I recently posted an article about how blogging led me to a 28% raise, and this clearly was the most impactful blog I ever wrote.

One thing I love about this new era of information technology is transparency, something a lot of big companies lack of, leading to potential customers not trusting them. And that’s all I’m trying to do on this blog: establish a relationship of trust with my readers.

I’m slowly getting there, and I got a lot of positive feedback from you guys!

So for those who asked, there you have it: the one post that got me a new job.

 

Christina,

Internet is such a great tool. So why not use it to get a little creative and get the attention of a potential employer?

Well, this is what I’m doing right now!

Since the Sage One position is on hold, I added some quick feedback regarding Sage 50.

Before we start, here are some links to help you better understand what I can bring to your team!

• My resume
• How I redesigned a website in 6 months
• How I improved the performance of existing content
• Why I think every marketer should use Google Trends

Now , it’s feedback time!

I’ve seen a lot of great stuff, but I’ll take this opportunity to point out some quick fixes that could have a major impact.

Product feedback

After putting myself in the shoes of a SMB owner, here’s my feedback.

Sage 50

When clicking on the “Try Now” call-to-action (CTA), I got redirected to http://www.sage.com/us/sage-50-accounting/try. On that page I had to click on another CTA with a different color and a different label (“Try it Free Now”).

As a user, clicking twice in a row on two different CTAs was confusing.

On the other end, the copy of the landing page provided me with great information and social proof/testimonials that reinforced my desire to sign up for the trial.

One of the solutions might be to integrate the first step of the sign up process (email and country) directly to the landing page. User testing would provide better insights and should be considered during a potential website redesign.

After validating my email address, I finally had access to the platform. I have to say the process was more complex than when trying out Sage One.

Compare to Sage One, Sage 50 seems like a more robust solution capable of competing with QuickBooks. The Microsoft .Net Framework, an older framework, might be challenging for novice users to navigate through the application.

Sage One

After signing up for the free trial, I went through the set up process in a snap! The option to use Google or Facebook made the process so much easier.

This is such a great feature, I think it should be mentioned on the homepage right under the Free Trial orange call to action. I’m sure this would reduce friction and improve conversation rate.

The interface is very clean and easy to use! I wish it was responsive so I could use it on my mobile device. Is there an app coming following the launch of the Sage Live one last November?

My favorite tab is the Summary/Getting Started. The steps I had to go through made the set up process a breeze.

I’d love to see an interactive instructions when I’m on a screen I’ve never used before. I expected to stay on the application when clicking the help icon. I think adding a quick view popup with a “More info” link to the help page could help keeping the user in the application as much as possible.

I like the chat option. I believe it would be more visible if it was at the bottom right of the screen, utilizing the “toast alert” standard used by Facebook, Google and services like Olark.

Marketing feedback

Websites

I’ve learned a lot about the products on the Sage 50 homepage and the Sage One homepage.

By comparing both taglines, I can tell the difference between the two targeted audiences:

Sage One: Targeted customers are small SMBs, mostly “solopreneurs” that “didn’t get into business to do accounting”.   They just want a solution that works, is easy to use and access from wherever they’re working.

Sage 50: Targeted customers are bigger SMBs that already have an accounting system. Most of them have been using it for years but it doesn’t answer their needs anymore. It’s heavy and slow, probably on-premise. Data security still is a main concern that might prevent them from switching to a desktop software and/or cloud solution.

For both websites, the information above the fold is short and to the point, I know exactly what Sage can do for me.

Below the fold, there’s a lot being thrown at me. I’m not sure where I’m supposed to go anymore. I’m experiencing choice paralysis, also known as the Paradox of Choice.

Keeping a simpler layout might be something to consider to avoid this challenge. Sage already knows how to do this.

Social Media

When it comes to social media, Sage is doing an amazing job!

Twitter: The tweets are a good mix of self-promotion (landing page, offers), education (blog, PR), and content curation (other sources content). That strategy seems to pay, considering the big following and great engagement. 

Facebook: By sharing valuable content, the page delivers value to its followers. Even though the content is mainly the same, I like how the curated content is slightly different than the one on Twitter.

Have you identified the difference of audiences from one social network to another one?

LinkedIn: It could be better utilize by posting more often. I love the visuals but a lot of posts don’t have a clear call-to-action. This is true for most Sage’s digital assets.

Blog

I’ve seen so many different Sage blogs, including Sage Advice. It was confusing so it might be worth consolidating all those blogs into one.

In this article, I will focus on SageOne’s blog.

On one hand, the content is great and the voice represents your brand perfectly. On the other hand, if you want your content to reach a bigger audience, SEO should be a bigger part of your strategy.

Let’s take Write It Off! Top 10 Tax Deductions for example.

Even though the title is SEO-friendly, there’s too little content to bring real value to the users. It’s also known that posts under 1,000 words usually have lower ranks well on Google.

Utilize subheaders, H1s and H2s so Google can better crawl your content. Adding internal links will also improve search rankings while increasing conversion ranks. This could as easy as inserting a link to one of your offer at the bottom of each posts.

Once you integrate SEO to your blog strategy, more people will read your posts. I think content marketing should be at the center of Sage One’s strategy.

Ads

Using SpyFu and SEMRush, I was able to go through some aspects of Sage One’s PPC strategy. I know those tools aren’t always reliable when it comes to numbers, so I’ll focus on the copy and visuals.

It’s great to see you guys A/B testing the display banners by playing around with the website main colors.

I’ve also seen a couple of search ads on Google including this one:

Rapid Fire Questions

• Is Sage utilizing the Lean Startup Model to develop some of its products?
• How would you describe Sage’s culture and the team environment? What made you decide to work with Sage after launching your own business?
• Would you say having an entrepreneurial expertise is a plus as a Sage employee?
• How does the Sirius Decisions methodology help you in your current position?
• How do you picture your work relationship with this position?
• Do you use buyer personas and buyer journeys to create relevant content for the different stages in order to drive leads down the funnel?
• Can you tell me more about the webinar Guy Kawasaki and the partnership with Salesforce?
• What’s the current marketing budget structure?
• Any Sage 50 redesign planned?