How Centralizing Marketing Software Drives Better Active Usage

Adoption of software can be a challenge for most businesses. Today’s online tools to run, manage, and market a company can do some pretty amazing things. But it also means that with each tool you activate for your business, there is one more task you now have to take care of on a daily basis. Admit it – how many times have you been sold on a technology you thought was the thing to change your whole company (and with active usage, regular monitoring, and continued education, it might well have), but 3 months later, you realize you haven’t logged into the system in the last 3 weeks. Or worse, you forget you even bought into the software, and now you have a recurring charge for something you’re team is not even using… It’s happened to all of us at some point. It’s also ultimately why the SaaS industry has a commonly high churn rate for its products.

This is where centralization can help. By having all of your software in one platform, you get a host of benefits, including saving time on daily tasks, paying a single itemized bill for your software, having a single support channel for all of your tools, and arguably most important – driving active usage!

Here’s how:

You’re reminded the tool is there. Most of us pretty religiously use a few key tools to run our business. Some examples could be your CRM, your appointment scheduler, review manager, or your point of sale system. You log into these systems on a regular basis to do the work important running and growing your company. Through centralization, all of the tools that you use are in one platform, so when you log in to manage a new lead in your CRM, you see your social media tool, or your email marketing tool, or your content marketing tool right there alongside your daily used software. If you see it or are alerted to it, you’re going to be much more apt to use it.

You get better education. Every software company has a newsletter that goes out on a monthly basis outlining the updates, case studies, and tips for using their technology. It’s a smart strategy to keep people engaged with their product, and hence, not give up on the tool. But when you are buying nine different tools from nine different vendors, those newsletters just become a burden. Through centralizing your tools, you’re also centralizing your education material. Imagine being able to get one newsletter per month that you could run through for all of your software updates and tips in a single pass. You’re much more likely to engage with that content and learn something new. Which leads to the next point –

A single support channel. One of the most challenging processes of using software is trying to get support when needed. Every company’s support system is different and unique. What’s the best way to get a hold of support for each tool – submit a ticket? Use chat? Send an email? Make a call? – What does this tool support vs. that other tool I have? You get to know the support documentation of one tool, but it’s completely different from these three other tools you use. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn one support process and have it be the same across all of your technology? What if you could send in one ticket relating to questions on three different tools? Support is the most important part of any software company, and making an easy to use and seamless process helps the user become much more comfortable using their tools.

Easily see what you are paying for. You have debits hitting your credit card multiple times per month from multiple companies. From an accounting perspective, this can become a nightmare. What are you even paying for? What does this company do again? Have I used this tool lately? – There are literally whole businesses built around giving you software to see what your recurring payments are per month to help you clean it up. – What if you had a single monthly bill, itemized and outlining what you are paying for. You can take a quick run through, see all of your licenses and payment for all of your software, and keep better tabs on tools you do or don’t need. Single billing helps you more easily realize and get rid of software that you truly are not actively using, and don’t foresee yourself continuing with.

Automation. When your tools are in a single platform, they are more easily connected in the background. With better connectivity, you get better automation. Better automation helps drive down your actual daily tasks, allowing the software to run and do what you need without your help – let the software work on autopilot and remove mundane tasks from your day, and I guarantee you will see the benefits, and love the tools you are purchasing all that much more.

Centralization is the future of software. It just makes sense from a usage, billing, support, and automation perspective. When looking for your next software, look for centralized systems like the Qebot platform, and drive better usage and results by having all your tools in one place.

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