mei 2019

A guestblog by Ilan Nass, Chief Strategist Taktical Digital

As the technology available for marketing evolves, it’s vital for businesses to adapt to an environment of constant change. Even within the past few years, the marketing world has changed drastically. Facebook, for example, is completely changing the look and feel of their platform, especially when it comes to advertising. Partnering with a Facebook advertising firm could help your brand navigate the potentially difficult shift.

Other changes expected to revolutionize the marketing industry are virtual and augmented reality. Virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) are starting to become major parts of marketing strategies, with substantial growth projected in the near future. Here’s how:

The Current Marketing Landscape

Marketers are only just beginning to scratch the surface of what these technologies can offer, but there are already exciting examples of them in many fields. Pokemon GO! Is perhaps the most widely known example. The game prominently featured AR and demonstrated its wide appeal, earning $950 million in 2016 alone.

While both augmented and virtual reality first rose to prominence in gaming, marketers are starting to notice the opportunities they offer.

Augmented reality has been applied throughout several industries to great success. Furniture stores, for example, can use it to demonstrate how a given piece would look in an existing room. Rebecca Minkoff, a popular fashion retailer, partnered with an app, Zeekit, to allow women to virtually try on clothing simply by uploading an image.

Many other businesses have begun to introduce augmented reality in unique ways, and that trend is only accelerating. The use of AR marketing is forecasted to increase by nearly 31% from 2017 to 2021.

Virtual reality can be harder to adapt to the needs of marketers, as it involves completely immersing its users. This leads to significantly higher costs while also increasing the need for elaborate development. VR technology is currently lagging behind augmented reality in terms of widespread adoption, but there are many exciting possibilities for the future.

Upcoming Developments in AR and VR Marketing

Current trends in marketing are causing new businesses to notice the success early adopters have seen from using both AR and VR. As time goes on and marketers and creative digital agencies find new ways of utilizing these technologies, the scope of virtual and augmented reality within the marketing world is only going to increase.

As mentioned above, virtual reality is often more difficult to apply to marketing, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities associated with it. The travel and automotive sectors are just two industries that could see significant benefits from virtual reality.

Businesses are already using virtual reality to simulate the experience of being at a unique travel destination. Car companies will soon be able to simulate test drives. As these uses expand, other industries will become inspired to incorporate VR for their own practices.

Marketers are always among the first to explore the possibilities opened up by new forms of technology, and altered reality is no exception. AR and VR are already becoming common in many industries, and it will be important for businesses to stay ahead of these trends in the next few years. While they both require significant investment, they also offer the ability to connect with customers in brand-new ways.

A guestblog by Thomas Smale, Founder FE International

Building a business takes time and effort. Founders often get used to working hard for every gain, but there are some easy fixes that could dramatically boost your SaaS business’s value ahead of a sale. You could be selling your business for a number of different reasons, but these points need to be checked regardless of your company’s size, the time line you want a sale completed within, or your own professional experience.

Too often SaaS business owners erase a large portion of their hard-earned potential earnings by ignoring these suggestions, right when they need them the most. In no particular order, they are:

1. Timing Your Development Cycle

All products move through a development cycle, and will sometimes be in need of more severe overhauls of their infrastructure or design. They may need crucial security updates or features added in order to remain competitive. If you are looking to sell your SaaS and want the best valuation possible, you need to time your sale right. If you try to market your SaaS business when the product(s) are in imminent need of development, then you will lower the ultimate sale price.

New owners don’t want an uphill struggle after acquiring a business. Make things easier for them and time your sale for a safe period in your development cycle.

• Simplifying Technical Knowledge & Owner Involvement

Many SaaS founders believe that if their work is technical and requires a lot of oversight, it must be a cutting-edge company with unique IP. While this may be true, it also means that transferring to a new owner could be a difficult process. At my company, FE International, 65% of our SaaS listings are bought by non-technical buyers. This means that, if you want to get the maximum return possible for your sale, you need to think about how a new owner will operate in your business.

