Hi, welcome to this edition of our Three Questions Podcast with Stacy Colson from Smile Software Limited. Hi Stacy, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm fantastic. Thank you very much for joining us on the show today. I wanted to talk to you because you have a really cool product and I wanted to showcase that to our affiliate community today. So I'm going to kick off with our first question, which is tell us a little bit about your company and the products that you have developed and talk to us a little bit about how affiliates can use them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so Smile started in 2003 with our co-founders Greg Skoen and Philip Goward. They're both really big in the Mac community. Yep. They came together, they actually combined their two companies to become Smile on My Mac. We just go by SMILE now, just mainly because we are much broader than the Mac world now. Yeah, in 2014 we launched a product called PDF PIN, which is a PDF editor, and that's available on the Mac. But then in 2006, our flagship product, which is Text Expanner, was introduced to the to our users. And that allows you to easily put text snippets into a library and create abbreviations for it. And that content is created by you or your team. And then you just type your abbreviation in and it populates what in whichever app you're in. And then in 2016, we moved that text expander from a standalone to cloud-based.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the practical uses because even though you've given us a really clear um understanding of what it is, I just uh for for people that have never really heard of this before, I want them to understand exactly what this tool does in terms of a content marketing perspective because that's kind of the theme that we've been on this month, um, and why I've actually invited you to join me on the show today. So talk to me about the practical uses that um Text Expander um has in terms of a content marketing perspective for affiliates who need to write a lot of content.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh we do a lot of things that take seconds. Um and we don't think about how much time those seconds add up to. So a really good example for me, and uh other affiliate managers, it has to be the case as well. Every day I give out my calendar link at least 10 times. Um it's usually at the end of a very personal email, but it's the same content every single time. It is me saying, hey, here's my calendar link. Go ahead and find a time that works best for you, and then includes the link. Um, and that's usually about 45 words, which isn't a big deal, except when you start breaking that down. So I type about 70 words per minute, uh, that comes out to 38 seconds for me to type out those 45 words. And there's roughly 260 business days, so you can times the 38 seconds by the 260. And now you're looking at the fact that you just spent almost three hours of your life giving out a calendar link in the last year. And that's just one thing that we're doing on a regular basis. We have hundreds of these things, and that's where text expanner comes in. And so I take those 45 words and I put them into text expanner and I give it an abbreviation, and my abbreviation is period C A L. And so when I type in period C A L in any application, if there's a text field, it can go in there, whether it's um a direct message in Facebook or in my help desk ticket or an email, it puts in my calendar link plus that little paragraph. So I've turned 38 seconds into three seconds, and this is happening on such a huge scale that we don't realize it. So our product will actually track how much time you save. So within the last 30 days, I've saved almost five hours. And last month was like a slow month for me because it's usually triple that. So, you know, and we don't think about how much time we're putting into these canned responses and having to retype them over and over again.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So it really does make a big difference. And I'm just thinking, like if you multiply that, if if you're an affiliate and you've got four or five content writers writing for you and you're constantly writing about the same subject, I mean you can also use this tool to really um uh clarify how you know your tone of language that all of your content writers are writing in the same uh tone of voice, you know, using the same keywords, if those are the keywords that you really want to be um thoughtful for, and it really can help you within the team environment to make sure that everybody that's writing for your website or for your product, even if you're if you're an operator, if you're not an affiliate listening to this podcast, um, that all of these things are succinct and that they're the same in every single um you know iteration of content that you're putting out there. So, you know, in the case of an affiliate manager, I guess you know, if there were um a couple of USPs that you always wanted to kind of link your affiliate program to when you're doing recruitment or outreach, this tool could actually help everybody in your affiliate team to always kind of you know hit home and nail those uh USPs. So there'll be, you know, everybody will be speaking and singing from the same hymn sheet, as they say. Um so there's a time impact, which obviously becomes massive when you think about how much content you're creating as an affiliate, and there's also almost like a brand impact in terms of keeping everything succinct, especially when you're using outsourcing. So, you know, a lot of people are outsourcing their content to various agencies, to um uh, you know, like um VAs even that aren't unnecessarily part of your business or understand your brand. So, you know, it's almost like a gatekeeper for brand control in terms of tone of voice and the types of things that you want to put forward when you do repetitive content. So, how else have you seen affiliates using this product um, you know, to save time and money in their business? Are there any other practical applications from not only in the gaming industry, which is obviously um you know a big industry that I work in, but um in other industries like you know retail or finance? Are there any like key figures that you can tell us about that use your product that might be quite interesting to see how they're implementing it in their businesses?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh most of our affiliates fall under three buckets uh coaches, consultants, or freelancers. Okay. So they're actually using Text Expanner as a knowledge base because they're all experts in something. So let's use you, for example. I'm sure that you have an entire library of onboarding sequences or recruitment sequences. Well, that knowledge is worth money. So what people do is they're putting that information into Text Expander.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01And then so for an affiliate line, what they'll do is they'll offer that library because you can actually share groups to other people.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01So they share that group out to their audience and put their affiliate tracking code on it, which means you have to have text expander to get that knowledge. So every time they purchase a text expander, the affiliate gets the commission. Okay. But we're also seeing it with partners, they they kind of bundle it in with their value proposition. So if somebody hires me as an affiliate manager consultant, um, I want to give them that knowledge, and then I can actually help them set it up and teach them how to use it. And again, that's worth money. And our affiliates and our resellers, our partners are seeing that this is a huge value proposition for them to present to their customer base.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So almost like the affiliate becomes a consultant because they can actually help you to use this tool, help you to implement this tool, and help you to save money and time as well in terms of you know cost saving in making this content available. So um I think you mentioned once before that there was somebody quite famous that uses your tool. I know there's quite a lot of people that use your tool, which is why I wanted to get you on this podcast to just kind of push it into our community as well. So talk to me a little bit about some of the famous people that have used this product in the past, because I know that you've mentioned a couple of big brand names, and I thought it might be good just to put it in this podcast.
