Kraken.io is a SaaS Startup from Berlin. Their software compresses images at a high rate, without visible loss of quality. This marketing teardown analyses how an they market this image optimizer SaaS and what can be done additionally. See the video to this presentation on http://TillCarlos.com/krakenio

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How to Market a SaaS
That No User Sees?
Marketing Teardown of Kraken.io

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Disclaimer
“This analysis is based on observation only.
I am not affiliated with Kraken.io in any way.
I don’t get money from these links.”

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Kraken.io
Image Optimization for Software Backends
and Wordpress

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What is Kraken.io?

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About
Kraken is a robust, ultra-fast image optimizer. Thanks to its vast
array of optimization algorithms Kraken is a world ahead of other
tools.
Launched in May 2012
Prepared since August 2011 (Twitter: Joined August 2011)

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The Team
Przemek Matylla
@matylla
Karim Salman
@karim79
Nekkra UG, Berlin

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Business Model Advantages
● SaaS, recurring revenue
● API - once Kraken is used in another software, it’s unlikely to
get removed from the service
● Reseller aspect. Taking marketing efforts away from the
SaaS company.

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Authority Analysis

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Twitter + Google Plus

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Name Confusion: Kraken.com

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Blog

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Personal Brands
www.matylla.pl
Old guest blog
posts refer to old
employments Untouched potential: Matylla could use
his personal brand to tell the story of
Kraken.io. 4 blog posts would be
enough

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Podcast Interviews?
Podcast interviews,
especially for Internet
Marketers would help to
spread the word

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Tech Press & Reviews
“Another primary issue with Kraken is the lack of
ability to change quality settings. This is especially a
problem with lossy compression, where the quality of
the image is degraded.”
Andrew Munsell (in a review on Jan 13, 2014)
“In case that isn’t enough awesomeness, Kraken
also have browser add-ons for both Mozilla Firefox
and Google Chrome browsers so you can optimise
your images quicker than ever before!
Jay Downing, 2012

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The Challenge

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How to Market a SaaS...
...that is - once installed - never showing the benefit?
...that optimizes without clear monetary value add?
...that no user sees?
(User = Client of the web designer or the web designer only using the
wordpress plugin)

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Questions to Ask
How big is the CLV?
Who is the Customer Avatar?
Who is the ideal partner for Joint Ventures?
What would be good marketing channels?
How can the Authority of Kraken.io be built easily?
⇒ How can more subscriptions be sold?
(since every additional user does not cost anything apart support + server)

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Let’s Break It Down

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The Revenue Formula
Revenue = Traffic x Conversion x CLV
By Jay Abraham. See this explanation by Jim Conley

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1. Traffic

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Target Customer
Wordpress users who need to get the job done
Programmers who want to save time to develop their own image
processing
Software companies with high loads of images (save money on
traffic and improve site speed for SEO)
⇒ Where can they be found?

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Getting Interviewed on Podcasts

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Talks and Workshops
● Giving talks (e.g. Berlin)
● Handing out slides and
workshop material →
● Give free premium accounts for
everyone giving a workshop on
that topic Ruby Authorities like Sebastian
Korfmann would feature Kraken.io in
workshops.

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Content Marketing
Publish white papers about the usage of images:
● How is the size usually?
● What if Kraken.io would not have compressed them?
● How does Google honor images in terms of site speed?
Assumption: people who are interested in that would also use
WP + Kraken

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Guest Blogging
Target these blogs:
● wordpress programming
● internet marketing
● design / photography
Give out premium features in return
for a link / badge “optimized
images by Kraken.io”

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Guerilla Method Algorithm
Go for aggressive outbound (automated)
1. Build a list of wordpress blogs
2. Parse each for images
3. Check compression of images
and the possible gain with Kraken.io
4. Make a result PDF and the benefits resulting from the gain.
5. Pitch the owner
with a free Kraken.io trial of 30 days, free plugin

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2. Conversion

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Competition
How can Kraken.io position themself as much better than using
existing free software packages? (e.g. Ruby on Rails gems like
Paperclip)
→ Publish a report on the development and change cost of
using an own method.

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Freemium WP Plugin
Assumption: the power of Kraken.io is its Wordpress plugin. It
would sell better with a trial period.
→ This needs a test
1. Make the plugin freely available for 1 day, limit the use to 5
pictures per day
2. Spread it through JV / Affiliates / PPC
3. Measure the free and paid adoption in the course of 1 month

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Building Authority
● Document the crunching
process and let tech
writers use it. Avoid posts
like this →
● Address objections and
turn it into case studies →
⇒ Be out there and comment
on these blogs!

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3. Customer Lifetime Value

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Bundling

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Joint-Ventures
Reseller Accounts: How well are they performing?
Reseller accounts are
automated through the API.
Little effort for the support.

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Conclusion

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In 1 day Kraken crunches more than 100k pictures. Given the
average platform does 100 pictures / day, that’s around 1,000
customers. That can be a 6 figure yearly income.
Performance Estimation
Monday, May 5th
2014
Tuesday, May 6th 2014

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Performance
Kraken is a powerful SaaS that solves one problem well.
Its marketing effort is rather passive.
Depending on the future growth goals, no additional marketing
is needed (assuming that the customer churn rate is low).

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Contact Kraken.io
Email feedback@kraken.io
Try their free online tool!
Tweet to @matylla and @karim79
Limited functions are
forever free. How cool is
that!

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What about Your SaaS?
I can make a Reachout Analysis for your SaaS. What is your
URL? Send it to me: till@tillcarlos.com
Do you want to build your own SaaS business? In my
mastermind we build it up - step by step, with small groups for
your success. Apply now: http://TillCarlos.com/mastermind