unlocking features in each plan, but tends to rise quickly with additional hidden fees like +$0.99 per paid member for memberships and +$200 per month for the second app.

*The TV streaming app is only available on the Plus membership.

*Pricing information retrieved from Uscreen in April 2024.

11. Discord vs. Mighty Networks

A visual representation of Uscreen's community.

Discord is a free community platform for younger generations and geekier topics from education, gaming, entertainment, technology, and more!

It is both simple & powerful. You can start with a free community for your members or friends to hang out, chat with text or audio, or even stream video (mostly for gaming). Discord’s unique functionalities begin with both fan-made and professional bots and addons that increase the functionality of the platform.

Even Midjourney’s AI image generator works mainly through their Discord server and you can invite the bot into your own server for more privacy!

Discord may remind you of the IRC forums modernized, where everything is about the people and the channels they create. It is being used mostly by streamers, gamers, and friend groups, but can also host paid invite-only communities Discord calls Server Subscriptions.

Unfortunately, Discord lacks a lot of features other community platforms have like libraries of content and additional products, as it focuses on channels for organizing materials and chats.

Pros

Free
Easy-to-use
Huge community & discoverability
Great for streamers

Cons

Takes a 10% fee
HD streaming is on the higher plan (but it’s cheap)
No file / media organization
Basic monetization / sales features

How much does Discord cost?

Discord charges 10% of your subscription fee.

*Pricing information retrieved from Discord in April 2024.

12. Bettermode (Tribe.so) vs. Mighty Networks

How a bettermode community platform looks from the inside.

Tribe rebranded to Bettermode late in 2022 and transitioned from a general community platform to a customer-centric platform for enterprises.

Since the rebranding, Bettermode is focusing on becoming a customer-centric community and Help Center platform, offering a place for brands to host a community of their clients, add a Q&A section, upvote ideas and features, offer a Help Center, and host live or physical events.

What makes it different from other platforms here is the asset and media management through the resources functionality.

Pros

Clean & easy UI
Great features for businesses
Strong moderation features
Detailed analytics
White-label options

Cons

Very expensive
Not suitable for smaller businesses
Missing groups & foldering functionality
Missing monetization features like landing pages
No mobile app

How much does Bettermode cost?

Bettermode offers a free trial and 4 pricing plans as follows:

*Pricing information retrieved from Bettermode in April 2024.

13. Facebook Groups vs. Mighty Networks

A visualization of the Facebook groups' mobile app.

Be where your community is present! That would be the moto for building an online community using Facebook Groups instead of using a premium platform.

Facebook already has a huge user-base and many active users making it a no-brainer for building communities. The challenge though is having a monetizable community and being in control of your customer’s data.

On the one hand, most community platforms try to add the features that Facebook already offers in groups. On the other hand, the limited reach of community posts and not owning your own data like the content and your user’s email can be frustrating.

Facebook groups is the free full-featured alternative to Mighty Networks but comes with steep limitations for community admins, including difficulties on monetizing a Facebook Group the way you would do a premium community.

Pros

Large user-base of Facebook
Easy-to-use
Great features for engagement

Cons

Difficult monetization
Limited reach of group posts
Limited reporting & analytics
No data ownership

14. ToucanTech vs. Mighty Networks

ToucanTech is an alumni and supporter management software that combines community, CRM, communications, and fundraising.

It focuses primarily on educational institutions, both K12 and academic, non-profits, and small to medium businesses.
While its pricing is not transparent, users report that it’s a value-for-money solution compared to equivalent solutions and are very happy with the support they receive building their community.

ToucanTech really understands their audience, and it’s a great solution for education & non-profits, but not a great fit for creators and businesses selling to B2C audiences.

Pros

Good support
Good for fundraising
Great database management
Specialized for education, charities, and SMEs

Cons

No transparent pricing
No free trial
Not easy-to-use
UI is outdated
Users report glitches & bugs

How much does ToucanTech cost?

ToucanTech does not publicly provide any pricing or free trial. You need to directly reach out to their sales team to arrange a demo.

15. Disciple vs. Mighty Networks

How disciple media community looks like.

Disciple is a full-featured community platform for anyone looking to build communities as a safe space that they own and control. With Disciple, you can create multiple groups to segment your audience, post content and videos, Livestream, sell online courses and subscriptions.

It also comes with strong reporting and analytics capabilities to monitor and understand your community.

Disciple comes with a web-app and native mobile apps on higher plans for both iOS and Android.

Disciple is a great platform for communities and has everything you will need, but comes at a very steep price and only yearly or 6-month subscriptions, making it a premium offering for only bigger influencers and businesses who can afford a few thousand dollars’ subscriptions per year.

Pros

Clean and friendly UI
Mobile app for iOS/Android
Great support
Full control of the community & customization

Cons

Expensive with only yearly or 6-month payments
Many add-on pricing options (e.g. Courses)
Features like live-streaming, more admins, and important integrations are on a higher plan
Mobile apps are missing some features of the web-app

How much does Disciple cost?

Disciple offers a free trial and 4 pricing plans as follows:

*Pricing information retrieved from Disciple in April 2024.

Choosing a Community Management or Course Creation Platform

Our review of the top Mighty Networks competitors has come to an end. Mighty Network has built its reputation as a robust online community management platform. It does the job pretty well offering impressive features on that front that resemble social media platforms, such as personalized feed and user-generated content.

Yet most membership sites like Mighty Networks fall short when it comes to course creation.

If you would like to educate your audience, as well as engage with them meaningfully, then LearnWorlds is your go-to tool.

LearnWorlds is with you with a vibrant built-in community, strong marketing features, a vast library of resources, and exceptional customer support, so nothing can stop you from being successful in monetizing your knowledge.

Would you like to take a feel of what it’s like working with a platform like LearnWorlds? Try LearnWorlds for free for 30 days – no commitment, no credit card required, and with most features available!

Your professional looking Academy in a few clicks

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Further reading you might find interesting:

Mighty Networks FAQs

What are the best alternatives to Mighty Networks?

LearnWorlds is the best alternative to Mighty Networks for training, e-learning, and business communities. Circle is another option for general communities. Buddypress is a great option for WordPress sites. And, Disciple is the premium option offering for bigger brands.

Who are Mighty Networks competitors?

LearnWorlds, Hiverbrite, Circle, Uscreen, Kajabi, Bettermod, and Disciple are the top closest competitors to Mighty Networks for community building.

Is Circle better than Mighty Networks?

Both Mighty Networks and Circle have their pros and cons. It depends on what kind of community you are building, the features, and if the difference in price is worthwhile for you. Mighty Networks might be the best option for building communities and managing them.

Does Mighty Networks have a free pricing plan?

No, Mighty Networks doesn’t offer a free plan.

What is Mighty Networks used for?

Mighty Networks enables anyone who has an online audience, business or individual, to put together, manage, and grow their community. On Mighty Networks, you can sell memberships, online courses, and digital products, and host online events while offering your community members an experience resembling social network platforms.

Is Mighty Networks a social media platform?

Mighty Networks is an online community platform. Businesses, solopreneurs, edupreneurs, and more use Mighty Neworks to build their community or bring together their social media followers.

How do I cancel my Mighty Networks plan?

You can cancel your plan anytime directly from within your Mighty Network. Just go to Network Settings > Your Plan.

The post The 15 Best Mighty Networks Alternatives Reviewed appeared first on LearnWorlds.

If Learnworlds is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

This Legacy Brand’s Next 100 Years is Inspired by Its Past (2024)

Software Stack Editor · April 9, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

British clothing company Belstaff recently hit its 100-year milestone. The next challenge? Preparing for another 100 years in business—while also staying true to the brand’s heritage.

“We’re not a fashion brand. We’re a functional menswear brand, and that’s a really clear and very important distinction,” says chief brand officer Jodie Harrison. She explains that fashion brands create new pieces to follow trends, while Belstaff’s new products maintain a connection to the brand’s iconic designs.

As part of the Belstaff’s centennial, Jodie led an initiative to collect vintage Belstaff products for the company’s archive, which designers use as inspiration for new products. “We have thousands of pieces now at our headquarters, some of them dating back to the early 1930s,” she says.

Here’s how the company is modernizing for the next century.

A return to its roots

The Belstaff: Our First 100 Years book flipped open to two pages with a green and blue vintage motorcycle jacket — Belstaff also published a book this year called *Belstaff: Our First 100 Years* to share the company’s archive and history. *Belstaff*

Belstaff’s ownership changed hands several times throughout its first 100 years. Though the company was started in Stoke-on-Trent, UK, it also had German and Italian owners at different points in its history. Josie made it her mission to return the brand to its UK roots. “I was quite keen to bring back that lens of Britishness that I think had been dissolved over the years,” she says.

Part of that initiative meant integrating Stoke-on-Trent into the renovation of Belstaff’s flagship store. The floors have tiles made in the region, with some featuring the brand’s iconic phoenix logo. “We’ve made sure that we use materials that hark back to where we’re from, but at the same time make it very contemporary,” Jodie says.

Consistent brand experience

Belstaff’s logo of a phoenix (seen here on a jacket) is fitting for a company that has undergone ownership changes and a massive rebrand in its 100-year history. Paul Riddle

Along with redesigning the store, the company also embarked on a massive IT transformation, including replatforming to Shopify. “It was a really key project to ensure that when customers come to belstaff.com, that they’re getting the same feeling across all different touchpoints,” Jodie says.

Navid Jilow, Belstaff’s director of technology, says the IT project helped the brand move toward an omnichannel approach. “We really found the proposition where you can combine your point-of-sale and your ecommerce platform under a single platform very appealing,” he says.

With Shopify, Belstaff can gather more robust customer data based on both their online and in-store purchases. “That helps us build that customer profile up rather than having some of these bits missing in our data,” Navid says.

The company also worked with an agency to create an engaging customer experience on the front end that was as seamless and easy to navigate as the in-store experience. Navid explains Shopify’s headless setup allowed Belstaff’s developers to create a unique look for the website.

Old is new again

[embedded content]

Lastly, Belstaff is embracing its longevity with the mantra “old is good.” In the current era of fast fashion, Jodie’s prediction is that people will buy less in the next 100 years, and will turn to brands that deliver quality craftsmanship. That’s why the brand is also focusing on sustainability and exploring ways to help customers repair their used Belstaff products. “Being able to buy a coat, wear it for 50 years, and then pass it on to your son is actually a really lovely part of what makes Belstaff special,” Jodie says.

To learn more about what Belstaff is doing to celebrate its 100 years in business, listen to the full interview with Jodie and Navid on Shopify Masters.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

7 Simple Steps To Build A Personal Brand In 90 Days

Software Stack Editor · April 9, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - Teachable’s is an online training platform and it's key features include an intuitive course builder, rich multimedia lectures, and powerful sales and marketing tools. It offers flexible pricing options, advanced analytics, and student management capabilities. Additionally, it provides great customer support and mobile accessibility

In the world of clicks and pixels, personal branding is your golden ticket to breaking the internet, in the best way possible. Ronne Brown is a living, breathing testament to the power of personal branding. From starting her entrepreneurial journey in her home, making beauty products to becoming a branding maestro and financial freedom fighter, Ronne’s story is nothing short of cinematic.

And now, she’s ready to share her playbook with you.

In this post we’ll be breaking down Ronne’s expert insights, gleaned from her climb from mopping floors to banking millions, we’re diving deep into actionable steps that promise to elevate your brand.

But first, let’s get to know Ronne Brown

Meet Ronne Brown: From zero to seven-figure hero

Ronne Brown’s journey from the humble beginnings of making beauty products in her home to becoming a renowned branding maestro and a champion of financial freedom is a narrative sure to keep you at the edge of your seat. We asked Ronne to share her biggest wins—and losses—with us. Here’s what she had to say…

‍Have you always had an entrepreneurial mindset?

“Yes, I started my first business in 2009 making beauty products in my home and selling them online.”

Tell us about your first sale? What did that mean to you?

“My first sale gave me reassurance and it lit the fire under me. This was confirmation that I could do it. It’s something about that first sale that makes you feel like you can accomplish anything.”

When did you first realize you could become a creator full time?

‘After taking people on the journey with me and allowing them to see the process of my business/brand I hit six figures and shortly after hit seven figures. While the financial accomplishments were great my audience loved being able to see me go from 0 to 7 figures. It was the process of seeing my journey that excited them the most. That’s when I realized that being a creator was possible and that people love behind the scenes more than anything.”

When you feel imposter syndrome creeping in, what do you do?

“The first thing I do is remember that God has a bigger purpose for my life and that I was called to be great. I practice positive affirmations speaking success and abundance over myself constantly. I remind myself that nothing will happen in my comfort zone and from there I take the leap.”

What is your favorite part about what you do?

“My favorite part about what I do is that I get to help people experience financial freedom. With financial freedom it gives people more options and time to spend with their families.”

What has been your biggest win or proudest moment in business—so far?

“My biggest accomplishment has been retiring from Corporate America, becoming the first seven figure earner in my family, retiring my mom and being able to be home with my children.”

When was a time where you failed miserably but learned a valuable lesson?

“Right before the pandemic I had a Girl CEO in-person conference planned; however, I had to pivot to an online conference. I was crushed because we sold over 400 tickets but I felt like I failed miserably! What I learned in that moment was the power of pivoting. We decided to make the event virtual and it ended up being a success. Today we are gearing up for our 2024 Girl CEO Conference and I’m so excited.”

As a branding expert, why is branding so important for a business/creator?

“Branding is extremely important because it is how your customers connect with you beyond your product or service.”

What is a business or creative goal you’ve set for yourself for the year?

“Outside of teaching entrepreneurs how to grow their businesses online I started a passion project to empower women on the go to prioritize self-care again through plant based skincare and feminine care products. The name of the brand is Herlistic and my goal is for the mission and the product to touch women all over the globe.”

What advice do you have for someone just starting their creator journey?

“Think about the problem you are going to solve. Ask your audience what they want to see from you and be sure to post that type of content consistently. Over time you will grow a community that loves, shares, and always remembers your brand.”

7 simple steps to kickstarting your personal brand in 90 days

2024 is buzzing with talk about personal branding, and it’s clear why.

Standing out in your field, establishing credibility, and snagging those opportunities doesn’t come by accident. It’s all about strategy, and, let’s be real, a bit of elbow grease.

Ronne Brown knows a thing or two about this. She didn’t just wake up one day with a million followers. It took sweat, tears, and a heck of a lot of savvy moves.

So, buckle up, because we’re about to dive into Ronne’s secret sauce for personal branding.

Step 1: Identify your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Kick things off by figuring out what makes you, well, you. What’s your secret ingredient? Ronne’s was her authentic journey from homemade beauty concoctions to a beauty empire. Yours could be your unique perspective, unparalleled skills, or even your personal story. Pinpoint what sets you apart and own it. This isn’t just about standing out; it’s about being unforgettable.

Step 2: Show up as yourself

Your online persona is your digital handshake — make it count. Ronne didn’t just show up online; she showed off, sharing her journey, her wins, and even her setbacks. Choose your platforms wisely and make sure they’re where your audience likes to hang. Then, fill them with content that’s so uniquely you, your followers can’t help but hit “like.”

Step 3: Engaging with Your Audience

This is where the magic happens. Engagement is more than just a buzzword for Ronne; it’s the cornerstone of her brand. Share your journey, ask for input, and genuinely interact with your followers. This isn’t just about building a brand; it’s about building a community. Your audience isn’t just a group of followers; they’re your future brand ambassadors.

Step 4: Stay consistent with your content

If there’s one thing Ronne nails every time, it’s consistency. Your followers should know what to expect and when to expect it. Whether it’s your posting schedule, your content themes, or your visual style, keep it consistent. This creates a sense of reliability and trust — essential ingredients for a strong personal brand.

Step 5: Leverage your story

Your story is your strongest marketing tool. Ronne’s narrative of transformation and triumph is at the heart of her brand. Share your journey, the highs, the lows, and everything in between. This vulnerability isn’t just relatable; it’s compelling. It transforms followers into fans, and skeptics into supporters.

Step 6: Expand your reach

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Ronne expanded her brand across multiple platforms and ventures, from social media to skincare. Explore collaborations, guest posts, or even start a podcast. Each new platform is a new opportunity to share your voice and your vision.

