How customer voice
drives business

All businesses have conventional knowledge of how they “should” be operating. This is true for B2B and B2C organizations. Despite this, there are substantial differences in how the two types operate. Just as importantly, there are areas where they can learn from each other. Whether your organization focuses on B2B or B2C, understanding the differences between the two is vital. Doing so will help you generate the most effective strategies for your company.  B2B Vs. B2C: What are they? To start with the baseline definitions: B2B refers to business-to-business, while B2C refers to business-to-consumer.  B2B companies largely deal with work between organizations. They offer their goods and services to collections of people, whose purchase decision is determined by someone looking to address ar professional use case. A perfect example is human resource management software. No individual consumer will be buying a license to Bamboo HR to use at the weekend when they are home.  B2C has a focus on selling directly to consumers. Organizations focusing on B2C market directly to individuals instead of organizations. The types of organizations are endless and sell the things people use in their everyday lives. If you are reading this on a phone, that is […]

The best programmers, back-end developers, and content managers still come across bugs that need to be recorded. No matter the reason for the bug, accurate bug tracking software allows for better visibility and a better experience for customers and staff. The various types of free bug trafficking software have different levels of complexity and integration with other tools. Understanding the options available will help you make the best choice in free bug tracking software for you.   User Limit Storage Limit Visualization Open-Source Zoho BugTracker 3 Files up to 10MB Kanban No BugZilla Unlimited Local Limited Yes Backlog 10 100 MB Kanban Yes OpenProject Unlimited Files up to 256 MB Gantt, Kanban (By Extension) Yes Jira 10 2GB Gantt, Kanban No Purely Bug Tracking Software Many software that includes a bug tracker have other features included in their base versions. The most common software to include this is project management software. First, we will go over the software that is just for bug tracking and little else. Zoho Bugtracker – Best for Zoho Users Regulars to the TrustRadius buyer blog will not be surprised to find a Zoho product included in a free software recommendation. A vendor with seemingly endless […]

Cloud Infrastructure and As-a-Service Solutions With each year, cloud solutions dominate B2B technology industries more and more. On-premises infrastructure and software require hands-on maintenance and can be challenging to scale. Cloud infrastructure and software-as-a-service outsource hosting to improve scalability and reduce management demands. Understanding cloud infrastructure and software will help guide your purchasing decisions.  You can check out the video below for a simple explanation of cloud computing. Cloud infrastructure providers have differentiated their products as their popularity has grown. You may have noticed a huge variety of software categories with the “as-a-service” suffix. All of these solutions are cloud-based, but they provide infrastructure and services in a slightly different way. Four of the most notable cloud infrastructure solutions are software-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and function-as-a-service. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Of all the cloud service categories, SaaS is the broadest. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions are designed to deliver applications to users over the internet.  It covers services many professionals use every day, like Google Workspaces and Dropbox.  SaaS also includes more complex platforms like SalesForce. No matter how complex SaaS solutions get, most are accessed through a web browser. There are a few key benefits to SaaS applications over an on-premises deployment. The first […]

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software can be expensive for a small business, but it’s also essential for product design and technical illustrations. For businesses looking for an affordable alternative to popular CAD software options, free and open-source CAD software might be the ideal solution. Some of the best free CAD software includes: NanoCAD Sketchup Free FreeCAD OnShape LibreCAD ­ 3D or 2D OS Open Source Biggest Pro Biggest Con NanoCAD Both Windows No Ease of Use, Automation Resource-Intensive, Missing File Organization Sketchup Free Both Windows, MacOS No Quick, Easy Model Creation New Features Often Not Free FreeCAD 3D, Limited 2D Windows, MacOS, Linux Yes Active Community Complex UI, Limited 2D Functionality OnShape Both Browser-Based No No Installation Limited Dimensioning LibreCAD 2D, Limited 3D Windows, MacOS, Linux Yes Excellent 2D Design Limited 3D, Limited Support These products are a mix of 2D and 3D computer-aided design software, and all of them have a forever free to use option. Products were selected based on their popularity and feature completeness. #1 NanoCAD NanoCAD is a free-to-use CAD software with both 2D and 3D design functionality. NanoCAD has an easy-to-use interface combined with complex options that allow power users to get the most of the […]

