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 … [Continue reading]
SaaS Pricing Model: Value Metrics Are Key
December 7, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Your SaaS Pricing Model should be built around what the customer values, which probably means staying away from "commodity" metrics like storage. I find most articles about "SaaS Pricing Model" to be less-than-helpful because they almost always … [Continue reading]
SaaS Marketing – Web App Pricing Page Review: Salesforce.com
November 15, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
A look at Salesforce.com's pricing page to see if the SaaS leader views it as a Marketing page. I asked - both on Twitter and this blog - for people to send in what they thought were well-designed SaaS Pricing Pages. Someone that follows me on … [Continue reading]
Your Revenue Crutch is Killing Your SaaS Startup
November 12, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Web Apps and Software-as-a-Service that comes from consulting companies or other service businesses can be lucrative but can be held back by non-scalable revenue streams. Do you have a less-scalable revenue stream that you rely on even though it is … [Continue reading]
37Signals Caught Treating SaaS Pricing Page like a Marketing Page
November 1, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
The popular Web App company actively tests their pricing page layout. I was asked over the weekend if I saw the noise about 37Signals raising their prices. I had not so it was very nice to hear from colleagues looking for my opinion on the matter. … [Continue reading]
SaaS Growth Hacking Experts Resource Guide
October 5, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Growth Hacking isn't a set of tactics or just about getting cheap traffic to your website... Growth Hacking is a mindset. It's not just about getting traffic on the cheap; it's about understanding and exploiting customer behavior, technology, and … [Continue reading]
SaaS Free Trial: Feature or Time-Limited?
October 5, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Freemium is free-forever, Free Trials have time limits and the psychology of the two COULDN'T BE MORE DIFFERENT! I got this question from some random person and I thought you might be interested in in my response. Feel free to comment if you … [Continue reading]
Web Apps use Customer Support to Increase Revenue
October 4, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
SaaS vendors know getting the sale is just the first step; keeping the customer means keeping them happy and that a happy customer will generate more revenue over time! A client that I am working with on their Pricing Strategy just sent me the … [Continue reading]
Does Goldilocks Pricing Work for SaaS?
September 15, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
A Pricing Strategy for SaaS built for the sole purpose of nudging customers away from a decoy price to the middle version can work. I was asked for my thoughts on this question someone posted on Quora: "Based on your real-world experiences, does Hal … [Continue reading]
As SaaS Matures, so will SaaS Pricing
June 21, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
The common SaaS per-user, per-month subscription revenue model is rapidly evolving. From time to time I feel I must remind everyone - buyers, sellers, pundits, commentators, & analysts - that SaaS is not a pricing model or pricing strategy. From … [Continue reading]
5 SaaS Pricing Mistakes to Avoid
June 11, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
For SaaS & Web App companies, Subscription Revenue is a no-brainer, but doing it right is not! There are many pitfalls Web App & SaaS companies need to look out for when it comes to pricing. If you keep the "Pricing is Marketing" mantra … [Continue reading]
SaaS Pricing: Please Learn From the Zendesk Fiasco
May 18, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
It is time for SaaS & Web App startups to sit up and pay attention. SaaS Pricing is very important to your venture but not just to ensure you make a profit or cover expenses. It is so much more than that and you should seek to get it as right as … [Continue reading]
Cloud Acquisitions Create New Opportunities
May 12, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
So you've built a killer SaaS product and [Google or Oracle or Microsoft or...] just bought your big competitor; is this good or bad for you? NOTE: This post is originally from May 2010, but the last two years have been full of Legacy Software … [Continue reading]
SaaS Distribution: Time to Change the Channel
May 12, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Do SaaS products require, or can they benefit from, distribution through a 3rd party? I've written in the past about SaaS channels and how most people are doing it wrong, and there seems to be renewed interest in this topic. Unfortunately, things … [Continue reading]
SaaS, Web Apps, or Just ‘Apps’?
