In this week’s Five on Friday, Entrepreneur magazine shares ways to become a standout in the subscription industry, FedTech News tells us why the Army Corps of Engineers is moving toward SaaS, Forbes explores whether the evolution of digital ads will eventually lead to better advertising, PYMNTS.com predicts that subscriptions are the future of fashion, and Tulsa Business & Legal News offers tips on how to effectively use your website as a marketing tool.

How to Become a Standout in the Subscription Industry

Every week it seems startups from subscription box companies and digital magazines to beauty boxes and gaming companies are launching, hoping to get their piece of the subscription economy. In a recent article for Entrepreneur magazine, Georg Richter offers his advice on how to become a standout in a rapidly-evolving subscription industry. Here are a few suggestions:

• Dollar Shave Club: messaging and advertising that target a specific audience
• Stitch Fix: data and personalization using machine learning and personal stylists who curate products for subscribers
• Sephora: educating and engaging customers with beauty products, monthly tips, and access to how tos and related videos

Execution is also critical to success in the subscription industry. If you run out of inventory, send your subscription box late, charge the wrong amount or send the wrong item, you are in danger of losing a subscriber. Ensure your products, services and processes are flawless.

‘To orient your business for success, start with a unique and high-quality product and then act on the wealth of data the subscription model allows you to gather,’ Richter says. ‘Finally, nailing the technical execution will allow you to not just survive – but thrive – on the often slim margins in the subscription economy.

The Army Corps of Engineers Adopts SaaS for Mobile Workforce

FedTech News reports that the Army Corps of Engineers is moving toward the cloud, adopting software as a service to support a mobile workforce. By using SaaS, users can access data from wherever they’re working, whether it is in a desktop in an office or a mobile device out in the field. The Corps is also hoping to utilize a secure, cloud-based collaboration platform to help its team to share data and communicate.

In an interview with Federal News Radio, Greg Garcia, CIO for The Corps, said SaaS is attractive because the vendor keeps the software up-to-date, so staff can focus on their work.

‘We want to be highly mobile. We want to be highly relevant to what consumers experience…to understand the user experience from their desk through whatever network capability there is to the application set that resides in the cloud or resides in a local data center to make sure it’s relevant and timely to their mission needs,’ said Garcia.

Read more in ‘Why the Army Corps of Engineers Believes in SaaS‘ by Phil Goldstein for FedTech News.

Read Richter’s full article, ‘This Is What It Takes To Be a Subscription Industry Standout‘ on Entrepreneur. 

Three Less Annoying Digital Ad Formats to Try 

In 2016, 615 million devices used ad blocking software, and 11 percent of the global internet population were blocking ads, according to PageFair. Why? Because consumers are tired of annoying, intrusive and disruptive ads. To avoid them, people can install ad blockers and ad blocking browsers and browser extensions, or they can subscribe to products and services that offer ad-free experiences.

At the same time, however, digital advertising revenue is growing. According to Forbes in ‘Is the Evolution of Digital Ads Creating a Way for Better Advertising,’ the digital ad market is valued at $40 billion. How is this possible? Because advertisers are using new tactics to reach their intended audiences, and these tactics are more palatable to consumers.

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  Native ads: A native ad is an ad that inconspicuously fits into a feed, website, videos and blog posts without being annoying or intrusive. Instead, it seeks to engage consumers where they are spending most of their time.

• Content marketing: Content marketing provides consumers with interesting, useful content in a variety of formats – blogs, articles, infographics, video and images.
• Influencer marketing: By contracting with known influencers with large audiences, advertisers get others to promote their products and services that could be compared to celebrity testimonials that used to be popular.

The Forbes Agency Council says that, by utilizing these less obtrusive ad formats, advertisers get in front of their target audiences by creating better advertising. We think that might be going a bit too far, but we do agree these three formats are significantly better than pop-up ads, auto-play videos and other distracting ad formats. 

Is Clothing-as-a-Service the Future of Fashion? PYMNTS

Christine Hunsicker, CEO of Gwynnie Bee, believes that clothing by subscription versus an outright purchase is a better business model for today’s consumers, reports PYMNTS.com. Instead of making a commitment to buy an item online, sight unseen, Clothing-as-a-Service companies like Gwynnie Bee are offering a subscription clothing rental service instead. Consumers can pick out a few items to try, wearing them once and exchanging them, or if they find something they really love, they can buy it at a discount.

‘So seven years ago, we were thinking about using data and tech to build a business with a strong economics unit that would positively impact the lives of consumers,’ Hunsicker told PYMNTS. ‘And we did a bunch of analysis, and found that apparel wasn’t working well online and hasn’t to date – and it seemed like a massive opportunity on the tech side to build something really disruptive.’

With Gwynnie Bee, customers pay between $49 to $199 a month to get anywhere from one item to 10. The average plan is $95 a month for three items. Subscribers can try new fashion trends by essentially rending clothes.

‘We see customers who buy items that are wardrobe staples, and then pay a membership fee to access our public closet for those items that are more on trend,’ Hunsicker said. ‘Our customers get more variety and get to experiment more with their look without having to make a really serious investment in trendy items.’

Learn more about Gwynnie Bee and Clothing-as-a-Service at PYMNTS.

4 Tips to Effectively Use Your Website as a Marketing Tool

Tulsa Business & Legal News offers these four tips for effectively using your website as a marketing tool:

• Make your website mobile-friendly. With nearly 60 percent of searches coming from mobile devices, it is critical that your website is responsive.

• Add localized content. Use geotags and city information your websites meta data to help search engines identify your physical location. Also, in your Google listing, be sure to list your name, address and phone number.

• Optimize your site for fast load times. If your website takes too long to load, potential customers will abandon the attempt. According to Tulsa Business & Legal News, an estimated 70 percent of users leave a website if it has not connected in four seconds.

• Maximize your online exposure by using social media. Your company’s online reputation is important in your search engine ranking, including the quality of backlinks to your website (which often appear in social media posts).

For more on these tips, visit TulsaWorld.com.