For many SaaS and Cloud providers, email will be the main fuel for your Engagement Engine that you use to drive potential customers through your Free Trial to conversion or to drive new customers to become deeply invested in your service. SaaS customer onboarding starts with the welcome email, so when I saw this great post […]
SaaS Customer Onboarding: 3 Steps to a Successful Welcome Email
February 7, 2013 Article by Lincoln Murphy
SaaS Market Positioning: How to Compete in Crowded Markets
January 29, 2013 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Welcome to 2013 2014 2015 (still applies!)… it’s now time to figure out why your SaaS company even exists and what your market positioning is! If you’re a SaaS or Cloud provider in the Email Marketing, CRM, Project Management, File Sharing, Collaboration, Marketing Automation, Analytics,… or frankly most horizontal product categories… it’s time to do […]
SaaS Marketing Plan: 5 Ways to Get your App to Sell Itself
January 7, 2013 Article by Lincoln Murphy
When creating your SaaS marketing plan, you must understand that your business model of choice is a fully-integrated architecture where all aspects of the business – product, support, revenue model, and marketing – are tightly-coupled. Deviation from that model and understanding will affect growth, and most deviation occurs as a rift between marketing and product. “The […]
Common Conversion Activities (CCA): SaaS Free Trial Metric
December 21, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Before you read this article – which is really for companies that already have a good amount of customer data – I suggest reading a much more recent article “The Secret to Successful Customer Onboarding” which gives a much better perspective on how to design an onboarding (including Free Trial) flow. Once you’ve read that, come […]
5 Rules for SaaS Email Marketing and Transactional Messages
December 20, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
SaaS providers should use email to drive Engagement, Conversion, and Retention, but to achieve those goals, some rules should be followed. UPDATED FOR 2015! Regardless of the type of email – Transactional or Marketing – your email has to: Get Delivered Get to the Inbox Get Opened Get Read Get ‘Em to Take Action Bonus: […]
List of SaaS and Cloud Consultants and Analysts
December 20, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Sixteen Ventures is a SaaS consulting company and I’m a consultant. I help SaaS / Web App / Cloud providers go to market, acquire and retain customers, and grow. I don’t consider myself a SaaS or Cloud industry analyst; I actually spend more time analyzing other models outside of SaaS to see what’s working there; […]
Growth Hacking: 43 Ways to Drive Traffic to your Website
December 17, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
WARNING: In 2014 2015 2016, relying heavily on SEO to drive traffic to your website is a recipe for failure! Okay, that might be a bit harsh… maybe SEO isn’t dead, but things have changed and you need to look beyond SEO to drive traffic to your website. If you put all your eggs in […]
Beta Testing & Pricing: Examples (Video)
December 16, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Before you watch this video, you should watch the 25-minute Beta Testing & Pricing: A Hazardous Combination video for better context. In 2011 I pulled together this ~35 minute presentation for a group of SaaS entrepreneurs – literally overnight – where I explore the marketing sites of around 25 SaaS & Web App startups in Beta.
Beta Testing & Pricing: A Hazardous Combination (Video)
December 14, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Learn to avoid the pitfalls of publishing your Pricing while in Beta in this video presentation Are you in Beta and getting ready to move to production? Did you already publish your prices on your website? Or are you thinking about running an extended Beta testing period for your new app? Well, you only get […]
SaaS Marketing Plan: 100 Places to Promote Your App (Part 2)
December 14, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
You need to develop a robust SaaS marketing plan – but sometimes you just need to do some quick tactical things to get the ball rolling. First, see the first part of this series SaaS Marketing Plan: 100 Places to Promote your App (Part 1)… and then read this post.
