Astraliv Digital, Author at Astraliv Digital

March 11, 2022 by Astraliv Digital

Sales Funnel For Real Estate Business

As a real estate agent, you must constantly generate new leads and turn them into clients. If you want to turn any of your leads into customers, you need to nurture them. For any lead to easily convert into a client, you need to nurture it.

In layman’s terms, a sales funnel is a buying process through which a company guides customers to purchase a product or service. A sales funnel is a structure for creating an online system that helps you build customer relationships in a real and, most importantly, automated way. If a website is like giving someone your business card, the sales funnel is where your bestsellers make decisions with each of your website visitors.

Funnels are important because they help you understand which part of your marketing and sales operations are performing effectively. To generate quality leads and stand out in the marketplace, you need to create well-oiled funnels. Once you’ve identified and organized your real estate marketing and sales funnel, it’s important to continually measure and optimize each stage of the funnel.

Funnels show all the steps needed to close a deal and can help bridge the gap to better align your marketing and sales processes with a common goal to help your business grow.

Once you’ve laid all the foundations, you’re ready to create an online real estate sales funnel that will work for you by generating new high-value leads that turn into customers buying and selling homes. Once you’ve successfully converted a lead into a customer, the last step in the real estate funnel is to close the deal, earn a commission, and fill the real estate funnel again to repeat the process

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MARKETING

March 11, 2022 by Astraliv Digital

Search Engine Optimization & Lead Generation

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has evolved from driving traffic to your website to generating leads. To learn more. The ultimate goal of SEO is to increase the rankings of your websites, attract the right (qualified) people through the search engines, and keep them interested in your content. By ensuring that visitors know exactly what your website has to offer, SEO can bring more people to you by generating leads. Because SEO will help you get more leads from qualified leads who are looking for products and services like yours online.

SEO not only helps you generate leads, but it can also help your business turn leads into sales. With our SEO lead generation services, your business can generate organic website traffic and turn it into valuable leads and revenue. With the right SEO strategy, you can turn your website into one of the most effective lead generation tools available 24/7, delivering a steady
stream of leads. Strong lead generation requires a dynamic SEO strategy designed to meet your current needs and help you generate enough leads to help your business grow.

It’s not enough to just have a website – to really generate leads, you need to implement an SEO strategy. SEO can complement your lead generation efforts by increasing your company’s visibility through organic traffic to your website. Fortunately, there are many different ways to optimize your website for SEO and lead generation so that search engines like Google will
recommend your site to other sites. While search engine optimization can be used to generate leads, you will get faster results and more reliable leads by using search marketing ads.

SEO works hand in hand with lead generation because the more times your site appears on search engine results pages, the more potential customers can interact with your brand. With new information, you can improve your SEO to convert more traffic into leads. Learn how to increase leads with SEO online marketing strategy. If you want to learn how to improve your SEO, this section outlines some of the best practices for increasing your traffic.

To conclude, actively working on organic SEO can improve your lead generation campaigns by increasing your visibility to a wide range of potential customers and Search engine optimization generates leads by ensuring you are visible on search engines and appear when
users search for your target keywords.

By doing great SEO, you can ensure that your website is ready to generate as many leads organically as possible. At a basic level, the goal of SEO is to use Google to drive new visitors to your website so that your website’s content can convert them into leads.

Using SEO keywords in your website content can help drive more targeted traffic to your business website, as visitors are more likely to stay there longer when looking for the information they need. Careful placement of SEO keywords in your website content will help Google, Bing or other search engines determine what your brand message is about and how it relates to the specific product or service you offer online. Using SEO best practices in your website content will help search engines find you online more easily as it is always updated with fresh and unique SEO media content that your audience will love.

A continuous content strategy coupled with keyword research will go a long way in any SEO lead generation campaign, as creating content that people are searching for will boost brand presence in search and drive those important leads. Creating a SEO lead generation campaign not only ensures that your current marketing efforts have a great chance of succeeding in a
crowded marketplace, but it also helps protect your web content in the future by maximizing opportunities to gain new contacts with a strong online presence and great user experience. In addition to direct customer acquisition, SEO is a great way to reach potential customers indirectly using content created for an SEO campaign on other marketing channels.

