Last week we soft-launched our SaaS & Web App Pricing Page Tune-Up™ service without much fanfare outside of a few tweets. Our marketing site for the service is in its early stages and, thanks to George, is still an evolving work in progress.
But since the tweets went out, and especially after the services were mentioned in my 47Hats guest post on "Pricing is Marketing", many people have asked exactly what is included with a Pricing Page Tune-Up™. Some have even insisted, without knowing anything about how it works, that this type of service must be automated, generic, and useless due to its low price point.
Based on all of that, I decided it best to formally introduce this service and to go into some detail on how the service works and what you get while we continue to build out the service's marketing website.
Personally, I am very excited about this service because it brings something to startups and small SaaS or Web App companies that is greatly needed but has traditionally been out of their grasp due mostly to cost. Where cost wasn't an issue, the reality that the traditional pricing industry does not have the depth of knowledge around SaaS or Web Apps (or any companies that use an Integrated Business Architecture) often kept clients from getting the most from their relationships with pricing consultants.
Those consultants simply could not bring the SaaS and Web App experience and knowledge that Sixteen Ventures can bring, especially around Revenue Modeling. But even with Sixteen Ventures, there was still a cost issue. It is not cheap to retain us, which is why we came up with our $499.99 Quick Start program. But we wanted to do more.
So, we developed a way that allows us to bring our advanced pricing knowledge and techniques, along with our Revenue Modeling frameworks and tool sets to SaaS and Web Startups at a fraction of the expense of retained consulting. But no one should worry about us... we built a scalable and efficient model that allows us to keep the price low.
This is not because we have a process that spits out canned responses and sends a generic whitepaper, but because we architected this process from the ground up with this goal in mind. We're not setting out to be the "low price leader" but we certainly can accommodate a lower price because of the economies of scale built into the system. After all, we are a SaaS consultancy... we get this stuff.
This service provides a review of, and suggestions to fix a Pricing Page, not necessarily a company's overall Pricing Strategy. For SaaS & Web App companies, the pricing page is a window into its pricing strategy, so significant problems with a pricing page often indicate deeper, more substantial problems with their overall pricing strategy. Sometimes it isn't a lack of a pricing strategy, its just an inability to properly align their marketing with that strategy.
For companies that find they do have a problem with their overall Pricing Strategy, they can use the feedback from the Tune-Up or Overhaul to help them move in the right direction, whether that is trying to fix the problem themselves or further engaging with Sixteen Ventures.
This service consists of two discreet offerings differentiated by the depth of the review and the amount of actionable feedback given.
The Pricing Page Tune-Up™ is perfect for pre-launch or early-stage bootstrapped startups or if your market is fragmented with little data to turn to. We identify glaring problems and highlight items that need immediate attention without overloading you with too much information.
The Pricing Page Overhaul™ is ideal for later-stage or larger SaaS and Web App companies or companies, those that have already received a Tune-Up, or companies who are comfortable receiving a large amount of feedback and information.
We do this in a way that is:
- Not 100% automated - This is not like Website Grader from Hubspot, which is a great product for what it does. There are real human beings with expertise in this process. Some pieces are automated, though... but not where it counts.
- Not crowd sourced - We don't go to Amazon Mechanical Turk or otherwise use the wisdom of crowds here; it's all Sixteen Ventures' staff and consultants
- Sourced from Sixteen Ventures experts - SaaS, Web App, and Pricing consultants perform and complete the Tune-Up and Overhauls. While it's a great resource for UX or UI testing, we are not like Usertesting.com where they have untrained individuals give you feedback.
- Not Focused on A/B Testing or Analytics - While we want baseline analytics to test your Pricing Page Score™ and future improvements against future bounce rates and A/B tests, our Pricing Page Tune-Up™ and Overhaul service does not have a built-in testing or analytics engine. We recommend A/B testing and two resources are Unbounce (disclosure: Unbounce got a Tune-Up from us) or VisualWebsiteOptimizer. For analytics check out KISSMetrics or Google Analytics.
We've already done Tune-Ups or Overhauls for OfficeDrop, Unbounce, Rypple, Indicee, Oquma, and many others. For one company, the process exposed a key element they can use to differentiate from the competition. For another company we showed why their Freemium conversion rate was so high and why that actually was not a good thing.
At a minimum, each Pricing Page Tune-Up™ or Overhaul report will help you understand:
- How well your Pricing Page aligns with your pricing strategy goals based on goals outlined by our client
- How your current pricing page reflects or dictates your market position
- How to make changes to your pricing page to improve your market position
- How your Pricing Page stacks up against up to 5 competitors via our Express Compare™
If you sign-up for a Pricing Page Tune-Up™, you will receive a PDF report with the results of the ~50 point inspection plus the Express Compare and Goal Alignment. Pricing Page Overhaul™ adds an inspection of another ~50 points for a more in-depth review of your pricing page. Both reviews include inspection points from the following categories:
- Overall Page Design
- Call to Action
- Use of Free
- Market Segmentation
- Pricing & Bundling
- Marketing Strategy Alignment
- ... and more!
Author: Lincoln Murphy (@lincolnmurphy on Twitter)