SaaS founders may be tempted to look for buyers who already have SaaS-specific knowledge, but this can heavily reduce the potential buyer pool. Instead, founders should look at their processes and determine what of their own role could be outsourced or delegated to other employees who plan to stay with the company. Anything which will ease the transition of a new owner and reduce the amount of time they will need to spend on the business is beneficial. Most people looking to buy a mature business aren’t looking for a new job, and they will only want to dedicate a portion of their weekly or monthly time to their new venture.

Making sure good SOPs are in place, and your own role is reduced to a minimum, will serve to boost, not diminish the value of your business. The cost of hiring someone to fill a technical role will always be factored against the value of a business.

• Securing Intellectual Property

What may seem obvious to plenty of business owners still creates real problems for plenty of SaaS business owners when they come to selling up. It is ok to apply for patents late in the day, but one needs to ensure that all people who worked on the product’s code sign an IP assignment for their work. This goes double for freelancers, and one shouldn’t be embarrassed about asking for one retroactively as they are fairly standard in due diligence requests for $500k+ SaaS businesses.

Patents and trademarks can be applied for here.

• Avoiding Sales and Lifetime Plans

Many SaaS companies use sales and lifetime plan offerings to bring in an initial wave of customers, or to boost their revenue before a sale. This tactic is well known and can reduce the ultimate purchase price of a business. Buyers will usually factor the upkeep of any of these plans against the purchase price, or they will steer clear of the sale entirely. With sites like AppSumo becoming popular with tech start-ups, the positive buzz generated can often seem like it’s worth the risk. Only pursue this route if you feel it’s necessary, and the prospect of a sale is a long way off.

• Documented Source Code

Having a clearly mapped and annotated source code will be necessary for almost all sales of a SaaS business. Unless your business is particularly small, anyone looking to buy and scale a SaaS company will need to have an overview of your source code. Products that have been messily coded can create serious problems for new owners as they try to grow the business. So, making clear that your product has been built to scale is crucial. If your product’s code is a mess or hasn’t been properly documented, then you need to fix these issues to gain a premium valuation.

These are a few of the key things that can help you increase your SaaS business’s value ahead of a sale. If you are interested in learning more about how you can improve the value of your SaaS business, please read my article on SaaS Company Valuation here. If you would like a free valuation of your business, fill in our quick form here.

Thomas Smale founded FE International over ten years ago, growing the business from scratch to a seven-figure-a-year business. Specializing in advising and brokering the sale of established websites and online businesses, FE International has completed over 650 transactions. Smale has been interviewed on numerous podcasts and blogs and speaks regularly at industry events on online businesses, exit strategy and selling businesses.

What else can you add to the many faces of a unicorn marketer?

Larry Kim, from MobileMonkey, tried to answer this question by designing the infographic, which you can see above.

Larry mentioned these faces:

💬 Communicator

📓 Researcher

👩‍🏫 Teacher

🤓 Analyst

🔬 Data scientist

🏆 Brand ambassador

👂 Listener

🎨 Artist

💸 Budgeter

👭 Influencer

💂 Thought leader

✍ Copywriter

✅ Strategic planner

🧠 Psychologist

👩🏾‍💻 Content writer

📚 Reader

🕮 Storyteller

❤ Relationship-builder

What else can you add?

As an IT-content writer I would also include coder or developer, with at least a healthy interest in programming / coding, because a lot of marketing these days is done online and you need to have skills in coding to work with online marketing software.

I have seen in the reactions to Larry’s post answers like cheerleader, movie producer, event planner and project manager.

Yeah, TestingSaaS has tried a lot of these faces in his first year as a content marketer, and I found out you can’t do it all by yourself.

It’s better to have a professional network around you.

Do you agree and what can you add to the many faces of a marketer?

Please give your answer in the reactions below.

2019 just started and TestingSaaS already made some big leaps.
Visually you may have seen some changes already.
So, what happened?

A new office at Eigenlijk Alles

Working at home has its advantages, it’s cheap and no commuting, but it can be a lonesome adventure and when there is little to do you get lazy.
When I met the guys from Eigenlijk Alles they told me they wanted to create a marketplace LINK, where freelancers and companies are linked and business can be done.
Great initiative, which I did not see before. As a networker by heart I was immediately sold.
So, now I’m sitting here at the Eigenlijk Alles office writing this blog and in a few minutes I have a meeting with other professionals about professionalizing my servies further.
Here is a nice video in which I explain my reasons for joining LINK.

