Classical Freemium – a free and a "premium" version of the same product – doesn't exist at scale in B2B SaaS and I'll show you why.
The latest update to the "The Reality of Freemium in SaaS" paper titled "'Classical Freemium' doesn't exist at scale" shipped to the Sixteen Ventures mailing list today. It is not too late to get it. Sign-up for our mailing list and we'll send you a link to download the PDF. And as a member of the best SaaS mailing list in the world, you'll be the FIRST to get your hands on these upcoming updates:
- Freemium is a Pervasive, Fully-Integrated Marketing Strategy
- The Five Freemium Models <-- yes, there are different types of Freemium
- The increasing use of both Free Trials & Freemium by the same companies
- Overview of Requirements for Success in B2B SaaS Freemium
"Classical Freemium" is the marketing strategy or 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. This form of Freemium is actually on the decline as the primary go-to-market method for a number of valid reasons which are covered in "'Classic Freemium' doesn't exist at scale."
This update to the original Freemium paper explores how companies use Freemium to get a crtical mass of users and then monetize in ways other than upselling free users to the premium product. This is all about Revenue Modeling and embracing multiple revenue streams and often requires a lot of investment dollars to make work. But it is even more than that.
In this paper I talk about Helpstream - a failed SaaS Freemium business, Spiceworks, Hootsuite, Evernote, and Twitter and explore the real motivation behind the use of Freemium in many cases and how at scale the game changes considerably from user acquisition to revenue generation.
This update weighs in at just 7 pages and you can download the PDF when you join our mailing list.
If you like the paper, I'd love it if you shared that with your friends, colleagues, or even your followers on Twitter. Here's a pre-built tweet to help you do that. Just click here to update your status.
I also updated "Freemium isn't just for 'startups with nothing to lose'" to speak directly to how large, existing companies with existing product lines or those that might acquire smaller players might leverage Frreemium. It is a small, but powerful update to that paper. When you join the mailing list we'll send you a link to download that PDF, too.
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Go get this amazing video series for only $250 right now. As soon as you get it, immediately watch the 35-minute Value Pricing Basics for SaaS & Web Apps video; it will truly change the way you look not only at pricing, but your entire marketing strategy, your customers, and your offering as a whole!