Loading...
Answers
MenuDoes providing potential customers with a live demo account help increase customer acquisition?
I want to setup a live demo account to help the on-boarding process of trying to acquire potential users as customers.
Does anyone have experience in this area and know if a live demo account helped increase conversions on your site?
Answers
I have been involved in building and implementing systems - both SaaS based products, custom services. I have seen that it pays to smoothen the process of on-boarding by offering controlled and curated access to potential customers. Seed the environment with contextual data and help the visitors get the aha moment early on. Simple examples - if it is an LMS (Learning Management System) that you are offering, load a course with some videos, quizzes etc and let the user try it out both as a teacher and as a student and show the interactions involved. This strategy is more likely to help the potential customers understand the features and also makes the experience memorable.
The freemium model is the latest trend in SaaS. People are hesitant to pay for services when there are so many platforms offering free platforms. Either a free level with basic functions or a trial period of your software will lead to more onboarding and allow you to up-sell services.
Just compare the costs and see if it works out or not. It is all in the math. Do a split test. Do not do it with more than 20% of your clients. See if it makes a difference. Obviously, if it works for 20%, it should work for the vast majority.
Listen, in any business you have to take some chances and some risks. Remember, timid business people have skinny kids. Paraphrased from Zig Ziglar.
I am not trying to sell you on calling me. Really, I am pretty busy with my businesses and consulting. However, I need more info before I could have a greater impact in helping you.
Ask, Ask, Ask, then Ask again.
Bonus:
Here is $10,000 worth of information for free and in a nutshell.
Concentrate on the 3 M's. There are actually 7, but 3 will do for now. These are Market, Message, and Media. They come in that order.
Who is your target market (customer, clients, buyers, users, etc.)?
Tailor your laser focused message for this target market.
What is the best media mix to get your message to that market?
Here's what you do...first, make it an offer that is so incredible that they cannot resist. Secondly, do all the work for them. Make it so easy to make the purchase now that they can do it virtually without effort. Thirdly, give them an incentive to act right now. Fourthly, offer an almost unbelievable guarantee. Fifth, offer a bonus for acting now. There are many other incredible steps, but these steps should help the novice to the professional sell anything.
Whether you are selling B2B or B2C, you have to focus on selling to only one person. You can actually sell to one person at a time while selling to millions at a time. They are one and the same. Don't get off track, what we call digital marketing selling is just selling in print. And that has not changed since Cluade Hopkins wrote "Scientific Advertising." Really long before he wrote the book.
The secret to success: I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with some of the biggest names in business, celebrities, actors, entrepreneurs, business people, and companies from startup to billion dollar operations. The number one reason for their success is doing what they know and love while doing it in new, creative, and innovative ways.
Ask, Ask, Ask. Have thick skin and learn from each "mistake." In a short while, the market will tell you what you need to do and who and what you need to ask. But get started now even if that just means asking a contact on LinkedIn.
While you are thinking, think big and think of something at least 1% better, newer, or different. And being cheaper is not a winning strategy.
Make decisions quickly and change decisions slowly..unless you are actually going off a cliff.
Remember these two 11 letter words...persistence and consistency. They are two of the most important tools ever invented.
Treat everybody you talk to and everybody you meet (including yourself) like each is your number one million dollar customer.
Best of luck,
Take massive action and never give up.
Michael
Michael Irvin, MBA, RN
Related Questions
-
How do I sell language courses without having a fancy, expensive website?
Did you know that having an fancy expensive website doesn't do it either...I mean you can pour thousands of dollars into a website... but without traffic, it wont be worth it... Find you target demographic.. Schools, Community Centers etc... and go old school... HANG UP A FLYER!.... that will get you going... if your product is awesome... the organic word to mouth method will get you students... So two things.... do not be afraid to go OLD SCHOOL... and be sure that your product is of quality...MS
-
What is the best growth hacking strategy for a travel website?
Before you spend $ or time marketing your service / website, ensure that your brand itself is quite strong. For example, if your name or domain is awkward, ambiguous, or off-putting, then every dollar and hour you spend promoting your brand will work less efficiently in your favor than if you were spending the same amount of money and time marketing something more robust and attractive.JP
-
How do I generate my first 100 customers?
1. Export a list of "other contacts" from gmail, linkedin connections, Facebook friends, Twitter followers, etc. 2. Call & email everyone (personally if possible) and ask them directly if they need your help. 3. Ask for a referral from everyone that buys. 4. Get a success story written about YOUR CUSTOMER that mentions you in as many blogs, magazines, etc that you can. 5. Write a blog with suggestions and ideas that genuinely help your prospects. 6. Figure out why other businesses related to yours would WANT to promote you to their audience. And then pitch.BB
-
What's the average CAC value or range for a Marketplace client?
I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Your customer acquisition cost is not something you should benchmark against other businesses. Without knowing more, like your short and long-term goals, it's impossible to answer. Two companies with similar business models may have different answers to this question. A venture-backed startup trying to keep up with aggressive revenue goals may be able to stomach an astronomical CAC. A bootstrapped startup that is not seeking venture money may aim for slower growth and much lower CAC. I suggest setting up a call with a marketing or finance expert to determine what CAC is appropriate for your company and how to get there.TL
-
Good resources for structure/flowchart of an onboarding & ongoing support process?
I've helped lots of SaaS companies improve their onboarding processes over the years, but I just published my best (high-level) piece on doing this right: http://sixteenventures.com/customer-onboarding The bottom line is (though I suggest reading the entire article) you need to know what success looks like for your customer - what their Desired Outcome is - and then reverse engineer the steps necessary to get there. Going through that process will reveal the steps necessary to get them to that Desired Outcome outside of the product; we're not talking about functional steps within the product yet. Map this out using flow charts, line lists, mind map, white board, etc. The tool isn't important as much as doing this right. Now, once you understand the process required to move them from Step 0 - deciding to take action to reach their desired outcome to Step z - achieving their (at least initial) Desired Outcome, you can start laying out, designing, and building the in-product processes necessary to achieve those success milestones and ultimately, their Desired Outcome. You should then peg your email (or other lifecycle messaging) flow to those success milestones (rather than doing a timed follow-up), where each message is sent like this: "have they done this milestone? yes, then send this message to get them to the next one." Since each user and customer will achieve success on their own cadence, it's best to not have a timed autoresponder sequence but to actually trigger based on milestones reached. The good news is that this is relatively easy to do given the availability of lifecycle messaging services. See this post for more on this topic: http://sixteenventures.com/email-follow-up-sequence Hopefully this helps, but if you want more details or - more importantly - want to figure out how to apply this thinking directly to your situation, request at least a 15-minute call with me.LM
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.