Presented as part of the GTM class on March 12, 2018 at MIT's Winter 2018 Start Smart Class for Entrepreneurs. Focuses on funnel creation, self-serve onboarding, trial, pricing and Freemium considerations.

1. Onboarding and
Funnel Optimization
Jamieson Wright
Winter 2018 Start Smart Class for Entrepreneurs
March 12, 2018

2. Determining Optimum Onboarding Funnel - Questions to ask
Do I want to offer
Free?
Yes: Freemium or Free Product / Tool
No: How will I drive leads and trials
Do users sign up for
demo?
Yes: How will they schedule; what info req
No: Process for self-service customers
Do I offer a product
trial?
Yes: Signup / setup / length / no-touch / trial
end
No: Is value self-evident; will users buy; churn
What is Free upgrade
strategy?
Upgrade
levers:
Premium features; qualitative measure
(storage, API calls…); users; seats
Do I offer no-touch
sales?
Yes: When to get credit card; provider; renewal
No: Is this scalable
Purchase
Trial
Engagement
Understanding
Interest
Awareness
Funnel = Product Experience + Customer experience
Author: Jamieson Wright

3. Using Free

4. What is Free?
• Delivering a useful product with no strings attached
• Process for introducing premium or core product
• Marketing mechanism to drive leads and trials
• Site-wide process and a company-wide effort
• Scalable revenue driver (if done right)
Author: Jamieson Wright

5. Freemium or Free Product
Freemium Product
Quality stand-alone product
that directly promotes upgrade
to premium product
Requires user to complete trial
of premium product in order to
get Free; get user hooked
Designed to provide leads to
inside sales and drive trials
that result in direct revenue
Freemium Free Product
Quality stand-alone product
that meets a specific need for
customers in your space
Not necessarily a version of
your core product but does
compliment it’s usage
Introduces your brand and
and establishes trust for
follow-on engagement
Free Product
Author: Jamieson Wright

6. Why Offer Free?
Low Cost Engagement
• Hook that cuts through the clutter
• Disruptive to those in the space
• Establishes most qualified sales
channel for your premium product
Zero Cost Re-Engagement
• Even if users do not purchase, you’re
left with an engaged group of free
users for product testing, feedback
and promotions
Author: Jamieson Wright

7. Things to Consider with Free
Culture
• Offering Free must be rooted deep in your company ethos
• It’s not a temporary promotion; it’s your model for growth
• Everybody must be on board and stand by decision
Product
• Your Free product cannot a bad version of the paid
• You will likely be creating your biggest competitor
• You may be slowing short-term revenue
Sustainability
• The variable costs for Free product need to be sustainable at scale
Author: Jamieson Wright

8. Customer
Engagement

9. Customer Engagement: Sales Demo
Sales Demo
• Require minimal information for booking demo – rep completes
account setup during call
• Use automation - Have user book time on rep’s calendar
• Set a goal for demo - What are the next steps; next conversations;
next touch points
Demo >> Trial
Demo >> Paid Pilot
Demo >> Purchase
Author: Jamieson Wright

10. User Engagement: Self Serve SIgn-up
Self-Serve
• Works best when offering Trial only
• Best practice: Ask only for email; minimal account setup
• Exchange value for information – offer incentives for user to
create fuller profile
Author: Jamieson Wright

11. Trial (or not)

12. To Trial or Not to Trial
Free Product
Freemium requires premium
product trial to be effective
Product’s value best
conveyed through
experience, not demo or
words
Provides a more prescribed
customer journey - easier to
test and optimize
Trial Freemium Product
Product’s usage and value is
easily conveyed and
understood
Increased risk of churn if user
experience does not show
value
DO NOT offer money back
guarantee; if you feel you need
to then provide a trial
No Trial
Author: Jamieson Wright

13. Trial Best Practices (Top of Funnel)
Trial Objective:
• Drive users to experience “key
selling features” via in-product
messages, phone call,
conversational marketing or email
• If providing a Freemium product –
trial should always be of the higher
tier paid product.
• Plan is to get trial user hooked on
paid product, then take it away -
it’s about demonstrating the value
Lets user try this for Trial and then
revert to Free after trial
Author: Jamieson Wright

14. Trial Best Practices (Top of Funnel)
Trial Setup:
• Have user complete product setup and integration prior to
starting trial clock – trial should focus exclusively on usage and
experience
• If setup is involved and tricky – create setup team to help trail
users
• If self-setup possible, supplement with in-product help through
3rd party apps like Appcues or Intercom
Author: Jamieson Wright

15. Trial Best Practices (Mid Funnel)
Author: Jamieson Wright
Trial Length:
• Allow user to extend trial if “key selling features” have not been
used enough to demonstrate value
• If providing a Freemium product – trial should last long enough to
get user hooked on the non-Free value before reverting them to
Free
Trial End:
• Deliver “Trial Complete” page upon first login after trial expires –
force yes / no decision on purchase
• Identify visit to trial rate, trial start to completion rate and trial
completion to purchase rate; where are the leaks?

16. Post Trial and Renewals
Author: Jamieson Wright
Post Trial:
• Keep in touch with users who do not purchase and regularly go
back to offer a re-trial when new features have been developed.
Leverage “marketable moments”
• For users who have experienced premium product, conduct
quarterly back-to-base promos that leverage discounted annual
pricing
Renewal:
• Do NOT send users monthly renewal reminders; creates
opportunity for impulse cancellations and increased churn;
rather, have a generous cancellation policy
• NEVER cancel service for a failed credit card transaction – try
card again and contact user

17. Tier Pricing

18. Pricing Models
• Freemium product should be considered lowest tier
• Best to structure product tier upgrades around a
combination of premium features and a usage based
metric
• Be careful forcing upgrade through number of users
• Rather, be generous with users and force upgrades
through a product metric that increases with users and
usage
• Strategy should be to guide users to appropriate tier and
encourage progress upwards as they grow; selling too
much too soon results in churn
Author: Jamieson Wright

19. No-Touch Sales

20. No-Touch Sales
• Freemium is best trigger for no-touch sales
• Integrate the buying process into trial
• Get credit card at time of purchase (not before); retain
authorization for renewals
• Capitalize on upgrades and add-on sales through in-
product messaging; one click add-ons as credit card on
file
• Use active free user base for quarterly promotions
• Create bundles to boost transaction size
• Allows for persona based price testing
Author: Jamieson Wright

21. A Word on Content
Marketing

22. Gated Content
• Typical process is to produce content and gate it with a user
registration form which feeds to the sales team for follow-up
• Sometimes you might use a score system based on how many
times a user “ungated” content
• Mechanically easy to do - Hubspot does a great job at
automating form collection
• This is “insight-out” thinking - good for marketing (they
produce leads) and good for sales (get contact info)
• Not a great customer experience
Author: Jamieson Wright

23. Content Community
Author: Jamieson Wright
• Create a content area on the website that requires a one time
free account creation
• Monitor which content gets consumed most; promote this
externally
• Curate content based on user persona; discover which
content is best “sales assist”
• Sequence content to drive trials / demos/ transactions
• Create captive users groups, survey groups etc..
• Build trust as the go-to thought leader in the space