SaaS Marketing Plan: 100 Places to Promote Your App (Part 1)
December 14, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
This is Part 1 in the series… here is SaaS Marketing Plan: 100 Places to Promote Your App (Part 2) if you want to jump ahead. Marketing isn’t just advertising… it’s really the totality of your SaaS business: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place (Distribution)… Okay, so you’ve got the product covered, right? If not, here are […]
SaaS Conversion Rate Lies: 97% won’t become customers, anyway
December 5, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I’m going to expose one of the biggest lies B2B SaaS Executives, Entrepreneurs, and Marketers tell themselves and their team about their SaaS conversion rate… and if this hits a nerve, it is probably because you’ve told yourself – or have been told by your team – this very same lie! “We have a 5% […]
How to Develop your SaaS Pricing Model
November 1, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Developing your SaaS Pricing Model isn’t Rocket Science, but even in the Rocket Science business, you need to price your work so you can sell it and make money! This post is awesome (IMHO), but there’s an even better, more recent one that’s specific to early-stage SaaS companies: Pricing Strategy Framework for SaaS Startups Just so […]
Pivot to Profit: Ditch Freemium and Start Making Money
October 17, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Let me be clear… I don’t hate Freemium. In fact, I don’t hate any marketing strategy, revenue model, or user acquisition method – including Freemium – I just think sometimes more thought needs to go into the selection – or subsequent ditching – of your business model. UPDATED FOR 2014! What I’ve seen in just […]
SaaS Customer Retention is the key to Long-term Profitability
October 16, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Profitability is one goal that most of the SaaS CEOs who ask me for help all share, and SaaS customer retention is the key to achieving that goal. Though, while they’re all focused on achieving profitability, how that is measured varies from company to company, for the sake of this post we’ll consider profitability to […]
SaaS Churn kills Growth; Customer Retention is a Growth Accelerator
October 15, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
SaaS Churn Kills Growth, Profit, and ultimately your SaaS Business… together we can end Retention Deficit Disorder today! Very often when I’m asked to help grow a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business, the CEO is often focused on Customer Acquisition strategies… the “how can we get more people into the top of the funnel?” issue. But when […]
SaaS Customer Retention Requires Ongoing Realization of Value
October 15, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Improve SaaS Customer Retention by helping your customers Continually Realize Value When we buy something without trying it first, this is based on what I call “Perception of Value.” When we buy something after trying it, this purchase is based on our “Realization of Value” during the trial. Makes sense, right? But what about Customer Retention? […]
Free Trials: Not just for Startups or toy Web Apps
October 3, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I am frequently asked to help SaaS, Web App, and Cloud companies on strategies to Accelerate Profitable Growth. One way we frequently achieve rapid and long-lasting results is by Accelerating Customer Acquisition through the Optimization of their Free Trial Strategy.
Why $1 Trials are a REALLY Bad Idea
September 22, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
It is well-known that I help B2B SaaS and Cloud companies achieve Profitable Growth, often by accelerating Customer Acquisition, improving SaaS conversion rates, and optimizing Free Trials. Because of that, I am often asked for my opinion or advice in public forums, like recently when I was asked about $1 Trials on Quora. At first, I […]
SaaS Pricing Model: How a 10x Price Increase lead to Happier Customers
August 22, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Stormpulse adjusted their SaaS pricing model by raising their prices 10x… and getting happier customers in the process. So I just had a Progress Check and Planning meeting with a retainer client, Matt from Stormpulse, who told me since they moved away from Freemium just 4 months ago to a Premium-only SaaS offering with a […]
Free Trial Frustrations from a SaaS CEO
August 22, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Have you ever wondered why people who sign-up for your Free Trial don’t turn into customers? Well, I got an email from the CEO of a SaaS document management company the other day and she was at her wits’ end wondering the same thing! She wrote me to vent her frustrations about her Free Trial […]
SaaS Free Trial: How Self-Service fits with a High-Touch Sales Process
August 22, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
How do you determine whether a self-service SaaS Free Trial is appropriate for your otherwise high-touch sales process? A SaaS Free Trial is an integral part of the sales process and not something separate… never forget that. So, whether you have a 100% automated, self-service sales model, a high-touch sales process, or a hybrid (many […]
Simply Offering a SaaS Free Trial Increases Conversions
August 14, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
For those companies who’ve offered a SaaS Free Trial and had it fail, it is hard to see how it could ever work. For those who’ve never offered a Free Trial, the idea of adding an extra 30 or 60 days to the sales cycle seems like a bad idea; they’re doing just fine, thank […]
SaaS Free Trial: Your Customer Qualification Machine
August 14, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I believe in the saying “high-tech allows for high-touch” and that we can use the self-service nature of the web – including your SaaS Free Trial – to not eliminate the human-powered sales force, but to scale it efficiently to let each salesperson work better leads and close more sales. In my experience, SaaS Free […]
SaaS Free Trial Optimization: When to start?
