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EasyBroker Says Adios to Freemium

26 points by rubyrescue 16y ago

rubyrescue 16y ago
Most important point - I...was assuming we weren’t good enough to charge for our product which I’m finding is a very common problem with tech CEOs
tptacek 16y ago
'patio11 has been making a related point for over a year here: not only do you not want to be doing "freemium", but you also want to be wary of having a very-low-cost option. The lower you price, the more problem customers you end up with. Your most price-sensitive prospects may also end up being your most entitled-feeling and least enthusiastic users. It's like Steve Blank says in _Epiphany_: especially when you're getting started discovering customers, you want to be zeroing in on the people who are committed to solving the problem you're trying to help solve. The people you want to work with have budget for your solution. The people who don't have budget, you don't want influencing you now.
zck 16y ago
Keep in mind that they're targeting real estate brokers, who would use this as part of their job. EasyBroker's clients are more likely to spend money for several reasons: brokers are more independent in their jobs than other people, so they may be used to buying tools on their own. Brokers are using this for their job, directly using the software to make money. EasyBroker is used as a major tool -- managing contacts, property listings, websites, etc., for brokers, a large part of the job.
phreeza 16y ago
Very refreshing to read straight up reasoning. I was expecting a lot of spin (I wonder what they wrote in the message they sent free users) Instead some really good points for a fully paid model. They can be more targeted in their acquisition and measuring. Makes sense.
- patio11 16y ago
  I wonder what they wrote in the message they sent free users A close reading of their first paragraph suggests they merely turned off signups but let the account type unchanged. This is essentially what I did when I got rid of anonymous guest accounts on BCC (because they converted terribly). The great majority of them will "age out" (go inactive), and as long as it isn't hindering ongoing development you can just keep them in the DB as a sop to your early adopters. (When it does start to become technical debt to maintain two code paths, you can actually disable the accounts, offer them an upgrade path at a discount, upgrade them for free, etc etc.)
necrecious 16y ago
It sounded like they were building two product instead of offering a taste of the full version. It is easy to figure out which feature to include in premium and which to limit in free, features that saves time. If you can view 100 house listings per page, limit free to only 5. Time and convenience is something people pay money for. Always develop for premium users and if it accidentally makes the free service better then that's a bonus.

26 points by rubyrescue 16y ago

Most important point - I...was assuming we weren’t good enough to charge for our product which I’m finding is a very common problem with tech CEOs

tptacek 16y ago

'patio11 has been making a related point for over a year here: not only do you not want to be doing "freemium", but you also want to be wary of having a very-low-cost option. The lower you price, the more problem customers you end up with. Your most price-sensitive prospects may also end up being your most entitled-feeling and least enthusiastic users. It's like Steve Blank says in _Epiphany_: especially when you're getting started discovering customers, you want to be zeroing in on the people who are committed to solving the problem you're trying to help solve. The people you want to work with have budget for your solution. The people who don't have budget, you don't want influencing you now.

zck 16y ago

Keep in mind that they're targeting real estate brokers, who would use this as part of their job. EasyBroker's clients are more likely to spend money for several reasons: brokers are more independent in their jobs than other people, so they may be used to buying tools on their own. Brokers are using this for their job, directly using the software to make money. EasyBroker is used as a major tool -- managing contacts, property listings, websites, etc., for brokers, a large part of the job.

phreeza 16y ago

Very refreshing to read straight up reasoning. I was expecting a lot of spin (I wonder what they wrote in the message they sent free users) Instead some really good points for a fully paid model. They can be more targeted in their acquisition and measuring. Makes sense.

patio11 16y ago
I wonder what they wrote in the message they sent free users A close reading of their first paragraph suggests they merely turned off signups but let the account type unchanged. This is essentially what I did when I got rid of anonymous guest accounts on BCC (because they converted terribly). The great majority of them will "age out" (go inactive), and as long as it isn't hindering ongoing development you can just keep them in the DB as a sop to your early adopters. (When it does start to become technical debt to maintain two code paths, you can actually disable the accounts, offer them an upgrade path at a discount, upgrade them for free, etc etc.)

necrecious 16y ago

It sounded like they were building two product instead of offering a taste of the full version. It is easy to figure out which feature to include in premium and which to limit in free, features that saves time. If you can view 100 house listings per page, limit free to only 5. Time and convenience is something people pay money for. Always develop for premium users and if it accidentally makes the free service better then that's a bonus.