Let’s Improve your SaaS Pricing For immediate consultation and advice on all things SaaS, schedule a 60-minute meeting with me via Clarity. If you feel a more involved engagement is required for me to help you, email me with the specifics of your situation (as much detail as you’re comfortable giving) and we’ll setup a meeting to work […]
SaaS Pricing: The Basics
February 27, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Let’s Improve your SaaS Pricing For immediate consultation and advice on all things SaaS, schedule a 60-minute meeting with me via Clarity. If you feel a more involved engagement is required for me to help you, email me with the specifics of your situation (as much detail as you’re comfortable giving) and we’ll setup a meeting to work […]
SaaS and Web Apps: Increase Your Free Trial Conversion Rate
February 20, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Introducing Lincoln Murphy’s Virtual Consulting program focused on Free Trial Optimization for your SaaS or Web App and 100% Guaranteed to help Increase your free-to-paid Conversion Rate! Do you ever wonder why, even though you offer an amazing SaaS or Web App that meets a real market need, you’re not reaching your sales and revenue goals? […]
SaaS Free Trial Conversion Rate Optimization Resource Guide
February 18, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
If you’re like a typical SaaS provider, a substantial amount of your sales are online which means your SaaS Free Trial Conversion Rates are directly correlated with revenue. A poor performing Free Trial means you have lower revenue than you should… and that’s a problem. I put together this list of my best resources to […]
Where is Your Ideal Customer on the Awareness Ladder?
February 3, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I recently gave my clients some interesting questions to ask themselves… and I thought you might want to ask yourself these questions, too. If someone looks at your marketing site – main page, pricing page, sign-up page, whatever – for 5 seconds, what will they think your app does? If your ideal customer looks at […]
What’s the biggest issue you’re dealing with right now?
January 26, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I do what I do for one reason… to help SaaS & Web App vendors be more successful. Period. If I’m not doing that, I’m not doing my job. Some I will help be more successful by working with them 1-on-1 or through programs like the Free Trial Dominator (which is awesome, IMHO). But others […]
Your Signup Form is Hurting Your Free Trial Conversions!
January 10, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I had a SaaS vendor ask me the following question when I mentioned “average” Free Trial conversion rates: When we look at broad Free Trial conversion ratios, I would assume some of the variances may depend on how much information is required to sign up for a free trial. For example, there are a number […]
How to Offer Both Freemium and Free Trials
January 9, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I got this question from a SaaS vendor about offering both Freemium and Free Trial options and I wanted to share my response to him with you. UPDATED FOR 2015! Our current app has two pricing tiers – free and paid. Simple pricing has its advantages! We’re coming out with a major redesign of the […]
SaaS Customer Retention: The Secret to Reducing your Churn Rate
January 4, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
When it comes to SaaS Customer Retention, I get questions like this frequently: Hi Lincoln, I’d like to hear your perspective on minimizing churn, especially in an industry with steadily declining prices, Adding more value with a better customer experience and more product functionality to mitigate price erosion and churn helps. Better segmentation. What else? Churn […]
What’s Your Biggest Challenge in 2012?
December 30, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I believe in moving forward, not looking back. So my question as we go into 2012 is this: What’s Your Biggest Challenge as a SaaS or Web App Vendor in 2012? Is it making your Free Trials more effective at creating customers? Coming up with the right Pricing? How to handle Competition? Whether to go […]
Average Free Trial Conversion Rates… and why they don’t matter
December 28, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I get asked what the average Free Trial conversion rate is or “what’s a good conversion rate” all the time. But since I’m not an analyst or researcher I don’t have industry-wide data, but even if I did, well… you’ll see. Softletter (the SaaS University folks) on the other hand collects and publishes this type […]
What’s the Ideal SaaS Free Trial Length?
December 27, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
So, what’s the ideal Free Trial period is for SaaS and Web Apps? As you can imagine, I get asked that a lot. Sure, the 30-day Free Trial is common among B2B SaaS & Web App vendors, but there aren’t any rules. And with everything from 14-day to 60-day (and longer) trials appearing frequently I […]
Year-End Free Trial Conversion Ideas
December 26, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Today is December 26, 2011. You have 6 days – including today – until the year 2011 is over and done with. So what are you doing to convert those currently in your Free Trial to customers in 2011? It isn’t too late to convert them! I’m willing to bet that you have some users […]
Classical Freemium Doesn’t Exist At Scale
December 25, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
“Classical Freemium” is the marketing tactic where a SaaS or Web App vendor offers a Free-in-Perpetuity version of a product or service, often feature- or usage-limited, as well as a version of the same product or service with less limitations to which the vendor will attempt to up-sell the user. NOTE: I originally published this […]
SaaS Free Trials: Common Problems with Sign-up Forms
December 22, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I just posted the video from the 12/21 Group Coaching call to the Free Trial Dominator site. I started by showing an email sent by 37Signals to former prospects as a way to get them to come back. It used the “updated feature” method. I reviewed the marketing sites – from the marketing site, to […]
Focus on People, not Features, in 2012 (Happy Holidays!)