If you’ve been in marketing for a while, you know funnels inside and out. Funnels are the mechanisms that convert leads into customers. Over the past few years, the relevancy of the funnel has slowly died out, leaving room for a new, digitally-informed strategy to take its place. Enter the flywheel. If you have never heard of the marketing flywheel before, keep reading. Here we discuss: The Marketing Funnel (and why it may no longer be relevant) The Marketing Flywheel (and what it promises for the future) The Differences Between Funnel and Flywheel Flywheels in Action How to Shift to the Flywheel The Marketing Funnel: Reliable, Trusted…Outdated? The funnel model is as classic as a tool can get in marketing. This represents the stages a prospective customer goes through on their buyer journey. The stages are usually broken down into: Awareness Consideration Conversion Some add loyalty and advocacy at the bottom of this funnel. Others add a note like “rinse and repeat.” The top of the funnel is wide. Many people can become aware of your product, but not all will become interested. The funnel gets narrower as the leads pass through the different stages. Only a small percentage of […]

A cohesive marketing strategy requires an understanding of the different types of promotion available to your organization. Understanding the difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing is vital to getting the most out of your marketing budget. Once you know this, you can evaluate the pros and cons of each, and create the right blend for your company.    Traditional Marketing Digital Marketing Medium Billboards, TV, Radio Ads, Newspaper and Magazine SEO, Pay-Per-Click, SEM, Webpage Building, Social Media Focus Product-Focused Customer-Focused Related To Outbound Marketing Inbound Marketing Biggest Pros Easier Implementation for Smaller Businesses, Informative, Not Skippable Strong ROI, Broader and More Segmented Audience, Uses Modern Mediums, Customer-Focused Biggest Cons Expensive, Saturated Mediums, Hard to Evaluate Requires Some Tech Skill, Ever-Changing, Less Information What is the difference between Traditional and Digital marketing? To start with the extraordinarily obvious, traditional and digital marketing use different mediums to achieve their objectives. Traditional marketing relies on pre-digital forms of media to interact with prospective customers. This includes TV ads, radio, magazines, posters, etc. Broadcasting ads over real-time content interrupts the content the user is consuming. Print ads, in the same way, take the space of other material.   Digital marketing, as the name suggests, […]

Password management software creates the bridge between security and convenience needed in a modern technology environment. The flurry of sign-on information that individuals and organizations need to remember can be overwhelming. Many resort to the extremely unsafe method of using one simple password across multiple accounts and devices. This leaves you vulnerable to a variety of security threats. Free password managers offer a solution to this risk at a no-cost option. Free options usually have some limitations to their functionality and scope, and working within these is vital to getting the most benefit for your use case. Remembear LastPass Avira KeePass LogMeOnce RememBear – Easy-to-Use Password Manager For One Device The website strapline for the RememBear homepage is “the easiest way to remember passwords”. This is pretty accurate. RememBear is software for those with limited technology experience, and perhaps are a little anxious using it. With the essential nature of services like email and even social media, passwords are not used exclusively by the tech-savvy. RememBear offers a charming, friendly user interface to take some of the stress off of password management.  This system is something of a vault for basic, secure info. It is limited to one device, but […]

No matter your organization’s size or industry, getting paid is probably one of the most important components. Invoicing software creates transparency and convenience for both you and your client. However, many smaller businesses and freelancers want a no-cost option for generating invoices since it is such a routine process for them. For those that can balance features with limitations for their use case, this is a realistic goal. Below are some of the best free invoice software, and who they are best suited for. The software covered in this list are: Zoho Invoice Reliabills InvoiceNinja Paypal Wave Zoho Invoice – Best Invoicing For Individuals For freelancers and other independent workers, Zoho Invoice will offer a professional, polished product. There are two major limitations of this software. The first: Zoho Invoice is free for only one user. The second limitation is that you can only invoice up to 5 customers.  If you can work within these restrictions, you will gain access to a strong host of features. The 5 customer limitation does not mean you can not rebill those 5. You will be able to create recurring invoices. These can be automated and have built-in reminders. Estimates can be created and […]