SEO itself is constantly evolving, and generating a steady stream of qualified leads is every marketer’s eternal priority. SEO, if done right, can lead to a steady flow of qualified traffic to your site from search engines on a daily basis.
Companies that have an SEO-enabled blogging website rank higher in search results than those that don’t, so it’s significant to include SEO in any marketing plan.

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DESIGN

August 4, 2021 by Astraliv Digital

YOU’RE STILL NOT USING DIGITAL TOOLS?

With worldwide annual spend on digital advertising surpassing $325 billion, it’s no surprise that different approaches to online marketing are becoming available. One of these new approaches is performance marketing, also called performance media marketing or digital performance marketing. Keep reading to learn all about performance marketing, from how it works to how it compares to digital marketing. Plus, get insight into the benefits and risks of performance marketing and how it can affect your company’s long-term success and profitability. Performance marketing is an approach to digital marketing or advertising where businesses only pay when a specific result occurs. This result could be a new lead, sale, or other outcome agreed upon by the advertiser and business. Performance marketing involves channels such as affiliate marketing, online advertising.

The main thing that separates performance marketing from other types of marketing is the way businesses pay for their campaigns. Rather than paying up front or by month, advertisers pay when a specific action takes place. You might enlist a marketing company’s help to bring your branding to more individuals by having these marketers promote your business to prospective customers. The hope is that users will complete a form to learn more about your company and become a lead.

CHANNELS USED IN PERFORMANCE MARKETING

Performance marketing may involve using various types of digital marketing and advertising channels, including the following. Display ads include banner ads and other types of visual advertisements that display on websites your audience visits. These ads typically include a visual element with copy and link to a landing page where users may convert into leads or customers. Using online advertising platforms such as Google Ads, you can target your ads to users whose interests, demographics, or online activity matches those of your target audience. Under the performance marketing model, you would only pay when someone clicks on your ad, converts on your landing page, or takes another pre-determined action.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. TOMAS REUSS

Supported substance consolidates parts of web based promoting and substance showcasing. It includes making substance, for example, a blog entry or video and paying for its consideration on a site that routinely distributes comparative substance. A piece of supported substance will seem to be like the remainder of the substance on the site yet will incorporate some sign that it’s supported. With execution showcasing, you would pay a pre-decided aps on your supported article navigates to your site from the article.

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DIGITAL

August 4, 2021 by Astraliv Digital

SaaS Metrics For Measuring Business Performance

Difference Between SaaS model and Traditional Software Licensing Model
But how does one measure business success or performance in a SaaS model? Unlike the traditional business model, the revenue stream for SaaS companies is on a monthly subscription basis.

Let’s take for example Microsoft who is a world leader in office productivity software. Microsoft sold its software products like MS Office for years with a one time cost per license. If anyone needed to buy MS Office, they would buy it off the shelf and pay for that package a retail price.

SaaS companies have a different revenue model. The customer has to pay a monthly subscription fee for the product or service. For example, Google’s G Suite is a cloud-based office productivity solution with monthly billing.

Now, of course, Microsoft has seen the benefits of the SaaS model. Microsoft developed a competitive SaaS product- the OS365 office productivity solution. OS365, a cloud-based product, saw its release in the year 2011. Microsoft’s evolution from traditional software licensing model to cloud-based services has had a more than significant impact on its revenues.

Performance Measure of SaaS Model Companies

Now that we have seen that the cloud-based revenue model is starkly different from the traditional software licensing model, how does one measure performance for SaaS companies? It is seen that traditional metrics are inadequate to measure the performance and growth of SaaS companies. Traditional performance measuring systems simply do not meet the needs of a recurring revenue model.

“The only constant in the technology industry is change”
-Marc Benioff

Key SaaS Metrics

So what are the key SaaS metrics to measure business performance? In the SaaS business model, the below-listed metrics are a critical measure which provides insight into the company’s future potential as well as financial stability.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
Average Contract Value (ACV)
Customer Acquisitions Costs (CAC)
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Churn and Retention
Lead Velocity Rate

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) / Annual Recurring Revenue

Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) is the income that a SaaS company is assured every single month or annually from its subscription customers. This income is from services that have been billed and paid for on either a monthly subscription or annual lump sum amount. In a SaaS company, the income the company brings in consistently every month is a measure of performance.

Annual Contract Value (ACV)

Annual Contract Value is the average annual revenue from each customer.

