2020 was the year of free. And 2021 is the year of reaping the rewards. Let's dig into what happened when SaaS companies started to give away their products.
%+27788225528 love spells in new york Psychic Readings, Attraction spells,Bri...
What Happened After SaaS Companies Introduced Free Offerings Last Year
1. Freemium – Websites + Marketing
Freemium – 10 users free, all products
Freemium – Free community edition Lower price – 50%
discount for Starter
Suite
Freemium – Free for teams
Free trial – 14 days
Free trial – Free April
Freemium – Video meetings
Free trial – Up to 90 days
Freemium – Free for up to 5 users Freemium – Free tier Freemium – Free for teams
2.
3. Introduced freemium in 2020
• Tested freemium as a small-scale experiment in
Spring 2020 for their Websites + Marketing product.
product.
• Have since increased the experiment to 50% of US
visitors.
• Result = Millions of new sign-ups, higher than
expected conversion.
• KPIs = sign-ups, 7-day conversion, 90-day
conversion rates.
• Freemium is a “tailwind to our business for years to
come.” – CEO Aman Bhutani
Source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4405547-godaddy-inc-gddy-ceo-aman-bhutani-on-q4-2020-results-earnings-call-transcript
4.
5. Added free tiers for all products in Fall
2019
• The products are “always free for 10 users”
• Now any user at an existing customer can sign
up for a free version – they don’t need admin
approval to get started.
• Result = higher TOFU, longer tail of conversion,
conversion, net revenue headwind for the fiscal
fiscal year.
• KPIs = sign-ups, active usage, adoption of new
products among existing customers.
• Free is building “a big base of customers and
potential customers underneath our business.” –
CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes
Source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4401891-atlassian-corporation-plc-team-ceo-scott-farquhar-on-q2-2021-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single
6.
7. Launched free community offering in
Q3 2020
• The free product includes an unlimited number of
of users and repositories, but with limited storage (2
(2 GB) and CI/CD minutes (2,000).
• Goal was to create a a friction-free way for users to
to evaluate JFrog products before purchase.
• Result = big increase in registrations, free sales
pipeline.
• KPIs = new registrations, sales funnel influence,
conversion from free to paid, enterprise-scale
subscriptions originating from the free offering.
• “We continue to see rapid adoption of this free
version… thousands of registrations choosing JFrog,
starting as users and then entering the sales funnel.”
– CEO Shlomi Ben Haim
Source: https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/02/12/jfrog-ltd-frog-q4-2020-earnings-call-transcript/
8.
9. 10
Launched a 14-day free trial
• Despite an average new deal size of $100,000+, Appian
launched a 14-day free trial in 2020.
• The goal is to put the best foot forward during the “hidden”
part of the sale before a customer would usually contact
Appian.
• Result = some influence on pipeline; appears to be too early
to tell.
• KPIs = sign-ups, pipeline development
• “I think it was a really good step and… we’ve
experienced some good pipeline development as a result
of our free trial… I think it suits our situation pretty well
even though you might not have expected it from an
enterprise software vendor.” – CEO Matt Calkins
Source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4407317-appian-corporations-appn-ceo-matt-calkins-on-q4-2020-results-earnings-call-transcript
10.
11. Increased free trial length from 14 days to
90 days in the pandemic
• During the height of the pandemic, Shopify increased
increased their free trial length. They’ve since moved
moved it back to 14 days.
• When the trial was extended, Shopify saw a
“dramatic” increase in merchants coming to the
platform; however, that slowed toward the end of the
the offer period.
• Result = Acted like a promotion – increased sign-ups;
ups; conversion rates were high quality; likely slowed
slowed down free to paid conversion.
• KPIs = Sign-ups, free to paid conversion.
• “We will selectively deploy it going forward. We think
generally the 14 day free trial is working well.” – CFO
Amy Shapero
Source: https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/02/17/shopify-shop-q4-2020-earnings-call-transcript/
12. Offered free access to its platform during the
month of April
• Ran Free April as a campaign at the height of the
pandemic. It generated more than 1 million new user
user sign-ups (for context, they had 1.3M total
paying B2B users when they launched it.)
• Despite the free month, were able to maintain B2C
B2C billings and improve revenue year-over-year.
year. Meanwhile, it generated pipeline for the B2B
B2B offerings at a very low cost per acquisition.
• Result = Higher demand for the product, more B2B
B2B pipeline, low cost of acquisition from free leads.
leads.
• KPIs = Sign-ups, individual engagement,. B2B
pipeline generation, CAC payback.
• “It’s by far been our most successful campaign that
we’ve ever had.” – CFO James Budge
Source: https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2020/07/30/pluralsight-inc-ps-q2-2020-earnings-call-transcrip.aspx
13. 14
Reduced the price of its Starter Growth Suite to
$50/month
• The price was slashed by >50% from $113/month to
$50/month.
• The idea was to offer small customers all the tools they need
to grow.
• Result = record new customer growth, from 3-4k per quarter
to 8-9k per quarter.
• KPIs = new paid sign-ups, usage rates, retention rates,
upgrade rates.
• “And boy, that’s done really well. We’re very happy with
what’s going on here. Customers are signing up. They’re
being retained nicely. They’re upgrading.” – CEO Brian
Halligan
Source: https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2020/11/06/hubspot-inc-hubs-q3-2020-earnings-call-transcript/
14.
15. 16
Made Cloudflare free for teams
• Launched Cloudflare for Teams in January and made it free
for any business from March until September 1.
• Claimed that “thousands of companies ranging from small
businesses to Fortune 500” took the offer; saw 75% free to
paid conversion on the product. Decided to extend the free
offer for small orgs and small teams.
• Result = Added 10,000 paying customers in Q4 2020, almost
as many as they had in all of 2019
• KPIs = Free sign-ups; free to paid conversion
• “The acceleration in paying customer growth was
primarily driven by increased new product adoption from
free to paying customers.” – CFO Thomas Seifer
Source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4405572-cloudflare-inc-net-ceo-matthew-prince-on-q4-2020-results-earnings-call-transcript
16.
17. 18
Introduced a free tier in July
• Introduced a generous perpetual free tier for developers in July
2020.
• Free tier includes 100 GB of data per month. This replaced
products that developers would have previously paid for.
• Result = 10x the number of developers are actively using the
product within that level of usage; saw modest downshift in
revenue from those who’d otherwise be paying; up to 1,000 free
to PAYG customers as of February.
• KPIs = Free tier adoption; developer engagement; revenue
cannibalization; conversion to PAYG customers.
• “We’re really encouraged by the early signs of success with
[the] free tier… in the first few months, we are seeing 10
times the number of developers actively engaging with the
platform at those previous couple of thousand dollar spend
level.” – CPO Bill Staples
Source: https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/02/05/new-relic-newr-q3-2021-earnings-call-transcript/
18.
19. 20
Introduced a free tier
• Introduced a free plan in September 2020. This is meant for
small teams of 5 or fewer.
• Highlighted that they have strong gross margins, giving them
room to experiment with freemium. Freemium helps build the
brand and expand their reach.
• Result = Still in the early days (<2 months of data until the
earnings call); claim that they’re seeing “really good conversion
rates so far.”
• KPIs = Free account sign-ups; free to paid conversion; brand
awareness.
• “Our new free offering has been well received and the
number of companies benefiting from our platform, both
paid and free, grew by more than 18% over the prior year.” –
CFO Howard Wilson
Source: https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2020/12/04/pagerduty-inc-pd-q3-2021-earnings-call-transcript/