- What's up. It's Jamal. (chill music)
And welcome back to the channel.
In this video, I'm gonna teach you the ins and outs of SaaS,
with a special focus on how the software innovation
can really help your business.
And I'm sure you're thinking to yourself,
"SaaS? Like when someone's real cheeky with me
at the company water cooler?"
No, I'm talking about software as a service.
You should talk to HR about that.
Software as a service is a pretty big trend in the industry.
And if you wanna learn more
about the latest marketing trends,
check out the link below
to our free 2021 State of Marketing Report.
And while you're down there,
be sure to subscribe to this channel, and ring
that notification bell (bell chimes)
so you never miss a video.
So HubSpot defined software as a service
as a relatively new software distribution model
giving customers access to applications over the internet
rather than requiring a physical media
and custom installation.
What that means is, unlike traditional software
that runs on your computer's own memory,
a large majority of the processing used by SaaS software
takes place on a centralized server,
with only the user interface
running on your computer or a smartphone.
This type of distributed computing
revolutionized the software industry,
allowing for incredible innovations that benefit users.
Some of these benefits include reduced time to benefit,
which means you can start using most SaaS almost immediately
without having to wait to install and configure it.
Lower costs per user, as well as savings realized
from not needing to employ a full IT team.
Scalability, meaning the service can easily expand
and contract depending on your needs.
And automated updates that take place on the server's side
rather than in your office.
Now, this is all great. All right.
I think we can all agree that this is good
for the industry as a whole.
Okay?
But I think the biggest advantage of SaaS
is that it lets companies test out a wide variety
of software solutions without the huge costs
of buying traditional software stacks.
But the SaaS market is made up of much more
than the logos everyone recognizes.
Remember when Microsoft felt like the only software company
in the world?
If you do, you're an old bag of bones just like me.
(chuckles) I'm not gonna take that back.
The SaaS revolution has enabled thousands of startups
to create custom solutions
for all sorts of niche business needs.
Here are a few of our favorites
just in the realms of marketing, sales, and operations.
When the pandemic put a sudden stop to public gathering,
businesses around the world
found themselves scrambling to replace in-person events
with online experiences
to fill the top of their lead gen funnels.
ON24 was one of the many companies
to step up with a solution,
allowing businesses to put on high-quality webinars
and virtual conferences
without the need for large production and tech teams.
These SaaS tools were leveraged
by some of the world's biggest companies
like GE, Visa, and Eli Lilly.
Even Microsoft found themselves using ON24 software
to drive customer engagement.
The fact is virtually all SaaS companies
saw significant growth,
even as the global economy was shutting down.
HubSpot's suite of marketing, sales,
and service SaaS products
supported thousands of online new businesses
that were launched during the pandemic.
New users were able to use free versions
of each HubSpot platform,
only moving up to paid tiers as their business grew.
This is another key advantage of SaaS.
Because costs are low and onboarding minimal
compared to traditional software,
businesses can test out solutions
before making major commitments.
Thanks to the low barrier of entry,
there's virtually no business task
that can't be accomplished using SaaS.
(upbeat percussive music)
- Our software's the worst.
- Have you heard of HubSpot?
See, most CRMs are a cobbled-together mess.
But HubSpot is easy to adopt, and actually looks gorgeous.
- I think I love our new CRM.
- Our software is the best.
- HubSpot, Grow Better.
- Here's a checklist of things you should ask yourself
when getting ready to employ a new SaaS product
for your business.
Step one before introducing a new SaaS
into your business ecosystem is checking if it integrates
with existing software that you're using.
The highly fragmented nature of the SaaS market
has allowed for a lot of innovation
and given new players spaces to shine,
but it also left gaps
where a SaaS running one small business function
might not play nicely with another service
that you also need.
Without good integrations,
any efficiencies you hope to get from using SaaS
can be quickly eliminated.
The really cool thing about HubSpot
is that it permits connecting hundreds of approved apps.
We also build and maintain our own apps for integrating
with the most popular software from social media and sales
to project management and productivity.
Together, it forms a distributed web
of the best software solutions available today.
And even if one of the services goes down,
it's easier to replace it with another one
instead of rebuilding the entire web.
This means that your team can continue to function
with minimal interruptions.
That said, running SaaS,
particularly in larger organizations,
can require some degree of in-house support.
Making sure the users have logins and permissions
required to do their job can itself become a full-time job.
I've certainly seen
my fair share of CEOs (solemn piano music)
mantled with the role of IT person
because they're the only one (chuckles)
with an admin-level login.
Of course, (chill music)
if you're a solo entrepreneur
or a head of a small operation, then SaaS provides you
with all the tools you could possibly need
to run your business effectively.
So in planning your SaaS future,
thinking long and far ahead,
you wanna have a plan in place
to measure various KPIs and ROIs.
If not, you could end up spending a lot of time
using SaaS tools that don't actually improve your business.
Or, far worse, accruing
monthly subscription fees (coins jingling)
that add up to a sizable expense
that doesn't pay for itself in the long run.
The good news is (chuckles) there's an app for that.
Zylo is a SaaS designed to manage your SaaS.
It's kinda like "Inception," frankly.
It tracks your SaaS licenses, your usage, and your expenses.
I could name 10 other apps that do the same thing,
so you might need to do a little research
to find the best one for your needs.
But like I said at the beginning, SaaS is great
for testing out the latest in business and marketing trends
without making a major commitment.
If you think SaaS can help your business,
but you're not sure where to begin,
download our free State of Marketing 2021 Report
and find an initiative that you think
could make a difference.
You can start by looking at the list of HubSpot integrations
that you'll also find in the description below.
And while you're down there,
remember to subscribe to this channel
so we can keep you up to date (bell chimes)
on all the latest marketing trends.
We'll try to help you find the right SaaS for those as well.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go make a SaaS
that combines every other SaaS into itself.
I'm gonna call it SaaS-y.
Until then, I'll see you next time.
(bright music)
Even as a global ecomony, ecomony?
Economy. Ecomony.
Aminamals.
Aminals. Aminamals.
Words are hard. All right.