August 3, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Before you start Optimizing your SaaS Free Trial to improve free-to-paid Conversions, learn the 5 things that must be done first… Here are five things that are required before optimization really makes a lot of sense. You don’t want to spend a lot of time optimizing your Free Trial if these aren’t already in place. On […]
7 Tips for Software Vendors Moving to the Cloud
July 26, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
As a Strategic Consultant, I have worked with the Executive Teams of many Enterprise Software and Independent Software Vendors (ISV) to develop strategies for becoming Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Cloud Services vendors. …and I must say that I’ve come to what I consider to be a shocking conclusion: Far too many people think the Cloud is […]
How to keep App-generated Email from Being Marked Spam
July 26, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
The most concise definition of Transactional Email I could find (after a 7 second Google search) is: Email primarily containing information about current or prior business dealings, such as confirmation of a sale, a registration number, an invoice, or an opt-in or opt-out confirmation. Contrast this with “marketing email.” UPDATED FOR 2014! Transactional emails are those […]
SaaS Free Trial: Confused Minds Don’t Buy
July 25, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
When it comes to your SaaS free trial, complicated isn’t cool…it kills conversions! Confused minds don’t buy… they bounce, and take the money that you spent to get them to your site and their lifetime value as a customer with ’em! Look at your SaaS sales funnel, your Free Trial sign-up process, their first in-app […]
SaaS Free Trial Users are a Vanity Metric
July 6, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
There is no such thing as an “inactive user” in a SaaS free trial. You can’t be a “user” if you aren’t “using,” right? Makes sense. I think we get confused because in software the “user” connotation comes from the fact that a user is literally someone for whom an access account has been created. […]
SaaS Pricing Page Design: Highest Price on the Left?
May 20, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
SaaS pricing page design is always evolving, and when I created the Pricing Page Success Formula for SaaS and Web Apps in 2009, the jury (me) was still out on whether placing the high priced version of your product on the left and moving lower to the right really mattered.
SaaS Conversion Rate: A Simple Trick to DOUBLE Your Revenue
April 15, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
When your Free Trial fails to convert customers, it drives down your SaaS conversion rate by doing exactly what it was designed to do. Think about that for a second. There I was working on a ‘Optimizing SaaS Conversions’ presentation and I wrote this statement: For many SaaS & Web App vendors, 100% of sales […]
SaaS Pricing Strategy: The 10x Rule
March 26, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
First thing to clearly understand when developing your SaaS pricing strategy; pricing is a function of Marketing. If you think creating your SaaS pricing strategy is a function of Finance, Accounting, Operations, or even Sales… you’re doing it wrong. That means anyone who comes up with a price for their app (or for your app) […]
Display a Phone Number to Increase Conversions?
March 26, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Does displaying a Phone Number on your website Increase Conversions? I’ve been talking about Trust Factors and their effects for years and as I’ve done more work in this area others have taken an interest, too. For instance, LessAccounting got a 2% lift in paid conversions they were able to correlated directly to adding a phone number […]
SaaS Affiliate Marketing: How-To Supercharge Your Growth
March 26, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I’ve been asked if you can “quick start” a new venture or reinvigorate an existing offering with SaaS affiliate marketing? Here’s the answer I generally give… “it depends.” Okay, let me dig in a little deeper. SaaS affiliate marketing can really super-charge your growth, BUT if you don’t have everything in alignment (or your ducks […]
9 Ways to Instantly Improve Your PPC Results
March 25, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
The success of your Free Trial in converting customers is directly tied to the quality of prospects that enter the trial in the first place. That’s something I tell the Free Trial Dominator Premium Members all the time…. you’re success depends on your ability to attract the right audience. So this means that the Attention […]
Why SaaS Free Trial Optimization is So Important
March 20, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Over the years I’ve been called on by the CEOs and Executive Leadership of several hundred SaaS and Web App companies around the world to help them achieve Profitable Growth. In that time, I’ve learned a thing or two about the importance of Free Trials. For instance, I know that if you offer a Free […]
SaaS Free Trial: The #1 Reason You Fail to Convert Customers
March 19, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
The #1 reason your SaaS free trial is failing to convert customers is simple… Right after a prospective customer signs-up for your Free Trial, you fail to engage them. Data shows that prospects active in the first 3 days of a SaaS Free Trial – regardless of trial length – convert at a significantly higher […]
Switch from a Reactive to Proactive SaaS Free Trial
March 13, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
There are two types of SaaS Free Trials: Reactive and Proactive; you want to be one of the latter because they will convert more prospects to customers. Period. Reactive SaaS Free Trials Most SaaS & Web App vendors fall into this category, and their mindset about Free Trials is something like this: Get them to […]
SaaS Free Trials: The Shorter the Better?
March 12, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Most people don’t realize that the length of a SaaS Free Trial is just a marketing gimmick designed to get prospects into the trial. Sure, 30-day Free Trials are the de facto standard for SaaS apps, but whether it’s 7, 14, 15, or 30-days, few providers can say WHY they came up with that length. […]
SaaS Pricing Models Resource Guide
February 27, 2012 Article by Lincoln Murphy
When developing your Value Pricing Strategy you can leverage a variety of SaaS Pricing Models. From transparent pricing on your pricing page to Enterprise pricing that’s quoted behind the scenes, you must know your options. I put together this list of my best resources to help you get your SaaS Pricing Models right and grow […]