Step 7: Invest in continual learning

The digital landscape is always changing, and so should you. Ronne’s commitment to growth — both personal and professional — is a big part of her success. Stay curious, stay learning, and stay ahead of the curve. Whether it’s a new social media platform or a trend in your industry, keep your knowledge fresh and your skills sharp.

How to access more of Ronne Brown’s branding secrets

You’ve journeyed through the blueprint of transforming your personal brand, but why stop here?

The realm of personal branding is vast and nuanced, and Ronne Brown has more wisdom to share. If you’re ready to delve deeper and truly elevate your personal brand, there’s an unparalleled opportunity waiting for you.

We’ve partnered up with Ronne Brown to give you a deeper look at personal branding with an exclusive course on Teachable called, “Becoming the Brand with Ronne Brown”.

When you sign up for a free plan on Teachable today, you’ll get access to the course at no additional cost!

You can learn to…

Create a magnetic personal brand: Articulate your unique value with a compelling personal brand statement.

Foster deeper connections with your audience: Master the art of building genuine relationships with your audience.

Sustainably grow your community: Acquire practical tips for nurturing and expanding your community.

So if you’re ready to build a personal brand that truly stands out, connects, and cuts through the noise, sign up for a Teachable free plan today and gain immediate access to “Becoming the Brand with Ronne Brown” today!

If Teachable is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Theming with design tokens at Webflow

Software Stack Editor · April 9, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - Simplify web development with Webflow, reduce costs, and deliver professional results. No-code, responsive, and SEO-friendly. Explore your creative potential!

Last October, we launched our new UI redesign during Webflow Conf.

In January, we followed that up with the successful launch of new appearance settings in the Designer that allow users to choose between a default, darker, or brighter theme.

You might be asking; how did we facilitate such large-scale design updates and manage to keep the UI visually consistent? The answer: by using design tokens and CSS variables.

In this blog, we’ll explore the ins and outs of the behind-the-scenes magic that makes these large UI changes possible.

How we utilize design tokens and CSS variables

Like many companies, Webflow uses Figma to create mockups of new features. Our designers leverage design tokens – key-value pairs that use Figma’s Variables API – within their mockups.

At Webflow, we have over one hundred design tokens in Figma that cover nearly every aspect of CSS styling: colors, backgrounds, font sizes, borders, border radii, sizing, spacing, and more. We’ve carefully curated this robust collection of tokens over time through close collaboration between our Design System team and the rest of the design organization.

For example, we might have a design token for our default text color that looks like this: Text/Default: #C4C4C4. We might also have a design token that can be used as a margin or padding value that looks like this: Space/space-1: 4px. We even have some tokens that point to other tokens as their value.

We use these design tokens to create CSS variables in our code. For instance, the design token for our default text color that we saw earlier becomes var(–colors-text-default), which we can then use as the value for the CSS color property for some HTML element like this:

`color: var(--colors-text-default)`

That variable references an underlying color token:

–colors-text-default: var(–core-colors-gray-400);

And these color variables are then tied to our base hex values:

–core-colors-gray-400: #C4C4C4;

Usage in our code

Given that Webflow is a mature codebase that has seen several iterations of both JS-based and CSS-based styling solutions over its lifetime, implementing design tokens was not a trivial task. To further complicate matters, the codebase had numerous occurrences of hard-coded style values, which led to inconsistent styles and bespoke component designs.

We first took the time to unify our systems so that they could all use the same set of CSS variables. Then we replaced any hard-coded values to instead use those variables. The unification process took a couple months to complete. This initial work was well worth the effort though, as we now have a single source of truth for our design tokens and styles.

Our CSS-based style system using .less files defines all of our design tokens as Less variables that can be used in other .less files. Our JS-based style system defines all of our design tokens inside what essentially boils down to an object of key-value pairs.

This allows us to style our elements using CSS/LESS like this:

.button {
color: @d2–textDefault;
}

Or to style our elements using our internal JS-based style system like this:

const HelpText = emotionStyled(‘div’)({
color: tokens.colors.textDefault,
});

The important thing to note here is that everything is using these tokens and variables. We don’t have any instances of hard-coded base style values anywhere anymore.

We even have tooling in place to proactively catch instances where developers have tried to add hard-coded style values in pull requests in GitHub! This tooling traverses the abstract syntax tree (AST) of the code and reports any style values it encounters that don’t use our design tokens. This way we can keep our codebase clean and prevent future regressions of non-ideal style usage.

Making style updates

Having this setup in place enables us to make large-scale UI changes fairly easily.

If we want to update our default text color to be something else, we update the design token value in one place in Figma and in one place in our code. Then, the rest just works. Because all of our frontend code is using these tokens, when a token’s color value is changed, the color gets updated everywhere all throughout our app.

That’s the dream, right? To update once and see the effects everywhere. No more hunting down hundreds or thousands of instances where a color was used and replacing them, hoping you caught them all.

This system also makes theming much easier. We mentioned earlier that the Designer allows you to choose between a default, darker, or brighter theme. To support these three themes, we have three theme config files that contain all of the design token values for each theme. The variable names are the same for each theme (and enforced by TypeScript!), but the values are different. And since our components reference the variable names in their styles, switching between each theme just works for every component. All we have to do is swap out the set of tokens and values used in our app based on the currently selected theme, and the styles get applied everywhere.

const lightThemeColors: ThemeTokens = {
textDefault: coreColorTokens.gray[800],
/* more tokens here /
};

const darkThemeColors: ThemeTokens = {
textDefault: coreColorTokens.gray[400],
/ more tokens here */
};

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Moving forward

With our current system in place, we can respond to customer feedback and deliver value to the business much more quickly. We’ve enabled ourselves to wrangle a complex, sprawling codebase and make UI style updates with ease.

So, what’s next? We’re now in a place where we can continue to refine the look and feel of our app without requiring a significant time investment. Could that mean light mode in Designer? Dark mode in Dashboard? Even further theme customization? No promises, but the possibilities are endless!

If Webflow is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Net 30 Payment Terms: Pros and Cons (2024)

Software Stack Editor · April 9, 2024 ·

“Net 30” is a common payment term you might see on an invoice. It simply means buyers have 30 days after receiving an invoice to complete their payment. Buyers typically receive their goods in the interim. Net 30 is popular among buyers that purchase products from wholesalers because it gives them enough time to sell the products before paying for them.

For some merchants, the idea of waiting 30 days for payment is risky. How will they operate in the meantime? Is there any guarantee that your customer will settle their debt, or is there a risk of them going silent before the payment term expires?

These are all valid concerns, but there are steps you can take to insulate your business from bad debt if you’re offering a net 30 payment. Here’s how to protect your business and allow customers flexible payment options.

What is net 30?

Net 30 is a payment agreement in which a customer pays for their order within 30 days of receiving the product. It’s most often used in business-to-business (B2B) commerce, where buyers pay for inventory once they’ve sold it.

How do net 30 days payment terms work?

Net 30 days payment terms mean that the buyer has 30 days from the date of receiving the invoice to settle the payment in full. Some buyers opt for these terms because it gives them extra time to improve cash flow. During the 30-day period, the buyer can confirm the products meet their expectations, and sell it to their own customers (if this is the purpose of the sale).

If the buyer hasn’t paid for the goods when the 30-day period expires, the outstanding amount may be subject to late fees or penalties.

An example of net 30 payments

Let’s say a small business owner purchases inventory from a wholesaler that offers net 30 payment terms. Upon receiving the products, the wholesaler issues an invoice dated March 1, stating that payment is due within 30 days. The wholesaler also offers an early repayment discount of 10% if the buyer pays within 15 days.

The small business has until March 16 to claim the discount, with a final deadline of March 31 to make the payment in full. This is enough time to inspect and resell the products before settling the sales invoice within the agreed timeframe.

If the small business doesn’t make payment within 30 days, the wholesaler will likely issue a new invoice with an additional late payment fee.

How to manage net 30 payment terms

1. Create an agreement

A contract is a legally enforceable agreement that protects you if a customer doesn’t pay within 30 days. To make the agreement watertight and let the buyer know what’s expected of them, you can include the following elements in your contract:

The start date and end date of the agreement
Products or services provided
A discount offer for early payment
Penalties for missing the payment date
How returns are handled

Alongside the contract, prepare an invoice, a document that explains what you’re selling and for how much. This should include an invoice date, your agreed net 30 payment terms, what you’re selling, and instructions on settling the debt.

To do this from your Shopify admin, create a draft order and select the “Payment due later” option. Here, you can set your payment terms. Choose “Within 30” days for net 30.

Screenshot of Shopify deferred payments that are due 30 days after the invoice issue date. — Set 30 day payment terms inside Shopify’s draft order tab.

2. Consider an early payment discount

If you’re offering net 30 payment terms to your customers but would rather not wait a month for the money to hit your bank account, you can offer early payment discounts to incentivize people to pay earlier.

Early repayment discounts are typically written in the following format: [discount]% / [number] days. For example, 5% / 15 days net 30 means customers get a 5% discount if they settle their invoice within 15 days (before the net 30 deadline).

3. Send regular payment reminders

Your customers might be busy people who forget about their upcoming payment deadline. Instead of waiting for the deadline to pass, you can send regular reminders to people who’ve agreed to a net 30 payment term. Here’s what that might look like:

23 days after invoicing: One week left to complete their payment
29 days after invoicing: Final reminder with warning of a late payment fee
31 days after invoicing: New invoice with a late payment fee

Shopify can send automatic payment reminders for you. Go to Settings and choose “Notifications.” Select “Customer notifications” and find the payment reminder section. You can edit what the reminder email looks like and choose how often you want to send them.

Advantages of net 30 terms

Net 30 payment terms are popular among ecommerce retailers because they offer the following advantages:

Incentivize new customers. Net 30 can help customers improve their own cash flow if they don’t have to pay for their goods until 30 days after receiving them. This removes any concern about trying new brands.
Competitive advantage. If a customer is choosing between two merchants, the one offering net 30 payment terms could be the best choice for a customer who prefers a longer payment period, such as small business owners.
Encourage customer loyalty. Offering net 30 payment terms is a sign of trust that can solidify strong relationships. This can build loyalty, because it’s easier for people to stick with a brand if they feel a strong connection to it.

Disadvantages of net 30 terms

Despite the advantages that net 30 can provide, there are some disadvantages to consider before you offer these payment terms to your customers:

You’ll need more working capital. You won’t recoup the cost of producing a product until 30 days after you’ve sold it. That means you’ll likely need a lot more working capital to operate your business in the interim.
Unpredictable cash flow. When people take you up on your net 30 offer, you trust that they’ll pay within 30 days. If they fail to do so, your business can experience cash flow management problems.
You may need to manually approve net 30 requests. Customers with poor personal or business credit scores might be more likely to default on their payments, and approving these people in advance takes time.
You’ll need to remind people of upcoming payments. This is made easier with software that can send deferred payment reminders, such as Shopify.

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Alternatives to net 30 payment

If you’re not set on the idea of waiting 30 days to receive payment, consider these alternatives:

Net 0. Also known as payment on receipt or immediate payment, net 0 means that payment is due immediately after placing an order. It’s most commonly used in direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce, where orders are processed at scale.
Net 15. A customer has 15 days to make their payment. Some retailers find the shorter payment window is a good middle ground between flexibility and waiting for money to hit their bank account. You’ll most often find net 15 terms offered by wholesalers to smaller businesses.
Net 60. This payment term gives customers more time—60 days—to pay for their order. The longer window is more attractive to customers with cash flow problems, but you’ll need substantial working capital to operate in the meantime. Net 60 isa popular arrangement between wholesalers and larger businesses.
Net 90. This tends to be the maximum payment term that businesses offer. Again, you’ll need a lot of working capital to operate while waiting. You’re most likely to find these longer payment terms in government contracts with longer sales cycles and approval processes.

Accept deferred payments with Shopify

Getting paid is a key part of selling online, so take some time to determine whether net 30 terms are right for you. Does the potential of converting more customers balance the risk of late payment?

If you’re not sure yet, you could also try offering net 30 payments to specific customers. You might contact existing customers you already know and trust to explore the idea of net 30 terms. Once you’ve got the hang of it and feel more comfortable accepting deferred payments, you can open it up to more customers.

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Shopify Balance is a free financial account that lets you manage your business’s money from Shopify admin. Pay no monthly fees, get payouts up to seven days earlier, and earn cashback on eligible purchases.

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Net 30 payment terms FAQ

What is the most common net payment term?

Net 30 is one of the most common payment terms. It gives the buyer 30 days from placing their order to pay for it.

What is the 2% net 30 payment terms?

2% net 30 payment terms mean that full payment is due within 30 days of placing the order, but there’s a 2% discount if they pay early.

What is a net 30 payment term late payment?

If a buyer fails to make payment within the agreed 30 day terms, the seller might add a late payment penalty and issue a new invoice.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

What Is Solvency? Definition and Examples (2024)

Software Stack Editor · April 9, 2024 ·

Solvency, just like profitability, is a financial metric every business owner should be familiar with.

Financial solvency is required for long-term survival. If a business is insolvent, it can find itself filing for bankruptcy and going out of business.

To keep your ecommerce business financially sound, learn what solvency means, how it works, and some practical strategies your business can use to improve its financial solvency.

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What is solvency in simple terms?

Solvency is a financial metric that evaluates a company’s ability to meet its long-term financial obligations. In business, debt is often a double-edged sword. While it can be an exceptional financial catalyst, it can also lead to a business’s downfall if poorly managed.

But solvency is sometimes confused with liquidity. While the two are similar, they are not the same.

Liquidity vs. solvency

Liquidity measures a company’s ability to pay its short-term financial obligations. Solvency measures a business’s ability to meet its long-term financial obligations.

A liquidity problem occurs when a company cannot pay its short-term liabilities, like employee wages or supplier invoices, using cash on hand and outstanding customer receivables. Liquidity can easily become a concern for an ecommerce company.

For example, assume a company makes large inventory purchases in Q1 to prepare for a busy summer selling season. The company may face liquidity issues in Q2 because a large chunk of its cash is tied up in inventory that won’t sell for several months. This leaves little cash coming in to cover ongoing expenses like rent, wages, or order fulfillment.

On the flip side, a business experiences a solvency problem when it can’t pay its long-term liabilities, like loans and mortgages, even if it sells all of its assets.

When the total of a company’s current assets (e.g., cash, inventory, receivables, equipment, etc.) is less than its total liabilities, the business has a solvency problem. While a liquidity issue can be frustrating and can slow down operations, a solvency problem can be dire.

Here’s how to visualize the difference between liquidity and solvency.

	Liquidity	Solvency
Time span	Within one year	Long-term financial outlook
Ability measured	To pay current financial obligations	To meet current and future financial obligations
Assets considered	Assets that can easily convert to cash	Total assets
Liabilities considered	Debts due within one year	All debts
Impact	Short-term cash flow problems	Potential bankruptcy
Example	Company with high inventory but low sales	Company with high debt and declining sales

How does solvency work?

Because solvency is a key financial benchmark, merchants need to know if their businesses are solvent. But how?

The easiest way to determine if a business is solvent is to sum up its total assets and total liabilities and then subtract its total liabilities from its total assets. To calculate solvency, use this formula:

Solvency = Total Assets – Total Liabilities

For instance, suppose an ecommerce store’s assets include:

Ecommerce Shop Assets	Dollar Value
Cash	$300,000
Inventory	$450,000
Software	$200,000
*Total assets*	*$950,000*

And assume its liabilities are:

Ecommerce Shop Liabilities	Dollar Value
Vendor/supplier invoices	$100,000
10-year bank loan	$500,000
*Total liabilities*	*$600,000*

Since the company’s assets exceed liabilities by $350,000, this company is solvent since it has an extra $350,000 to cover its total liabilities.

It also helps for business owners to understand these three solvency ratios.

Debt-to-equity ratio

The debt-to-equity ratio measures how a company finances itself with debt (loans and payables) compared to its own money (equity). It reflects the company’s leverage. In this calculation, debt is the numerator and equity is the denominator. To calculate debt-to-equity, use this formula:

Debt to Equity = Total Debt ÷ Total Equity

A higher ratio, typically over 2, should be a concern to an ecommerce entrepreneur. A debt-to-equity ratio of 2 means that for every $1 of equity, there is $2 of debt. This is when you can creep into solvency issues.