Generation Z is currently entering the workforce for the first time. This hasn’t stopped some older Gen Zers from participating in buying committees for their business’s technology. This generation of buyers will only become more impactful in buying committees.  Generation Z enters the workforce and buying process with distinct life experiences and values from Millennials. These differences can pose new challenges for B2B marketers. They also offer new opportunities for engagement with the next generation of buyers.  While Gen Z’s current buyer footprint is small, early investment in this generation will pay off in the long run. We’ll show you 2 key steps of understanding  Generation Z. The first step is identifying the events that mold the generation. The second step is understanding  how those factors impact Gen Z values and personalities. We’ll also give concrete guidance on how marketers can better engage with Gen Z buyers in the coming years.  What Is a Gen Z Buyer? There is a range of defining features and traits that separate Gen Z from prior generations. There are also important factors to a group beyond their generation. Savvy marketers should exercise some caution when generalizing across an entire generation. Race, gender, income, education, […]

The tech industry prides itself on offering cutting-edge solutions to the world’s problems. But the language we use tends toward an overabundance of misused, overused, or simply bad buzzwords. We surveyed over 1,000 tech professionals to surface the tech buzzwords that annoy us the most. Since this is our second year tracking this data, we can also see how people’s opinions on certain words have changed year over year. We’ll also dig into where these technology buzzwords get so horribly misused according to Google Trends. We’re here to help keep the tech industry accountable and hopefully have a little fun. Let’s go. The Top 10 Most Hated Technology Buzzwords Today 1. Zoom [verb]  (New in 2021) Let’s take a moment to be very specific about the feedback we got from our tech community. The most-hated technology buzzword of 2020 is not Zoom, the web conferencing product. People actually hate the use of “zoom” as a verb.  An unfortunate hallmark of the COVID-19 pandemic is that everything moved to virtual spaces. The most culturally popular tool for these interactions is Zoom. However, Zoom now faces an interesting marketing dilemma. It’s hard to maintain a positive brand image when your name is […]

There are many different levels of shopping cart software, offering varying degrees of complexity. You may need a simple page for a few products. Others may want inventory management and a full online store as in an eCommerce platform. Free shopping cart software will often have limitations restricting functionality or scope. Another potential option is going for open-source software. Working within criteria that do not harm your use case is the best way to get shopping cart software at no cost to you. The shopping cart software covered in this piece are: WooCommerce Ecwid Magento Loaded Commerce Square eCommerce Which Shopping Cart Software is Right For You? Below are the 5 best free shopping cart software and eCommerce platforms. Each is very different and will be suited to different types of users.  WooCommerce- eCommerce Solution for WordPress Users WooCommerce is the perfect, easy-to-use choice for those who use the popular website building platform, WordPress. This extension offers a simple way to create a functional store within your company website. With this tool, you’ll be able to accept a variety of payment options and quickly set up a store page. The extension supports many integrations for payment acceptance, marketing, and social […]

Inbound and Outbound marketing offer different approaches to achieving the same goals of generating leads, driving sales, and improving customer relations. Outbound marketing involves many of the classic sales strategies from before the turn of the century. Inbound marketing centers on a new way of thinking about customer relationships and sales. Understanding the difference between the two can help you decide which works best for your organization. It is also vital to understand how to make the most out of each strategy.   Inbound Marketing Outbound Marketing Also Known As Pull Marketing, New Marketing Push Marketing, Old Marketing, Interruption Marketing Examples Blog and Website Content, Social Media, How-To and Assistance Videos TV Ads, Radio Ads, Billboards, Banner Ads, Newspaper and Magazine Folds Marketing Focus Drawn Clients in, Generate Genuine Interest and Solve Customer NeedsTldr:Leads Come to You Push Products to a Broad Audience, Interrupt the Customer, Sell Why the Product is Right for ThemTldr:You Find Leads Pros Greater ROI, Cuts Through Ad Noise, Positive User Experience Easier to Produce, Access to More Traditional Mediums Cons Requires Smart Targeting and Customer Understanding Smaller ROI, Expensive and Can Fail to Yield Results, Huge Competition What Is the Difference Between Inbound and Outbound […]