For example: ABC Cloud Streaming Services charges each customer 1250/- per month for its video streaming service.

So the Annual Contract Value per customer for ABC Cloud Streaming Services would be:

Rs.1250.00 X 12 Months = Rs.15000/-

Customer Acquisitions Costs (CAC)

Customer Acquisitions Costs (CAC) is the total cost of sales, marketing and advertising activities that is required to acquire a customer. CAC can be calculated by dividing the total cost of sales & marketing expenses by the number of customers acquired in the same period of expenditure.

Let us take a hypothetical example:

The below table is the total sales and marketing costs of ABC Cloud Streaming Services:

Sales Promotion Cost	100,000.00
Facebook Advertising	50,000.00
Google Ads	200,000.00
Television Ads	5,000,000.00
Total Cost	5,350,000.00

ABC Cloud Services has acquired 15000 customers at a total cost of Rs. 5,350,000.00

CAC= 5,350,000.00/ 15,000= 357.00

So Customer Acquisition Costs for ABC Cloud Streaming Services is Rs.357/-

With the advent of digital marketing or marketing using online platforms such as Facebook, Google and a myriad of others, we are able to accurately calculate the marketing costs in comparison to traditional marketing & advertising media such as television and print.

Hence the cost of acquiring a customer through social media marketing as well as internet advertising can be calculated with a fair level of accuracy.

Churn Rate

The percentage of customers that cancel their subscription over a given period is known as Churn Rate, referred to as “Logo Churn.” Since SaaS companies depend on a subscription-based revenue model, the churn rate is a very important metric. Minimising churn rate should be high on the priority list.

Retention Rate

The percentage of customers the company manages to retain over a given period is known as Retention Rate or “Logo Retention”. An increase in retention rate will naturally result in higher profit margins through increase in Customer Lifetime Value.

Both Churn Rate as well as Retention Rate are very important metrics to measure the health of any SaaS company.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) or LTV

In the simplest of terms, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the total revenue the organisation earns from the customer until the subscription is cancelled. The total revenue generated by an average customer over their entire lifetime is CLV/LTV. Why is CLV/LTV important in measuring business performance? The priority of any organization should not be merely to achieve a sale, but to retain the customer for longer durations and achieve valuable CLV/LTV. In some cases, higher CLV/LTV can be increased by seeing to it that the customer “upgrades” his product resulting in additional revenue for the organisation.

For example, ABC Cloud Streaming Services has two pricing structures for customers.

Basic Plan: Rs.600/- per month
Premium Plan: Rs.1250/-per month

Over a period, the customer should see the benefit of moving to the “Premium Plan” thus increasing revenue for the organisation. So it can be seen in the long term that an existing customer is just as or more important than a new customer. A customer may move to the “Premium Plan” once he has utilised all the features of the “Basic Plan” and is “looking for more” from the product.

Sales Pipeline

A Sales Pipeline is the various stages a prospect goes through before he may or may not become a customer.

The various stages of a Sales Pipeline may differ on a case to case basis but it has some common features:

Lead Gathering
Lead Qualifying
Proposal
Deal Closing

Lead Gathering

The organisation does a set of lead generation activities to publicise the existence of its product. A prospect may search for information on better ways to “manage teams” on a search engine before he chances upon Microsoft’s product for Team Management in the search engine results.

However, at this stage, the prospect may not need the product and is just looking for information on the same. But now he is aware that Microsoft has a product which resolves one of his pain points while managing teams. The prospect leaves his contact information on the Microsoft product information page seeking more information on the software. This stage of collecting leads or contact information is known as lead gathering.

At this stage, the prospect is a Marketing Qualified Lead. The prospect shows interest in the product but is not convinced of the need to buy it.

Lead Qualifying

In this stage, the sales representative of the organisation to whom the lead has been passed on assesses the prospect based on various factors:

Whether the prospect has a requirement for the product.

Whether he has the budget to purchase the product.

Whether he has the authority to make a purchase decision.

This may vary on a case to case basis and a qualified lead is a prospect which is likely to become a customer.

So the prospect who was seeking information on “managing teams” is now aware that there is a product which can resolve issues faced by him. He goes on to seek more information on the product. This is where the sales representative assesses whether the prospect has the budget and authority to take the call on purchasing the product. This stage is lead qualifying.

