#“Best practices for calculating CAC”

[valadvisor1]

What Are Contributory Asset Charges (CAC)?

Contributory Asset Charges (CAC) represent the fair return required for the use of assets that support revenue generation. They ensure that all assets contributing to cash flows—whether tangible or intangible—are fairly compensated.

When Are CACs Used?

CACs are primarily applied in: ✔ Intangible asset valuation (e.g., patents, trademarks, customer relationships) ✔ Transfer pricing (ensuring intercompany transactions are fairly priced) ✔ Royalty rate analysis (determining fair licensing fees)

How Are CACs Calculated?

The formula for CAC is:

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CAC = Asset Value × Required Rate of Return 

Asset Value: The fair market value of the contributory asset.

Required Rate of Return: The expected return an investor would demand for holding the asset (often derived from WACC or industry benchmarks).

Example: A company owns a trademark valued at $5 million. If the required return is 10%, the CAC would be $500,000 annually.

2. What Are Capital Charges?

Definition

Capital Charges represent the cost of invested capital—the minimum return a company must generate to satisfy investors and lenders. It is a key component in Economic Value Added (EVA) and residual income models.

When Are Capital Charges Used?

Capital Charges help assess: ✔ Corporate profitability (whether returns exceed the cost of capital) ✔ Investment efficiency (identifying value-creating projects) ✔ Performance metrics (used in EVA and shareholder value analysis)

How Are Capital Charges Calculated?

The standard formula is:

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Capital Charge = Invested Capital × Cost of Capital (WACC) 

Invested Capital: Debt + Equity – Non-operating assets.

Cost of Capital (WACC): Weighted average of debt and equity costs.

Example: A firm with $10M in invested capital and a WACC of 8% would have a $800,000 annual capital charge.

Read More - Contributory Asset Charges vs. Capital Charges: Key Differences Explained

3. Key Differences Between CAC and Capital Charges

Feature

Contributory Asset Charges (CAC)

Capital Charges

Purpose

Compensates supporting assets in cash flow generation

Measures the cost of all invested capital

Used in

Intangible asset valuation, transfer pricing

EVA, corporate performance analysis

Calculation

Asset-specific return rate

WACC-based (company-wide)

Scope

Individual asset level

Entire firm level

Industry Use

Common in IP valuation, licensing

Used in financial management, M&A

4. Practical Applications in Valuation

A. Business Valuation

CAC helps determine fair royalty rates for licensed assets.

Capital Charges assess whether a company is truly profitable after covering capital costs.

B. Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)

Buyers use CAC to evaluate intangible assets in a target company.

Capital Charges help assess whether an acquisition will generate sufficient returns.

C. Tax and Compliance

CAC is crucial for transfer pricing compliance (e.g., intercompany licensing).

Capital Charges impact tax-efficient capital structuring.

5. Common Misconceptions

❌ Myth 1: CAC and Capital Charges are the same.✅ Reality: CAC applies to specific assets, while Capital Charges measure overall cost of capital.

❌ Myth 2: Only large corporations need to consider these charges.✅ Reality: Startups and SMEs also benefit—especially when valuing IP or seeking investors.

❌ Myth 3: Capital Charges only matter for debt-heavy firms.✅ Reality: Even equity-financed companies must cover their cost of capital.

6. Industry Case Studies

Case 1: Technology Company Licensing IP

A software firm licenses its patent to a subsidiary. CAC ensures the parent company receives fair compensation, while Capital Charges evaluate if the subsidiary’s operations justify the cost.

Case 2: Private Equity Investment

A PE firm assesses a target company’s Capital Charges to determine if the business generates excess returns. CAC helps value intangible assets like brand reputation.

7. Conclusion

Understanding Contributory Asset Charges (CAC) and Capital Charges is vital for accurate Business Valuation, M&A, and financial planning.

[techit-rp]

Decoding Startup Valuation: How Financial Modelling Helps Investors Make Smart Decisions

India’s startup ecosystem is booming—with over 90,000 startups and more than 100 unicorns as of 2025. Venture capital is pouring in, but beneath the surface lies a complex question: How do you accurately value a startup with no steady revenue, unpredictable cash flow, and high risk?

That’s where financial modelling comes in.

Investors, venture capitalists, and analysts use financial models to evaluate whether a startup is worth betting on. If you’re working in finance—or planning to—understanding startup valuation is no longer optional. And if you're in Maharashtra's growing financial tech hub, enrolling in the best financial modelling certification course in Pune could be your smartest investment.

Why Is Startup Valuation So Challenging?

Traditional companies have years of revenue, profit, and market data. Startups often don’t.

Startups usually:

Operate at a loss in their early years

Show rapid but unstable growth

Lack strong asset bases

Face high competition and scalability uncertainty

This makes traditional valuation methods (like comparing P/E ratios or book values) less effective. Instead, professionals use forward-looking, assumption-based models grounded in market potential, unit economics, and future projections.

Key Methods Used in Startup Valuation

1. Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis

Used when there’s some financial projection available. This involves forecasting future cash flows and discounting them back to present value using a suitable discount rate (often higher to reflect startup risk).

2. Comparable Company Analysis (CCA)

Here, analysts find similar companies (in size, stage, sector) and apply valuation multiples like EV/Revenue or EV/EBITDA.

3. Venture Capital Method

Common among VCs, it involves:

Estimating a startup’s exit value (e.g., in 5 years)

Applying a required rate of return (say 10x)

Back-calculating the present value to decide investment size

4. Scorecard Method

Popular for early-stage startups, it compares the startup with others funded in the same region and sector, assigning scores based on team, product, traction, and market.

Each of these methods depends on building robust, well-structured financial models—which is exactly why modelling is a critical skill in the startup funding ecosystem.

Real-Life Example: Pune's SaaS Startups

Pune has emerged as a SaaS and AI startup hotspot. For instance:

A seed-stage startup offering AI-powered HR software in Pune is projecting ₹3 crore ARR by 2026.

Investors need to model CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), LTV (Lifetime Value), and churn rates to predict whether the business is scalable.

Without accurate models:

Investors may overpay and face poor returns.

Founders may undervalue their startup and dilute unnecessarily.

In both cases, a financially literate analyst can make or break a deal.

Learn the Skills: Best Financial Modelling Certification Course in Pune

If you’re based in Pune and aspire to work in VC, private equity, or startup consulting, now is the perfect time to level up with the best financial modelling certification course in Pune.

The Boston Institute of Analytics offers a hands-on program specifically designed for modern finance professionals.

💼 What You’ll Learn:

Building detailed startup valuation models

Forecasting revenue, burn rate, runway, and customer metrics

DCF, VC Method, CCA, and real options valuation

Tools like Excel, Python, and Power BI for dynamic dashboards

Capstone projects using real startup data

👥 Who Should Enroll?

Finance students or graduates

Startup founders & early employees

Professionals working in investment banking, VC, or consulting

Anyone seeking job-ready financial modelling skills in Pune

With 150+ expert mentors and strong corporate partnerships, the course ensures both conceptual understanding and practical application—essential in today's venture-backed ecosystem.

Bonus: How This Skill Helps You Professionally

Founders can defend their valuation confidently during fundraising

Investors can identify profitable ventures and avoid overhyped startups

Analysts & Consultants can offer real value to clients and stand out in hiring rounds

Students can transition into high-paying roles in investment banking, fintech, and corporate finance

Final Thoughts

Startups are dynamic, exciting, and full of potential—but they’re also high-risk ventures. Without the right financial modelling skills, decisions around funding or investing become little more than guesswork.

If you're looking to build a career in finance, venture capital, or entrepreneurship, mastering startup valuation is key. Enroll in the best financial modelling certification course in Pune to sharpen your analytical skills, build strong models, and make informed investment decisions in a rapidly growing market.

[leadit24]

Build Investor-Ready Forecasts Using an MRR Calculator and a SaaS Revenue Forecasting Template

Introduction

Let’s be honest—investors don’t just want to hear your vision, they want to see the numbers. And not just any numbers—predictable, trackable, and realistic forecasts that prove your SaaS startup can scale. If you're gearing up for your next funding round, building investor-ready financials is your secret weapon. That’s where tools like an MRR Calculator and a SaaS revenue forecasting template come in.

Understanding the Basics of SaaS Metrics

What is MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)?

MRR is the heartbeat of any SaaS company. It’s the consistent monthly income you receive from active subscriptions. Simple, right? But behind this number lies your company’s growth story.

Key Metrics to Track: ARR, CAC, LTV, Churn

ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue): MRR x 12

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): What you spend to gain a new customer

LTV (Customer Lifetime Value): Total revenue expected from a customer

Churn Rate: Percentage of customers who cancel

These numbers give investors a complete picture of how well your startup retains and grows its customer base.

Why MRR is the Lifeblood of SaaS

MRR shows the consistency of your revenue stream. It's the metric that investors lean on to understand your stability and scalability.