A new logo

Have you seen the new TestingSaaS logo?

TestingSaaS did not have a logo yet, so it was about time.
All made possible with the help of another freelancer.

A new e-mail address

When I started my business, I continued to use my hotmail-account, which I also used for my blogging services.
But I’m an entrepreneur now, and I needed a professional e-mail address.
You can now contact me at info@testingsaas.nl

TestingSaaS goes Instagram

More and more B2B is done on Instagram and I wanted to test if this channel is suitable for my business.
So, now you can also find me on Instagram.
The TestingSaaS Saturday #SaaSBusiness quotes are well received, and I will also share other updates on this interesting medium.

TestingSaaS partners with TechSnips

TestingSaaS is a frequent follower of DevOps.
That’s why I joined Fixate, the DevOps contentmarketing agency, a couple of years ago.
Writing DevOps practitioner blogs is something I really love, because this way I can show how a tool or software works.
An even better way to do this is by video. That’s why I did not hesitate when TechSnips contacted me if I was interested in making instruction videos for them regarding DevOps, but also about other niches like data science and computer forensics.
Remember the macOS anti-forensics course I created for eForensics Magazine recently.
This tasted good, so in 2019 I will create more video tutorials/presentations with TechSnips.

2019 just started, let’s see what other adventures TestingSaaS will make this year.
Stay tuned.
Who dares wins!!

When I started TestingSaaS I had three services in mind: beta testing, creating content and social media marketing for SaaS startups and scale ups.

After a year I realised this all can be combined in one unique service:

Create Content Through Testing.

Through testing a software product or service content is made, which can be a basis for on boarding, sales and marketing content and can be shared in (social) media.
This is a unique service, killing two birds with one stone: you will get your software verified and you will get re-usable sales and marketing content. What more do you want!

Next to this TestingSaaS will still help IT companies with a beta testing framework, based on 10+ years of experience.

So, are you a software company or an online agency and you want original content about your or your client’s IT product/service?

Contact TestingSaaS and I will verify and help you sell your product in the same time!

2018 was for TestingSaaS the year of engagement.
My mission for 2018 was to get more engaged with my network. Not only with my business, TestingSaaS, but also on a personal level.

In april I started my business TestingSaaS and since then I engaged with a lot of prospects, with about ten becoming clients.
Thank you, it was a hell of a ride!

Now it is 2019 and a new mission is needed: creating impact by TestingSaaS for its clients.

How to make impact?

As you saw with the  posts and deep dives on LinkedIn and Twitter, TestingSaaS shared a lot of content related to his clients.
This year TestingSaaS will be more creative and use also other social media channels like Youtube and Instagram to raise his and his client’s voice – create impact!

All content created by testing the applications of the clients.
So, next to blogs and deep dives,  expect videos showing my testcases. All agreed with the client naturally.
And shared on the TestingSaaS social media channels

All to make an impact – for my clients.

Let’s have some fun!

eforensics Magazine is one of my favorite online resources on digital forensics.

A few years ago I was very honored  to be asked to contribute as a content writer for this magazine.
With my software testing skills and curiosity I mastered the basic digital forensics techniques and started to write about iOS forensics and anti-forensics.

Why this interest in anti-forensics?

As a test engineer I always want to show the current state of the quality of a software product. Finding bugs is an important part of my work.
I really want to break the software.
Software development uses a framework to build the software, but with every development issues like bugs and flaws happen. And I wanted to find these issues asap. This is the same with digital forensics.
I want to use anti-forensic techniques to show if the forensic analysis is ‘bulletproof’. Is it safe from tampering and how can we make it more resilient against tampering?

Why this interest in macOS anti-forensics?

