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Starting a company, how did it happen?

When I was a kid I loved to experiment and observe what happened.

Attracting birds in the yard with different food, putting the hamster in a maze and see if he could escape,…

I quickly figured out I had to document these observations to compare them with future ones. 

This could be text, but drawings were sometimes even better. 

It was no surprise for my parents I wanted to study biology.

At Uni I did just the same as what I did in my childhood, creating experiments in the wild and documenting my results. Oh, and a whole lot of statistics and informatics 

So, when I graduated I was ready to explore the natural world, but now as a professional. Sadly, at that time no one was waiting for a biologist with a degree in bio-informatics (yeah, really!)

Pragmatic as I was, I started to think: How can I put my scientific knowledge to use in society?

Where to start?

Where to start? Why not the internet?

I searched for jobs with the same skills as I learned as a biologist.

To become a labrat was not my dream, I just was not the right person for it.

Hm, computer programming, why not?

But after a few months I figured out I was only making bugs and had to re-test all the time. 

And then it hit me, why not become a software tester?

A lot of software testing companies were advertising, but I wanted to be part of the best there was in that time: Polteq!

I wrote a letter and blimey, they invited me for an interview, which I am still grateful for.

The rest is history, after my probie years at Polteq I started to work for different IT service companies and had an awesome time at Immune-IT, like Polteq a software testing company.

It all started with Software Testing

At Immune-IT we were all very innovative, but also pragmatic.

Testing web applications was on the rise.

Frontend, webservices, backend, the lot.

Awesome, just like in my biology days I was experimenting again.

And documenting was necessary for test reports etc.

But I wanted more, I wanted to document new testing techniques and new web applications.

Software as a Service was as new field and I wanted to document this.

Especially the identity management area.

The blog TestingSaaS was born.

This blog created a platform where I could document my adventures in testing.
Immune-IT even let me guestblog on their site.

This was just the beginning.

Through Twitter and LinkedIn I could promote my blog leading to guestblogs on Security Affairs and content writing for eForensics Magazine. 

Cordny meets branding and the brand TestingSaaS was born.

Then Content Marketing came around the Corner

Around 2010 I met a lovely woman, Eve Maler, on one of the identity conferences I visited.

She told me she needed a tester to verify the documentation of a new identity protocol, User Managed Access (UMA) she was creating together with other identity wizards at Kantara Initiative.

Awesome, now I could test a web protocol and work in an international setting.

I was UMAnized (I still am!) and I wanted to UMAnize the whole world through my blogs and articles.

Cordny meets product marketing! 

Mind you, I was still working as a software tester during the day and did all these things at night. I loved to write content and engage with my peers.

Starting a Company: TestingSaaS 

Successful years followed for the brand TestingSaaS, but not for the software tester Cordny.

Almost every year I had a different software testing job and I was getting restless and cynical. When in March 2018 my contract at iWelcome was not extended I knew I had to do something,

die of boredom or holster up my guns!

So, starting a company it was! I went to the Dutch Chamber of Commerce and registered the SaaS software testing and content marketing firm TestingSaaS.

Its mission: help SaaS startups and scale-ups improve their software testing and content marketing.

As a software tester I knew a lot of the product under test and I could also document and write about it. Why not combine this?

Now it’s 4 months ago since I started TestingSaaS and I already helped 5 companies successfully and the Brand TestingSaaS is growing.

Starting a Company is never easy

TestingSaaS is determined to 

help more SaaS entrepreneurs improve the quality of their product 

AND positioning themselves in this crowded market. 

Are you a SaaS entrepreneur and you need help? Starting a company is never easy.

Contact me now and let’s talk, WHO DARES WINS!!

A few weeks ago Kinga Odziemek from Linkhouse asked me to help here with a blog explaining tips and tricks for content and social media marketing.
So I did, together with 30+ other marketers from all over the world.

Here’s the link to the blog:

Content marketing in the eyes of 30+ marketers from all over the world.

and here are the tips and tricks about content and social media marketing I gave in this post:

Content marketing is a crowded space. You need authentic content to stand out. But this is not enough, you may have good content, but without a good headline your content won’t get noticed and won’t get visited, resulting in bad marketing results. Next to the headline you have to research what content type your prospect wants to see: a text, a video or maybe an infographic? Videos are hot these days, but a prospect wants details, which can be explained in a text. If they are interested, they will read it. Content distribution is very important for reaching your prospects. For me, LinkedIn is the distribution channel to reach out to business contacts. Here I can post different content types to inform my network of what I am doing.

Kinga and Linkhouse, thank you for asking me to participate in this questionnaire.
It was fun to do and it’s also very nice to see the views of my peers worldwide on content and social media marketing.