What is an MRR Calculator?

How It Works

An MRR Calculator is a simple tool that crunches the numbers—taking into account new customers, upgrades, downgrades, and churn—to give you a real-time view of your recurring revenue.

Benefits for Founders and CFOs

Quick, clear insights into revenue trends

Supports cash flow planning

Essential for setting realistic growth targets

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Don’t confuse contracted revenue with collected revenue. And always account for churn—it’s a silent killer if ignored.

The Power of a SaaS Revenue Forecasting Template

What a Good Template Should Include

A strong SaaS revenue forecasting template will cover:

MRR and ARR projections

CAC and payback periods

Churn analysis

Scenario modeling (best case, base case, worst case)

Scenario Planning with Forecasting Tools

No forecast is ever perfect. But modeling different outcomes prepares you for anything—economic downturns, pricing changes, or unexpected growth spikes.

Aligning Your Team with Revenue Forecasts

When your sales, marketing, and product teams work off the same forecast, magic happens. Everyone moves toward the same goal: growth.

Why Use Both Tools Together?

Streamlining Your Forecasting Process

The MRR Calculator gives you the inputs, and the SaaS revenue forecasting template turns them into actionable insights. Together, they save time and reduce human error.

Making Data-Driven Decisions

When your forecasts are powered by real-time MRR data, your decisions become sharper, smarter, and more strategic.

How K-38 Consulting Supports SaaS Startups

Financial Forecasting Expertise

At K-38 Consulting, we know SaaS. Our experts help build dynamic models that adjust as your business evolves—whether you're pre-seed or Series A and beyond.

Fundraising-Ready Financials

We tailor your forecasts to impress investors. Clean, structured, and forward-looking—exactly what venture capitalists want to see.

Cash Flow Optimization and Growth Strategy

By fine-tuning your forecasts with tools like an MRR calculator, we help extend your runway and focus your resources where they matter most.

Best Practices to Build Investor-Ready Forecasts

Keep It Simple and Transparent

Investors don’t want a maze of spreadsheets. Show clear assumptions and easy-to-follow numbers.

Show Data-Backed Growth Potential

Use past performance and trend analysis to prove future growth. Don’t guess—project with logic.

Be Realistic, but Ambitious

Nobody buys into fairy tales. Ground your forecasts in reality, but don’t be afraid to dream big—just back it up with data.

Conclusion

The Road to SaaS Success

Forecasting isn’t just about math—it’s about momentum. Using the right tools builds confidence in your startup’s future.

Let K-38 Consulting Be Your Strategic Finance Partner

We help SaaS founders turn chaos into clarity. With our outsourced CFO services and forecasting tools like the MRR Calculator and SaaS revenue forecasting template, you’ll be ready to pitch, grow, and win.

[sranalytics50]

Top Power BI KPI Dashboards: Metrics That Drive Business Success

Power BI empowers businesses to transform raw data into actionable insights, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are central to this transformation. Whether you're leading a startup, managing an enterprise, or driving decisions as a business analyst, understanding and implementing the right KPIs in Power BI can elevate your strategic performance across departments.

This refreshed guide presents an updated, comprehensive, and highly actionable list of Power BI KPIs for every key business function — designed to help you track what matters most and make real-time decisions with clarity and confidence.

🔍 What Are KPIs in Power BI?

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in Power BI are measurable values that reflect how effectively a business or department is achieving key objectives. In Power BI, these KPIs are not only calculated through advanced DAX formulas but also visualized using rich, interactive visuals that provide deep insight at a glance.

🧠 Why KPIs Matter in Power BI Dashboards

Instant clarity on organizational performance

Actionable insights based on real-time data

Alignment between goals and execution

Accountability through visibility

🧭 Essential KPIs by Business Function

We’ve categorized the most impactful KPIs to help you track performance across various departments efficiently.

🛍️ Sales KPIs in Power BI

1. Monthly Revenue

Tracks total revenue generated per month. Helps monitor growth trends and seasonal patterns.

Formula: SUM(Sales[Revenue])

Visualization: Line chart with YoY comparison

2. Sales Target Achievement

Measures actual sales against the target set for the period.

Formula: (Actual Sales / Sales Target) * 100

Power BI Visual: KPI visual with goal and trend indicators

3. Average Deal Size

Indicates the average value of closed deals.

Formula: SUM(Sales[Revenue]) / COUNT(Sales[Deals])

4. Lead Conversion Rate

Tracks the ratio of converted leads to total leads.

Formula: (Number of Leads Converted / Total Leads) * 100

📢 Marketing KPIs in Power BI

1. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Measures the cost to acquire a new customer.

Formula: Total Marketing Spend / Number of Customers Acquired

2. Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)

Shows the return generated from marketing activities.

Formula: (Revenue Attributed to Marketing - Marketing Spend) / Marketing Spend * 100

3. Website Traffic Trends

Visualize visits by channel, source, or campaign.

Visualization: Area chart with filters by source (organic, paid, social, etc.)

4. Email Campaign Engagement

Tracks open rate, click-through rate (CTR), and conversion rate.

⚙️ Operations KPIs in Power BI

1. Order Fulfillment Cycle Time

Measures the average time taken from order placement to delivery.

Formula: AVERAGE(Order[Delivery Date] - Order[Order Date])

2. Inventory Turnover Ratio

Shows how many times inventory is sold and replaced over a period.

Formula: Cost of Goods Sold / Average Inventory

3. Downtime Analysis

Analyzes the time during which a machine or system is not operational.

Visualization: Donut chart with reasons for downtime

👥 HR KPIs in Power BI

1. Employee Turnover Rate

Tracks the rate of employees leaving the organization.

Formula: (Employees Left / Average Number of Employees) * 100

2. Time to Hire

Measures the average time taken to fill an open position.

Formula: Average(Days Between Job Posted and Hired Date)

3. Training Completion Rate

Shows the percentage of employees who completed mandatory training.

💼 Finance KPIs in Power BI

1. Net Profit Margin

Indicates how much net income is generated as a percentage of revenue.

Formula: (Net Income / Revenue) * 100

2. Accounts Receivable Turnover

Measures how efficiently a company collects receivables.

Formula: Net Credit Sales / Average Accounts Receivable

3. Operating Expense Ratio

Evaluates operational efficiency.

Formula: (Operating Expenses / Total Revenue) * 100

KPI Visualization Best Practices in Power BI

KPI Visuals: Use the dedicated KPI visual for trend and goal analysis

Conditional Formatting: Highlight metrics based on thresholds

Drill-down Options: Allow deeper investigation behind top-line metrics

Bookmarks & Tooltips: Enable storytelling within reports

Mobile Optimization: Adapt visuals for small screens using responsive design

🔄 Real-Time KPI Monitoring

Leverage Power BI’s integration with Power Automate and streaming datasets for real-time dashboards:

Trigger alerts when thresholds are breached

Refresh dashboards using APIs or DirectQuery

Distribute updates through Teams, Outlook, Slack

✅ KPI Selection Checklist

Before implementing a KPI in Power BI, validate it against the following:

🎯 Is it aligned with strategic business goals?

📏 Is it clearly defined and measurable?

⏱️ Is it updated frequently and timely?

📊 Is it visualized in a digestible format?

🧩 Does it support decision-making and improvement?

📎 Integrating Data for KPI Dashboards

Power BI supports a wide range of data sources for dynamic KPI dashboards:

Microsoft Excel & SharePoint

SQL Server / Azure SQL

Google Analytics, Facebook Ads

Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics 365

SAP, Oracle, and other ERP platforms

Data can be pre-processed in Power Query and enhanced using DAX to create precise KPIs.

🎯 Conclusion

Implementing powerful KPIs in Power BI gives businesses an edge in strategic execution and operational awareness. By tracking the right metrics and visualizing them effectively, decision-makers can move from reactive to proactive — turning data into real business value.

[ashraful158556]

Crafting a Winning Marketing Strategy: Key Principles

In today's fiercely competitive business landscape, a well-defined marketing strategy is crucial for achieving success. It serves as the roadmap that guides your marketing efforts and helps you reach your business objectives. Let's explore the fundamental principles that underpin a winning marketing strategy.

Your marketing strategy is the blueprint for how you will promote your products or services, attract customers, and achieve your business goals. Here are three key principles that should shape your marketing strategy:

1.1. Know Your Audience

Understanding your target audience is the cornerstone of any effective marketing strategy. To connect with potential customers, you must delve deep into their demographics, preferences, pain points, and behaviors. This information forms the basis for crafting content and messaging that resonates with your audience. Conducting market research, surveys, and analyzing data are valuable tools in this process.