The internet is full of effective anti-forensics techniques for the Microsoft Windows Operating Systems, but it lacks good information on macOS forensics and anti-forensics.
The macOS seems a difficult operating system for performing forensic analysis. Still macOS forensics is a necessary skill for the digital forensics professional. More and more people use the macOS, also criminals, and this increases the chance of having to do a forensic analysis on a macOS one day in the future. This makes it a most wanted skill nowadays.
Criminals know this, and they will use anti-forensic techniques to tamper with the evidence, so it is NOT eligible in court.
That’s why I want to study these anti-forensic techniques, to detect them and develop countermeasures. And also develop security measures to protect the evidence against the anti-forensic techniques.

The macOS anti-forensics course

I designed, together with eForensics Magazine, the macOS anti-forensics course, all online, to share my knowledge on macOS anti-forensics and teach students how to detect, perform and act against anti-forensics techniques on the macOS.
Thank you eForensics Magazine for giving me the chance to develop and teach this course. I will not forget this.

The 18th of December will be start of this course.
It will be fun, it will be practical and all self-paced, so no worries, no rush.

Apply NOW, you won’t regret it.

When combining software testing and content marketing you will meet companies and several of their clients too.
One of my clients is BPdelivery. 

Dear Dutch startup, give the International Business Platform a try.
Remember it is not LinkedIn, businesses, NOT persons are automatically matched. And if you do not want to match, you can always decline.
When this automatic matching is going on, also have a look at the CoC international business canvas and download it. 
Answering the questions in this canvas will, as it did with me, help you structure your international business plans.

BPdelivery is a cloud services broker that facilitates internal business processes within the cloud supply and demand chain.
BPdelivery developed a B2B networking platform called BPConnect and they asked me to help them get the platform known through content marketing eg. newsletters and blog posts.
As you know, I combine content marketing with software testing, so I also tested the product BPConnect. One of the first clients to use this product is the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (CoC). They wanted to use this solution for their International Business Platform where businesses can be automatically matched on mutual interests.
Together with BPdelivery and the CoC TestingSaaS beta tested BPConnect. Now BPConnect is live and naturally I registered myself as a user.
Onboarding is easy, you only need a CoC and a Dutch VAT-number.
A country manager at the CoC will validate and monitor your onboarding process.
Don’t worry, all GDPR-compliant.

Give it a go, who dares wins!

One of the buzzwords in 2019 is augmented reality (AR).
Google it and you will find a lot of tech marketing stuff about AR.
Here you can read about adapting AR in construction, e-commerce, but also education.
In 2018 I did some content marketing for the adventurous learning app from CoVince, but this app is Virtual Reality-minded, not AR.
What are the possibilities with an AR-app in education?

Augmented Reality in the classroom

Current students are very savvy with their smartphones. It’s almost an extra part of their body. Why not use this advantage in the classroom?

AR-animated content could catch students’ attention to study.

By using this content students can grasp important data about a subject in a fun, but still learning way. Think about a historical person’s bio, fun facts, visual 3D models etc. Using AR is for these students more fun than reading from a book, but they still learn.

Explain abstract and difficult concepts

With AR objects can be visualised into 3D models.
A lot of students are visual learners, and by this visualisation these students can grasp the abstract and difficult content.

‘Man, if I had AR in the classroom twenty years ago :-).’

For example, see this AR math tool.

Engagement & interaction with AR

Teachers want to involve students into their classes.

By using AR-animated content as an extra teachers are able to do this.

See this video about AR used in the school’s gym.

Discover & learn with AR

Remember when you had to go to the museum during school?
It was not always fun eeh?
Well AR can spice this up.
Why not connect with history through AR?  See this video where students test the use AR in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Permanent Exhibition.

Modelling of objects with AR

AR is all about using 3D models.
Why not use it in a science class like chemistry or biology as seen in this video?
Students can see the human body internally as they never seen before.

Training with AR

AR can make passive learning active again.
By using AR students can increase their practical experience and acquire skills they can use in real life.
See this video on using AR in learning product design.

Wrap-Up

AR is going to be important in future education.
And why not?
Students are savvy with their smartphone and it could be a good method to educate students in a visual way how something works.
This will increase the student’s engagement and this will benefit both student and teacher.
Exciting times ahead.
I would love to test these AR-animated content education apps.

What do you think about using AR in education?