Bob is an online marketer for the B2B SaaS company BestofSaaS.
He is in charge of the company’s blog and content marketing.
With software like Google Analytics he noticed there are not a lot of readers
following his posts. It seems visitors read a post, but do not come back for the following posts.
Should Bob be concerned about this?
No!

Bob’s blog is facing the ‘double jeopardy’-concept, a term coined in the 1960’s by a social scientist named William McPhee. In the marketing world the concept got popular thanks to Andrew Ehrenberg.

What is the ‘double jeopardy’-concept exactly?

Double jeopardy

‘Double jeopardy is an empirical law where brands with lower markets shares suffer both from low purchases and low brand loyalty. Simply said, “less popular” brands not only have fewer buyers, but also have fewer loyal customers compared to popular brands.’



It seems the small brand / less popular brand is ‘punished’ twice:
it has fewer buyers, but also fewer loyal customers compared to the more popular brands.

Examples of double jeopardy in the consumer business (B2C) are described in the paper Discovering how brands grow by David Reay Corkindale (2011). A famous one is the washing powder example, also discussed in Byron Sharp’s book ‘How brands grow’.

Double jeopardy and SaaS online marketing

Great! Now we have examples of double jeopardy in the consumer business.
But does this also apply in B2B online marketing?

Yes, only the measurement is different. You do not analyze buyers, but visitors.

A less known blog does have less visitors than a popular blog and market share is therefore also low.
You can’t blame a blogger like Bob for this, the blog does not have yet the market share, so it has lower visitors. This is a natural phase, and you should not be worried about this.

How can Bob improve the market share?
By making a great post or rank higher in SEO rankings.
Bob has to improve his site by testing which content is read, which design for his blog is preferred and what SEO strategy to be used.
If Bob follows these steps, the chance of visitors going to follow his blog are increased and the blog’s loyalty base is increased too.

Conclusion

Don’t wonder about why the visitors of your blog are not coming back.
Accept this as a part of your blog’s evolution.
Start testing different content types and strategize your SEO.

If done properly, the blog’s loyalty base will grow and
you don’t have to worry anymore about the ‘double jeopardy’.

A few months ago Mike Kawula, serial entrepreneur and host of the EntrepreneursGSD Podcast asked me to share my method of LinkedIn lead generation to our fellow entrepreneurs.
I was honored Mike asked me for his podcast.
And I had an awesome time doing it.

Here is the podcast:

https://entrepreneursgsd.com/015-how-to-use-linkedin-for-lead-generation/

And here are the actions I advised for lead generation with LinkedIn:

Spend a minimum of 20 minutes per day on LinkedIn Publisher and in the main feed leaving meaningful comments on posts.
I prefer 15-20 minutes in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. This way you can properly engage with the people from all over the world who post during these times.

Also, test sharing different content types (text, video, picture, combination of these etc.) to see the level of engagement you receive. LinkedIn gives metadata about your post: Likes, Reader info (demographics, title, etc.), Shares etc.
This metadata is very important if you want to write for a specific prospect, say a Founder in the USA. By looking at the User demographics you can see which posts are read by these prospects.

Mind you, Likes are nice, but don’t say anything about the reader, so for lead generation worthless.
Shares on the other hand are worthy because you can immediately see which user shared it. Could be a prospect?

Mike and I recommend that for seven days, you make a goal of creating a specific number of posts (with different content types) around a topic relevant to your industry. Then, based on how people have responded, tweak your approach and spend another seven days posting. After a month of doing this, you should see your engagement start to skyrocket.

As already said, doing the podcast was fun and I thank Mike Kawula for giving me the opportunity of sharing my ideas on LinkedIn Lead Generation.

New week, new adventures..

Since April 2018 I enjoy life as a SaaS content writer, marketer and tester.

Bootstrapping all the way.

I knew what I was going to get myself into

…it’s tough…it’s mean…it’s a long way to the top!

but yeah, I’m kicking’ A$$ and doing what I love to do.

It can be hustling, just like Gary Vaynerchuk says and it certainly is not for the faint hearted ones.

HARD WORK pays off !!!

Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win..but I was used to that, and nobody beat me down.

It was not the question IF I would become a SaaS content man, it was WHEN!

I have a lot of help from my peers Cedric Debono, Drayton Bird, Linwood Austin, Cory Warfield, Jake Tital, Gary Yau Chan, Maite Ortega, and many more.

THANK YOU!

I could not serve my clients without you, my LinkedIn network.

So, here I am, ready for another week.

Dear SaaS company,

tell me,

HOW CAN I HELP YOU

reach the top in your market?

You know,

it’s a long way to the top if you want to play rock ’n Roll !!!

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!!