As a freelancer or an online entrepreneur, finding and keeping clients is a difficult task. Customer Churn got you down? I was out of the loop, until I read this article on customer onboarding, I'd never heard the word churn. Okay, full disclosure, five years ago, I'd never heard the word onboarding. I learned it after acquiring two clients who wanted to market their onboarding businesses. I often have to tell my social media marketing clients, I know what I'm doing and how to get results, but sometimes, I need to Google the lingo! Wikipedia defines churn this way:  "Customer attrition, also known as customer churn, customer turnover, or customer defection, is the loss of clients or customers." Ah, customer attrition. Yes, that can be a problem. So, what are you going to do about it?

After a successful marketing campaign for my own summer camp program for kids, I decided to become a social media marketing consultant. For me, the marketing part was a piece of cake, but, in the beginning, I wondered, how do you find clients? Once you find them, how do you create a proposal for an action plan and get a signed contract, and how do you keep them? That's where onboarding comes to play. What is customer onboarding? Click here to find out about customer onboarding.

In an article by UserIQ, they state that creating a successful customer onboarding system is a must for SaaS Businesses. You know, I Googled that. What's a SaaS Business? SaaS, or software as a service, is a software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the Internet. Does that boggle your mind? Think of it like an app to run your business in the cloud. SaaS software helps run your business and saves you time and money. You don't need to pay for licensing and upgrades or have hardware dedicated to these functions. It can help with customer acquisition, billing, scheduling, and everyday tasks. Typically, you pay a monthly fee for the service and it takes a load off your shoulders. 

Apparently, SaaS based online businesses are trending. SaaS software can guide your customers/clients by helping them learn about product features, chatting with them about specifics, and sending messages when they're ready to learn about that specific feature. Oh that! Actually, one of my clients utilizes SaaS based software to run his charity auction site, though, he created his own software. The rest of us aren't that tech savvy. Am I right? Once the client has been onboarded, they feel more comfortable signing up for your product or service, so user adoption becomes a breeze with SaaS software. SaaS helps with remarketing to potential clients and retaining existing clients. Doing all of this on your own or with a small team isn't scalable. SaaS software, helps you do more with less. 

Do I use SaaS software to get clients? Sort of, I use websites that implement similar strategies. For freelancers, many of these services are free to sign up for, but they take a percentage of your income. Others have a monthly fee. Some do both! I acquire most of my clients through UpWork. UpWork shares my profile with potential clients, invites me to apply for jobs that meet my skills, and with a click of a button invoices my clients. I do a lot of my own billing too. I can tell you, having it all run on autopilot saves a lot of time and reduces stress!  

Whew! That's a lot to take in. Now that you've learned all of these new terms, go out and dazzle them with your superior knowledge.