1.2. Set Clear and Measurable Goals

Your marketing strategy should outline specific, achievable goals that align with your overall business objectives. These goals should be measurable so that you can track your progress and make informed adjustments as needed. Common marketing goals include increasing website traffic, generating leads, boosting sales, or enhancing brand awareness. Defining clear objectives will provide direction and help you assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

1.3. Leverage a Multichannel Approach

Modern consumers engage with brands through various channels, both online and offline. A successful marketing strategy embraces a multichannel approach, utilizing a mix of digital and traditional marketing channels. This may include social media marketing, email marketing, content marketing, pay-per-click advertising, SEO, and more. Diversifying your channels allows you to reach a wider audience and adapt to changing consumer behaviors.

Heading 2: Implementing Your Marketing Strategy: Best Practices

Once you've crafted a well-structured marketing strategy, the next step is its implementation. Here are some best practices to ensure the successful execution of your strategy:

2.1. Consistent Brand Messaging

Ensure that your messaging is consistent across all marketing channels. Your brand's voice, values, and key messages should be uniform, creating a cohesive and memorable brand identity.

2.2. Content is King

Content marketing plays a pivotal role in modern marketing strategies. Create high-quality, valuable content that addresses your audience's needs and interests. Whether it's blog posts, videos, or social media updates, compelling content can engage and convert potential customers.

2.3. Continuous Optimization

Marketing is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process. Regularly analyze your marketing metrics, test new strategies, and refine your approach based on data-driven insights. Continuous optimization is key to staying competitive and adapting to changing market conditions.

Heading 3: Measuring Marketing Strategy Success: Key Metrics

Determining the success of your marketing strategy requires tracking and analyzing specific key performance indicators (KPIs). Here are some essential metrics to monitor:

3.1. Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI measures the profitability of your marketing efforts. It compares the revenue generated against the costs incurred for marketing activities. A positive ROI indicates that your strategy is yielding a profit.

3.2. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate tracks the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. A higher conversion rate indicates more effective marketing campaigns.

3.3. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

CAC calculates the cost of acquiring a new customer. By comparing CAC to customer lifetime value (CLV), you can assess the long-term profitability of your marketing efforts.

In conclusion, a successful marketing strategy is built upon a foundation of audience understanding, clear goals, and a multichannel approach. Implementing best practices and measuring key metrics will help you refine your strategy and drive continuous improvement, ultimately leading to business growth and success.

[billsbyy]

Strategies to Improve eCommerce Customer Retention Rate

Retention Rate is one of the key metrics that help businesses identify their success. It brings in a steady stream of revenue for businesses without having to put in a lot of resources or make hefty expenditures. Today, we will explore a few strategies that can help you retain your customers for longer periods and consequently add value to your revenue.

What is the customer retention rate?

For eCommerce, customer retention is the practice of extracting additional value from their customers by increasing their repeat consumption rate. The goal of eCommerce customer retention practices is to ensure that the customer continues to make purchases with your business and are satisfied with the services.

Customer retention rate is the rate at which the customers tend to stay with your business over a given period. A higher customer retention rate means that your customers tend to stay for a longer period with your business, and most of your customers come back for more.

It is an essential metric for eCommerce brands as there is a lot of competition in the market. Customers have so many choices, and thus, retaining them for a long time is quite difficult. Whenever they feel uneasy with your service, they can jump to the competitor instantly.

Therefore, you must ensure that your services are of the highest value to uphold a good eCommerce customer retention rate.

Calculating The Customer Retention Rate In eCommerce

Total Customers

You can also use the metric churn rate to understand the retention rate. For e-commerce businesses, the average customer retention rate lies somewhere around 30%.

Importance of eCommerce Customer Retention

Mentioned below are a few points indicating the importance of customer retention for a subscription business-

● Increased ROI

It helps to generate a lot of revenue without having to spend more on the acquisition. Therefore, the return on investment in eCommerce customer retention is higher than other marketing efforts.

● Increases Customer Loyalty

● Acquire New Customers

With higher eCommerce retention rates, you can layer potential buyers into doing business with you, and they will be thrilled to experience your services.

● Reduced CAC

They will gain a lot of revenue without having to make unnecessary expenditures on customer acquisition. This will help you reduce customer acquisition costs.

● A Higher Customer Lifetime Value

● Word-of-mouth Marketing

● Focus on Growth

Also, they cannot improve their products and services to the best levels as their focus lies on customer acquisition. Businesses need customers to bring in revenue, and those are unable to dedicate the necessary time and resources towards the growth of the business or product.

However, if you have a good eCommerce customer retention strategy in place, you will never worry about acquiring new customers or retaining them, or having a good flow of revenue, and thus you can focus on improving your business processes. Strategies to improve customer retention for eCommerce brands

Let us now look at a few strategies that can help improve customer retention for eCommerce brands:

● Enhance your onboarding experienc

The onboarding experience of a customer is the first touch point they have with your brand. It plays a significant role in creating the brand image of your product or service in the customers' minds, and thus it should be outstanding. Ensure that your onboarding process makes a memorable first impression on your customer.

If customers face initial onboarding issues such as mishandling information, a point of contact not being fixed, or poor customer service, it makes them feel that your service is just not worth it.

However, a good onboarding process that includes email addresses, follow-up messages, celebratory messages, etc., can help you impress new clients and retain them for extended periods.

● Offer Customized Experiences

The needs and requirements of every customer are different. They come to your brand looking for something entirely different. Therefore, you do not want to provide them with the exact solutions for their varying needs.

Consequently, you must offer a personalized customer experience to all your customers. This helps you create amazing customer relationships, which eventually increase the customer retention rate. In addition, your personalized solutions can help you solve their problems.

● Focus on Building Trust

A business can build trust over the customers by doing what they say and following through on its brand promises.

● Set up a Sound System of Customer Feedback

You can ask them to participate in user testing, make phone calls, rate your services, or ask for product reviews. After taking the feedback, you must analyze the feedback and identify the areas that need improvement. Accordingly, you must work to enhance the user experience.

● Effective email marketing

● Take up social media and content marketing

You can share relevant content which your customers can be interested in. You should add beautiful images and videos of your products and exclusive discounts and offers for your followers on social media platforms.

You can also engage with your customers through messaging or holding contests on special occasions. Apart from this, you can also create a blog for your eCommerce website to add informational and promotional posts to help your customers regarding your industry, your product, and its usage. You can also create guides, forums, newsletters, etc., for their information.

● Provide fantastic customer service

The associates should be polite and helpful, take upon the customers' problems just like their own, and provide them with efficient solutions. Also, you should open multiple channels from which customers can contact customer service, such as phone calls, messaging, chat, email, etc.

How To Build an Excellent Customer Retention Strategy

1.Use customer service tools to ensure that your customers do not end up waiting to talk to a human for a solution. Instead, they get a solution instantly through technology and automated bots.

2.Not fail to apologize whenever you make a mistake. Sometimes, a simple and straightforward apology can help retain a customer for a long time.

3.Have a mission and a vision for your brand. With this, the customers can connect with your brand in a better way.

4.Provide as much convenience as possible to your customers. For example, offer them multiple payment options for billing, making your products accessible to them as they desire, and other such conveniences.

5. Offer personalized recommendations to customers based on the data you’ve acquired from their previous purchases. If customers get exactly what they want through your recommendations, they will purchase it and continue doing business with you for a long time.

6.Constantly engage with your customers through multiple sources. Listen and connect with your customers, understand the problems they face, and make improvements based on their feedback.

7.Set yourself apart from your competitors by providing your customers with something different. If you want your customers to be retained, you must ensure that you give them something that your competitors cannot.

8. Provide exemplary experience and special treatment to your customers time and again. Customers never forget how you treated them, and that good treatment means higher eCommerce retention rate.

9.Connect with your customers through multiple social media platforms. The internet is quite creative today, and your brand must know how to use social media platforms best to engage with your customers.

10.Educate your customers with things regarding your brand as well as your industry. If the customers find your services more informative than the others, they tend to stay with you for considerably longer.

11.Exceed your customer's expectations by surprising and delighting them. Offer them additional gifts or benefits which can help them be more engaged in your services.

12. Do not forget to thank your customers for every purchase they make.

13.In case you offer a free trial to your customers, or their monthly or yearly subscription is about to end, you must engage your customers to ensure they are lured into renewing their membership and not explore what your competitors have to offer.

14.Create a community or a forum around your product or services where all your customers can engage with each other. Having a community helps you build trust with your customers and gives them a place to get essential knowledge.

15.Make your product or service an inevitable part of the customer's lifestyle. When your customer is hooked on your service, they will find it difficult to detach from it, and thus, they will continue doing business with you for extended periods.

16.Enhance and upgrade your product or service. Apart from your marketing and customer experience services, you must also focus on improving your product and service so that the customers find it amazingly satisfying.

Final Words

You might have understood the importance of creating a masterful eCommerce retention rate strategy for your business, and the growth it drives for your business. Therefore, you must start working on creating a strategy for your business and customers if you haven’t already. From the key points mentioned above, you can devise the perfect game plan to ensure your customers keep doing business with you for longer periods, and you can thank us later!