SPEAKER_01The one that makes me the most excited is um I listened to Tim Ferris, and he wrote a book in regards to how to save time. Uh he's like the the guru, and he was interviewing one of my absolute favorite entrepreneurship authors, which is Seth Godin. And in the podcast, they started talking about how they politely decline so many offers because they're always asked to speak or present. And uh, I believe Seth was the one who originally quoted that he uses Text Expander, that he has a snippet created for the no, I'm sorry, I can't present for you. And it turns out that Tim Ferris is actually using Text Expander. So for me to see these two people that I've known about in my professional life for so long using our product and and using it um in a way that you know saves them time, that was so exciting to me. It's like it's like that that moment where you're like, oh, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you can hear the angels going, oh, yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, amazing. So I mean, you know, it's actually quite interesting because you know, we think that these marketing gurus they know everything, they kind of you know create everything themselves. So it's really nice to know that they're using tools that are easily accessible to all of us as well, and and to hear how they're implementing those tools in their businesses. I mean, for me, I really see a massive opportunity in in the gaming space for um you know content writers, content marketing agencies to be using this tool, um, but also for you know heads of affiliates, especially from the branding side. So I know affiliates are a really big part of your business, which is how we connected in the first place. Um, so how have you seen some of the trends changing in affiliate marketing, especially after you know what we've been through with this worldwide pandemic? Where do you think opportunities are you know propping up to make more money and to use tools like this to automate some of the marketing functions that we have to do?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for our product, uh it's the fact that we have this huge shift to remote working, working from home. Yeah. My husband and I were actually talking about this, and I I would hate to see the world um having to go through the pandemic without so many cloud-based software.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, because it allowed us to quickly migrate from one place to another. Um and that's what we're seeing the most is that this uptick in remote remote workers and them needing a way to synchronize their language with themselves plus their team members. And you know, and it, you know, cloud-based gives us the uh opportunity to work where we want to work, but then also communicate with everybody else where they work, which is not in the same building anymore. So and we're seeing affiliates really take advantage of that because you know, it's it's our right now, it's everybody's world. And any way that we can actually bring people together so that they can, you know, verbalize and use language better, that's the goal. And text expander is really popping up to be that aspect.
SPEAKER_00And does text expander offer um you know analytics or data in terms of you know what content is where can you do like A V testing in the product as well to s so that you can tweak your content? Does it allow you that function?
SPEAKER_01It it doesn't allow it, but you could you could create two different snippets. So you could, you know, uh name B would be one, and then for the next person, dot name C. And then you could go ahead and do it that way. And it's easily you to duplicate your original one and kind of edit it. So okay.
SPEAKER_00So it's quite user-friendly. Because that's also the other thing, is that I think as we're moving into a more digital world where marketing automation and time-saving tools are becoming more important, um, you know, it's really you need to have user-friendly tools like this that are easy for anybody to implement, no matter what their skills level is in terms of technology. Um, and especially with the remote breaking that we've had to work through now, where you can't literally sit next to your colleague and say, This is how it works, you know. So having tools like this with you know really simple ways to implement is is super important. So the last question that I wanted to ask you on this podcast today is just how do you think tools like this will change the way that we do business in future? I mean, you you've spoken a little bit about the remote working, but you know, how you know, time becoming, you know, time is money, we always say that. But you know, how do you think that tools like this are gonna really change and adapt the way that businesses operate in future?
SPEAKER_01You know, people are becoming more aware in regards to how much time we're wasting on repetitive things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, we're being introduced to things like Staffier or Google's uh predictive text or you know, just things like Text Expander, and we're getting used to those. And because of that, uh, we're expecting more of that. We're we're actively going out looking for software that's going to save us time. Yeah. Um, you know, for me personally, I hate doing repetitive things. It's just it's a waste of my time, and I'll spend the first two hours actually procrastinating on why I don't want to do it, yeah, or or looking for that software that'll do it for me. Yeah. Um, I think that's gonna happen more often because people are realizing that with technology comes shortcuts, ways to make the things that we don't care about go away, but get done so that we can focus on the things that we really do care about. And for content marketing, you know, it's it's writing. We want to be able to write without having to go research the correct spelling of text expander. Because you just go ahead and put that into text expander itself and you do dot TT and it comes out as text expander, you know. These are little things that we don't realize we're spending so much time on, but we're starting to realize that. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I definitely think that that kind of carries through because the next generation, I mean, I look at my son, and he, you know, anything to say, you know, he doesn't even want to press the button on the remote, he just wants to press the screen and get to where he wants to be. So I think that's a natural kind of cultural thing that's changing um in our communities. Absolutely. I think affiliates are becoming a little bit more aware of um as they get big, you know, because they start out small, everybody starts out small when they're when they're being open up an affiliate business, but as they get bigger and as they add more people to their team, they need to start looking at tools and technology to keep everything on track. So I I I think I agree with you in terms of the fact that we are becoming more savvy with what we do with our time, especially with the repetitive tasks. So I'm quite keen to see how um you know this product gets taken up in our community because I think it's fairly new to us. And I'm really, really grateful for your time today to come on board and actually explain a little bit more about how the product works and how it saves time and how it can also help with branding, um, because I think those tools are really, really important for affiliates to use. So I just want to thank you for being here and for sharing your knowledge and for giving us all of those wonderful stats too. Yeah, thank you for having me.