The ideal debt-to-equity ratio varies widely by industry. For example, businesses in capital-intensive industries, such as airlines, have higher debt-to-equity ratios. But technology and healthcare companies have lower debt-to-equity ratios.

Let’s look at an example from popular ecommerce company eBay’s December 31, 2023 balance sheet.

Ignore all the words and numbers. Only look at the items blocked in red and blue. These are the two numbers needed to calculate eBay’s debt-to-equity ratio.

As of December 31, 2023, eBay had a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.38 ($15,224 ÷ $6,396). As an established ecommerce company, this ratio wouldn’t raise solvency concerns. But for newer ecommerce businesses, this would warrant ongoing monitoring.

eBay’s December 31, 2023 balance sheet — *eBay*

Interest coverage ratio

Another way to know if your business is solvent is to calculate its interest coverage ratio.

The interest coverage ratio measures a company’s ability to cover its interest expense on its debt. It tells you how easily the company’s current earnings can cover the interest expense; hence the term “Interest Coverage.”

You can calculate your interest coverage ratio by dividing your company’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) by its interest expense. Use this formula to calculate interest coverage ratio:

Interest Coverage Ratio = EBIT ÷ Interest Expense

EBIT shows you how much profit your business made from its core operations before considering extra expenses like income taxes and interest.

A low-interest coverage ratio suggests a company may have difficulty paying its interest expense. But a higher ratio means the business has more wiggle room to pay its debt obligations.

What interest coverage ratio should ecommerce businesses aim for? A company with consistent revenues should aim for a minimum interest coverage ratio of 2.

Let’s look at another real-world example from the ecommerce brand Etsy. Again, ignore all the words and numbers. Only look at the items blocked in red and blue. These are the two numbers needed to calculate eBay’s interest coverage ratio.

As of December 31, 2023, Etsy’s interest coverage ratio was a solid 19.9 ($279,841 ÷ $14,042). This is a strong financial position because it means that for approximately every $20 Etsy makes, it spends only $1 on interest.

Etsy’s January 1, 2023 - December 31, 2023 income statement — *Etsy*

Equity ratio

Another financial metric you use to evaluate your company’s solvency is the equity ratio.

Business owners and analysts can evaluate a company’s solvency by analyzing its debt using the debt-to-equity ratio or the interest coverage ratio. But you can also evaluate a company’s solvency by reviewing its equity level.

Equity is how much of your business you own after deducting what the company owes to others. The idea behind the equity ratio is that if equity is high, then debt will correspondingly be low. The formula for the equity ratio is total equity ÷ total assets.

Let’s go back and look at eBay’s balance sheet and calculate its equity ratio. Remember to only look at the items blocked in red and blue. These are the two numbers needed to calculate eBay’s equity ratio.

As of December 31, 2023, eBay’s equity ratio was 0.295 ($6,396 ÷ $21,620).

An equity ratio below 1.0 is worthy of attention because it means the company has more debt than equity. While this might not be a problem, it’s worth monitoring.

eBay’s December 31, 2023 balance sheet with assets and total stockholders’ equity annotated — *eBay*

Factors influencing a company’s solvency

Monitoring your company’s solvency helps ensure its long-term survival and provides peace of mind to you as a business owner.

Factors that affect solvency can be broken down into three categories:

Financial management
Market factors
Operational issues

Financial management

Poor financial management can lead to insolvency, and inefficient inventory management can drain cash flow. Overstocking slow-moving products ties up working capital, but understocking can lead to lost sales.

Keeping a close watch over sales trends, including seasonality and customer purchasing patterns, can help with under or overstocking. Solvency can be traced back to profitability. A company consistently generating healthy profits has a greater ability to meet debt obligations and remain solvent.

Market factors

Economic conditions beyond your control can lead to solvency problems. For example, the government can change its tax regime, import or export policy, or regulatory requirements.

Staying ahead of the competition, identifying changes in customer preferences, or recognizing industry trends can help your business stand out and attract new customers and increase sales.

Operational issues

Your ecommerce company’s operations are the backbone of your business. Slow order fulfillment and unreliable shipping can damage brand loyalty and lead to lost sales and reduced cash flow.

Ensure your marketing campaigns are designed effectively. A poorly designed campaign that cannot generate a good return on investment can eat into cash flow. Rapid expansion of product lines or entering a new category space that is not well thought out can also quickly deplete cash.

Other factors that can affect solvency include technological changes, natural disasters, and poor leadership.

Strategies for improving solvency

Solvency is often a life-or-death issue for a business. That means scrutinizing your solvency metrics can be life-saving.

If you’re worried about solvency and want to shore it up a bit, consider the following strategies.

Improve your profits

There are two ways you can increase your profits: increase sales or reduce costs. Typically, you will start by reducing costs because it’s the easiest and can give you results in days.

Consider negotiating better prices with suppliers and shipping vendors. But don’t overlook the need to increase sales. Cutting costs can only do so much to improve a company’s financial health. Consider dynamic pricing models where prices adjust based on demand, competition, and customer behavior.

Restructure your debts

Before risking default, consider restructuring your debts.

Restructuring debts that lead to lower interest rates or extended repayment schedules can give business owners breathing room as they figure out how to put their business operations on a more sustainable track.

Manage inventory efficiently

Review your inventory management techniques to avoid over- and under-stocking. If you haven’t already, create procedures to prevent product damage to reduce waste and shrinkage. Ensure you are completing regular inventory audits to identify any issues with inventory storage.

Securing your future as a business owner

While you should know whether your company is earning profits, you should also assess whether it will continue to make profits for the foreseeable future. That’s why solvency, which measures whether a business can meet its long-term financial obligations, is crucial.

The debt-to-equity ratio, interest coverage ratio, and equity ratio can help entrepreneurs evaluate whether their companies are solvent or not.

And if you find your solvency metrics aren’t stellar, you may want to explore restructuring your debts and cutting unnecessary costs.

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Solvency FAQ

What is solvency in finance?

Solvency is a financial measurement that evaluates a company’s ability to pay its long-term financial obligations.

Is solvency a good thing?

Solvency is a good thing because insolvent companies go out of business.

What is an example of solvency?

A solvent company has reliable sales that exceed costs that allows it to keep operating in the long run. An insolvent company has high expenses combined with low or declining sales, making it difficult to meet its financial obligations.

Are solvency ratios the same for every company?

No. Solvency ratios vary from industry to industry. The overall aim is to have more assets than liabilities. But how much more will depend on the company.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

8 bug-tracking tools for developers in 2024

Software Stack Editor · April 9, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - Simplify web development with Webflow, reduce costs, and deliver professional results. No-code, responsive, and SEO-friendly. Explore your creative potential!

It’s preparation — not perfection — that makes for a bug-free product.

Bugs happen. Even the smartest web development teams can’t avoid them entirely. That’s because bugs can occur for various reasons — operating system changes, browser incompatibilities, and small errors, to name a few.

The best way to prepare for these different issues is to implement a comprehensive bug-tracking system for capturing, tracking, and resolving them as you detect them.

Thankfully, bug reporting software is a well-established industry with many options on the market. Products called bug-tracking tools or defect trackers help your team develop a robust system to keep your operation running smoothly when pesky bugs skitter into your workflow.

Why do you need a bug-tracking system?

Any development team can encounter the many forms of website bugs, such as dead links, missing pages, and broken navigation. As you discover such glitches, it’s essential to have a system for intake, execution, and tracking. Without a methodical troubleshooting approach, your team will lose vital time and effort addressing repetitive issues. A proper bug-tracking system addresses the complex, time-sensitive nature of identifying problems and diagnosing causes before implementing an action plan.

Here are the primary benefits you’ll gain from a robust bug-tracking plan.

Reduced disruption

Bugs are not easy to anticipate, and managing them disrupts your team’s workflow by adding extra labor and taking time away from normal operations. Even with a tracking system in place, malfunctions will still cause disturbance, but their overall impact lessens when you have a plan to combine and prioritize issues as they arise.

Improved product results

To promote overall site performance, your development team must view bugs on the whole, rather than as isolated incidents. A bug-tracking system provides product managers and developers with a high-level view, identifying connections between issues, such as shared CSS classes or similarly-broken interactions. Spotting these connections may reveal solutions that address multiple problems at once.

Increased customer satisfaction

Customers tend to forgive even the most egregious malfunction when they feel the developers are working to fix it. A properly updated bug-tracking system gives community managers the information they need to share progress updates with your user base via announcements and newsletters. This transparency creates a culture of camaraderie and trust, discouraging users from fleeing en masse when your product faces a glitch.

4 elements of bug and issue tracking

Bugs can easily slip through the cracks without critical tracking components working together as a well-oiled machine. As you develop your bug-tracking project plan, map out these steps so your tool is ready to usher bugs through each resolution stage.

1. Detect

The most crucial part of a sound bug-tracking system is finding and capturing the bug. Reports come from many sources, such as support calls and user reviews. You might also detect problems when you measure your site’s performance regularly. Your team must be capable of detecting issues as soon as they appear so they can act on them swiftly.

After detecting a bug, determine its urgency. Typically, the more the bug negatively impacts the user experience, the more immediately you should treat it. This information determines which priority to assign the problem, informing how and when to solve it in your development cycle.

2. Track

Some bugs can resolve during a single development cycle, while others require more effort to identify and get rid of. Either way, your bug-tracking system must maintain a steady cadence of checking progress toward resolution. This information is vital for your community managers, who need to report progress to their audience regularly.

3. Resolve

Your tracking approach should use a system of assignees, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and messages so developers and managers can resolve issues according to an optimized plan. This formal process makes it clear who’s doing the work and when.

Here’s an example of how a team may approach a website bug:

A user leaves a review pointing out slow load times.
Your community manager notices this review and files a ticket in your bug-tracking software. They fill out a template that prompts them to provide relevant information about the issue.
Your product manager assigns the ticket to a developer and adds a message to suggest a timeline for fixing it.
The developer implements performance optimizations that improve loading times and assigns the bug back to the product manager for validation.
The product manager validates that the fix worked and then closes the bug.

4. Monitor

Even after you’ve resolved a bug, it’s best practice to keep monitoring the problem. The resolution might only work temporarily, which you’ll never know if you immediately stop assessing your fix. If you need help, there are monitoring tools like Pingdom and Site24x7 that can surface issues or keep an eye on problem areas.

How to choose the right bug-tracking tool

To select the right system for your team, consider the essential elements that make an optimal bug-tracking solution. Some features may be more or less critical to your team, so weigh them carefully when selecting a tool.

Functionality

Some tracking tools are comprehensive task-monitoring apps with a wide variety of features. Others are specialized, offering a select suite of functions to serve a particular need. Consider which capabilities your team needs before selecting a bug-tracking tool.

Here are some standard features you might want from a tracking resource:

Kanban board
Assignees
Customizable workflows
Issue templates
Access control

Interface

With all those features vying for importance, it’s easy for a bug-tracking tool’s interface to get messy. The best solutions use a combination of color coding, intuitive design, and careful simplification, resulting in a straightforward product. It’s best practice to try demos for many different products before selecting one to use long-term.

Integrations

Many bug-tracking tools have APIs enabling other software to share information. This feature allows for convenient functions like generating reports from email or advancing the troubleshooting workflow from within a collaborative tool like Slack or Microsoft Teams. These features might seem small, but the time they save adds up quickly.

8 excellent bug-tracking tools in 2024

Now that you know what goes into a smart bug-tracking tool, it’s time to explore the leading solutions in 2024. The following products earn high marks for their interfaces, functionality, and integration support.

1. ClickUp

ClickUp is relatively new to the scene, but they’ve quickly garnered widespread respect for developing a comprehensive yet easy-to-use task-tracking app. Enjoy the features you need to track glitches, like a Kanban board, assignees, and customizable workflows — all with an intuitive interface. It also supports integrations with Slack, Teams, and Google Drive.

2. Trello

Trello is a powerful task management tool that tracks issues visually via intuitive cards and boards. The board layouts are infinitely customizable, and the access control, time tracking, and assignee features are as robust as they come.

Trello’s free version offers plenty of basic features, but you’ll need to upgrade to its premium plan ($10/month/user) if you need complete admin control and access to key features like calendars and dashboards.

3. Bugzilla

Bugzilla has been around since 1998, offering its service for free and updating regularly. It doesn’t provide as many features as its competitors, like Kanban boards or assignees, but it does offer an intelligent time-tracking tool and duplicate bug detection. For the price tag, Bugzilla delivers a valuable experience that can serve your team’s basic needs.

4. Zoho

Zoho has a massive library of products, many of which integrate well with one another. Zoho’s Bug Tracker is a comprehensive, feature-complete tool that supports assignees, custom workflows, and Kanban boards. It’s relatively easy to use with its intuitive design. But if you need to track many issues, you’ll want the premium subscription ($7/month/user) for up to 120GB of storage.

5. Asana

Asana is a streamlined task management tool that offers assignees, custom fields, and a Kanban board. Its custom workflow builder is impressively powerful and easy to use. It even tracks the time your teams take to move through each stage and delivers a report regularly.

6. Redmine

Redmine is a free, open-source bug-tracking tool with a pared-down but useful feature set. It includes access control, a shareable calendar, and custom workflows. But it relies on its few supported integrations to offer other features. For example, integrating with Orangutan enables time-tracking features, and implementing a webhook in Zabbix allows for automatic ticket generation.

7. Jira

Jira is an industry leader in project management and defect-tracking software. It offers all the features of its competitors, like custom workflows, templates, and access control. That said, Jira has a steep learning curve. Its search function requires a proprietary query language (JQL), access control is complex, and UI is less intuitive. It’s an incredible tool, but you’ll need to invest significant time into learning and introducing it.

8. Bird Eats Bug

Bird Eats Bug offers a revolutionary way to catch and report bugs. While it’s less effective than its competitors in tracking bugs, it stands out with its ability to harness them. This tool offers an intuitive browser extension that enables QA testers to capture bugs and report detailed logs with minimal button clicks. These reports can then transfer to tracking tools like Jira and Trello to automate task creation. With Bird Eats Bug, you can record your session and play it back to detect bugs without opening the developer console.

Move beyond the glitch with Webflow

Bug tracking relies on accurate, timely information. With Webflow, you can see a comprehensive log of site changes, helping you diagnose and resolve website issues as soon as they arise. If you encounter a particularly challenging bug, check out Webflow University for troubleshooting tips from our team of qualified experts.

If Webflow is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

How Musicians Make Money online and offline: 11 tips & examples

Software Stack Editor · April 8, 2024 ·

If Convertkit is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Steph Knapp

Steph Knapp is a freelance B2B + SaaS content marketer that loves educating and empowering curious humans. When she’s not typing away, you’ll find her volunteering at the animal shelter and obsessing over a new hobby every week. She shares marketing, freelance, and cat content on Twitter @ hellostephknapp.

If Convertkit is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

From pain points to progress: accelerating your Well-Architected Framework Reviews

Software Stack Editor · April 8, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - our team love using Miro as an online workspace for innovation, enabling distributed teams to dream, design, and build together. With a full set of collaboration capabilities, it simplifies cross-functional teamwork, meetings, and workshops. Create concepts, map user stories, and conduct roadmap planning in real-time.

Creating an architecture that not only supports your business, but enhances it, is not a one-and-done task. It requires continuous reflection, learning, and improvement. For organizations that build on AWS, Well-Architected Framework Reviews play a critical role in their success. Designed to enable teams to assess and improve their architecture, the process can enhance performance, ensure stability and security, and maximize cost-efficiency. This is why many organizations engage Well-Architected Partner Program members.

But when teams are in the trenches of, or have just completed, a big migration or launch, the thought of participating in a Well-Architected Review can feel overwhelming. It’s not that they don’t want to look at their architecture through a critical lens. (The fact that they’ve engaged a Well-Architected Partner Program Member indicates the opposite.) But it’s the process they find challenging.

Below we’ll dive into some of the hurdles reported by solution architects and their partners, and offer solutions to help you minimize friction, maximize performance, and complete reviews more efficiently — all while getting the most out of AWS.

Hurdles to participating in a Well-Architected Framework Review

There’s no single source of truth

One of the major frustrations we hear from review participants is the difficulty in keeping track of documentation, tasks, and progress. With critical information and data in various places, cross-functional teams waste a lot of time and effort simply trying to find what they need.

Siloed tools

Creating diagrams in silos can really inhibit collaboration. As teams go back and forth on multiple reviews with little visibility into changes (and the “why” of changes), creating a simple diagram can take valuable time away from bigger projects.