Source- Boost eCommerce customer retention rate with Billsby's powerful solutions. Maximize profits and retain loyal customers. Visit us now!

[herbertmacrossa-blog]

How To Access Websites That Don’t Load

Marketing

A sudden burst of publicity may accidentally cause an internet traffic overload. A information merchandise within the media, a shortly propagating email, or a hyperlink from a well-liked site may cause such a lift in visitors (sometimes referred to as a flash crowd or the Slashdot effect). Search engine optimization (web optimization), is the continuing practice of optimizing an internet site to help enhance its rankings in the various search engines. Several internal and exterior factors are involved which may help enhance a website's itemizing inside the search engines. The larger a site ranks within the search engines for a specific keyword, the more site visitors they will receive.

Web Traffic

Some net visitors is free, but many on-line stores depend on paid site visitors — such as PPC or associates — to support and grow their business. Cost of Acquiring Customers (CAC) and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) are arguably the 2 most important ecommerce metrics. The degree to which this occurs comes down to the size of their key phrases database; the bigger it's, the more accurate their traffic estimations shall buy uk traffic be. This is a "stay" traffic estimate, which means that it’s a "rolling common." It will get adjusted each time we replace the pool of keywords for which the website ranks in our database.

What is a good average visit duration for a website?

In broadcasting, traffic is the scheduling of program material, and in particular the advertisements, for the broadcast day. In a commercial radio or TV station there is a vital link between sales (of advertisement or commercial space) and traffic in keeping the information about commercial time availability.

Google Analytics can provide intelligence into your individual digital advertising and website efficiency, there may be typically a must also perceive a competitor’s digital advertising presence. This example illustrates why advertising metrics corresponding to web site visitors cannot be seen in a vacuum. Two contrasting websites achieve the identical end result, where they are failing to capitalize on what they do properly. By specializing in the one metric the place they excel, it fails to acknowledge the realm for enchancment. By learning the whole picture and optimizing areas of subpar efficiency, ecommerce stores give their prospects the very best experience while maximizing revenue. For example, if we check the Top Contentreport for ahrefs.comin Site Explorer, we can see that a lot of the posts on Ahrefs’ blog obtain tons of social shares. Most readers don’t bother leaving a remark, irrespective of how nice the content occurs to be. So a blog that receives a persistently high number of feedback will virtually actually be getting a major quantity of visitors. So even if do attain out to the blogger and get those elusive visitors stats, we might nonetheless advocate verifying their legitimacy with third-celebration instruments. This is how all natural visitors estimation tools work, so we’re not alone right here. The amount of site visitors seen by an internet site is a measure of its popularity. By analysing the statistics of tourists it's attainable to see shortcomings of the site and look to improve these areas. It can be possible to extend the recognition of a website and the variety of people that visit it. Websites produce visitors rankings and statistics based mostly on these people who entry the websites whereas utilizing their toolbars and other technique of on-line measurements. You can get inspiration from other websites concerning the kind of articles that may carry out nicely in your websites. To wrap up this not-so-quick post, knowing what kind of selling actions opponents are actively pursuing can show very helpful as you build your marketing campaigns. With the explosion of recent on-line media and instruments obtainable for marketers to take advantage of, you positively don't wish to fall behind the curve. Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker exhibits the top a hundred backlinks to any website or net web page. Because of this, traffic estimates can vary slightly from daily. You’ll do not forget that SimilarWeb calculates their estimates based mostly on knowledge from a small subset of the complete on-line inhabitants. So if they don’t show visitors estimates for a specific site, it’s because not enough people within the subset from which they derive their information have visited the website in query. You’re in all probability attempting to guess how much site visitors your competitor will get, and it’s unlikely that they’ll share their Google Analytics with you. You can set up Google Analytics(at no cost) and see near exact site visitors numbers. When balanced with AOV (average order value) and CLV (buyer lifetime value), a enterprise can assess and modify its advert spend as needed. Shows what number of completely different web sites are linking to this piece of content. As a general rule, the more web sites link to you, the higher you rank in Google. It also tells you the estimated month-to-month organic search visitors to every linking web page. This could be useful for understanding your opponents' greatest sources of referring site visitors. You could even wish to try to get featured on these pages your self. This free tool runs off Ahrefs’ big database of 16.6 trillion backlinks. Even should you’re at the high of your trade, staying there is usually a challenge, so preserving a tab on competitive efforts can help you stay forward of the curve.

Increase your web traffic & sales! Give your clients something refreshing to see on your website, just the way you remember to renovate your office. Create a stunning design for your website whether new or old.https://t.co/R7sHYnfLaW #Website #Accra pic.twitter.com/6ZZDIMU6Ri

— LinQworth Limited (@linqworth) July 6, 2020

[cinemawiz]

Startup Metrics for Product Success in London

your startuTo put it in simple terms startup metrics are to measure the state of the product. It answers the following questions

Do users like the product?

What are the users clicking on?

Which gender, age or regions like the product more?

If the product is not doing well, why is it happening?

Which step of the campaign or the ad or new strategy increased the reach of the product?

Data Points

Concepts of startup metrics

Realizing your main concern is basic, but what drives those monetary outcomes? Investigating what you can measure will enable you to keep a heartbeat on the practicality of your startup. So what are these measurements and what key metrics in business do you have to utilize first? Focus on these key beginning time startup metrics.

Data points are individually collected data of a particular item

It also includes the date and time the measurement was made

This helps to track the trends and separately measure 2 or more different products

Segmentation

Funnels

It is grouping people together under a common characteristic. It can be age, gender, or even people working in the same field as doctors, lawyers, etc

The main characteristics are

Technical – browser, OS, etc

Behavioural – new or old

Demographics – the type of people, language and culture

Segmentation is best suited if the product is for a particular target audience

A funnel is the measurement of a key event.

It helps to identify the mistakes made in case of a product failure

Cohorts

When the measurements of funnel metric are put together they help to find the leakage in the event – it can be a campaign or promotion.

It is similar to segmentation

However here the grouping is done based on time and characteristic of the user alone.

This helps to find the changes in users’ likes and dislikes about a product over a time period.

All the startup metrics, work on any one of the above concepts. The following are the startup metrics

Customer Acquisition Cost

Cost of obtaining a new customer.

It is calculated by dividing the cost of marketing by the number of customers gained in a specific time period.

If the CAC is increasing it means the product is failing.

It is always better to calculate CAC along with other metrics for a startup. This is because a new product always has higher margins

Retention Scale

It is the portion of clients that stay with the company.

It is calculated by subtracting the number of new customers from old customers by setting a time period. The result is then divided by the number of customers the company started with or the product had during its launch.

Retention scale must be as high as possible. Churn rate is the opposite of retention rate. Therefore the churn rate should be as low as possible

Customer Lifetime Revenue

It is the revenue received from the repeat customer.

If a customer has enrolled in a scheme for 14 months or has been buying the product for 14 months, then 14 months revenue is the CLR

It helps to evaluate the quality of the customer service.

Return on Advertising Spending –

It is the sales generated through advertising.

These fundamental key execution markers examples are "must-have", however, in the end, you will decide the best measurements for your business as you proceed to learn and build up your business. To learn more, visit

https://railsware.com/blog/2019/01/08/a-full-guide-on-startup-metrics-for-product-success/.

Regardless of what others measure ("likes" in social media or just site traffic) - only you recognize what numbers will genuinely affect and illuminatep achievement.

[technologyblogs1211]

Top AI and Machine learning centric blog to read in 2023

Qatar Insurance Company’s success with 10x customer engagement Qatar Insurance Company, the largest insurance company in the MENA region, is increasing sales and creating amazing customer experiences with chatbots.

Let’s Talk Quantum In Banking & Finance We’re living in a golden age of big data, according to data scientist Utpal Chakraborty. Discover how quantum computing is transforming banking & finance here.

Re-ranking of search results in SOLR Any e-commerce search engines rely on parameters such as product popularity, rating, click through rate etc to influence the result set for an input user query.

You should know this about Real Estate Chatbots by now(2023) Rule-based or AI-automated chatbots programmed to engage customers for real estate agencies. Chatbots are virtual agents that save time and grow sales.

10 reasons why your eCommerce business needs an AI chatbot The ever-increasing expectations of the customers can be met with the implementation of an artificial intelligent chatbot in e-commerce websites…….

6 ways to slash your Customer Acquisition Cost Learn how to calculate your customer acquisition cost (CAC) and explore six powerful ways to optimize it with the help of chatbots and live chat. Read now!

Apple’s and Amazon’s secret to success: Customer effort score Ever wonder what makes Apple and Amazon so insanely successful? Reducing the customer effort score is always the focus & that’s what drives these big giants

5 not-so-basic ways to reduce customer friction Reducing customer friction boosts loyalty & customer lifetime value. Here’s a comprehensive guide on improving your CX by eliminating customer friction

5 pillars of responsible and ethical AI How do you ensure that your AI systems are ethical? Maria Luciana Axente, the Responsible AI & AI for Good lead at PwC UK, helps identify key considerations.