December 21, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
For a lot of us, the holidays are a time of reflection. Looking back on 2011, I’d say this has been one wild and crazy year! I’ve spent a ton of time working with the best SaaS & Web App companies on the planet to get them more customers. Save for the occasional social network […]
The Free Trial Secrets of 100’s of SaaS vendors… just for you
December 20, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Peter Drucker famously said “The purpose of a business is to create a customer.” I say “The purpose of a Free Trial is to create a customer.” If you believe my version, then the Free Trial Dominator is for you. I’m capping Charter Memberships at the first 10 members and I’ll close it down as […]
SaaS & Web Apps: Optimize Your Pricing Page for 2012
December 18, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Your Pricing Page is the most important marketing page on your site. Don’t believe me? Think about this… if 100% of your sales come from the Pricing Page, then you better believe that it’s the most important page on your site! And it better be designed to convert! There are some very specific things that […]
SaaS Customer Success Experts Resource Guide
November 20, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
To efficiently scale your business, you must keep your SaaS churn rate low and constantly strive to improve Customer Success, reduce churn, improve customer retention, and growth Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). I put together this list of my best resources to help you keep your customers and grow your SaaS business. SaaS Churn and it’s Effect […]
SaaS Freemium Model Resource Guide
November 20, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I put together this list of my BEST SaaS Freemium posts just for you. I hope it helps! Freemium or Free Trial? Ask a Better Question State of B2B Freemium 2013 (Slides from my presentation) Pivot to Profit: Ditch Freemium and Start Making Money SaaS Freemium Customer Acquisition Costs There are 7 Types of Freemium and […]
The 7 Secrets to DOMINATING Your Free Trials
November 11, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
In addition to the years I’ve been working with SaaS & Web App vendors, I’ve spent 2011 totally immersed in the business of free and have helped dozens of companies – from super early startups to MASSIVE $B/year companies – completely DOMINATE their free trials. Nothing else I’ve done has produced such AWESOME results – […]
Web App Pricing: How To Avoid the Commodity Trap
October 10, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
SaaS vendors who know their customers know what they don’t value and avoid building a pricing strategy around those elements. A client of mine – an established SaaS company in the HR space – wanted to pass on the storage costs associated with the use of the system to their end-customer. I told them that […]
Can You Answer These 15 Questions About Your Free Trial?
October 4, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
SaaS & Web App Vendors: These are 15 Questions About Your Free Trials That You Should Be Able to Easily Answer What are you doing to engage customers BEFORE they sign-up for your Free Trial? How many of your Free Trial sign-ups become active users? What are you doing to increase the number of active users […]
Stop Obsessing About Your Competitors
September 28, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Focus on Your Customers and How Your Web App Solves Their Problems First. I wanted to continue with the Competitive Pricing theme of the last post. You know when you go to the marketing site for a SaaS app and there is a “how we compare to our competitors grid?” How often do you discover […]
Competitor Pricing… Does It Matter?
September 19, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
“Wait… what about competitor pricing?” you ask. I recently published a post where I had the audacity to suggest that value pricing required only two inputs: The Customer’s Willingness to pay (value perception) The Customer’s Ability to pay (how, when, why, where, how) Since I got a number of emails with the same question – […]
Price Objections are Value Objections
September 14, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
It’s not your price that they object to… it’s the value they don’t like. There are times where the price – the number – is so out of whack with the reality of the market that no matter how valuable you make your offering seem, they simply cannot afford it. Like promoting the value of […]
Wait… You Actually WANT to Be Average?