Manual effort

A thorough review involves a lot of manual effort, including compiling well-architected risks, assigning tasks for the working team, and calculating the associated costs. This takes up time and subjects the tasks to unnecessary human error.

No standardization or governance

When there isn’t any standardization or governance in the way that reviews are carried out, it’s even harder for teams to prepare for reviews, and for partners to scale their processes for carrying them out.

3 solutions for accelerating Well-Architected Framework Reviews

Through our work with AWS to co-create solutions for Well-Architected Partner Program members, we’ve identified three areas where leaders can take the pain out of the process, with maximum impact.

Create more visibility

Without a clear view of supporting documentation and artifacts, teams lose context and waste time searching for information across different systems and sources. Partners that work with Miro in their Well-Architected Reviews use their boards as a single living source of truth. With Miro’s bi-directional integrations with Jira, Asana, and other project management tools, teams can bring together documents, diagrams, and other data with tasks and project tracking.

Automate manual tasks

Automating manual tasks saves time for partners and their clients, freeing up teams to focus on more valuable work. It also makes it easier to take action. For example, Miro’s Well-Architected Tool automatically categorizes risks by color and displays these on your board, along with mitigation suggestions. This helps teams identify and prioritize the medium and higher risk items to act upon.

Cost calculations provide another opportunity to leverage automation. These calculations form an essential part of the Well-Architected Framework Review process, as they help to identify opportunities for cost reduction and efficiency. Unfortunately, carrying them out manually is time-consuming. But with Miro’s AWS cost calculator, teams can quickly get an automated estimate of hourly, monthly, and yearly costs — saving time and enabling faster decision making.

Find tools that encourage collaboration

Working in silos doesn’t work. In order to create together, teams need to be able to collaborate quickly and easily in real time. Diagram creation has historically been particularly problematic for collaboration, with teams working in specialist tools that don’t allow them to work in sync. To get to the right solutions more quickly, teams need a tool that not only has special diagramming capabilities, but also allows them to work together all in one space.

That’s where Miro’s AWS shape packs come in, which give your team the tools to quickly collaborate on creating AWS architecture diagrams all in one workspace. Miro is also integrated with draw.io, so that you can easily import existing architecture to leverage this new way of working.

From using tools that encourage collaboration to automating manual tasks, these solutions will enable partners to deliver AWS Well-Architected Framework Reviews faster and more efficiently — a win for both them and their clients.

If Miro is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

33 Profitable Work From Home Business Ideas

Software Stack Editor · April 8, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - ClickFunnels was founded by an online marketing legend Russell Brunson and it offers several benefits for online businesses and marketers:

Time and Cost Savings: Efficiently create sales funnels without extensive development efforts.

Maximized Conversions: Test offers, copy, and images to enhance conversions.

Specific Landing Pages: Generate highly targeted landing pages.

Predictable Pipeline: Create consistent, predictable sales paths.

Increased Sales: On average, it boosts sales of lesser products by 15%

The post 33 Profitable Work From Home Business Ideas appeared first on ClickFunnels.

You’ve long had a dream—a burning desire. The dream to be your own boss. To call the shots. It’s been with you since you can remember. It’s the dream of freedom. The freedom to work from home or on the road. The freedom to have more time to spend with loved ones. To make money—real money—so that you can finally exit survival mode. But this dream of yours is dwindling. Fading. It’s disappearing slowly into the abyss. And with each passing day, this dream of taking life by the horns and being your own boss is dying a slow and steady death.

But it’s never too late to turn your dreams into reality. It’s never too late to decide one moment that enough is enough. It only takes a single instant. In that instant, life can change forever. In that instant, you can make a decision. A decision that enough is enough. One that triggers a chain reaction to finally extricate yourself from a depleting 9-to-5 job. It only takes an instant to decide to start a business. A real business. One that allows you to make money in your sleep or while traveling the world. A business that allows you to be your own boss and finally call the shots.

Picture that for a moment. Freedom. True freedom. It’s not a pipe dream. It can be your reality—anyone’s reality. As long as you want it badly enough. But that doesn’t mean you’ll up and quit your day job tomorrow. It doesn’t mean you can just throw all your obligations to the wind, right? What would you do? Where would you start? How can you build a business working from home? One that can make you enough money to not just survive but to thrive? One that can help you cover your bills and finally give you a chance to breathe again?

How To Work From Home

Most dream of working from home. But most don’t know where to begin. What type of business would you start? How would you make money? Would you sell a product or a service? Where do you even begin? The answer is this. Find a way to solve a problem that someone is experiencing. Solve that problem so well that people flock to you for the solution. It has to be a problem big enough that people are willing to pay you handsomely to solve it. We’re not talking about tiny problems here. Everyone can solve tiny problems.

The bigger the problem you can solve the more money you can make. It doesn’t matter if you’re working from an office or your home. It doesn’t matter where you live or where you’re from. What matters is your ability to solve that problem. That’s where you begin. You begin at the intersection of the problem. What type of problems can you solve? Where do your skills begin and end? This isn’t about just having the confidence to solve the problem. You must actually be able to solve it and solve it well. And the better you can solve it the more money you can make.

The best part is this. You can typically solve problems from anywhere. It doesn’t require you to be in a specific location to solve a problem. That’s the beauty of working from home. The Internet allows us the freedom to live and work anywhere. That’s not the hard part. The hard part is defining the problem and finding the people experiencing that problem. Then, you must convince those people that you can actually solve their problem. But if you can do that then you have yourself a business. It all starts there. Pick the problem and find the people experiencing that problem. Then go all in.

1—Marketing Funnel Consultant

All businesses need marketing funnels. Every single one. What is a marketing funnel? It’s an ecosystem. Marketing funnels allow companies to generate leads and increase sales. They take customers on a predefined journey. It simplifies the entire lead generation and customer acquisition process. That’s why every company needs a marketing funnel. It’s a problem some companies don’t even know they have. Some still have websites and don’t know better. But marketing funnels are the key. And you can build an entire consulting business around it.

2—Lead Magnet Creator

Lead magnets allow you to prove that you can solve problems for customers. They’re used to help generate leads and establish a person as an authority. And you can build an entire business working from home just by creating lead magnets for others. Lead magnets can come in many forms. They can be written lead magnets, audio lead magnets, videos, free trials, and more. The point is that it must help to solve a specific problem that a prospect is experiencing. And lead magnets are typically offered for free within a lead generation funnel. Prospects exchange their contact details for the free lead magnet.

3—Landing Page Designer

Landing pages are an important part of any business. But most companies struggle with creating high-converting landing pages. Landing pages must look nice and be easy to consume. That’s because they’re at the basis of every critical business operation. Landing pages are part of every process that a company has to attract, convert, and retain its customers. And every business knows the importance of landing pages. You can make money creating landing pages for specific businesses. And you can also create landing pages as part of entire funnels and sell them in the funnel marketplace. This allows you to generate passive income from your landing page designs.

4—Online Course Creator

You can create an entire business around online courses. And you can do it from anywhere. That’s the beauty of the online education world. You can create and sell your courses to make money online. What type of online courses should you create? Get specific. Dig deep into the problem that your prospect is experiencing. And create a course that helps to solve that problem in a very detailed way. Go above and beyond. Give them all the knowledge and tools they could need to solve that problem. If you can do that, you can succeed with online courses.

5—Membership Sites

You can build a business working from home by creating a membership site. Take a topic or a specific problem that people are experiencing and create a membership site around that. Membership sites are constantly updated with fresh content and new information. They take time and energy. But it’s worthwhile because membership sites deliver recurring revenue. Customers pay month after month without fail. That means you’ll spend less time finding new customers. Instead, you’ll spend more time delivering value to existing customers.

6—Email Marketing Business

Email marketing is vital in business. If you’re not marketing via email you’re wasting your time. But the problem is this. Most companies are bad at email marketing. They don’t know what it takes to make money with emails. But the truth is that email marketing takes effort. It takes storytelling. And it takes being vulnerable with your audience. Is it easy? No. But it is well worth it. If you’re a good writer, you can help other companies make money in email marketing. Many don’t invest enough in email marketing. But emails offer the highest return on investment of any marketing activity.

7—Copywriting

Copywriting is a high-level skill that can make you money from home. The top copywriters in the world get paid a lot of money to produce high-level copy. That’s why this makes a great business model. Especially if you’re a good copywriter. Copywriting is different than writing because the skill zeros in on conversions. You must be able to speak to the prospect and their problem. The best copywriting identifies the problem and agitates it before presenting a solution. And it does it in a way that helps convey that their solution not only works for others but will also work for them.

8—Digital Products

Digital products come in all shapes and flavors. They can vary by medium and format. Some digital products can be cheat sheets or checklists. Others can be tools or video series. But the real draw of digital products is that they’re digital. They require no manufacturing or production time aside from creating it once. After you’ve created a digital product you can sell it again and again. Your inventory is virtually limitless. And as long as those digital products solve real problems, you can make money selling them day and night. That’s why digital products make a great work-from-home business idea.

9—Social Media Consultant

Many people rely on social media for an income. It’s used by businesses around the world to increase exposure and generate sales. Meaning that if you’re good at social media, consider helping other companies to increase their brand awareness on social media. You can promote your services on different platforms and use social media to make money. To find clients, you should create a hero funnel and link it to your profile. A hero funnel is a way for you to generate leads on social media when people click the link in your profile. Use other tactics like direct messaging and other outreach to find your first few clients.

10—Vacation Rental Management

You can run a vacation rental management business while working from home. And you can do this even if you don’t live in a vacation hotspot. Vacation rentals are everywhere. You can easily discover local listings and work with those owners to manage their rentals. While it does take some time and effort to get things going, it’s a lucrative industry. Vacation rental managers can secure anywhere from 20 to 40% commissions on gross rental rates. The best part? You don’t need a real estate license to be a vacation rental manager. You do need to understand how the process works and secure contracts with existing listings.

11—Web Developer

Many web developers earn a lot of money because this skill is in high demand. It’s easy to build a web development business from home. That’s because it doesn’t require you to be physically present. Most web developers work remotely and deal with clients halfway around the world. To find clients, use some of the popular freelancing websites like Upwork and Freelancer. You’ll need to secure great reviews and feedback to succeed. So it will take you time. But if you’re a web developer, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be working for yourself.

12—Bookkeeper

Every business needs bookkeeping. If you’re good with numbers, consider setting this up as a home-based business. Bookkeeping doesn’t require tons of many hours. Especially when you’re working with small businesses. You can launch a bookkeeping business on a shoestring budget and promote it with a simple lead generation funnel. Stick to one specific type of client such as business owners. Bookkeeping also provides recurring revenue because every business needs its books looked after regularly. If you know how to use the prevailing software platforms, even better.

13—Business Flipper

Did you know that you can go out there and buy businesses only to later resell them? Yes. You can flip all kinds of businesses. And it doesn’t require a huge amount of upfront capital. That doesn’t mean you’ll acquire a business for free. You can if you’re savvy but I wouldn’t count on it. But you can use existing platforms like Flippa or Empire Flippers to find existing businesses that are cash-flowing. Once you acquire the business you can enhance its sales and marketing to increase its revenue. Then, you can turn around and resell the business. You can also buy boring businesses and other small businesses in your local area.

14—Coaching

If you’re an expert in your field consider coaching others. This is a great business to run from home. You can either choose group coaching and take the one-to-many approach or you can do private coaching. To scale your coaching business, you must reach as many people as you can at the same time. To do that you will need an application funnel. An application funnel allows you to accept applications from people looking to work with you. They’ll fill out a form and pre-qualify themselves. Then, you can weed through anyone who doesn’t fit your criteria.

15—Consulting

Consultants help others solve problems by taking a hands-on approach. Some consultants solve the problem for the customer. Others provide a solution that the customer can implement. Either way, you must be good at solving specific types of problems for specific types of people. Can you make money as a consultant working from home? Yes. You can consult virtually or provide a service that helps businesses or individuals solve problems. And you can do it on the Internet and meet virtually. To attract clients, create an in-depth lead magnet and place it inside of a lead generation funnel. Then, drive traffic to that funnel by posting on social media, creating videos, blogging, and running ads.

16—Video Editing

The world is turning to video. It’s the medium of choice today. And platforms everywhere are embracing video. That gives video editors a great opportunity to create a work-from-home business doing video editing. If you’re at all interested in video editing, you should consider this. It doesn’t mean you need to be a creative genius. You only need to understand how to edit videos the right way. Video editing involves storytelling and understanding how to make a video flow and be engaging. It’s not always simple. But with practice, almost anyone can get very good at this.

17—Graphic Designer

You’re in luck if you’re a graphic designer and you want to work from home. That’s because every company needs graphic design services. That’s also why you can quickly build a graphic design business working from anywhere. Carve out a good niche and focus on that one area. For example, if you’re really good at designing logos then focus on that. If you’re great at doing brochures, then offer that. Stick to one specific service as your base-level service then build everything else up over that.

18—Webinar Builder

Webinars are presentations designed to help sell premium products and high-ticket services. These presentations allow you to break false beliefs. False beliefs are the stories that we tell ourselves that hold us back from buying things. They’re based on our experiences and beliefs. All beliefs are formed over time. But those beliefs can stand in the way of purchasing a particular product or service. Webinars help to break those false beliefs by replacing them with new stories. Many companies understand the power of webinars but don’t know where to start. You can learn how to structure the perfect webinar here.

19—Self-Published Author

You can be a self-published author in an instant. You don’t need approval or permission from anyone. All you need to do is learn how to write a book. If you want that book to sell, it must be well-written and engaging. But anyone can become a self-published author. All you need is to create an account at Kindle Direct Publishing. Simply publish a book there on any topic. Research topics that are in demand and create a great book that solves a real problem. The best part? You can make money as an author in your sleep or while traveling. You can do it from home or abroad. It’ll take time but it’ll be well worth the wait.

20—Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a skill that drives highly relevant organic traffic to websites. Most companies spend a lot of money on ads to drive traffic. That’s what makes SEO a very sought-after service. It’s free and organic. If you’re good at SEO, consider providing this as a service for companies who need it most. But don’t provide the service before you really understand how to do SEO the right. Not by cutting corners or using shady tricks to rank. Real SEO must be done the right way.

21—Paid Search Engine Marketing

Another work-from-home business you can do is paid search engine marketing. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a service that involves running and managing paid ads. Paid ads are used to drive traffic, generate leads and make sales. Every company runs paid ads to some extent. If you understand the various ad platforms, you could offer this as a service. If you’re really good at it, you could make a lot of money fast. That’s because successful ads can directly impact a company’s bottom line fast.

22—ATM Business

ATMs are everywhere. That’s because people still need cash. And sometimes ATMs aren’t easy to find in certain places. That’s what makes ATM businesses so lucrative. When you place an ATM in the right location you can make a lot of money. ATMs pay out a percentage of the transaction. It’s baked into the fee. So if you can place an ATM in the right location, it might generate thousands of transactions weekly. And you can find many ATM providers you can work with. All you need to do is find the right location and strike a deal with the business owner to place the ATM there.

23—Vending Machines

Vending machines offer another great opportunity for working from home. That’s because vending machine businesses have a low barrier to entry. Most vending machines do not cost that much money. And if you put it in the right location they can generate profit immediately. That doesn’t mean the business is easy. It only means that the process is simple. You’ll need to find the right locations. You’ll also need to provide timely restocking.

24—Live Streamer

Live streaming is increasingly popular today. You can use many platforms to do it. Kick, Twitch, TikTok, and other platforms are used heavily by live streamers to make money. Live streaming means that you’re live and in front of your camera. That could be at your desktop or your phone. It takes time to build an audience and make money live streaming. You also must be entertaining and engaging to hold your audience’s attention for long periods.

25—Network Marketing

Network marketing is an industry that sometimes gets a bad rap. However, network marketing is a great way to make money while working from home. This is ideal for stay-at-home moms or dads who are at home most of the time. It’s very similar to affiliate marketing except it is often structured a little bit differently. While the top earners do make a lot of money, most others struggle with network marketing. That doesn’t mean you won’t succeed. But if you already have a list or an audience of some type somewhere, you’ll have a big advantage over others.