April 20, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
On my last trip to San Francisco I sat down with Matt Childs of DreamSimplicity to talk about the state of SaaS. We shot some video as we talked about how Google & Apple have changed the distribution landscape for SaaS & Mobile making App … [Continue reading]
SaaS Pricing: Commodity Metrics and the $240 GB
March 31, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
SaaS pricing strategies that use low-value commodity metrics - like storage - to differentiate tiers force customers to make price comparisons that shouldn't be made. Updated for 2014 This topic came up with a client who wanted to pass on the … [Continue reading]
SaaS Pricing: Versioning for Market Segments
March 5, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Rags Srinivasan posted a great article titled "The Science of Optimal Versioning in SaaS" to his blog that talks about SaaS pricing. In the article, Rags talks about taking apply SaaS pricing to through different bundles of features at different … [Continue reading]
Free Trial Success Secret #7: The Four Phases of a Free Trial
February 16, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Free Trial Success Secret #7: The Four Phases of a Free Trial … [Continue reading]
Free Trial Success Secret #6: Perfect Free Trial Length
February 16, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Free Trial Success Secret #6: Perfect Free Trial Length … [Continue reading]
Free Trial Success Secret #5: Credit Cards are a Red Herring
February 16, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Free Trial Success Secret #5: Credit Cards are a Red Herring … [Continue reading]
Free Trial Success Secret #4: Measure the Right Things
February 16, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Free Trial Success Secret #4: Measure the Right Things … [Continue reading]
Free Trial Success Secret #3: Stop Confusing Freemium and Free Trials
February 16, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Free Trial Success Secret #3: Stop Confusing Freemium and Free Trials … [Continue reading]
Free Trial Success Secret #2: Get Your Product to Sell Itself
February 16, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Free Trial Success Secret #2: Get Your Product to Sell Itself … [Continue reading]
Free Trial Success Secret #1: No More Evaluations
February 16, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Free Trial Success Secret #1: No More Evaluations … [Continue reading]
7 Secrets to Increasing Conversions
February 13, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
When your sales process fails to convert customers, it's probably doing exactly what it was designed to do. Which is why even though you offer an amazing SaaS or Web App that meets a real market need, you're not making sales. Even though you … [Continue reading]
[Replay] 7 Secrets to Increasing Conversions with Free Trials
January 25, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
I took the video down... thanks for stopping by, though! … [Continue reading]
[Replay] 7 Secrets to Increasing Conversions with Free Trials
January 22, 2010 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Join the Free Trial Dominator Program for SaaS & Web Apps Today! The Free Trial Dominator is a private, members-only program that combines Content, Community, and Coaching to help you transform your underperforming SaaS & Web App Free Trial … [Continue reading]
SaaS Network Effect: Companies Should Exploit Aggregate Data
September 21, 2009 Article by Lincoln Murphy
SaaS providers must understand the difference between consumers of their apps, producers of SaaS network effect data and how to monetize both. ADP: A Case Study in Network Effects A quick update for 2013: ADP now processes payroll payments for 1 … [Continue reading]
SaaS Business Model – You Break It, You Buy It
September 17, 2009 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Web Apps don't get forked without a massive payday as motivation! When you draw the line in the sand and adopt the SaaS business model, you might be tempted by people asking you to break that model. These requests could include: A competitor … [Continue reading]
SaaS Business Model is About Rules, Not Exceptions
September 16, 2009 Article by Lincoln Murphy
SaaS Apps should be flexible, but never customized. For the vendor, the SaaS business model is about rules, not exceptions. Exceptions aren't scalable. For business scalability, you must shift focus to automated, repeatable processes. For … [Continue reading]
SaaS Success Requires Dropping the Legacy Baggage
August 26, 2009 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Don't try to force an on-premises, packaged software product to the cloud. Legacy software is a square peg and SaaS is a round hole. No matter how hard you try, forcing legacy, on-premises software to fit into the “SaaS model” is at worst not going … [Continue reading]
SaaS Companies Should Learn from Netflix
May 19, 2009 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Web Apps with Proactive Customer Service will win more – and keep more – customers than their competitors and Netflix should be the model. I often extol the virtues of the SaaS Business Architecture for vendors beyond just the typical "cost savings" … [Continue reading]
ASP vs SaaS – What’s the difference?
May 12, 2009 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Not all Web Apps are created equal and many people don't understand the difference between ASP vs SaaS or Software-as-a-Service. ASP vs SaaS - What's the difference and why is ASP a failed business model? This post was originally written in … [Continue reading]
The SaaS Single-Tenancy vs. Multi-Tenancy Debate
April 14, 2009 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Web Apps built from scratch rarely aren't Multi-Tenant; the debate only comes up with legacy software vendors migrating to SaaS and trying to justify their cutting corners. This post was originally written in 2009 and – while still very relevant – … [Continue reading]
Actionable Business Intelligence at your fingertips
October 18, 2007 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Originally published on October 18, 2007 You probably capture a lot of data in your web or SaaS app, but how often do you mine that data for Actionable Business Intelligence; information you can use to solve business problems, such as slumping … [Continue reading]
Fallout from Enterprise SaaS Series
March 10, 2007 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Originally published on March 10, 2007 I have received an amazing amount of feedback on the Enterprise SaaS series; just about everyone who read it has contacted me with mostly positive comments, but usually someone has at least one concern. I am … [Continue reading]
Pureplay Enterprise SaaS and Vendor Sustainability – Overview and Part 4
March 9, 2007 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Originally published on March 9, 2007 This series is to help Enterprise SaaS vendors with two potentially business-stopping problems; scalability and sustainability. I am attempting to address both the real-life objections seen in Fortune 1000 … [Continue reading]
Pureplay Enterprise SaaS and Vendor Sustainability – Part 3
March 9, 2007 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Originally published on March 9, 2007 After overcoming all of the objections in your control: existence, reliability, support, and scalability, you must now overcome the objections that are not in your control. These are the real show stoppers and … [Continue reading]
Pureplay Enterprise SaaS and Vendor Sustainability – Part 2
March 7, 2007 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Originally published on March 7, 2007 Starting a software company from scratch, on-premises or SaaS, is no small task. The barriers to entry into the Enterprise software market are significant to say the least. To top it off, there are a number of … [Continue reading]
Pureplay Enterprise SaaS and Vendor Sustainability – Part 1
March 6, 2007 Article by Lincoln Murphy
Originally published on March 6, 2007 The definition of Pureplay SaaS is where the SaaS vendor offers a completely hosted system with the customer needing nothing more than a standard PC with normal input devices to take full advantage of the … [Continue reading]