People switch jobs for different reasons. Some of them are looking for better work opportunities, better salaries, shorter commute or even career change. But, how shocking it is to know that 50% of employees who leave their jobs is because of bad managers? Indeed, a big part of employees’ routine is related to their relationship with their bosses, which means that managers have a huge impact on people’s work health and work atmosphere in general. On top of everything mentioned, the position of a maintenance manager also requires a fair bit of technical knowledge which makes it a challenging position. With continuous advancements in technology and with the human factor getting more relevance in organizations, there are specific characteristics company leaders expect to find in their maintenance managers. In today’s post, we will cover 6 skills that maintenance managers are expected to have to become a successful team player within the organization. 1.  Technical knowledge Maintenance management requires a deep understanding of how machines and systems work, and how to keep them running with limited resources at the lowest possible cost. Technical knowledge plays an important role in problem-solving and process improvement. The number of solutions for any particular problem […]

Success doesn’t end with simply coming up with a product that solves a problem and then getting a customer or client in the door. Rather, both acquiring and retaining your customers are necessary for success. This means making sure your marketing plan is good at getting the right people to buy into your product. This also means ensuring you keep the clients that you’ve already acquired. In fact, once you’ve developed a client base, retention is much more valuable than acquisition. According to the Harvard Business Review, acquiring a new customer costs 5% to 25% more than retaining an existing one. This is why more and more companies are hiring client advocates. So, what’s a client advocate? A client advocate is broadly an employee or a centralized office which advocates for the client’s wants and needs, whatever they may be. Client advocates are a little different from client reps, although, in theory, client reps should become client advocates. They are also different from product managers, who also have an advocacy role. They represent the customer and market view of the product to internal stakeholders.  Advocacy exists in many industries. Healthcare systems, product-focus fields, finance, and many related fields are popular […]

An email service is a tool that has long since stopped needing to be paid for. For many users, free email accounts and service providers will fulfill all their needs. From mobile applications and ease of use to security and name recognition, there are many factors at play. Understanding what your specific needs are and how they relate to the plethora of options will help you choose the right email provider. The software covered in this article are: Gmail Microsoft Outlook Mail.com Yahoo Mail ProtonMail 10MinuteMail.com Gmail – Best Email Account for General Utility  There are few better choices than Gmail when it comes to individual utility and a broader range of software integration. The software balances a broad, inclusive feature set with access to the Google family of products to make a powerful email tool. Gmail is a webmail jack-of-all-trades and will do most things better than its competitors for personal use.  To start with its convenience features, Google makes full use of its status as a software and search engine juggernaut. For those using Google Chrome, you are never more than two clicks away from your inbox. The Gmail account will also serve as the base for Gsuite. […]

In 2015 – 2016, HR cloud technology vendors have continued to receive massive, increasing amounts of funding from venture capital investors—so much so that the media has dubbed it an on-going “love affair.” Though legacy HR systems like PeopleSoft are still fairly common, these investors are banking on a mass migration to the cloud—and in fact, Deloitte’s 2016 Global Human Capital Trends report estimates that over 40% of companies are already working to replace their on-premise software with cloud-based HR technology. The influx of funding is largely feeding new, tiny startups that aim to solve small HR pain points, holes in the status quo technology. It’s also spurring new product developments from existing cloud vendors, and paying for acquisitions—like Workday’s recent acquisition of Platfora to add to its analytics and data integration capabilities, Ultimate Software’s acquisition of Kanjoya for employee experience management (soon to be Ultipro Perception), or Snagajob’s acquisition of PeopleMatter to add to its post-hire talent capabilities. These new industry developments are putting pressure on larger HR tech vendors to innovate as well (though typically, more slowly), and improve their cloud offerings. In order to address these changes in the marketplace, TrustRadius has compiled over 1,500 end-user ratings and reviews of 21 leading Core HR and Talent Management products. […]

