Growth-oriented Customer Success
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 … [Continue reading]
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, … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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; … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