26—Automation Guru

Various systems exist in business today. They’re used concurrently to generate leads and make sales. Sometimes those systems are not designed to talk to one another. Other times employees must bring all that data into one repository to track key performance metrics. If you understand how to make systems speak to each other, you could become an automation guru. You could use systems like Zapier to integrate systems and automatically bring that data into places like Google Sheets. Find a way to create a valuable lead magnet around this problem to attract the right type of clients. Then, sell them your automation services.

27—Dog Walker

A simple work-from-home job or business is a dog walker. You can use popular apps like Rover to find clients with ease. People adore their dogs but don’t always have the time to spend walking them. They have busy schedules and lots of things going on. That’s what makes this such an attractive niche. The work is simple and you can find recurring clients with ease. If people are happy with your service, they’ll hire you again and again. This can also lead to things like pet sitting while dog parents are away on vacation. Set up an account on Rover and start hunting for clients today.

28—Care Giver

Caregivers provide services to others in need. For example, you could babysit for parents with small children, provide elderly care, and more. You could also do house sitting and various other things. To start as a caregiver, you can register on a site like Care.com. This gives you access to clients in need of care. You’ll need to gather great feedback and ratings to get the best gigs. And you’ll need to pass background checks on most platforms before you can provide these services. But it is well worth it. That’s because it’s an easy work-from-home business you can start in a single weekend.

29—Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a great business to start. Especially when you have an existing audience. If you have an email list you can use it to make money as an affiliate. If you don’t have an email list but you have an audience elsewhere, you can still succeed with affiliate marketing. For example, if you have a large following on TikTok or Instagram, it can help you get your message out to the right people. Even then, you must approach affiliate marketing with caution. Be careful not to spam affiliate links. You should use a bridge funnel and offer a free lead magnet to attract people into your world. Then, begin building rapport with email marketing. Eventually, you can start promoting affiliate offers. But not before delivering some value first.

30—Print-on-Demand

Print-on-demand (POD) businesses are very popular today. Two platforms exist that enable you to sell POD products. Those are Printful and Printify. POD is a great way to work from home because all you need to do is create the designs for the products. You don’t need to do the printing or embroidering. There’s no warehousing or shipping. You simply create the designs and ensure you find people to buy those products. The POD platform does everything else. And you take the profit as your pay. This is ideal for merchandising and brands to quickly roll out apparel and other items with their imagery.

31—Amazon Private Label Business

Everyone knows that Amazon is the world’s largest store. They have countless products for sale and generate untold amounts of money in sales. But not everyone knows that 60% of those products are sold by third-party sellers. They make up the bulk of products on Amazon. And the best part is this. Almost anyone can launch an Amazon private-label business. Private Label simply means that you’re creating a brand of products sold on Amazon. You’re not reselling existing products. To do this, you need to have a great product idea, produce the inventory, ship it to Amazon, then start selling it. Is it easy? Nope. You need to collect reviews, run Amazon PPC ads, and manage inventory. It takes time and effort. But in the long run it is worth it.

32—Online Tutoring

Today, you can tutor people from around the world online. You can do it from the comfort of your home or while traveling abroad. Online tutoring allows you to teach a skill or another language to others and get paid for doing it. If you’re skilled in a specific subject or know a musical instrument, then consider doing online tutoring. You can use any of the popular online tutoring websites out there. Tutor.com, Varsity Tutors, and many others exist. They all allow you to tutor students in a variety of different areas. You’ll need to gather great reviews and feedback to get the best gigs. And you’ll need a good internet connection wherever you might be.

33—Freelancer

You can build an entire work-from-home business as a freelancer. And you can make a lot of money doing it. Freelancing means that you do remote jobs for people working from home. It allows you to make money from your laptop. You can do all types of freelancing. Whatever your skill level is and whatever area you can think of, there’s an opportunity to freelance there. You can use Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr, and many other platforms to find clients. You’ll need to hustle in the beginning. But that’s just like everything else. Stick to it and you can turn this into a real business.

Thanks for reading 33 Profitable Work From Home Business Ideas which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

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Ecommerce Efficiency: Flowmondo’s Automations Propel Retail Brands

Software Stack Editor · April 8, 2024 ·

If Make is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail.

Our view at Stack - Make simplifies complex tasks by allowing you to create automated workflows without writing code. Automate repetitive processes, saving time and effort.

Credit: Original article published here.

60 Remote Work Stats to Know in 2024

Software Stack Editor · April 8, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

My first marketing job was as a contract writer for an agency on the opposite side of the world. This also happened to be my first “real” job and, consequently, my first experience of remote work.

Since then, I’ve worked with several other companies across multiple time zones and, as a result, experienced everything remote work has to offer — from the challenges of setting up a home office to the joys of location independence.

But more importantly, I’ve also gotten to consciously observe the growth and impact of remote work over time.

In this post, I’ll be sharing 60 statistics to help you understand the evolution, opportunities, and challenges this unique mode of work offers.

Each section is designed to provide more than just statistics and instead offer you a cohesive, research-backed narrative on each sub-topic.

Table of Contents

The Introduction and Evolution of Remote Work
How Companies Have Responded to Remote Work
Why Workers Prefer Remote Work
The Business Impact of Remote Work
Collaboration in a Remote Work Environment
Challenges of Remote Work

The Introduction and Evolution of Remote Work

According to Hubspot, the most popular work model today is a hybrid model, which is preferred by 41% of employees. This is followed by the fully remote work model (32%), and, finally, on-site work (27%). However, interestingly, before 2020, most employees had fully on-site jobs with no immediate plans to switch to alternative models. So, what changed?
The 2020 lockdown mandated a complete shift to remote work across most industries, introducing many to remote work for the first time. Consequently, an Owl Labs survey found that this experience led to 70% of employees wanting to maintain a hybrid or remote working arrangement even post-pandemic.
By 2021, an Accenture study found that 83% of global workers viewed this hybrid model of work (a mix of remote and on-site work) as ideal.
As time went on, worker preferences kept evolving. A 2022 study found that the preferred working styles shifted a bit from the previous year. Remote work was favored by 34% in 2021 but dropped to 29% in 2022. Hybrid work went from 31% to 36%, and in-office work went from 29% to 22%.

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Breaking it down by gender, women seemed to favor remote work more (46%) over men (39%). On the other hand, in-office work seemed more appealing to men, with 24% preferring it compared to 19% of women.
This study also found that around 29% of workers changed jobs, with remote workers being twice as likely (37%) to switch compared to those working in an office (21%). The top reasons for changing jobs were better pay (84%), better career opportunities (82%), and better work/life balance (78%).
But what was even more interesting was that according to participants in the study, if the option to work remotely in their current jobs was taken away, 66% said they would start looking for a job that offered more flexibility, while 39% said they would simply quit.
Similarly, another 2022 survey found that 63% of workers would choose a better work-life balance over better pay.
And these sentiments weren’t short-term. A 2022 study by Buffer found that 98% of respondents wanted to work remotely in some capacity for the rest of their careers.
Similarly, another study found that 88% of workers considered hybrid work as a leading benefit they’d expect in a new job.
Remote work options were so positively received that only 1% of participants in a study by Buffer reported having a negative experience with remote work.
Additionally, the study also found that 98% of remote workers would recommend remote work to others.

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Studies continue to consistently show that many workers prefer a remote or hybrid arrangement over on-site work. For instance, Atlassian’s State of Work study showed a notable shift in the preferences of remote, office-only, and hybrid workers between 2021 and 2022: 22% in 2022 versus 34% in 2021, 35% in 2022 versus 39% in 2021, and 43% in 2022 versus 27% in 2021, respectively.
Overall, the hybrid model of remote work appears to be the happy medium between workers and employers, with 45.5% of remote workers having hybrid arrangements compared to 20.5% who work fully from home, according to a January 2023 survey.

How Companies Have Responded to Remote Work

Before the 2020 shutdown, just 8% of companies had flexible workplace policies.
By 2021, nearly two-thirds (62%) had implemented some level of flexible work. Mid-size companies (501-5,000 employees) specifically, were particularly proactive, with 70% implementing flexible work policies.
However, employer sentiments toward remote work continued to evolve. That same year, a report by OwlLabs found that 73% of those who worked from home during the pandemic eventually returned to the office at least one day a week.
In reality, while 74% of companies promised some level of flexibility in work schedules at the time, 82% were also planning a return to pre-pandemic work schedules after the lockdown.
By 2022, the State of Remote Work report found that only 31% of employers were offering fully remote working options, with 41% of small companies (10-50 employees) requiring employees to return to the office.
So, where exactly does that leave us today? It honestly depends on who you ask. On one hand, 58% of participants in a McKinsey survey reported having the opportunity to work from home at least one day a week.

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On the other hand, several studies have found that remote work is the exception and not the norm. According to a study by Accenture, as of 2022, 36% of workers worldwide had returned to a fully on-site work model across all industries.
Another survey by Atlassian also revealed that 82% of all knowledge workers had some form of “in-office mandate,” while 25% of workers who supposedly had the choice to work remotely still felt pressure to go into the office.
Finally, a 2022 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey found that only 27.5% of private sector businesses (2.5 million) had employees teleworking all or some of the time.
So, how do we interpret this seemingly conflicting data? Well, all perspectives may have merit. By examining each industry individually rather than collectively, the data aligns better.
The same study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that professional and business services, educational services, and wholesale trade boasted the highest percentage of teleworkers at 67.4%, 49%, 46%, and 39%, respectively. This suggests that remote work opportunities are simply more prevalent in certain industries, and study results will often vary depending on the industry surveyed.

Why Workers Prefer Remote Work

For many workers, the appeal of remote work lies in its flexibility. According to Hubspot’s Hybrid Work Report, 90% of employees are dealing with some level of burnout and believe that flexibility, especially in taking time off, could significantly reduce their stress levels.
But flexibility isn’t just about when you work. According to findings from a Buffer study, the biggest remote work benefits for workers include being able to manage their time (22%), choose where they live (19%), and decide where they work (13%).

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Atlassian’s research provides further insight, showing that the primary reason US knowledge workers prefer remote work is that they are simply happier working from home (47%).
But beyond happiness and flexibility, remote workers also report higher productivity levels. According to a study by Owl Labs, a large majority (62%) of workers feel more productive when working remotely, compared to just 11% who feel less productive.
A Buffer study also found that 70% of workers find it easier to focus, 65% manage stress better, and 50% avoid distractions better when working remotely.
Finally, while the office is seen as the most productive environment for certain activities, such as meeting new people (59%), managing others (51%), and team meetings (51%), workers are split on where they prefer to innovate and brainstorm. Some thrive in the office (39%), while others seem to find their flow better at home (37%).

The Business Impact of Remote Work

Remote work, whether fully remote or hybrid, often incurs expenses that are not typically associated with traditional work models. According to findings from Buffer’s State of Remote Work Report, 64% of employees indicated that their companies paid for hardware such as monitors, while 40% reported that their companies covered costs associated with home office equipment.
Interestingly, home internet, which is arguably the most crucial remote work tool, is only covered by 28% of companies.
Another additional remote working cost companies often have to cover is coworking memberships. 22% of respondents in the Buffer survey indicated that their companies cover their memberships, while 38% expressed a desire for their companies to do so.
Now, other than employee expenses, businesses also need to consider how remote work might affect profitability. For example, HubSpot’s 2024 State of Sales Report revealed that 46% of salespeople perceive selling remotely as less effective than in-person sales.

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So, what does this mean? Is remote work simply an added expense with no real benefits to the bottom line? On the contrary, remote work also offers major financial benefits. According to a study by IWG, more than four-fifths of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) (82%) believe that remote work, specifically in a hybrid format, is a more cost-effective business model compared to traditional office setups.
This line of thinking is supported by findings from Global Workplace Analytics, which suggests that hybrid working arrangements can save organizations more than $11,000 per employee annually on average.
But how exactly does remote work deliver cost savings for companies? Firstly, there’s the potential for substantial savings on office rent. The IWG study found that two-thirds (65%) of CFOs aim to reduce facility spending by more than 10% per year.
Similarly, another study found that 60% of U.S. executives plan to reduce office space by up to half or more.
The rationale behind these cost-saving measures is clear. By eliminating or significantly reducing office space requirements, companies can avoid committing to expensive, long-term leases, adjust their space requirements as needed, and enjoy huge cost savings. For instance, Cisco’s adoption of hybrid working practices has resulted in savings of $500 million over the past five years.
But there’s more to it than just saving on office costs. Worker costs alone reveal an interesting trend. An Owl Labs study found that more than half of all workers (52%) would be willing to accept a pay cut of 5% or more in exchange for the flexibility to choose their working location. In fact, 23% indicated they would accept a pay cut of 10% or more for this benefit.
Conversely, if workers were no longer allowed to work remotely or in a hybrid setup, 67% would expect a pay increase to cover additional commuting expenses.
Finally, beyond cost considerations, recent research conducted by IWG and Arup revealed that hybrid working has the potential to reduce urban carbon emissions by 70% in the UK and up to 87% in the U.S.. These findings suggest that the environmental impact of fully remote work could be substantial for businesses that choose to adopt remote work models.

Collaboration in a Remote Work Environment

According to a recent HubSpot survey, the number one pain point for companies in the remote work era is disconnected systems. Specifically, the survey found that the top problem for remote companies seems to be difficulties with communication and collaboration between teams.
But why is this a problem? One possible reason could be how distributed teams are nowadays. For example, Buffer’s State of Remote Work survey found that 74% of respondents worked in companies that operate across multiple time zones. Additionally, over half of the remote workers (62%) in that study reported having people in their immediate teams distributed across multiple time zones.

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This distributed setup impacts how remote teams collaborate. Currently, collaboration mainly occurs through messaging apps (50%), emails (22%), and meetings (19%), with video calls being the most common for meetings. Interestingly, only about one-third (36%) of employers have upgraded their video meeting technology since 2020.
For virtual meetings specifically, a Buffer study found that when taking meetings, most remote workers prefer to be on camera. When asked why, 67% of participants felt it was easier to communicate when they could see someone’s expression.
That said, not all meetings are viewed favorably by remote workers. A study by HubSpot revealed that 70% of employees find too many calls and meetings disruptive to their concentration. Additionally, 58% feel that at least half of the meetings they attend could have been handled through emails instead.
Moreover, the same study also found that email was the preferred communication platform for a majority of respondents (39%) when asked to choose one platform for the upcoming year.
On the side of the organizations, several studies have shown that employers are also taking measures to ensure seamless collaboration amongst remote teams. A 2022 study found that roughly half (50%) of employers have provided training to managers on managing remote and hybrid teams.
Similarly, a HubSpot study found that 32% of employees who participated in their Hybrid Work survey had received guidelines on using unified communication and collaboration tools. Furthermore, 54% had received training on conducting effective and inclusive hybrid meetings.
Finally, a recent study also found that 37% of employers have added or increased the use of employee tracking software, indicating a growing trend towards more effective monitoring and management of remote teams.

Challenges of Remote Work

While remote work offers many benefits, it also presents several challenges. For some remote workers, the struggle lies in the isolation of staying home too often. One study found that one in three remote workers reported this as their biggest challenge, with loneliness following closely behind at 23%.
A 2022 Hubspot survey also found that 40% of remote workers reportedly miss spontaneous, in-person connections with their colleagues,

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There’s also the fact that not every employee thrives in a remote environment. A recent study found that nearly half of U.S. workers feel their teams do not function effectively in a hybrid environment.
While this could likely be attributed to several reasons, a 2022 study found that 77% of remote workers who felt less productive attributed this to increased distractions at home, which is understandable considering that 45% of remote workers utilize multi-purpose spaces, such as bedrooms or kitchens, for work.
Separating work and personal life can also be difficult in a remote setting. In one study, 81% of remote workers admitted to checking work emails outside of office hours, with 63% doing so on weekends and 34% while on vacation. Moreover, 48% often worked beyond traditional hours, with 44% reporting increased work hours compared to the previous year.
Another study also found that nearly half (45%) of workers report an increase in work-related stress over the past year.
Finally, another major challenge for remote work adoption seems to be workplace perceptions. One study found that 49% of workers feel that managers view in-office employees as harder working and more trustworthy than remote counterparts.
Similarly, another study found that 10% of employees fear being perceived as less productive or committed if they work remotely.

Navigating The Remote Work Landscape

While remote work presents new and unique challenges, with the right approach and understanding, it can lead to more productive and satisfying working arrangements for both employees and employers.