September 6, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
What’s the average conversion rate for free trials, pricing pages, or Freemium with SaaS or Web Apps? There are some fundamental problems with “average conversion rate” which is why people rarely like my standard answer of: “It depends” or my more direct answer of “why, so you can be average?” Look, if you have a […]
Offer a Free Trial of your Web App? Don’t EVER do this…
August 31, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Are conversions from Free Trial to Paid Customer not as high as you’d like? You work hard at Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) on the front end (including your Pricing Page), you pay a lot to get people into your Free Trial through advertising, and you just can’t seem to convert enough of them into paying […]
The SECRET to $1M ARR in 6 Months is 9 Customers
August 30, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
It’s easier than you think to get to $1M in annual revenue with your SaaS app. To have a $1,000,000 per year run rate, you need to bring in $2740 per day… roughly. Pardon me if my math is off a bit… this is just one of those posts to get you thinking… your mileage […]
My EVIL Method to Reduce SaaS Churn
August 26, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Want to know how to TRICK your customers into wanting to keep using your product so you can reduce your SaaS churn rate? Well, I’ll tell you exactly what TRICK to use, though… spoiler alert… it’s not really a “trick.” Just keep reading. BTW, what I’m going to tell you got GetResponse an almost instant 15% drop in […]
SaaS Affiliate Marketing: Your Virtual Salesforce
August 24, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
One benefit of SaaS Affiliate Marketing is knowing exactly what your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) will be! Whether you’ve considered creating an affiliate marketing program for your SaaS or Web App – or not – or even if you currently have one, you NEED to watch my interview with Jack Born. BTW, here are three […]
There are 7 Types of Freemium and Why That Matters…
August 23, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
You think you know Freemium in SaaS? Think again! In 2009 I released the version of “The Reality of Freemium in SaaS” PDF and since then the “Freemium” landscape in SaaS has continued to evolve rapidly. Freemium use in B2B technology / software / SaaS / Web Apps / Cloud (whatever) is evolving and I […]
Why OfficeDrop Went Freemium… and how Mobile Apps forced their hand
August 19, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Was OfficeDrop forced into Freemium at phone-point? Healy Jones, VP Marketing at OfficeDrop, told me exactly how leveraging mobile apps made Freemium the right strategy for them. Do you prefer to listen on the go? Download the .mp3 audio file (33.7MB) here. Wistia has kindly donated business video hosting to me, which pretty much makes […]
Copywriting for Geeks Author Marc-Andre Cournoyer Teaches You How to Sell Your App
August 16, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Is Writing Good Sales Copy still Important? For SaaS & Web App companies it is EVEN MORE IMPORTANT today than ever before! Wistia has kindly donated business video hosting to me, which pretty much makes them awesome! This is why I interviewed Marc-Andre Cournoyer, author of “Copywriting for Geeks” and have shared it with you […]
Assistly Marketing VP Tells You Why They Dropped Tiered Pricing and Picked Up Freemium
August 11, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
UPDATE: Assistly was acquired by Salesforce.com shortly after we did this interview… they are now Desk.com. I sat down and chatted with Assistly’s SVP of Marketing Matt Trifiro via Video Skype and he spilled his guts for you about why Assistly changed their pricing, adopted Freemium, and set out to disrupt the market… all at […]
Web App Sales Funnel: 2 Questions You MUST Answer
February 17, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy
SaaS and Web App companies must manage marketing metrics, but before diving in too deep, answer these two questions. What if I told you there are two questions that you probably don’t immediately know the answer to but if you did would absolutely change your view of your self-service “sales funnel?” Would you want to […]
SaaS Customer Success: Technology Will Fail, but Service Must Never
December 20, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
As a SaaS company focusing on Customer Success, you are in a unique position to offer proactive support to your customers; anything less is unacceptable! Alternate title: SaaS Vendors Should Learn What NOT To Do from Citrix So, I’m not sure if you heard (you probably did if you follow me on Twitter!), but the […]
SaaS Business Model Resource Guide
December 18, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I put together this list of my BEST SaaS Business Model & Architecture resources just for you. I hope it helps! Software Vendors: The Cloud is Not Magic (but it can be very Profitable!) SaaS Business Architecture Overview (PDF) The 7 SaaS Revenue Streams Report (PDF) Think You’re Ready for SaaS? Think Again! (PDF) SaaS Companies […]
SaaS Distribution and Promotion Resource Guide
December 18, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I put together this list of my BEST SaaS Distribution & Promotion posts just for you. I hope it helps! How to Get in Front of your Ideal Customers Traffic Hacking: 43 ways to get quality prospects to your site 100 Places to Promote Your SaaS or Web App (Part 1) 100 Places to Promote Your […]
