As part of the ritual of examining local commerce and SMB Saas strategies, Localogy goes right to the source: SMBs themselves. How do they feel about marketing and operational software? What features do they want? And how has their hunger changed in a pandemic? This is all a moving target.
But as part of that exercise, we sometimes broaden the subject matter beyond traditional SMBs. In the latest Localogy study, done in collaboration with Mono Solutions, we looked specifically at freelancers. Why is this important? The Covid-driven “great resignation” has boosted the freelancer economy.
With that backdrop, who are freelancers, and what makes them tick? The report, The Freelance Channel – A Growing Reseller Resource dives in. After examining some of the impediments to acting as resellers, last week, we switch gears to examine their satisfaction levels with this role.
The thought is that the traditional role of freelancers – everything from copywriting to graphic design – has evolved into a reseller channel for tech vendors. In other words, freelancers have been discovered as an influential and organic inroad to enterprises, thus a back door for software sales.
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Data Dive
So what did the survey uncover about freelancers’ satisfaction levels in acting as resellers?
– The largest group was “satisfied” at 34 percent. That’s followed by very satisfied (28 percent), Neutral (26 percent), unsatisfied (3 percent), and very unsatisfied (8 percent).
– These results are fairly favorable, given that 62 percent of respondents are either satisfied or very satisfied, compared with 11 percent that is unsatisfied or very unsatisfied.
– High satisfaction ratings are likely due to the fact that this role can derive incremental revenue without much-dedicated work. The role is generally tied to, and synergistic with, the regular course of freelance work.
– These satisfaction ratings also signal the need for further education to let freelancers know this opportunity exists.
– In other words, there’s a disparity between the high satisfaction and the relatively low penetration of freelancers who perform such reseller duties.
– This signals an opportunity for enterprise SaaS companies to educate freelancers on this opportunity and enlist their services as an auxiliary sales channel.
– This is particularly true in areas of software that are tied to the work that freelancers do (e.g. graphic design software). Their sales effectiveness could be powerful, given their perceived credibility in such areas.
– We’ll circle back next week to examine the things that freelancers believe would make the reselling role/relationship more effective… and increase the above satisfaction scores further.
Time to Shine
Stepping back, SMB online marketing – website-based or otherwise – continues to grow rapidly. SMB SaaS startups and online services providers are correspondingly thriving as it continues to grow as a leading subsector of the broader SaaS universe. There’s a long-tail opportunity at play.
Meanwhile, new SMB SaaS users could represent permanent adopters – a concept that’s accelerated in the Covid era as SMBs are forced to boost their digital transformation. This sends them into the arms of SaaS providers to accomplish a range of marketing and operational functions.
We’ll return in the next installment to go deeper into Localogy original survey research. That will include SMB goals and success factors. Let us know what additional insights jump out at you from the above data, and stay tuned for more breakdowns in our Benchmark Bytes series.
