Five on Friday: Virtual Reality and Subscriptions, Choosing a CRM System and More

This week’s Five on Friday explores virtual reality and subscriptions, choosing a CRM, sports channels driving returns to pay TV and a small business

Five on Friday: Virtual Reality and Subscriptions

As the INSIDER Guide to New Product Development (NPD), I’m constantly keeping an eye out for bite-size information that will help you develop and scale better subscription products.  Here’s my “Five on Friday” compilation for February 19, featuring the five best trends, tips, quotes or stats from my reading this week.  

1. Small-Business Tax Checklist

It’s that time of year again, and the daunting task of compiling records to prepare your tax returns can be time-consuming and frustrating for a smaller subscription business.  You may even be filing as a business for the first time.  How do you make sure you have everything you need?  H&R Block posted this checklist of all the items you’ll need for a comprehensive small-business tax filing.  It’s daunting, but thorough!

2. Virtual Reality is Coming on Strong

We’ve all heard the drumbeat of Virtual Reality (VR); the latest media to offer both threats and opportunities to subscription businesses.  According to Fortune magazine, VR is getting less virtual and more real by the day: 

“Oculus, Sony, HTC, and MergeVR are all shipping VR headsets to consumers within the next year. Analysts forecast 12.2 million VR headset sales in 2016.” – Fortune 

3. Here’s an Example of VR in the Subscription World: The New York Times

VR, like any content-delivery medium, is ripe for leverage by subscription businesses. Take a look at The New York Times ad for its foray into virtual reality – NYTVR. The VR application is demonstrated in conjunction with the Google Cardboard Virtual Reality Viewer (there are a variety of Google-approved options, including Knox Labs versions in cardboard (just over $30 with shipping), to the hand-built $85 Aluminum Viewer. 

Virtual Reality viewer

4. What to Know Before You Buy a CRM System 

Whether you’re looking to upgrade your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, or to implement one for the first time, this article from TechTarget is worth a read.  There are systems for all size businesses (and budgets), but it also pays to know what you want in a system before you speak to a rep.  Following are some of the questions you should ask yourself:

  • What functionality do I need?  Various applications are particularly strong in digital marketing (such as auto-reply and email campaigns), some in sales enablement (account and contact histories) or customer service (problem tracking, collaboration).  Are you looking for the sophisticated, custom analytics and reports that can be found in the Oracle CX series, or will something simpler like Sugar CRM do for you? Whether you’re looking for all of this functionality or only some, listing what you need will help focus your search. 
  • Who’s going to use it? Is it just you, a 10-person marketing team or thousands of employees around the globe?  Do partners or affiliates need some limited access too?  The number and location of people who will require access to the system is also a need-to-know when choosing a CRM system.
  • CRM imageWhat does it need to plug into?  Microsoft Dynamics CRM, for example, is great for larger organizations that are constantly on Windows applications such as Outlook, and Act-On is good for medium-sized businesses as it plugs into many other systems. 
  • How much can I spend?  Don’t be talked into functionality you don’t need.  If you don’t have a system in place, begin with the free or introductory level of a system that offers a scalable solution. ZohoCRM, for example, starts at just $12/user/month, with options to grow.  Hubspot has a completely free option that scales well even for larger companies.

5. Sports Channels Driving Returns to Pay-TV

Soccer player kicking ball“Among consumers who have cut the Pay-TV cord within the last two years, but have expressed an interest in subscribing again, 39% say sports channels are a reason to return.” Multichannel News

 

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Diane


Diane Pierson has deep experience in product management and marketing, having delivered results to companies including Dun & Bradstreet, LexisNexis, American Lawyer Media and Copyright Clearance Center. She has built products & services that have delivered over $100 million in revenue and knows what works, and what doesn’t, when executing product plans and strategies. She is also a contributor to Subscription Insider. (Read Diane’s full Bio)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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