An important SaaS metric here is Lead Velocity Rate

Lead Velocity Rate is the percentage increase in qualified leads. This increase may be measured on a monthly basis. From lead velocity rate, we can forecast the top-line growth of the organisation.

Proposal

The sales representative ascertains that the prospect needs the product. Does the prospect have the budget as well as the authority to buy the product? If the prospect meets the criteria the sales representative places a proposal as per the needs of the qualified lead. This is where the sales representative pitches the qualified lead. The pitch is to convince the prospect of the benefits and value of the product which helps him resolve his pain points.

In this stage, the qualified lead should sign-up for the product demo. The product demo convinces the prospect that it meets his needs after he tries out all its features.

At this stage, the prospect may assess and compare with products of competitors. Now, the prospect is a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) as he has shown real interest to buy the product.

Deal Closing

Deal closure is the final stage where a prospect is convinced of the merits of the product and purchases the same. This is where a prospect becomes a customer.

A Sales Pipeline may have more stages as well as overlapping areas and it may not be as simple as the examples above. It’s very important for organisations to document the stages a customer goes through before he goes on to become a customer. From the data available from various stages of the Sales Pipeline, we can identify various aspects such as:

How many leads are generated
How many leads are Marketing Qualified Leads
At which stage do leads lose interest in our product
Are the prospects convinced of the benefit of our product after the demo
At what stage does a prospect become a Sales Qualified Lead
What is the length of an average sales pipeline life cycle

SaaS Metrics is critical in identifying the chinks in the armour of our sales pipeline and enables the organisation to make informed decisions. A broad spectrum of industries apply SaaS metrics and each industry or business may have a unique sales pipeline. Finance heads as well as product managers do not ignore SaaS metrics. Growth hackers use it to discover new opportunities and avenues for growth. Use SaaS metrics data and growth hacking techniques, to expand your user base and to grow at an exponential pace. No matter the size of your organisation, or the growth stage, it is an indispensable tool. It’s never too late to use SaaS metrics for your organisation.

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MARKETING

July 22, 2021 by Astraliv Digital

What Is Drop-Shipping?

Drop shipping is a popular business model used by B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer) businesses and wholesalers. Companies implementing drop shipping can increase efficiency, decrease costs, and increase profit margins. A lot of business owners do not realize the incredible benefits drop shipping provides.

Drop shipping is a powerful business model in which you don’t keep the products you sell in stock. Instead, when you receive an order, you purchase the item directly from a third-party supplier, ship the item directly to your customer, and then bill the customer for the product. You never see or handle the product. You simply make your profit on the shipping and handling fees.

When an item is sold, the retailer passes on the customer’s order information to the wholesaler, who then ships the product directly to the customer.

The retailer does not keep the products in stock, but instead transfers the customer’s payment and shipment information to the wholesaler, who then ships the merchandise directly to the customer.

Drop-shipping for Wholesalers & Distributors in Kerala

Drop-shipping is a direct fulfilment method in which the retailer doesn’t keep any of the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a consumer orders a product, that order is placed with the wholesaler or manufacturer, who ships directly to the consumer. Drop-shipping can be useful to wholesalers because they don’t have to store product. It’s also useful for retailers because they can carry unlimited inventory without having to buy it first. This can allow them to test new products without making a large inventory investment.

Another benefit of drop-shipping is that you can create an online store without needing the physical space or capital to store and ship products yourself. And, because you’re only buying a product once a customer has already paid for it, you don’t have to invest much cash upfront.

Drop-shipping reduces inventory and increases profit for your business.

Drop-shipping reduces inventory and increases profit for your business. You can utilize your warehouse space for other products that you have readily available, without having to worry about stocking parts for a product that you do not currently have on hand. Drop-shipping also allows you to sell more products with less risk because you don’t need to purchase products in advance.

Because drop-shipping is a selling method that maintains the inventory of products that are being offered at a lower price, it is an attractive option for wholesalers who want to sell their goods at competitive prices and yet earn great profits with minimal capital involved. So there you have it—a very simple definition of drop-shipping and how it works. As you can see, setup is easy and inexpensive, while the process itself is profitable. It’s a win/win situation, so if you’re just getting started in wholesaling or fixing to delve into it in more depth, you should definitely consider adding drop-shipping to your repertoire!

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