Re(view) our Engati chatbot platform! Reviews are important for both the company and its customers, so we’re opening the floor for you to tell us why you think Engati is the best chatbot platform.

Ritualizing the customer experience Customer experience guru, Shep Hyken talks about the importance of ritualizing customer experiences and making sure they happen consistently, every time.

5 roles your entertainment and media chatbots can play! Entertainment and media chatbots are making customer experience interactive and helping people consume content in an easier manner. Check it out now!

5 sales engagement best practices that you need to adopt now! Looking to step your sales engagement & get more prospects to flow down the sales funnel? Here are 5 sales engagement best practices that you need to follow!

Here’s why sentence similarity is a tough NLP problem Find out why sentence similarity is a challenging NLP problem and why training computers to read, understand and write language has become a big business.

How to use BERT for sentiment analysis? Sentiment analysis helps your chatbot reply to customers in an appropriate tone and enhance customer experience. Learn how to use BERT for sentiment analysis.

How to set up Solr as a system service Instagram, eBay, Netflix, and even Disney makes use of Solr. This quick guide will show you how to set up Solr as a service. Don’t miss out, read it now.

Black Friday tips | 17 tips to prepare your Shopify store for BFCM Want to get your Shopify store ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2021? Here are 17 tips to help you do just that and sell more during these holidays!

[work365cep]

Microsoft CSP Cost of Doing Business

Cloud Profitability is the obvious pursuit of the modern Microsoft partner. There are only two ways to grow your bottom line – increase your sales and keep your costs constant or reduce your costs while maintaining sales.

Microsoft CSP Partner eco-system is large and there are partners who are transactional and work with high volumes and low margins. While some partners who work with a handful of end customers with kid gloves and specialized services.

Regardless they are doing one thing consistently, which is buying a service and reselling it to their end customer.  Out of the thousands of MSPs, ISVs, VARs and SIs out there globally, the Microsoft partners will identify themselves as Microsoft partners.

For these partners being part of the Microsoft, the channel is an important part of their identity, whether they have their own services products, or sell other services and products or any combination. This huge ecosystem of companies big and small, worldwide generate revenue and service customers in countless ways.

It is rare for organizations which are selling Microsoft cloud services that the margin from their Microsoft service resale is the biggest contributor to their bottom line. Microsoft partners selling cloud services are looking to CSP as the way for them to capture or shape their financial future.

Customer Engagement:

Cloud Profitability is what the ecosystem is striving for as CSP Partners. However, to measure profitability it is important to imagine the journey and identify costs and revenue opportunities.

In the below figure I have an example of a typical customer journey. It starts with a simple interaction of a phone call, or email and the sales team are engaged, a customer is onboard, services are implemented and then after that is where we have the longest duration of engagement with the customer takes place.

This is the realization phase where we grow the services, support the customer and manage all their service needs.

Through the five phases of Discover, Evaluation, Buy, Implement and Realize, we can group these stages into three main cost categories for us to measure and manage – the Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC), the Engineering costs and then the Cost of Service(COS).

Cost of Service is where most of the opportunity to reduce costs and incur costs are faced by most partners.

This is why indirect partners negotiate different margins with distributors on who will handle the service call, and why Microsoft is requiring direct partners to purchase the paid support plan like Advanced Support for Microsoft Partners Or Premiere support.

This is where the accounting team spends their time billing and reconciling invoices. This is also the area where most partners who don’t have a system or plan will struggle to scale their operations.

Costs associated with Customer Engagement and CSP:

We listed out the cost of items to benchmark and categorize the costs under the COS phase- some of which were labor, 3rdParty costs, system costs. Some of the costs are hidden and some are in plain sight, however, each one of these affects profitability.

Credit Card Processing Charges: For recurring charges, it is just common practice to use the credit card processors and gateways through Intuit, Authorize.net or Stripe.com

Service-related Labor Charges

Monthly Accounting Functions: Generation of customer invoicing, tallying of vendor invoices from the distributors, Microsoft, and other 3rd Parties, calculating the Sales commissions and customer payment collections.

Direct Costs: As re-sellers of the service we buy the service or product and pay for it with terms.

Compliance: A lot of businesses accept credit cards, but if you are doing CSP you will need the ability to collect credit cards, and if you are using a 3rd party like Authorize.net you need to be PCI compliant.

Cost of Sales: To incentivize your sales team you need to include Sales Commissions in their Sales compensation plans.

Direct Billing Partners will now also have the Advanced Support for Microsoft (ASFP) or Premier support plans.

Provisioning processes to manage customer license change requests. Some customers will want to make these changes regularly and some will just make the changes on their renewals.

System Costs: There are a variety of tools that are deployed to support end customers.

Through Work 365, we are looking to address every item here, and would like to know what else you are seeing as costs for your recurring subscription business?

In the following articles, we will address best practices around CSP billing and services to grow margin and manage costs.

[techit-rp]

How Startups Are Using Financial Modelling to Attract Investors in India’s Booming Tech Ecosystem

India’s startup ecosystem is on fire. With over 100 unicorns and thousands of early-stage ventures blossoming across sectors like fintech, edtech, healthtech, SaaS, and e-commerce, the landscape is vibrant—but also fiercely competitive. In this high-stakes environment, financial modelling has emerged as a powerful tool for startups to build credibility, secure funding, and scale with confidence.

For aspiring entrepreneurs and finance professionals alike, mastering financial modelling is no longer optional. If you’re in Kolkata and looking to break into this space, enrolling in the best Financial Modelling Course in Kolkata can give you the practical skills needed to thrive in this startup-driven economy.

Why Financial Modelling Matters in a Startup's Journey

When startups approach angel investors, venture capitalists, or private equity firms, they don’t just pitch an idea—they pitch a vision backed by numbers. These numbers aren’t just pulled from thin air. They come from detailed financial models that forecast how the business will grow, scale, and generate returns.

A robust financial model communicates:

Revenue projections for the next 3–5 years

Operating expenses and burn rate

Break-even analysis

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV)

Unit economics

Funding requirements and expected ROI

These projections show investors that the startup’s founders understand their market, costs, and how their business will turn a profit—or at least grow fast enough to justify the investment.

The Indian Startup Boom: A Perfect Storm for Financial Modellers

India is now the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world, after the US and China. With the digital economy accelerating, investors are pouring billions into scalable tech ventures. However, investor scrutiny is higher than ever due to recent global funding slowdowns.

Now, it’s not enough to have a great pitch deck. Investors want to see clear, data-driven financial roadmaps. That’s where financial modelling steps in.

Professionals trained through the best Financial Modelling Course in Kolkata are helping startups prepare solid models that can stand up to investor due diligence. From sensitivity analysis to discounted cash flows and cohort-based revenue forecasting, the right models can turn a maybe into a yes.

How Startups Are Using Financial Models to Win Over Investors

1. Validating the Business Idea

Before seeking funding, startups use financial models to check whether the business idea is financially viable. This includes calculating how many customers are needed to reach profitability, and how long the runway is with current capital.

2. Pitch Deck Projections

Every investor pitch today includes financial projections. But not all projections are created equal. Models that reflect realistic assumptions, industry benchmarks, and multiple scenarios inspire investor trust and make the startup stand out.

3. Justifying Valuations

Startups often struggle to justify their high valuations. Solid models using DCF (Discounted Cash Flow) or Comparable Company Analysis help founders support their ask with logic and numbers.

4. Planning for Fund Utilization

Investors want to know: how exactly will the startup spend their money? Financial modelling helps allocate capital efficiently—across product development, marketing, hiring, and operations.

5. Managing Growth

As a startup scales, it needs to continuously update its models to make hiring plans, pricing decisions, and market expansion strategies. Good models aren’t static—they evolve with the business.

Real-World Example: Fintech Startup in Kolkata

Take the example of a rising fintech startup in Kolkata targeting small business lending. When preparing for their Series A round, they built a detailed financial model projecting their revenue based on user acquisition, average loan size, and default rates. They also modeled different growth scenarios: aggressive vs. conservative.

Using these models, they were able to:

Clearly demonstrate when they’d break even

Show the effect of scaling operations

Validate their ₹100 crore valuation ask

They successfully secured funding from a Mumbai-based VC firm—and credited their financial model as a major differentiator.

The Growing Demand for Financial Modelling Skills

Startups aren’t the only ones benefiting. Founders, finance teams, startup analysts, and even venture capital interns are expected to know how to build and interpret financial models.

If you're based in West Bengal and looking to enter this space, joining the best Financial Modelling Course in Kolkata can be your stepping stone. These courses teach:

Excel-based modelling techniques

Three-statement financial models

Valuation methods like DCF and EBITDA multiples

Scenario planning and Monte Carlo simulations

Fundraising and cap table modelling

With these skills, you can work in corporate finance, become a startup CFO, join a VC firm, or even start your own venture with financial clarity.

