Year ends are the best days to evaluate your year.
My grandpa thought that too..
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.~ T.S Elliot
He would religiously jot all the NEW things he did throughout the year and then make a list of things he wanted to do a.k.a Bucketlist for the following year. (A very young soul for a 87 year old)
So going by his example, I thought of noting down all the new things we did at Putler for the year 2019.
Bucketlist? Well that’s something I’ll leave for another blog.
For now, let’s dive into reviewing 2019.
Putler Marco Polo Launched
Talking about the elephant in the room, the Marco Polo was the number #1 item on our bucketlist at the start of 2019.
We visioned it to be the best version of Putler.
So we spent months researching the best technology, databases, every nitty gritties before starting the real work – that’s building Putler Marco Polo from scratch.
The journey…
The entire team hustled. We evaluated different options and relayed between different technologies like – GraphQL, Post Graphyl, ClickHouse, Hazura etc etc..
After weighing every pro and con we decided to go with ClickHouse and PostGres.
Simply putting, these technologies would make Putler faster, keep the technical architecture clean and would be a good base to build more useful features on Putler in the near future.
The Marco Polo Beta was released on 4th September, 2019.
Initially, it was only made live for existing customers. But as the functionality increased we felt everybody ( new trialers and expired trialers) should also have a taste of it.
So we made it open for everybody. Today Marco Polo is easily available within Putler’s Web App.
It’s also displayed within Putler’s Live Demo.
RFM made live, better…
It’s no mystery that RFM is Putler’s USP. And with Marco Polo it just got better.
The old RFM was static. Meaning, it was created once a day so the customers that you acquire within the day were not considered for that day. But they were considered on the following day once the new RFM was calculated.
With the new Marco Polo we wanted to take away this hinge. So we created RFM live. In the new Marco Polo RFM is calculated on runtime a.k.a it’s live. There is no lag or wait time.
You get more accurate results and can segment customers better and faster.
Facets
If you run a business you know how important it is to slice and dice data. You also know how time consuming it can be. But, this changes it all.
Putler Marco Polo has readymade filters that we call facets.
Using these readymade facets, you can filter data instantly. Also by applying multiple filters you can get various combinations of data.
Food for thought: If you don’t have filters, how do you slice data of various combinations. Say all people named Andy that live in New York..
If you haven’t yet, try filters and see how simple it is.
Segmentation
Another major feature was segmentation. Putler Web already helped you segment customers based on RFM but it was enough.
We wanted to empower you further. We wanted you to create whatever segment you wanted irrespective of RFM or not. So we created SEGMENTS.
Using segments you can define whatever rules you want and filter data for that rule. You can then save these segments and use them for analysing your data better.
Compare Segments
Not just creation of segments, you can compare segments and get useful insights from your data.
Putler Marco Polo helps you compare segments for different date ranges and checkout how your business has been performing.
Holiday Season Report Revamped
The Holiday Season Insight is something we use while planning our Holiday Season Campaigns. We assumed everybody does the same. Going by this assumption, we would add the previous years numbers to it only in the month of August.
This time we twisted things a little, we made the 2018 stats available in August and just after the Black Cyber 2019 we introduced the stats for 2019 as well.
We figured those business owners who are really serious about Holiday Season like to tweak and experiment inorder to make the most sales. Here’s what the Holiday Season Insights look like now..
Email Sending via Putler
Segmentation and emails go hand in hand. So we introduced email sending within Putler too.
For now, the email sending functionality is not introduced in Putler Marco Polo but it will be soon.
Stay tuned until then.
Other developments done on Putler
- Braintree subscription reports
- Chart grouping (months/year/days)
- Advanced filters for Products/customers dashboard
- Summary table
- Currency wise balance display
Lastly, learnings!
Run testimonial drives on other websites
This one is gold. Try building credibility on public websites rather than your own.
Why? It’s more believable.
Believe me, customers are researchers. They research about your product, ask for references, visit directories, check out your ratings on such websites and only then make the buying decision.
While the customers go through your website content and testimonials, a review/testimonial by somebody outhouse on another website is seen as more authentic. (Evaluate yourself, you will find this to be true)
Ask customers what they like about your tool
[bctt tweet=”The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.~ Peter Drucker” username=”@getputler”]
Business owners often assume the USP of their products/services. Specifically, if the product does multiple things. In such cases, it’s better to hear it from the horse’s mouth rather than making assumptions.
We implemented this strategy within Putler as well. We send out an email as soon as somebody picks a plan asking them what appealed to them about Putler.
The replies to this email are astounding and we have used these replies to craft better emails/ sales pages.
Influencer Roundup
We love to read roundups. The knowledge they provide is incredible. So this year, we decided to do a small roundup of our own.
We wanted the roundup to be relevant to our audience so we decided to hit on the topic Data Analysis.
To our surprise, we got 25 Data analysis experts sharing their topmost data-related tips with us.
Take a look, it’s a fun and informative read.
Giving more than just discounts
We tried something new this Holiday Season. Instead of giving just a price discount, we coupled it with a Plugin Party. So everybody who purchased a plan on Putler during the Holiday Season Sale got 5 plugins for free.
Results??? We hit homerun. We had clients going in for bigger plans in order to get bigger discounts + all the 5 products.
More to come
So that was our 2019 in a nutshell. We are currently planning how our 2020 will be and it looks really exciting. I will reveal all the plans real soon. Until then, explore all the features in Marco Polo and send over your feedback.