Choosing the right tech stack for your online business can potentially maximize efficiency and lower operating costs. Your tech stack doesn’t have to be anything fancy or made up of lots of software – it just has to be the right one. For some businesses, a payment gateway will suffice, while for others, they need the whole 360 shebangs.
A Tech stack (or technology stack or systems as it is mostly called in the online business) is a set of technologies/software that supports the successful running of a business process.
For instance, if you’re a coach, your tech stack could be an all-in-one software like Kajabi that houses your website, forms, landing pages, programs/memberships, checkouts, and email marketing.
If you’re a service provider like me, your tech stack can include WordPress where you build your website, and Dubsado for managing clients, contracts, and taking payments.
Either way, there’s a point you get to in your business and realize that certain software in your tech stack isn’t giving what it should. Like relationships, it’s okay to outgrow some of these tools. You don’t have to feel ashamed about it, especially when the software you’re looking to change to is a new one.
You may begin to second guess if you’re just experiencing the shiny object syndrome or if migrating your big data is even worth it in the first place. It even gets worse when the current software that needs upgrade was recommended by your business coach and industry experts swear by it.
One of the things I do during my tech clarity call with clients is to make big decisions like migrating to a new software when they’ve outgrown the current ones they use. Here are some signs that show you’re ready for a tech stack upgrade.
As your online business grows, it is normal for software to no longer accommodate your needs. The factors that determine your software choice as a 4-figure business owner will be different from those that influence your decision as 7 figure business owner.
For instance, some businesses will be okay starting with the free version of MailChimp which allows them to send one-step automations and campaigns. However, as they grow from a 100-people list to thousands of subscribers, they may require advanced email marketing features like complex automation, segmentation, personalization, A/B, analytics, etc.
It isn’t that they didn’t make the right choice at first by projecting their growth, you just didn’t need it at that point. It’s the same way I won’t recommend ActiveCampaign to a client whose only goal at the moment is to send broadcasts when s/he can get to do it for free in MailChimp.
If it doesn’t align, it’s okay to move on.
This post was inspired by one of the problems my client faced last week with one of her webinar software. I was trying to pull some analytics for our marketing and I realized that I couldn’t even get anything.
On reaching out to the support team, my client was advised to pay for another software to see these data. The other software that was recommended was also an email marketing software. So technically, we are to pay for 2 email marketing software.
The interesting part of all of this was that the recommended software was pricier than our existing email marketing software. This is a webinar software that we pay for alongside Zapier for it to be more functional.
After doing the maths, we realized it was expensive to continue using this webinar software. The software isn’t bad and at some point, it served my client’s needs but as her business grows, this webinar software isn’t growing with her.
If you have to pay for two or three other software to make one software work, I’m afraid you have to let it go.
The online business industry is an ever-trendy one. And this is similar to the previous point where the webinar software could not do what we wanted. If you’ve been using software for a long time and nothing new is being added to put your business at a competitive advantage, then it’s time to change gears. We see it all the time, Thrivecart introduced Learn+ so its users can host courses.
ActiveCampaign introduced conditional content where you can hide or show content based on certain segments in your emails so you don’t have to duplicate emails for different tags. Deadline Funnel acquired Converthub.
Your software should be in trend with the demands of your industry.
Customer user experience is something you can’t compromise. Emplify’s research noted that 49% of consumers have left a brand in the past year due to poor customer experience. If customers are complaining and having a hard time following through with your programs, you may want to check your software.
You have a tech team that handles all the backend customization, your customers do not have that and might be technically unsavvy. You want to simplify and make things straightforward as much as possible for your customers.
Unlike big SaaS companies, you do not have time and resources to onboard each of your customers and show them the nitty-gritty of the software they’d be interacting with. Overwhelming your customer support team isn’t an option either.
If customers are having to reach out about not getting confirmation emails for what they purchased, or not getting access to what they need at the right time, then it may be time to go.
If any of these points resonate with you, this is your permission to go ahead and look into that new software.
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Have you decided to hire an in-house tech specialist for your online business? Or have you gone through my retainer tech support services page and you’re wondering what you need in place to hire a tech specialist for my business?
CRM and email marketing software are two technologies that I see people interchange a lot. Considering they are many email marketing software out there doing the work of a CRM and vice-versa, it can be tough to tell which one is right for you.
Knowing when it’s time for a tech stack upgrade is tricky business. After all, you don’t want to jump the gun and end up with another system that you’re not entirely happy with. But at the same time, you don’t want to wait too long and find yourself falling behind the competition. So how do you know when it’s time? Here are tell-tale signs that it might be time for a tech stack upgrade.