Final Thoughts

India’s startup boom is not slowing down—and as more founders chase limited capital, financial clarity will be their biggest weapon. Financial modelling is no longer just for investment bankers; it’s now a startup essential.

If you’re looking to be part of this transformation—whether as a founder, finance professional, or investor—now is the time to upskill. Enroll in the best Financial Modelling Course in Kolkata and gain the expertise to turn ideas into investor-ready opportunities.

[digitalmarketingcourses]

Key Digital Marketing Metrics that Every CEO Must Pay Attention To

Today, businesses understand that digital is the way forward and are willing to spend a big chunk of their budget on digital marketing. They are creating content, doing SEO, putting stuff out there on social media, and yet a lot of them don’t see a tangible effect on their bottom line. What’s wrong?

In my experience as a marketer, I have seen a lot of companies simply trying a bunch of random strategies and hoping that people will find them and start doing business with them. When that doesn’t happen, they lose trust in digital marketing and conclude it’s not for them. And obviously, if you are a CEO, you would be wary about investing in something that brings no result.

So What Should You Do?

It is the “spray and pray” approach that renders digital marketing strategies ineffective for most businesses. So if digital marketing isn’t working for you, it’s probably due to lack of planning and unrealistic expectations.

The biggest challenge lies in understanding what works so it can be repeated. The beauty of digital marketing is that it’s measurable. The scary part? You need to try, measure, and repeat till you find the strategy that works — it can be time-consuming and frustrating. I have seen far too many companies stop their efforts prematurely.

As a CEO, you need to realize the risks of falling into the trap of thinking that digital marketing is not for your business. Abandoning digital marketing channels in an era where your customers and competitors have gone digital is like shooting yourself in the foot — it can spell doom for your business!

Instead, you should be looking at marketing concepts and metrics which make a real impact on the profitability and competitiveness your company. Let’s discuss some of the most important ones.

Customer Acquisition

Just by investing in digital, you cannot expect clients to show up on your door. You have to be strategic and methodical in your approach. The good news is, I have already done the legwork for you with this 6 step customer acquisition formula that works for all my digital marketing strategies.

Step 1: Define a lead magnet. Identify who your ideal customers are where they are and what they will buy.

Step 2: Email nurturing through auto-responders. Give your ideal prospects a sense of value you can create for them through targeted emails.

Step 3: Tripwire. Make your prospects a part of your sales funnel by letting them experience your product/service throughan attractive offer.

Step 4: Selling core product or service. At this stage, your prospects should be ready to buy your core products.

Step 5: Profit maximize.This is where you upsell/cross sell the customers who have bought your products/service with high profit margins.

Track and Measure

A big takeaway from this discussion is that — brands and organizations that are willing to spend time to learn what works for them are the ones to gain most from investing in digital marketing. And, the first step towards that is to install the following tracking codes in all the pages of your web assets:

Google Analytics with Goal Setup

Google Retargeting Code

Facebook,Twitter, and LinkedIn and Pixel

Quite simply, web assets are any items on your current website that may be generating website traffic and allowing your site to rank in search engines.And setting up the tracking will enable you track how an activity on your website can translate into business.

KPIs to Watch Out For

Here some key digital marketing indicators that every CEO should be keeping an eye on.

Website visits – A website visit doesn’t tell you much about the success of your marketing efforts or about the purchasing intent of the visitor, but if you are able to track its sources it can help you understand which of your efforts are yielding the best results.

Traffic sources -Being able to track traffic sources allows you to identify which channels are driving maximum people to your site — organic SEO, email campaigns, paid ads or social media. This will give you a clearer view of what’s working for you and what’s not.  

Customer Conversion Rate from each source – You can gauge the success of a digital campaign by measuring the conversion rate, which is the percentage of the people who visit your site and convert or in other words, create a sale.To calculate this, divide the number of website visitors that a marketing effort or a campaign has generated, by the number of sales conversions created through the landing page CTAs.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) from each source -As the name suggests, this metric tells youthe average cost of acquiring a new customer.You can calculate it by dividing the sum of all marketing and advertising costs (plus salaries, commissions and bonuses)over a specific time period, by the number of new customers acquired in that same time period.

Return on Investment -Lastly, the most common metric to measure profitability — ROI. You can calculate it by dividing the net revenue earned by the total cost of digital marketing Investment.

Keeping a close watch over these key metrics will help you have greater visibility into your digital marketing campaigns and whether they are delivering real ROI for your company.

But it’s not all that easy to set up and track these metrics. You need to have the basic understanding of digital marketing along with the knowledge about the latest tools and techniques.

That’s where our Corporate Training Solutions help you. Through this course, we equipyou with the basics of digital marketing and acquaint you with all the latest tools and techniques as well as the best industry practices, giving you a much more detailed insight about many of the concepts we have discussed in this blog post.

Looking to get more value out of your digital marketing initiatives? Subscribe to our digital marketing blog for practical marketing tips and strategies to succeed in the digital landscape.

[upshotre]

Corporate infractions: SEC to partner with FIRS, NSE, others

By Tony Ademiluyi

Following the regulatory intervention of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the affairs of Oando Plc over alleged sundry abuses; the commission plans to refer the alleged abuses to other regulatory bodies. The alleged abuses include corporate governance lapses, insider abuse, internal control failure, and capital market abuse while the reference regulatory bodies are the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Corporate Affairs Commission and the Nigerian Stock Exchange. SEC had on May 31 ordered Oando’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr Wale Tinubu, and other affected board members to resign. SEC’s action followed an investigation that allegedly found evidence of financial infractions by the company. However, the company in its response said that the alleged infractions and penalties were unsubstantiated, ultra vires, invalid and calculated to prejudice the business of the company. The oil firm said it had not been given the opportunity to see, review and respond to the forensic audit report and so was unable to ascertain what findings (if any) were made in relation to the alleged infractions and defend itself accordingly before SEC. SEC announced on June 2 that it had set up an interim management team to oversee the affairs of the company and conduct an extraordinary general meeting on or before July 1 to appoint new directors who would subsequently select a management team for the company. However, the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos granted an interim injunction on June 3 following an application by Oando’s GCEO and his deputy restraining SEC from executing the sanctions. Also, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on June 24 adjourned till July 22 the case brought by Oando Plc to stop the commission from replacing its chief executive officer and making changes in the management team. Findings by our correspondent revealed that the infractions identified by the forensic audit report on Oando Plc would be referred to the FIRS, CAC, and NSE for further action. Documents sighted by our correspondent showed that the commission would be referring the alleged violation involving the over-deduction of withholding tax on dividend paid to shareholders in 2014 to the FIRS. The document read in part, “There were several corporate governance lapses stemming from poor board oversight. These include irregular approval of directors’ remuneration, directors’ participation in matters in which they had declared interest, unjustified disbursements to directors and management of the company, and failure of the audit committee to hold meetings with management, internal auditors and external auditors. “Oando Plc deducted an amount representing 24 per cent of the dividend paid to shareholders in 2014 as withholding tax; this exceeded the statutory requirement of 10 per cent as required by the Companies Income Tax Act. “Oando Plc failed to comply with several tax laws such as the Companies Income Tax Act and Value Added Tax Act, etc. These tax-related violations are being referred to the FIRS.” The commission is also planning to refer the issue of the alleged failure of internal control, issue arising from the sale of its subsidiary, insider and suspected market abuse to the Nigerian Stock Exchange for further action. The document read in part, “Oando Plc failed to establish an effective system of internal control as required under section 61 of the Investment and Securities Act 2007 over its financial reporting thereby compromising the integrity of the company’s financial controls and reporting as revealed by the misstatements in the financial statements, high number of related party transactions and unjustified disbursements to directors. “In 2013, Oando Plc reported the sale of its subsidiary, Oando Exploration and Production Limited to Green Park Management Limited without obtaining the approval of the commission in violation of the provisions of the Investment and Securities Act 2007 and the consent of the Minister of Petroleum as required under the Petroleum Act, 1969. “The purported sale of OEPL enabled Oando Plc to report a profit instead of a loss, thereby misstating its financial statement in 2013 and 2014 and consequently misleading investors. “This ‘fictitious’ profit reported in 2013 enabled Oando Plc to declare dividends.” The 2013 misstated accounts and quarterly reports of Oando Plc were included in the 2014 rights circular, thereby misrepresenting the financial status of the company to the public in violation of section 64 of the provisions of the ISA 2007. “In 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, certain insiders of Oando Plc sold shares of the company during ‘closed periods’ despite having the knowledge of active closed periods by the company and contrary to the rules of the NSE.” On the issues to be recommended to the CAC for further action, the document said these included alleged false disclosures and non-disclosure of beneficial ownership. It said, “Oando Plc failed to fully comply with the SEC Code of Corporate Governance for public companies. The company falsely indicated full compliance with the code in its Annual Reports for 2012 and 2013 “Alhaji Dahiru Baru’u Manga failed to disclose his substantial ownership as required by CAMA. Oando Plc failed to notify the Nigeria Stock Exchange of his shareholding of five per cent and above as required by the rules of the NSE. This is being referred to the CAC and the NSE.” Oando had in its reaction to the audit report said during the 18 months long forensic audit exercise, the company was never given an opportunity to present its case based on the concerns or findings of the forensic auditor to the SEC. “We maintain that the SEC has not followed due process, failed to grant Oando a fair hearing, has acted in a way that is contrary to best practice and has not proven itself to be a fair and reasonable regulator acting in the best interest of the capital market and minority shareholders in all its dealings on this matter,” the company added. Stakeholders, who spoke on the issue, expressed divergent views. While some said that SEC was right in its intervention as it would ensure confidence in the capital market, others were of the view that the move would affect the performance of the company’s shares on the stock exchange. The Consolidated Capital Market Stakeholders Forum, for instance, stated that the commission followed due process in the probe of Oando. The group, in a statement signed by Umar Usman, said, “SEC is the statutory regulatory body for the capital market in Nigeria and a body charged with the responsibility of safeguarding the interest of shareholders, investors, creditors and the public in order to maintain the stability of the capital market and by extension the economy of the country as a whole. “Every action the regulator has taken is to protect the stakeholders of the company. If the directors feel the regulator is wrong, then the onus is on them to provide evidence that they did not commit the infractions. “The actions of the commission were properly effected pursuant to the provisions of the Investments & Securities Act (ISA) 2007 and the SEC rules and regulations made pursuant to the ISA 2007. “This is in line with the Federal Government’s agenda to build strong institutions and promote the transparency and integrity of the Nigerian capital market, especially given that these are preconditions for attracting foreign investors to the Nigerian capital market.” But the Pragmatic Shareholders Association of Nigeria said that the commission did not avail Oando the opportunity of fair hearing. As with Oando, it added, SEC had engaged an auditor to conduct a forensic audit into Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, adding that while ETI was given a copy of the findings of the report, such could not be said in the case of Oando. Read the full article