Whether you‘re considering your first remote role or hiring remote team members, it’s important to keep the stats above in mind as the world continues to evolve and embrace flexibility.

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

The Future of Social Media [Research]: What Marketers Need to Know

Software Stack Editor · April 8, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

Social media has changed considerably since the MySpace days, and it‘s part of a marketer’s job to stay on top of its advancements.

You’re probably wondering what the social future of social media could look like and how marketers will need to adapt.

To answer your question, here are my guesses based on the latest research, data, and current advancements in social media.

Table of Contents

What is the future of social media?
Search on Social Media Instead of Engines
More Reliance on Influencers Over Celebrities
Seamless Shopping Experience on Most Socials
Short-Form Video Will Become More Important Than Ever
AI Will Become a Helpful Tool for Boosting Social Media Strategies
Greater Focus on Building an Active Social Media Community

What is the future of social media?

Through our multiple surveys, research, and additional data, here’s what I predict for the future of social media:

Consumers will search for information on social media or via AI instead of traditional search engines.
Brands will rely on influencers, especially micro-influencers, rather than celebrities.
Consumers will enjoy a seamless shopping experience on social media.
Brands will create more short-form content to connect with their audiences.
Brands will leverage AI tools to create personalized content for their audiences.
Brands will place a greater emphasis on creating an active social media community.

Now, let’s dive deeper into each of these trends.

Search on Social Media Instead of Engines

A few weeks ago, I posted to Facebook asking for the best local photographer for new headshots. Using my friends’ suggestions, I found a great photographer who blew me away with the quality of her work.

I’m not the only one who uses social media for recommendations and reviews. It’s becoming more common for consumers to search for products, recommendations, or reviews on social media rather than search engines.

According to our 2024 Social Media Trends Report, 87% of social media marketers believe consumers will search for brands more often on social media before turning to a search engine.

In a TechCrunch article, a Google exec suggested apps like TikTok and Instagram are threatening two staple Google discovery apps: Google Maps and Google Search.

“In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search,” said Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan, who runs Google’s Knowledge and Information sector. “They go to TikTok or Instagram.”

Why is this happening? Raghavan believes it’s because young adults prefer visual-forward content when it comes to discovery.

With more people using TikTok as a search engine, it makes sense the app added more search features to keep users engaged.

In August 2022, TikTok tested a feature in which keywords from video comments are highlighted and linked to search results. This serves as an additional way for users to discover new content while scrolling on the platform.

Now, when you‘re watching a video on TikTok, you’ll notice a small search bar at the bottom of the screen with a keyword or topic associated with it. When you click on that search bar, the app will take you to more videos associated with the keyword.

If traditional search engines fail to meet consumer needs, TikTok and other social platforms may take the lead in product and content discovery as they prioritize visual content.

Another rival for search engines is AI chatbots like ChatGPT. Users can ask ChatGPT questions in the form of prompts, and the bot will generate answers to their queries.

Though data is limited regarding how often people use ChatGPT instead of search engines, ChatGPT currently receives about 1 billion monthly website visitors and has an estimated 100 million active users.

More Reliance on Influencers Over Celebrities

According to our 2024 Social Media Trends Report, 84% of brands plan to work with influencers and creators to be the face of their brands.

31% of marketers say working with smaller influencers, particularly those with followings between 1K and 100K, is a great investment. Working with smaller influencers is more cost-effective for brands than working with celebrities.

More importantly, consumers trust influencers and creators. From my experience, I’m more likely to be interested in a product if someone who’s relatable to me endorses it. Truthfully, that’s how I landed on the Curly Girl Method and totally changed the health of my hair!

This is likely because, with influencers specializing in an area, their opinions are more valuable than those of a faceless brand.

Say, I’m looking for hiking gear. A hiking influencer who hikes all year long and has a history of reviewing hiking products will probably offer more insight than a friend who went hiking once.

As a result, influencers – although strangers – can be deemed more valuable than loved ones. In the future, that trend will likely continue as content creators are popping up every day.

Seamless Shopping Experience on Most Socials

31% of marketers are interested in using their social media platforms to sell directly to their customers, according to our 2024 Social Media Trends Report. 27% of survey respondents told us that selling their products directly on a social media platform is more effective than driving traffic to their webpage.

Instagram was one of the first social platforms to offer a seamless shopping experience and integration. Now, other platforms have jumped on the bandwagon, too, for good reason.

Let’s set the scene: In a couple of years, Gen Z will have fully joined the working class and will have tremendous spending power.

Our consumer trends report found that most Gen-Zers prefer to discover new products on social media — specifically short-form videos.

This means that to remain competitive, social platforms will have to offer integrated shopping experiences to keep consumers on the platform. And, it also means brands need to pivot their marketing strategies.

Although Instagram pioneered a social media shop, 38% of marketers say they spend most of their sales efforts on Facebook.

It’s safe to say social selling is here to stay and will continue to shape social media trends.

Short-Form Video Will Become More Important Than Ever

If the saying, “Content is king,” is true, short-form video is next in line for the crown. According to our research, 29% of marketers say short-form video is more important than ever. And 57% of brands plan to incorporate this content into their social media strategy.

Short-form video encompasses everything from shopping ads to entertainment to explainer videos. 24% of marketers agree funny videos yield the highest ROI.

It makes sense that marketers plan to place a higher focus on creating short-form video content, considering they also report that Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are the top social media platforms.

Like TikTok, which is the fourth-ranked platform, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram all feature their own version of a short-form video platform.

I’m sure there are other social media users like me who get stuck watching videos as they pop up in the feed. Because short-form video is easily consumed, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that 71% of marketers agree it has a high ROI.

67% of respondents to our survey plan to invest more of their marketing dollars in creating short-form content in 2024.

AI Will Become a Helpful Tool for Boosting Social Media Strategies

Our Social Media Trends Report shows that 73% of marketers use generative AI tools to create social media content. And 81% of marketers already using AI say it positively impacts their work.

What’s surprising is that marketers are using generative AI tools for more than creating social media copy and adapting the tone of their copy to better resonate with their social media followers.

In fact, 48% of marketers say they use AI to create images for their posts, and 55% of marketers use AI to create short-form videos. I personally use AI-powered video editors to create my short-form content, and it’s never been easier — especially since I’m a novice at video editing.

AI tools aren’t fail-proof, though; they’re constantly adapting to new data sets and algorithm changes. However, even with AI’s limitations, 54% of marketers say AI can help them create content that better aligns with their target audience’s interests.

Creating targeted social media posts is crucial because 34% of marketers agree that focusing on their audiences’ interests is a key part of their 2024 social media marketing strategy.

Given that the market for AI technology is expected to grow to 1.4 trillion dollars by 2030, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that AI tools will become a large part of any marketer’s social media marketing strategy.

Greater Focus on Building an Active Social Media Community

With an estimated 5.17 billion social media users worldwide, according to our 2024 Social Media Trends Report, more and more brands plan to spend time cultivating an active and engaged social media community.

79% of markets say an active social media community is integral to their overall social media strategy. To create an active community, marketers are diversifying their community-building strategies.

Here’s how:

18% of marketers say they’ll focus on growing a social media following.
25% of social media managers plan to create better brand awareness and target a new audience.
21% of marketers hope to understand their customers and their needs better.
26% of survey respondents plan to incorporate influencer marketing to grow their community.

With these strategies in play, 87% of social media marketers believe their brand will have an active social media community in 2024.

Social media moves incredibly quickly, so we can’t say with certainty what the future will look like. But given recent data, we can say it’s likely headed in this direction.

Check out our 2024 Social Media Trends Report to gain more insights to planning your social media strategy.

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Google Ads Intelligence: How to Use Google Ads AI for Your Next Campaign

Software Stack Editor · April 8, 2024 ·

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

Google Ads is the world’s largest PPC advertising platform. If used effectively, you can generate significant profit for companies. But wrapping your head around it can be hard.

Google Ads requires a lot of testing and experimentation. Or, at least, it did until now. Google Ads has recently launched a conversational experience for advertisers, which lets users create their ads by using text prompts.

However, Google Ads Intelligence, as it’s broadly known, offers way more than just being an interactive campaign builder.

In this post, I explain what Google Ads Intelligence is, the key features it includes, and Google Ads AI best practices.

Table of Contents

What is Google Ads Intelligence?
When did Google roll out AI for ads?
AI Features in Google Ads
Best Practices When Using Google Ads Intelligence

What is Google Ads Intelligence?

Google Ads Intelligence is an umbrella term for a set of AI-powered tools Google launched to help advertisers create effective campaigns. Their motto is to help businesses reach the right people with the right creative at the right cost.

While, in recent years, it already included some intelligent features like Smart Bidding, it will now be helpful at a whole new level.

Advertisers will be able to use a conversational interface, which will guide them through the entire ad design creation process, from suggesting headlines to selecting the right keywords, writing copy, and creating imagery.

Just like in the case of ChatGPT, advertisers can use text prompts to communicate to Google Ads AI what content and visuals they’d like to feature in their ad — or set of ads.

The conversational bot will keep generating text and images until the person or team launching the ad is happy with the result.

Google assures creators that they’ll always use unique images. This avoids situations where two completely different businesses have the same creatives. The conversational AI experience is available for Google’s Performance Max users.

When did Google roll out AI for ads?

Performance Max was the first-ever AI-powered campaign solution from Google.

It premiered in its experimental form in 2021 and was rolled out for a number of Alphabet, Inc. platforms — not only Google ads inventory but also Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, and Search.

In a blog post from late 2023, Google said that the reason why they decided to launch it was to let their advertisers stay on top of changing market conditions.

They realized that businesses, both small and large, would need access to smart engines, i.e., ones that would allow them to quickly adapt to new consumer trends.

What we see today in Google Ads Intelligence is the result of user feedback that the company collected over the years. It gave birth to features like search themes, asset group reporting, and campaign-level brand exclusions.

The newly added features were introduced at the Google Marketing Live event in May 2023. As mentioned earlier, these will first be available to U.S. customers who use Performance Max.

Google hopes that the upgrades they’ve made to Google Ads Intelligence will help marketers create assets that perform well, contributing to business growth.

AI Features in Google Ads

Broad Match

Broad match helps advertisers automatically extend their ads’ reach by having it shown to people who searched not only for the exact term but also used synonyms and contextually connected keywords.

As in the example below, someone who taps in “carb-free foods” could see an ad launched for the term “low-carb diet plan,” as it fits the searcher’s overall intent.

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Marketers who use this feature can shorten the time needed to research additional keywords and manually verify their intent.

They can also use the suggested phrase lists to understand what phrases their ideal customers tap into Google to find products and services like theirs.

Broad match can be particularly powerful if used in sync with smart bidding, which I discuss next.

Smart Bidding

Google uses automated bidding strategies to help advertisers optimize conversions on their PPC campaigns.

Every single auction gets a precise bid, which either drives more conversions or lowers the cost. It uses machine learning to analyze data from all previous campaigns to achieve the best results.

So, even if you’re starting a new campaign and don’t have any data available, it will use findings from the previous campaigns to improve the performance of your new ads.

Here is what you expect, thanks to smart bidding:

Improving your chances of meeting your business goals by selecting the right bidding strategies, whether it’s increasing sales or leads or boosting your profit margins.
Real-time bid optimization. You can set more specific bids for each auction that will be tailored to the user’s search context.
Query-level performance modeling. Some keywords lack data, but because Smart bidding relies on search queries’ performance, it can still accurately bid on keywords that have no or little performance history.
More contextual signals. Many factors can influence a person to either click or not click on an ad, for example, a device, location, or time of day.
- On top of these, Smart bidding also takes into account language, operating system, browser, etc. It analyzes data to figure out which factor combination has the biggest impact on conversion. It uses the results to boost ad performance in real time.
Continuous learning. Google’s algorithms learn constantly. Smart bidding reviews your ads performance data alongside market trends, competitive landscape, seasonality, etc., to refine the bidding strategy and maintain good campaign effectiveness.

Ad Strength

As part of building out the Google Ads Intelligence experience, Google has also introduced a feature called Responsive Search Ads (RSA).

Marketers can provide up to 15 headlines and four descriptions for a single ad and have a machine learning engine analyze its strength value and mark these variations as “Incomplete,” “Poor,” “Average,” “Good,” or “Excellent.”

This way, advertisers can decide which version to go with to boost the campaign’s performance.

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Conversational Experience in Google Ads

It’s a tool that uses a chat to speed up the process of search campaign creation by supporting your expertise with Google AI.

It’s called ‘conversational experience’ for a reason — since it’s able to understand human language, you can communicate with it freely, just like you would with a real person.

To get started, you need to enter your landing page’s URL, and it will automatically generate a short description of your business, which you can then edit to your liking.

It will also provide you with headlines, suggest images and site links, and generate the right keywords.

All you have to do is accept or reject the suggestions. Here are a few tips that will help you get the best results:

Use natural language in your prompts.
Keep them short and clear.
Make sure that your campaigns follow Google Ads’ policies.
If you’re unhappy with the result, try to modify your prompt.

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Automatically Created Visual Assets

There’s a lot of hype around conversational AI’s capability to turn text into visuals. Google Ads’ text-to-image ability is no different.

If you provide a text prompt in the context of your ad, it can generate fitting visuals. In the image below, you can see some suggestions from Google’s image library:

What if you feel that the images are a bit too generic for your taste?

You can ask Google to make edits — for example, tweak the background or even select a single element from the image to create a new one.

Here’s an example of how a group stock photo can be turned into a summer or Christmas photo of an individual:

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Optimized Targeting

Perhaps the most impactful AI feature in boosting ROI, optimized targeting lets marketers enter a whole other level of detail in selecting audiences.

Instead of relying only on the audiences you’ve already established, this Google Ads Intelligence feature also dives into its data to suggest new lead segments.

How does it work?

Google makes suggestions based on what you already know about the traits of high-conversion lead segments and uses its own data from Google Ads to point you to new ones.

The ability to merge your own information with broader market insights from Google shows just how powerful AI can be in boosting your return on ad spend.

Best Practices When Using Google Ads Intelligence

1. Focus on understanding your target audience’s interests.

Before you start running your ad campaign, you need to gain a good understanding of your target audience’s interests — and that’s exactly what Google Ads Intelligence lets you do.

You can get insights into the types of content and keywords that resonate most with your ideal customers. By analyzing this data and optimizing your ad campaigns accordingly, you can create messaging that truly speaks to their needs and motivations.

This is the approach that Dmitriy Bobriakov, marketing manager at RealEstateU, follows. Bobriakov once worked with an online retailer selling home goods and furniture.

Using Google Ads Intelligence, he discovered their target demographic was very interested in interior design trends and DIY projects.

“Based on this, I recommended refocusing their ad messaging to highlight the stylish, contemporary furniture designs they offered. I also suggested targeting keywords related to interior design themes, like ‘bohemian decor’ and ‘modern farmhouse,’” he says.

What was the result? A 21% decrease in cost-per-click and a 34% increase in conversion rate.

Bobriakov adds that “the key was taking the time to really understand the audience and what motivated them, instead of making assumptions. Google Ads Intelligence provided the insights to make our ads more compelling and effective.”

2. Use negative keywords to limit wasteful impressions.

To maximize your ad spend and get the best results from your campaigns, you need to know which keywords to target and which to ignore.

And the latter is as important as the former. It will help you eliminate searches and, therefore, people who aren’t looking for what you’re selling.

For example, let’s assume you’re running a campaign for a local bakery from Austin that specializes in custom cakes.

While selecting keywords, you might want to go with custom wedding cakes, birthday wedding cakes, bespoke wedding cakes near me, etc.

Exclude keywords like free, how to, cheap, etc., as these are usually associated with people who want to make cakes themselves and have a limited budget.

Joanne Highland, content writer and yoga teacher at Mind is the Master, says that she uses negative keywords to limit wasteful impressions. It allowed her to decrease unnecessary click-through rates by 15%.

3. Use historical data to train the AI bidding system better.

Some of Google Ads’ Intelligence features are already gaining ground, even among advertisers who prefer to manage campaigns manually.

“One such tool is the AI-powered automated bidding, in particular, the Maximize Conversion Value,” says Eliza Fillo, senior digital ads coordinator at Online Optimism.

She says that they were able to use significant amounts of historical data on conversion actions. This allowed the company to train the AI bidding system to better evaluate which users they want to bid higher for, boosting efficiency.