The ever-growing list of software you use and security demands translate to a daunting number of passwords to remember. Single sign-on (or SSO) software allows you to store and manage these credentials in a unified access management solution. Organizations can also use this software to share login information across employees. Free versions of this software do exist, but with some limitations. If you can work within these limitations, or they do not impact you, free SSO software can be a strong time-saving and security option for you. The software covered in this piece are: LastPass Duo Login JumpCloud OneLogin The Limits of Free SSO Software While the options discussed are strong tools, they have limitations that come with their cost-free status. Almost all non-open source free software has some restrictions on functionality, and SSO is no exception. There aren’t many truly free choices out there.  For this type, the biggest drawback is the clamp on the number of users. The vast majority of free SSO tools limit you to a few users. If you are an individual, this will not be a problem. The other common limitation is with password sharing. Many organizations use identity management solutions to share login […]

Today’s Community Contributor post comes from Gabrielle Sadeh, a consultant, social media specialist, and blogger based in Tel Aviv.  COVID-19 has turned the world of work upside-down for everyone, but the impact it’s had on women is well out of proportion to the effect it’s had on men. Recent research published by TrustRadius to mark International Women’s Day reveals the extent to which the pandemic has set back gender equality in the tech world. The fight was far from over even before COVID-19 hit, with slow progress and many obstacles in the road.  Among the many interesting insights nestled in TrustRadius’s data is the discovery that 57% of women in tech feel burned out at work this year, compared to 36% of men. It’s also notable that only men replied that they hadn’t experienced any change to their work life. It would be easy to dismiss this statistic as purely affected by COVID-19, but like with so many other trends, the pandemic only exacerbated what was already present.  Women still have to do more than men at work to be considered equal According to the survey, 78% of women in tech feel they have to work harder than their colleagues […]

Open source technology is often associated with free-to-use, highly available tools, so it might seem strange for an “as a service” tool to be open source. All open source really means is that the source code of the solution is available openly online. Open-source PaaS solutions have freely available codebases, but businesses will still have to pay for hosting or self-host the solution.  This is the “as a service” part of PaaS. If you need a refresher on how PaaS solutions work, check out this video from IBM: The Software discussed in this piece are: Dokku Red Hat OpenShift CloudFoundry Almost all PaaS solutions are either hybrid cloud-based or entirely cloud-based, enabling businesses to host using cloud services instead of servers on-premise. This is also true of open source PaaS solutions.  Most open source PaaS options either offer to hosting and support services or are easy to implement for businesses that want to self-host. Unlike most open source tools, the main benefit of open source PaaS tools is not that they are free. Open source PaaS solutions allow for self hosting, and the availability of the code makes them highly customizable.   Open-source options are a strong choice whether you need […]

QuickBooks Online is extremely powerful accounting software that will save your organization time and money. Their reviewers are so fond of it, 3 different versions of the software are included as Top-Rated award winners in the accounting software category.  Intuit, the vendor for this software, makes several versions of QuickBooks. The comparison covers QuickBooks Online. This is the version the vendor updates most frequently and is the clear focus of their website. We also have a piece comparing the features of QuickBooks Online to desktop versions, QuickBooks Desktop Pro and QuickBooks for Mac. For QuickBooks comparisons between the versions, find that piece here. By understanding the pricing plans and features, you will be able to make an informed decision as to which is right for you. The plans covered in this piece are: Self-Employed Simple Start Essentials Plus Advanced This piece also covers who each plan may be right for. There is also an overview of the payroll add-on, and its pricing levels.  Pricing Tier Price User Limit Notable Additions Best For Self-Employed $15/Mo 1 Schedule C Track Income and Expenses, Mobile Receipt Capture Freelancers Simple Start $25/Mo  1 Estimates, Tax Management, Cash Flow Small, Service-Based Businesses Essentials $40/Mo 3 […]