[bowsetter]

China Seeks Public Feedback on Draft DLT Regulations

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has announced that it will accept public feedback through Nov. 2 on draft rules it recently published to regulate blockchain projects, but the proposed legislation has already drawn a mixed response from distributed ledger technology (DLT) analysts.

Also Read: Bitstamp Confirms Acquisition by South Korean Company

Strict Rules for DLT Users

The CAC said it has designed the proposed rules to uphold national security and protect the interests of companies and the general public, while facilitating the development of the blockchain industry. The guidelines require real-name registration for all DLT users and obligate all blockchain companies in China to store user data for government inspection for periods of up to six months.

“Blockchain-based service providers should work with the authorities to carry out supervision and inspection, and provide the necessary data and technical assistance,” the CAC said in the document.

The regulator also wants blockchain-based service providers to register within 10 days of starting their businesses. Such companies will be expected to record the names and server addresses of their customers, and will face the possibility of suspension if they provide incorrect information to the authorities. Those that fail to rectify issues related to incorrect customer information within specified time frames may also have their licenses revoked.

In addition to the strict monitoring and reporting requirements it is proposing, the CAC said that it expects the DLT industry to develop its own standards and best practices. It has called for the “blockchain industry to strengthen self-regulation and set up industry standards, educate service providers, and promote the industry credit rating system.”

Mixed Reactions to Proposed Guidelines

The proposed regulations have received mixed reactions from analysts and representatives of China’s DLT sector. Yang Dong, vice president of Renmin University of China Law School, warned that the legislation could stifle innovation. “This will only bring undesirable obstacles and difficulties to entities’ innovation activities,” he said. “Blockchain technology should be neutral. The necessity of the draft policy should be doubted.”

Tamar Menteshashvili, a doctorate student and founder of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Blockchain Hub, said that the proposed regulations are at odds with the government’s support for the blockchain industry. She also warned that the proposed rules could place additional financial burdens on blockchain startups, due to new procedures they might need to introduce to meet legal requirements.

“While the Chinese government has been very supportive of blockchain technology … the whole industry is under the strong supervision of the authorities and (is) as closely controlled as possible,” Menteshashvili said.

But Billy Chan, the chief executive officer of Dropchain, said the proposed guidelines should not be solely seen in a negative light. “It’s not fair to say the government is stifling blockchain,” Chan said. “Instead, they’re trying to hold people accountable.”

Do you think that the increasing regulation of cryptocurrencies and DLT is stifling innovation, or is it an inevitable consequence of mainstream adoption? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more.

READ MORE http://bit.ly/2OW04mR

[brianobrienny]

30 (or So) Terms Every Sales and Marketing Professional Should Know

The marketing field is always evolving and to succeed, every marketing professional needs to keep up with the latest in industry trends, including its ever-expanding glossary.

Marketers are naturally good at talking the talk; it’s kind of in our job description. Fortunately, these terms are pretty straightforward, you just need a little context to get the gist of things. Get these 30 words down and never get caught flat-footed in a meeting again.

Here are some of the terms every sales and marketing professional needs to know:

A/B Testing. This refers to the process of testing two different variations of a single variable to determine which one performs best. A/B testing is most prominent when optimizing email marketing, CTAs, landing pages, forms, and content in general.

Churn Rate. This is a metric that measures what percentage of your customers you retain. It can be calculated by measuring the number of customers lost as a percentage of your total customer base.

AIDA. An acronym that stands for “Attention/Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action.” These are the four steps involved in the so-called purchase funnel.

Buyer Persona: These are carefully crafted representations of an ideal customer based on real-life market research and data from actual, existing customers. These personas help marketers understand who they are talking to and how best to communicate with them.

Adoption Process. Sometimes called “the buying process,” this refers to the stages a potential customer goes through—from learning to purchasing or rejecting.

BANT. An acronym that stands for “Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline.” This acts as a framework to help determine whether or not a prospective customer is ready to make a purchase.

Closed Opportunities. This umbrella term includes “closed-won” and “closed-lost” opportunities. Closed-won refers to deals that resulted in a purchase, while closed-lost refers to deals that ended in rejection.

Cold Calling. Refers to unsolicited calls made by sales representatives in the hopes of selling to new customers.

Cross-Selling. An activity whereby a sales representative offers more than just one product or service. Usually, these products or services are complementary to the one already purchased by the customer.

Bounce Rate. When talking about website visits, bounce rate refers to the proportion of visitors that land on your page and leave without clicking on anything. For emails, bounce rates refer to the email messages that were unable to be delivered to a recipient’s inbox due to incorrect addresses or any other adverse circumstance.

Blogging. Refers to the act of creating and maintaining a web log or weblog. This can be a personal blog or a business blog that contains various types of content including commentaries, event coverage, photos, videos, and anecdotes.

Business blog. Refers to non-personal blogs that help marketers drive more traffic to their website, which then, convert to leads. A business blog often covers topics that are related to the company’s products or services which help the brand increase their online presence and brand authority.

Content. Refers to any information designed to be consumed by a particular audience. Media typically comes in the form of blogs, articles, videos, images, slideshows, podcasts, webinars and social media posts.

Editorial Calendar. This is the “road map” of an organization’s content creation. This helps content marketers keep track of what they need to publish and when they need to release it.

Crowdsourced Content. Also known as User-Generated Content (UGC), refers to content created from data you collect from subject matter experts, freelancers, and customers. This helps marketers produce relevant, high-quality content in less time while using fewer resources.

Call-to-Action. This can be in the form of a button, image, or text link that entices the online visitor to click on it and visit a landing page. A CTA essentially helps convert visitors into leads.

Cost-per-Lead (CPL): Refers to the average cost of acquiring one lead for your business. Calculated by dividing total spend by the number of leads acquired.

Conversion Path: The course of touchpoints, interactions, and actions a lead or prospect will go through until they become a paying customer. This can include downloading an ebook, watching a webinar, or a phone call with a sales rep.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Refers to the total cost of your sales and marketing activities to source a prospect and convert them into a paying customer.

Key Performance indicators (KPIs): These refer to the metrics marketers monitor to track their progress in the pursuit of their goals. Popular KPIs include cost-per-click, traffic, likes, shares, and conversion rates.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM). This refers to the practices, strategies, and technological solutions used to manage customer interactions with a brand. CRM systems use data from the customer lifecycle to build, improve and maintain relationships with customers.

Decision-Maker. Refers to the person (or role) responsible for making the final sales decision.

Engagement Rate. This refers to the amount of interaction received by a brand, usually in social media. This can come in the form of likes, shares, comments, and views.

Evergreen Content. This is a type of content that stands the test of time. These highly-prized pieces of content remain popular in searches long after their publish date due to their concepts and execution. Evergreen content helps websites increase their traffic and build brand awareness.