“I would recommend using Google Ads’ AI bidding system if you have historical data and there are multiple actions you’d like a user to take. But, since some of those actions are more valuable than others, when starting off, I recommend monitoring the bidding closely so you can intervene as needed,” Fillo says.

4. Generate high-intent keywords to boost ad relevance and improve budget allocation.

High-conversion phrases are the holy grail in marketing, which is why Google Ads Intelligence’s ability to suggest keywords with a high-purchase-intent holds such huge potential.

Many companies, including Najeeb Ur Rehman’s Digital Auxilius, are now experimenting with Google’s AI within the Keyword Planner feature.

“This ensures that individuals seeking our products or services see our ads, increasing CTR and conversions. Incorporating these high-performing keywords into our ad content improved the ad’s relevance, engagement, and conversion rates,” he said.

Mike Bullen, director at Eurisko, agrees, underlining that “having Google AI’s broad match functionality recommend a tighter number of keywords, based on our seed list, is critical with regards to identifying new trends and keyword opportunities, without losing too much of our budget to irrelevant search terms.”

5. Analyze your Google Ads Intelligence reports regularly.

According to Sai Blackbyrn, CEO of Coach Foundation, it’s key to continuously review insights from Google Ads Intelligence reports and make data-driven optimization decisions.

He says that “the Intelligence reports provide insights into how your ads are performing and opportunities to improve results. For example, the ‘Opportunities’ report showed me that by increasing my CPC bid for one of my top converting keywords by 30%, I could gain an estimated 15% more conversions at a reasonable cost.”

Blackburn adds that he tested the change and ended up gaining closer to 20% more conversions for that specific keyword.

6. Limit your headline and description variations in RSA to avoid the paradox of choice.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, Google Ads Intelligence lets you provide up to 15 headlines and four ad descriptions so you can see performance predictions.

While it might be tempting to use up these up to its limit, Eurisko’s Mike Bullen advises against this.

“We use Google Ads for several clients and have been pushing leads into HubSpot to help close the loop on customer conversions and customer value. We’re very hands-on as an agency, and we balance the Google Automations with our own best practice procedures,” he says.

When asked about how many ad copy variations should be used, Bullen responds: “We test the Google AI against a responsive ad group with only three headlines and two descriptions to see which ad generates the best engagement and conversions.”

These variations can present two or three different directions, so it’s easier to test them out and spot which ones have a higher chance of converting.

This is a very smart way of using the AI feature most effectively. If you were to create 15 or even 10 versions, the differences could be so subtle that you’d face the dilemma of which copy to run.

Using Google Ads Intelligence to Win Over More Clients

Google Ads Intelligence is making the work of advertisers much easier and more effective. It’s particularly a game-changer for those who aren’t performance marketing pros.

Thanks to its data analytics capabilities and access to global data, it’s able to point to people who are responsive to your campaigns, as well as expand to new audiences that have a high probability of converting.

This significantly enhances your profit generation potential, helping you allocate your budget more efficiently in the long run.

What’s great about Google Ads Intelligence is that, since it uses Natural Language Processing, it’s able to understand human speech.

This means you can communicate with it like you would with a real person and treat it as your personal assistant.

Ultimately, all the decisions regarding the ads are still yours.

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Kajabi vs Thinkific: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Software Stack Editor · April 8, 2024 ·

When comparing online course platforms, two popular choices are Kajabi vs Thinkific. Both platforms are used by dozens of thousands of creators and businesses selling online courses.

While they offer similar features, in reality they are very different elearning platforms suited for different cases. We tested both platforms and looked at their sales and marketing tools, course creation (authoring) tools, and e-learning features for a complete picture of what you should expect at each.

This guide will help you choose which course platform is the right fit for You!

Disclaimer: The information in this comparison is based on publicly available information on Kajabi and Thinkific pricing and support pages, as well as our individual research and reviews on their accounts. We’re also comparing the top-level plans of both platforms where all the features and capabilities are fully enabled.

This comparison was updated in April 2024.

Kajabi vs Thinkfic in a Nutshell

Thinkific is a dedicated platform that’s made specifically for creating and delivering online courses and training. It also comes with many integrations with other software to make it easy to run a course business.

Meanwhile, Kajabi follows a multitasking mindset. It’s an all-in-one marketing platform that lets you do much more than just course creation. Kajabi offers a number of useful features for email marketing, course website design, and sales funnels.

Our Top Choice: LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is an all-in-one course platform and Learning Management System (LMS), packed with features to create engaging learning experiences and branded academies.

Whether you’re a business aiming to launch a robust training program, or a course creator looking to expand your audience and monetize your knowledge, LearnWorlds provides all the tools you need to scale and succeed.

LearnWorlds has everything you need to create, manage, and sell online courses on any topic.

More than the features, LearnWorlds puts its customers on a pedestal with industry-leading support. Every support site rates LearnWorlds the top in customer support compared to Thinkific & Kajabi.

You can start with LearnWorlds with a 30-day free trial:

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Comparing Features & Pricing

When you dream of creating a successful eLearning business, there are many things to consider. Both Kajabi and Thinkific have done a great job for many educators, helping them with their educational journey.

Each platform comes with its own strengths and weaknesses and is suitable for different uses. In our experience, the most comprehensive solution for online courses is LearnWorlds.

Which is Right for You?

Both Kajabi and Thinkific are good choices for creators, entrepreneurs, and SMEs looking to launch simple video courses. However, each platform comes with strengths and weaknesses of its own, making it more suitable for different situations.

Thinkific

Thinkific is designed with a focus on course building and SMEs. The target audience of Thinkific includes individual entrepreneurs, creators, educators, and SMEs selling courses or educating their audience.

Its free plan makes it an ideal choice for beginners, but soon enough you will have to upgrade to a more inclusive one and purchase additional features separately to unlock its full potential.

Kajabi

Kajabi is geared towards marketing & sales. The platform caters to a wide audience, including online course creators with little technical knowledge, digital entrepreneurs, SMEs, freelancers, creators, and individual instructors.

These users usually want to sell simple video courses and downloadable content, without much educational requirements.

Screenshot showing how Kajabi's interface is when building a course.

Kajabi Overview

Kajabi is a popular platform for many creators because it combines marketing and knowledge selling in one place.It’s equipped with marketing tools that can help you earn from your online courses, coaching services, membership, community websites and affiliate programs. Basically, Kajabi aims to provide a sufficient toolkit for your eLearning and marketing efforts.

Kajabi pros

User-friendliness: Kajabi is designed to be simple and intuitive, so you won’t have to wrestle with complex controls or confusing interfaces.

Built-in Email Marketing Tools: Kajabi brings to the table its own set of email marketing tools, saving you the trouble of scouting for external resources and integration costs.

Integrations: It plays well with other popular software, making it easier for you to use your favorite tools alongside Kajabi.

Sales Pipeline Building: Kajabi offers the ability to build sales funnels or pipelines, an essential feature to help streamline your sales process and increase conversions.

Online Community Feature: It comes with an inbuilt online community feature, allowing you to create, grow, and manage your community without needing a third-party platform.

Ready-to-use Course Templates: Kajabi provides pre-designed templates for your courses, saving you a considerable amount of time and effort in designing your course layout from scratch.

Kajabi cons

Expensive: Even the lowest-priced plan of Kajabi pricing options might feel a bit expensive when compared to other platforms. Kajabi’s trial also requires a credit card and will charge you in 14 days if you don’t cancel.

Limited Design Control: While it offers some customization options, you might find it doesn’t provide as much control over website design as you’d like.

Limited Learning Features: Compared to some competitors, Kajabi may offer fewer additional features when it comes to creating courses or learning tools.

No Free-For-Life Plan: Unlike Thinkific, Kajabi doesn’t offer a free plan for life. This could be discouraging for those wanting to try out the platform long-term without financial commitment.

Active-customers restrictions: Kajabi has strict maximum limits for users, sales funnels, and products that can be limiting if you are planning to sell a large number of different products to a wide audience.

Thinkific Overview

Let’s now talk about Thinkific, a platform that’s solely about creating and selling online courses. Thinkific makes things easy for beginners dipping their toes in online course creation with its user-friendly interface. It’s got your back from arranging your content to putting it up for sale online, covering all the necessary basics.

Thinkific Pros

Free Plan: Thinkific offers a free forever plan to get you started, although it’s a bit limited. You can include only one course and one community, and there are restrictions on offering discounts, coupons, or using affiliate selling. But, it allows for unlimited students on the platform.

Covers all the Basics: With Thinkific, you’ll have all the fundamental tools at your fingertips to kickstart your online course creation journey easily.

Website Builder: The platform offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop page editor that simplifies building a beautiful homepage and functional landing pages. You can also connect your custom domain and not use the Thinkific subdomain for your academy.

In-platform Sales and Marketing Tools: Thinkific comes with built-in tools for sales and marketing, to help you start your course distribution.

Integrations: Thinkific is compatible with popular software and tools, so you can easily integrate your preferred external applications.

Online Learning Communities: The platform offers online learning communities, a feature that can enhance student engagement and interaction, by having a membership area they can post & comment. The instructor can also interact with their students from there.

White-Label Option: Thinkific gives you the option for white-labeled courses, letting you put your brand front and center.

Thinkific Cons

Limited Website Themes: With Thinkific, you might find that your options in themes and templates are somewhat restricted, but consider that they are more customizable than the ones in Kajabi.

Basic Course Authoring Features: Thinkific’s course authoring tools are fairly basic and might not offer the range of features you’d find on other platforms, like LearnWorlds.

No SCORM, TinCan, or AICC Support: If your content relies on SCORM, TinCan, or AICC formats, you’ll find that Thinkific doesn’t support these must-have industry standards.

Limited Live Chat Support: Thinkific offers 24/7 email support through their ticketing system, but phone and live chat support have restricted availability during specific hours, and that is only for Thinkific plus customers.

Video Playback Limitations: Your students may find the video play tricky. Adjusting video speed each time and getting in and out of full-screen mode isn’t the best-case scenario for eLearning. Third-party video integrations, like the one Thinkific uses, affect the viewing experience, especially on mobile.

Ease of Use

Kajabi offers effortless usability and functionality due to its integrated design, where you can manage everything from a single location using an all-in-one platform.

Unlike a WordPress-hosted site, you won’t need to spend hours adjusting plugins or extensions to ensure their proper compatibility. Kajabi simplifies the process of creating online courses, membership sites, coaching products, communities, and more.

How a course product is shown for the admin in Kajabi.

Thinkific is a user-friendly online course platform that provides easy-to-use tools for creating a website and selling courses. It is both beginner-friendly and customizable for more advanced outcomes.

How creating a course is shown for the admin in Thinkific.

You don’t need programming knowledge to build courses, and their intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes course creation quick and straightforward. Although you don’t need coding skills to use it, Thinkific provides you with the option to add custom code, if you want to create a more personalized experience for your students.

Course Creation (Authoring)

Kajabi offers various features for course creation. You can upload video and audio files, create quizzes and assessments, and issue course certificates. It provides customizable templates, blueprints, and user-friendly design tools to simplify course creation.

Editing a course on Kajabi, how the UI looks and the options for changing lessons and activities.

Thinkific also offers course creation tools, allowing you to structure your curriculum according to your preferences. If you’re a new course creator, Thinkific provides you with some ready-to-use templates to assist you in organizing your ideas and transforming your expertise into sellable courses.

How to edit lessons and courses on Thinkific. The user interface.

LearnWorlds takes course creation to the next level. Its course builder enables you to create, organize, and fully customize your course content. LearnWorlds also supports SCORM, which is the industry standard when hiring instructional designers to build the course for you and allows for advanced quizzes and learning automations to make your work easier and the learning experience more personalized.

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Compare LearnWorlds Vs Kajabi
Compare LearnWorlds Vs Thinkific

Features & Functionalities

Let’s dive deeper into an analysis of the features and functionalities of both tools, exploring how these capabilities can contribute to the growth of your aspirations!

Assessments

Kajabi lets you create and customize assessments that serve as tests or surveys that you can publish on your website’s homepage and landing pages.

A quiz block learning activity or quiz. How to create a new quiz on Thinkific.

Thinkific offers a quiz builder for crafting multiple-choice questions to assess your students. These quizzes serve as valuable formative assessments, providing feedback and reinforcing the course material. Additionally, you can export and review the results at a later time.

How to create a new quiz on Kajabi, showing the question and answers.

Analytics & Reporting

With Kajabi’s Analytics, you can access various metrics including net revenue, offers sold, and page views. It also provides advanced metrics, such as MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue), ARPU (Average Revenue per User), and Churn Rate (% of users that stop using your service).

The various options for Kajabi's reporting an analytics, from revenue to subscriptions to page views and more.

In your Analytics dashboard, you can find reports on Net Revenue, which shows your daily earnings after deducting refunds or discounts, and Subscription Metrics that help assess your business’s health.

Thinkific Analytics Orders Report allows you to examine trends and obtain an overview of total orders within a specified time frame. It helps answer questions about unique student orders and identifies products with higher order counts.

Thinkific's analytics dashboard showing the student engagement.

You can also leverage tracking and analytics apps to gather, organize, and analyze student data. This enables you to understand student behavior, improve student experience, refine marketing strategies, and enhance student support systems.

Native Mobile apps

Kajabi offers a mobile application for both Apple and Android users. This app provides your students with easy access to all your courses, coaching, and website content with just a single touch.

Thinkific recently introduced a mobile app designed for users of their Start and Grow plans. This app is compatible with both Android and Apple devices and offers a wide range of features to foster engagement and connectivity. Turning on the mobile app feature automatically creates a shareable link that your students can use to download the app.

The only true White-Labeled Mobile App

LearnWorlds on the other hand, offers you the opportunity to use a White-Label Mobile App Builder to develop your own custom mobile learning app for iOS and Android.

With this tool, you can take advantage of the user-friendly click-and-edit visual builder, allowing you to create a professional eLearning app without the need for coding expertise.

Developing your own educational app would cost north of $50.000, with LearnWorlds you get that with a small additional fee on your plan.

Build the perfect branded mobile app for your academy. Instantly.

Make your business shine with an impressive mobile app. Maximize the power of the best mobile app builder for elearning & start delivering great learning on-the-go experiences. Ready in under 60 minutes!

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An example of a mobile app for elearning. How to create a mobile app for elearning. Fully white labelled for your online academy.

Memberships & Community

Kajabi Communities is a recent addition that offers a set of tools for building and monetizing a successful community. It includes various features such as live calls, challenges, leaderboards, accountability tools, real-time chat, and more. Kajabi acquired Vibely to add on it’s community features.

The option to create a community on Kajabi. Choosing screen.

Thinkific Communities lets you create an online space where members can connect and work together on a specific topic. You can either build a community around your courses to make them even more valuable or create a separate community that you can sell as its own product. Thinkific Memberships is another feature that lets you create a membership site where you can offer exclusive access to your courses and communities.

How the user side of the community looks on Thinkific.

Website Builder

Kajabi provides a diverse collection of visually appealing templates that are readily available for use and can create a professional outcome. With their integrated website builder, you can personalize these templates and tailor them to your specific needs.

Building a website using Kajabi's templates.

Thinkific offers a user-friendly tool with a drag-and-drop page builder. This lets you create both course pages and general websites. But keep in mind that if you want to make your sales pages look more elegant, you’ll need a basic understanding of design.

If your design skills are limited, you might end up with pages that don’t look very professional. You can always use the provided templates and make small changes easily. However, if you’re aiming for a more spectacular design, you might need help from a professional designer.

On the other hand, LearnWorlds offers a user-friendly website builder that enables you to effortlessly design landing and sales pages for your online school through a frontend editor based on templates. It is designed to be beginner-friendly, requiring no coding skills, while still allowing for extensive customization options.

Sales and Marketing Features

Thinkific provides tools that help you keep track of orders, make discount coupons and create subscriptions. These features are only available if you upgrade to a paid plan. Also, you can set up an affiliate program with custom payment terms.

On the other hand, Kajabi has some notable marketing tools. Kajabi’s logic focuses on its sales funnel, pipelines, and sales automation features which includes email marketing tools. Even courses are part of the products in a sales funnel for Kajabi.

Kajabi's funnel templates showing different options for pre-build funnels.

Email Marketing and Automations

Kajabi includes built-in email marketing software to assist you in creating effective and efficient email campaigns. Kajabi includes one-off broadcasts and sequences/automations for more efficient email marketing.

