Author Archives: StratoServe

Unlocking Innovation: What does our Customer Success Tomorrow look like?

It’s hard to explain to everyone in an organization – that their role includes “marketing”. And focussing on constant innovation. Hence the term “Customer Success.”

[Note: Thanks to the interest of our dear readers this post from September 18, 2018 is updated April 7, 2021. During COVID everyone was forced to become more tech friendly. We hope that this revised post will help our dear readers prepare better for a post COVID world}

The Customer Success term is particularly popular in the SaaS (Software as a Service ) industry. SaaS companies need customer renewals. To do so, SaaS companies try to align the organization including programmers, sales , finance to working towards customer success. SaaS companies also have a separate Customer Success function that faces the customer and helps in getting the most out of the SaaS product.

You can’t lie to Google but try to look great on Social Media: Search vs. Display Ads

Social Media has galvanized us to share our best face with the world. Go to any event (e.g. weddings) and you will find everyone taking pictures on their cell phones. This despite the professional photographers trying to do their best and stay relevant in the age of the smart phone. You have a public personaContinue reading “You can’t lie to Google but try to look great on Social Media: Search vs. Display Ads”

Market Segmentation and Targeting: Why Trump did not go to California in 2016

Market segmentation and targeting is probably the hardest concept in marketing. Strangely once understood even the savviest marketers seem to flip-flop in their marketing execution. For those dear readers who followed the 2016 US Presidential election the map below (Source : Philip Bump, Washington Post,Donald Trump spent more time in the states that handed himContinue reading “Market Segmentation and Targeting: Why Trump did not go to California in 2016”

Do you donate to charity to get a tax break? – of Donors,Charities and Governments

  The recent US Tax changes, increasing the standard deduction has caused alarm in the non-profit community. Some experts  believe that donations will decline from $ 309 Billion  in 2016 by upto $20 Billion.  This as  people will stop donating since cannot itemize their taxes from 2018. Thus, during year end 2017  there was aContinue reading “Do you donate to charity to get a tax break? – of Donors,Charities and Governments”

Blockchain will make supply chains stronger but challenge brands

Blockchain technology will start shaking up supply chains and brands. But first, what is blockchain? Here's our take: Blockchain is a distributed accounting ledger . A mechanism to share how much was paid and received by whom, where each transaction is verified on a peer-to-peer basis. Sort of like verified reviews on Amazon. The personContinue reading “Blockchain will make supply chains stronger but challenge brands”

“Getting found on Google” – how does Google think?

[Note: This post was originally published on September 5, 2017 and is updated with a new image and some edits on March 31, 2021 due to the interest of our dear readers. We also published a new post Google results are not organized alphabetically on March 31, 2021 given reader interest in the topic]

Instead of trying to second guess the latest algorithm that reportedly contains over 200 factors, it is far easier to intuitively understand the business of Google. And that’s not a secret and reading the Google founders story makes things clear and here are some quotes from the story- with some explanation

Educating the customer is a central task for marketers

The days of information asymmetry are over. Information is no longer power. And Google and other search engines are just getting started. The notion of the used car salesman trying to sell a “lemon” is a relic of the pre-internet era. Today, the entire history of a used car is available to consumers through servicesContinue reading “Educating the customer is a central task for marketers”

Why Big Consulting is able to compete with Big Ad Agencies for Digital Marketing work

Big Consulting firms are competing with Big Advertising agencies according to E.J. Schultz in the current issue of AdAge. Big consulting firms like IBM, Accenture , PwC and Deloitte are growing their digital marketing practices and competing with big ad agencies like WPP, Omnicom, Interpublic, Dentsu etc. for digital marketing work. Here is a quoteContinue reading “Why Big Consulting is able to compete with Big Ad Agencies for Digital Marketing work”

Landing Pages for SEO vs Landing Pages for Advertising

Your web visitor could be a prospective customer looking for your solution or an existing customer looking for customer service. Your customer can get to your web-page or landing page in two ways a) through your content based SEO or b) Paid advertising (like Google AdWords, Email marketing).

If they haven’t Googled about the problem you solve …

You are making sales calls and some customers are unresponsive even after initial conversations. It is quite possible that these people do  not have the problem that your business solves. They haven’t yet Googled about the problem you solve! For people are looking for solutions to their problems and all businesses exist to solve customerContinue reading “If they haven’t Googled about the problem you solve …”