Friction. This is anything that prevents an activity from being executed smoothly. For example, friction on your website could be “lack of whitespace” which makes it harder for users to read your content and could negatively affect bounce rates or conversion rates.

Gatekeeper. Refers to the person (or role) responsible for enabling or preventing information from reaching another person within the company. The best example of gatekeepers are personal assistants and receptionists.

Landing Page. Refers to a website page containing a form that is used for lead generation. A landing page usually relates to a promotional offer such as an eBook or a Webinar.

Inbound Marketing. Refers to any marketing activity that draws potential customers in. This is opposed to the traditional practice of reaching out to customers with promotional messaging.

Personalization. In marketing, this is when you curate your content to fit the user’s preferences. For instance, personalization happens when a site recommends related items the user might be interested in. This is also commonly used in email marketing to increase engagement.

TOFU MOFU BOFU: Refers to the various stages in the sales funnel. In a nutshell, Top of Funnel (ToFu) is the problem identification stage, Middle of Funnel (MoFu) is the option consideration stage and Bottom of Funnel (BoFu) is the purchase decision stage.

UX. This acronym stands for User Experience, which is what the customer experiences during the entire process of using a product. This includes marketing messages, actual product use, customer support, and other brand touchpoints.

Do you know of any other important terms that we may have missed? Let us know in the comments below!

The post 30 (or So) Terms Every Sales and Marketing Professional Should Know appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

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[sempiternalsandpitturtle]

What should you include in a marketing report?

Reporting on the outcomes of digital marketing campaigns is much like stretching after a long run – somewhat tedious, occasionally painful, but vital for future success.

In the same way that a runner looks for niggling aches and pains, without an unblinking analysis of how your campaign performed, you’ll have no idea where your strengths and weaknesses lie, and what you can do differently next time the starting gun sounds.

Today, we’ll be exploring how to write a robust marketing report. We’ll look at what to include, how to demonstrate ROI and some handy tools for getting the job done.

Time to report for duty.

Ten essential elements of successful #B2B #marketing strategies with actionable takeaways, links and plenty of nerdy detail. No download required. https://t.co/cKG2dLFlox pic.twitter.com/IYcETHHSC7

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) April 30, 2019

What should you include in every marketing report?

Whether you’re producing a monthly, annual or end-of-campaign report, it should include the following features:

1. An overview

Before you dig down into any precise details, start with a succinct cover page that gives a broad brush idea of how things have gone. Mention any particular wins as well as areas where you were hoping for better results. This means someone who isn’t necessarily familiar with digital marketing – your CEO, for example – can understand the headlines at a glance. 

While this overview should come first, you’ll probably write it last as it will be based on the trends you dive into during the meat of the report.

In this overview, you should also briefly outline the campaign strategy, specifically:

The scope and objectives.

The target audience.

The channels you used to reach this audience.

You could probably recite this information in your sleep, but remember those outside your department may have less insight. 

From here, we can break things up into specific sub areas.

2. Lead and conversion results

Ever met a senior executive who isn’t interested in ROI? Me neither, and that’s why this needs to be top of your reporting list. The key things to include here are:

Revenue – If you’re selling from an e-commerce store, start this section by demonstrating exactly how much money it has made for the business.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) – To work out how much your new customers cost, add up the total spend on marketing in this campaign (not just advertising – think staff salaries, bonuses and overheads) and divide by the number of new patrons won in the period.

Estimated customer lifetime value – Working out the lifetime value of a customer involves taking the gross margin of that individual away from the revenue they’ve generated for you, and dividing this figure by their estimated cancellation rate.

Leads and conversion rates per channel – Your readers will want to know where these new customers are coming from. Be sure to include every branch of your strategy, from paid search to email marketing to social media.

Organic vs. paid leads – While they could work it out from above, your CEO will likely be interested in a distinct breakdown of paid vs. organic results, so make it easy for them!

#Marketing audits are an essential part of any business checkup. Let’s delve into what they are, how they work and the benefits they bring. https://t.co/okiN7zAn7c pic.twitter.com/Nzshv6Ay3V

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) March 11, 2019

3. Traffic metrics

Even if some web traffic didn’t ultimately convert, it’s still important to establish where they came from. Raising brand awareness is a key part of many marketing campaigns, and this will tell you which channels are bringing home the metaphorical bacon.

A lot of this info can be found in Google Analytics. Among the nuggets it can divulge are:

Overall traffic – Ideally, you should see an increase in overall web traffic as a result of your marketing campaigns. However, you should view this in the context of conversions and the actions users take on your page.

Sources -In Google Analytics you can see how users came to your site. Standard routes include:

Organic search – If you’ve been attempting to raise your SEO game, you’d hope to see a marked spike in traffic from blogs and landing pages.

Social media – Social is great for getting your name out there, and if you’ve been targeting these platforms ideally this will be borne out in Analytics.

Paid search – You can filter by Google Ads campaign names in Analytics to see if your paid efforts have delivered ROI.

Direct traffic – You’ll also be able to identify users who’ve come to your site simply by typing in your URL.

Bounce rate – Getting people onto your site is no good if they take one look and run the other way. Don’t panic if this is happening to you – you just need to take some time to improve searchers’ experiences. 

Optional extras based on your needs:

From here, the order you take for the remainder of the report is up to you, and will probably reflect the particulars of your last campaign. Standard elements to include are:

4. Social media

Each of the major social platforms has its own analytics hub – think Insights on Facebook and Instagram or LinkedIn Analytics. 

These are a veritable gold mine of info for marketers, but you need to know which social media metrics matter. The most important are:

Engagement – One of the best things about social media from a marketing perspective is the chance to have authentic interactions with your target audience. This is where measuring engagement comes in – are people liking, commenting on or (probably best of all) sharing your content?

Reach – Pretty straightforward – how many people are coming across your brand’s content? This is a top-of-funnel metric great for indicating the success of awareness campaigns.

Referrals – Referrals show how many people come to your website from a given social platform.

Click-through rates – CTRs track the number of people clicking on your social media content or ads to access your website or blog.

Are you looking to measure how well your social is performing? Find out how you can track and calculate your #SocialMedia #ROI today. https://t.co/C9BnM0gX4k pic.twitter.com/uMiXzAO6oF

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) February 11, 2019

5. SEO report

If improving organic search rankings was a key KPI for your marketing campaign, you’ll need to report on your SEO progress.

The crucial aspects of this section in your marketing report should be:

Ranking improvements – Have you improved your site’s position on Google results pages for target keywords?

Website health – Are there any problems with your site that could impact SEO progress? Think broken links or missing tags.

Organic traffic – Which pages are driving overall traffic numbers, and which are falling behind?

External backlinks – How many external sites are pointing back to your own? Are they high quality? This is a great opportunity to show off the hard work you’ve put into link-building relationships.

Remember, the exercise here isn’t to bamboozle CEOs with intangible graphs and SEO terminology. Making this understandable is the best way to show the importance of SEO to the business’ objectives.

6. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising

Google Ads provides insights aplenty on the performance of your search and display ads, and is a great tool to use for this part of your report. Here you’ll provide specific details on:

Your ad spend.

CTRs.

Cost per conversion.

Impressions (This is the number of times users view your ad, or how often it displays.)

This section is a really tangible area for demonstrating ROI in your marketing report. Your company is shelling out on these ads, so you need to clearly link this spending with results. 

However, it’s important to remind readers of the intent behind the ads. You won’t always be targeting ads directly at conversions, some may have higher funnel objectives – so ensure you set expectations and communicate this properly.

So what is SEM, and how does it relate to #SEO or #contentmarketing? We’ve written your new go-to guide, covering these questions and more. https://t.co/41RSTevbCD pic.twitter.com/W4qzC56z3H

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) May 1, 2019

7. Blog performance

If you’re devoting time and resources to creating and curating blog content, your audience will want to know if it’s proving worthwhile.

As well as demonstrating how the blog is impacting leads and conversions, this will also be a useful exercise to establish what types of posts are working best. Are your target audience engaging most with thought leadership pieces, or are they flocking to practical ‘how to’ articles?

Google Analytics should be your go-to here – you can analyse if people are reading your content in the first place, how long they spend on it, and if they’re taking desired actions such as following links to landing pages. 

The best tools for creating marketing reports

Google Analytics and Google Ads are brilliant starting places for creating marketing reports but, in the name of choice, here are some other handy options:

Supermetrics – This app can bring together information from a variety of external tools into a centralised dashboard. A huge timesaver, this means automatic compilation of website and social analytics as well as PPC and SEO results. All of this data can be delivered directly to your inbox!

Cyfe – With similar powerful functionality to Supermetrics, Cyfe allows you to build custom reports related to specific marketing objectives.

Moz – Moz is one of the big names in SEO, and has all the reporting capability you need to track your site’s organic search performance.

DashThis -This focuses on PPC, allowing you to track all your most important paid search KPIs and produce reports from one easy dashboard.

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