Kajabi's example of a sales funnel automation.

Email sequences/automations are a series of emails triggered when a visitor takes a specific action, like completing a form or making a purchase. Email broadcasts, on the other hand, are emails sent to a specific audience, such as an email blast, newsletter, or individually crafted messages.

Thinkific also comes with email broadcasts but lacks any email automations. To make up for it, it offers more integrations with top email marketing software like MailChimp, ConvertKit, Constant Contact, AWeber, ActiveCampaign, and EngageBay.

Furthermore, Thinkific enables you to grow your email list by using attractive popups and opt-in forms, offering valuable incentives on your Thinkific landing pages.

Customer Service

Kajabi provides a variety of support options to assist you. You can reach Kajabi’s support team through live chat, email, or telephone. In cases where your concern is not urgent or if live chat is not available, you can send an email inquiry to support@kajabi.com.

Reviews about the Kajabi support are mostly positive and pretty happy with the user experience provided by their support staff and Kajabi university.

While Thinkific provides round-the-clock email support by submitting a ticket, the availability of phone and live chat support is limited to specific hours. Additionally, before being connected to a human agent, you may need to interact with a chatbot or navigate through an automated phone system.

Reviews about the Thinkific support are mostly positive, but stay in the realm of the software, and do not go above and beyond as Kajabi & LearnWorlds’ support teams.

LearnWorlds is often praised as having the best support in the industry, with the team going above and beyond to help our customers succeed. Offering 24/7 support by email, a live chat, and onboarding calls for higher plans.

Michelle Byfield

Technical Services Manager at Noble Works

Every step of the way the LearnWorlds support team helped us with our questions, setup and workarounds to enable us to deliver in the way we needed. LearnWorlds is a wonderful platform that has enabled our company to continue to deliver our training courses in the new online environment.

on G2

Michelle Byfield Technical Services Manager at Noble Works: Every step of the way the LearnWorlds support team helped us with our questions, setup and workarounds to enable us to deliver in the way we needed. LearnWorlds is a wonderful platform that has enabled our company to continue to deliver our training courses in the new online environment.

on G2

Video Hosting

Kajabi and Thinkific both host their videos through Wistia, which is the state of the art in video hosting services today.

Both support video lessons and embedding videos on their website builders. They do offer similar reporting and analytics for video based on Wistia.

Here is where LearnWorlds shines as well, by taking video to the next level with its proprietary technology to add interactivity to videos and enhance the learning experience. You can add quizzes, pop-ups, navigation, and more on top of your videos.

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Certificates

Both Kajabi and Thinkific provide you with the ability to create and customize the certificates awarded to your students.

With Thinkific you have the option to select from various certificate designs or incorporate your own personalized background image. Thinkific lets you feature the student’s name, course completion and expiry dates, and other customized fields.

Kajabi enables you to distribute both generic and personalized completion certificates to students through your Kajabi account. You have the flexibility to personalize the appearance of your certificates using themes and templates designed to align with your brand.

The various settings when setting up a certificate on Kajabi.

Payment Gateways

Kajabi integrates with two reliable payment gateways, Stripe and PayPal, to facilitate easy and secure payment collection for your audience. These platforms are available internationally and enable you to receive payments directly on your Kajabi website.

Kajabi is also beta testing their own payment gateway Kajabi Payments.

On the other hand, Thinkific provides Thinkific Payments, its native payment gateway and the default option for subscribers in the USA, UK, and Canada. For subscribers from other countries, Thinkific also supports external payment gateways, with Stripe and PayPal. In addition to this, you can offer various payment transaction types, including one-time payments, subscriptions, payment plans and digital wallets such as PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

Integrations

Kajabi strives to include as many functionalities as possible inside their own product, offering only the essential basics of integrations. The most important being Zapier which helps integrate with many other software.

Thinkific provides a large number of integrations for streamlining workflows, automating tasks, and enhancing the customer experience. Thinkific goes a step beyond here by creating native integrations through Thinkific Apps allowing other companies to build integrations to their ecosystem as well.

Comparing Kajabi’s Price with Thinkific

When it comes to picking the perfect online course platform, understanding the cost is a big part of the decision. Pricing changes based on the features, number of users, products/courses, and other factors.

LearnWorlds is the most value-pack platform across all pricing levels when compared to Kajabi and Thinkific:

*Pricing information was updated on April 2024

What User Reviews Say?

We’ve collected reviews from two well-known websites, G2 and Capterra, where real users share their experiences. By comparing these reviews, we can get a better idea of what it’s like to use these platforms, straight from the people who have actually used them.

LearnWorlds gets top reviews across both review platforms, while Kajabi is lagging behind in most categories. In 2024, Thinkific took a slide in reviews as it’s quality of service has been reduced after laying off 150 employees the past 2 years.

*Review scores were updated on April 2024.

Which one is the best?

Kajabi and Thinkific are both excellent platforms for creating and selling online courses. However, it’s essential to be aware of the distinctions between them before making a decision.

Why choose LearnWorlds?

LearnWorlds is the best choice for creating an elearning academy. It offers advanced educational features like quizzes, exams, certifications, flexible courses, interactive videos, and the only one that supports SCORM courses. At the same time, LearnWorlds’ ecommerce features and marketing automations are top-class and can match what Kajabi has to offer.

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Why choose Kajabi?

Kajabi is a platform made for people who focus on marketing & sales. Kajabi is mainly an all-in-one marketing platform which enables you to build a business on selling digital products like courses, build communities, and offer coaching programs.

It’s an easy platform to use and keeps most functionalities you need in one place. You pay a little more than alternatives, but don’t need to foot the bill for additional software in most cases.

Why choose Thinkific?

Thinkific is an online course platform that offers instructors and students a user-friendly environment for teaching and learning. It serves as an efficient solution for creating and selling online courses. Authors, speakers, subject matter experts, and others use Thinkific to expand their online businesses or monetize their expertise.

Thinkific comes with better features for elearning and building academies compared to Kajabi, but lacks it’s all-inclusive marketing & sales capabilities. Thinkific is more suitable for educators teaching or training and for creating lead capture academies.

Other eLearning platform options

If none of the above fits your criteria, there are always more online learning platforms to review, from simple coaching platforms like Teachable to complete LMS like Docebo or TalentLMS.

Teachable

Teachable enables influencers and creators to expand their businesses by developing and offering courses. Teachable is a more basic platform focused on simple video courses & coaching. It comes with less customization capabilities but works better for new course creators and coaches.

Teachable has a more open free plan with less feature limitations but higher fees:

Compare Kajabi Vs Thinkific Vs Teachable Vs LearnWorlds
Compare LearnWorlds vs Teachable

Podia

Podia’s key features include publishing online courses in a step-by-step manner, selling courses through a user-friendly and cost-effective platform, and providing coaching sessions or cohort-based courses.

Podia is the cheapest alternative in the list, and only works if you need a sales page for a video course, don’t expect many educational features.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the difference between Kajabi and Thinkific?

Thinkific is mainly focused on the creation of online courses, whereas Kajabi offers a comprehensive suite that includes marketing and sales tools as well. In other words, Thinkific is more focused on the creation process, while Kajabi provides a broader range of features for running an online learning business.

Which one is better, Kajabi or Thinkific?

Deciding between Kajabi and Thinkific depends on your needs. If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution with marketing tools, Kajabi could be a better fit. However, if you’re primarily focused on creating and selling online courses, especially as a beginner, Thinkific might be the better choice due to its simplicity. However, when considering value for money,

LearnWorlds stands out as it blends the benefits of both Thinkific and Kajabi, but at a more reasonable cost.

Why do people use Kajabi?

People use Kajabi because it simplifies the process of creating and selling online courses or digital products by offering an all-in-one platform. It includes features for marketing, sales, and website building, making it a good fit for entrepreneurs and small businesses that prefer a comprehensive tool. However, there are also alternatives like LearnWorlds. This platform not only meets those same needs but also offers even greater flexibility and customization options.

What are Thinkific competitors?

There are several competitors to Thinkific in the online course platform market. Notable names include LearnWorlds, Kajabi, Teachable, and Podia.

Can you build courses on Thinkific?

Yes, you certainly can. Thinkific is an online platform designed for course creation and selling. It provides a variety of tools to do just that using a simple drag-and-drop builder. However, depending on what you require, you might come across certain constraints, particularly if you’re using the free version of the service.

Can I build a website on Thinkific using the page builder?

Yes, you can indeed build a website on Thinkific. They provide some templates and a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder to help you create your site. Thinkific comes with limitations on customization, and if you don’t know html or css you are limited to their builder’s templates.

.quote-box .tabs-container .tab.active {
position: relative;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 20px 50px rgba(51,51,51,.12);
box-shadow: 0 20px 50px rgba(51,51,51,.12);
z-index: 10;
background-color: #fff;
}

@media screen and (max-width: 480px){
.prl_1rem_480 {
padding-left:1rem !important;
padding-right:1rem !important;
}
}

The post Kajabi vs Thinkific: A Side-by-Side Comparison appeared first on LearnWorlds.

If Learnworlds is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

The costs of ineffective collaboration — and how to avoid them

Software Stack Editor · April 8, 2024 ·

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We often hear that managers should encourage independence, creativity, psychological safety—and collaboration with other teams. Collaboration can make your work better, but it’s still a delicate practice that takes work to get it right.

In fact, most of us can think of a time (or several) when collaboration has gone poorly. A lot can go wrong when your work depends on other people: coworkers might show up to meetings unprepared, teams’ goals may be misaligned, or you end up spending hours re-doing work because someone didn’t clearly communicate their vision.

The consequences of failing to properly invest in processes that enable strong, effective collaboration can be debilitating on both your teams and your businesses. Below, let’s explore the hidden costs of mismanaged collaboration — and what teams can avoid them and set themselves up for success.

The power of true collaboration

English scholar John Donne once wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself” — a reflection of how humans are often reliant on one another and stronger as a unit. This sentiment, one where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, is the core of why collaboration is so powerful.

When teams within organizations are able to successfully come together to build and create, it can unlock innovative work that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Marketing teams in particular must collaborate with other teams to put their ideas into action. For example, marketers often work with developers to build custom elements for a website and with designers to polish visuals for a feature announcement.

Imagine asking an engineer to build a marketing website on their own, with no input from marketing — or asking a marketing team to plan a product launch without any input from the product team. It’s hard to imagine either of these projects going well without input and support from other players who can bring in expert knowledge, skills, and perspectives.

But this cross-team innovation is only possible when it’s managed well.

Poor collaboration hurts everyone

Teams that don’t invest in effective collaboration may take on a variety of costs. Below, let’s explore what these costs are and their implications.

Inefficient meetings waste time

If you’re not managing communication between your teams well, you risk wasting valuable time. For example, if cross-team meetings are spent bringing everyone else up to speed or steering people back on-topic, this signals a lack of clarity, agenda-setting, and direction from the meeting owner.

Not only does this come with intangible costs — losing goodwill, a lack of trust, and an inability to maintain forward momentum — but also with monetary costs. If 6 people attended a meeting that failed to accomplish the core goal due to lack of preparation and strategy, and each earns an annual salary of $100,000, that hour-long meeting cost the company approximately $300 (1 hour x 6 people x $100,000 / 2,000 hours of work per year).

Inefficient asynchronous collaboration can also waste time

Even outside of meetings, a lack of strategic alignment can massively waste time. For example, if you don’t communicate your vision clearly to the engineer who’s helping you build a reporting dashboard, you may both have to go through more iterations to get to the final product. Or, if you and another marketer are taking turns editing a slide deck asynchronously without communicating what the final output should look like, you risk compromising timelines because of an incessant flurry of back-and-forth revisions.

Team morale can suffer

Mismanaged collaboration can negatively impact the teams involved when it comes to culture and morale. It’s hard to feel good about your job when you’re working inefficiently, attending meetings that could have been emails, and talking past one another. Left unchecked, that low morale can cause people to avoid working closely and openly with one another, disengage from their work, or even leave the company.

Company-wide goals become at risk

Ineffective collaboration is particularly dangerous for large-scale goals that involve several teams. For example, a big product update may stumble because the marketing and product development teams aren’t able to come together to define primary objectives and outputs, the company’s revenue and its customers’ trust are at risk, costing the company both revenue and customers’ trust.

The opportunity to innovate is compromised

If cross-team collaboration always goes poorly, teams will start avoiding working together altogether and stick to their silos. As a result, they’re less likely to unlock the opportunity to ideate and come up with innovative solutions to business problems.

How to chart a path toward successful teamwork

While bringing people together can be complicated and challenging to get right, the teams that are determined to make collaboration seamless and effective are the ones that will be best positioned in the long-term. Consider the following strategies to set your team up for collaborative success.

Focus meetings on discussions, not updates

When meetings are purposeful and focused, they’re more engaging. You can spend your time discussing hard decisions rather than getting people up to speed, and people leave feeling productive and participatory to outcomes. Setting a clear agenda, assigning a strict time-keeper, and sending out materials ahead of time are all ways to keep collaboration smooth and projects moving.

Enable your teams to work in tandem

Let’s return to an earlier example: two marketers who are taking turns editing a slide deck. They should probably use a collaborative, web-based slide tool to tackle this work in parallel, rather than sentencing themselves to painful handoffs. This is true when it comes to websites as well: for example, the team at Oyster got their websites to market six times faster after they started using Webflow’s page branching features to make web updates in parallel.

Use tools that eliminate the need for unnecessary collaboration

While collaboration can be powerful, bringing too many cooks into the kitchen for every task or project can hinder success. For example, Dropbox Sign’s marketing, engineering, and design teams use Webflow to improve their internal workflows for their website, bringing marketing, design, and development teams closer together to streamline development processes. Marketers and designers are able to gain more autonomy and technical teams are able to reclaim time to focus on high-impact projects. The outcome is a win-win that reserves time to collaborate on what’s most important to tackle their collective goals.

Similarly, features like edit mode make it possible for content editors to safely edit site content without risk of breaking the site or designs — and speeding up time-to-launch in the process.

Effective collaboration is table stakes for today’s teams

“Collaboration” can often seem like a buzzword, and some of the cynicism about it is well-earned. But when you get it right, collaboration is worth the hype.

If you cultivate an environment where teams can come together and flourish, you can unlock solutions and outcomes that wouldn’t otherwise be possible to achieve when working in silos. To unlock the untapped potential of your marketing, design, and development teams, invest in a culture of clear communication and purposeful meetings, and bring on tools that create tight-knit processes that help your teams remain productive and put them on a path toward success.

If Webflow is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

	Thinkific	Kajabi	LearnWorlds

Course Authoring Winner: LearnWorlds
General Features / Functionalities Winner: Kajabi
Ease of Use Winner: Thinkific
Customer Service Winner: LearnWorlds
Value for Money Winner: LearnWorlds
Total Winner: LearnWorlds

Thinkific	Kajabi	LearnWorlds
Course Authoring Winner: LearnWorlds

General Features / Functionalities Winner: Kajabi

Ease of Use Winner: Thinkific

Customer Service Winner: LearnWorlds

Value for Money Winner: LearnWorlds

Total Winner: LearnWorlds

	Kajabi	Thinkific	LearnWorlds

Free Trial	Yes	Upon request	Yes
Forever Free Plan	No	Yes	No
Lower tier	Basic: $149 per month	Basic: $49 per month	Starter plan: $29/month (plus $5 per course sale)
Mid Tier	Growth: $199 per month	Start – $99/month Grow – $199/month	Pro Trainer plan: $99/month
High Tier	Pro Plan: $399/month	Expand – $499/month	Learning Center plan: $299/month
Enterprise plan	Yes	Yes	Yes

Kajabi	Thinkific	LearnWorlds
Free Trial
Yes	Upon request	Yes
Forever Free Plan
No	Yes	No
Lower Tier
Basic Plan: $149/month	Basic – $49/month	Starter plan: $29/month (plus $5 per course sale)
Mid Tier
Growth Plan: $199/month	Start – $99/month Grow – $199/month	Pro Trainer plan: $99/month
High Tier
Pro Plan: $399/month	Expand – $499/month	Learning Center plan: $299/month
Enterprise plan
Yes	Yes	Yes

	Kajabi	Thinkific	LearnWorlds

G2	4,3	4,6	4,7
Capterra	4,3	4,4	4,7