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Today @robbylit launched a new series called Good Better Best on @ProfitWell. Here are highlights from the first post on Zoom's freemium decision tree that changed conferencing forever - and it's not as simple as "oh they used freemium"
Today @robbylit launched a new series called Good Better Best on @ProfitWell. Here are highlights from the first post on Zoom's freemium decision tree that changed conferencing forever - and it's not as simple as "oh they used freemium"
We all know Zoom used freemium to be successful, but when you're considering free there's a clear decision tree you need to flow through. This is where Zoom made gains by first making a distinction between freemium and a free trial.
Sure, you can certainly do both, but these are very different strategies depending on the outcomes you seek. Going freemium was a pretty easy decision for Zoom considering the market was already freemium dominant.
Zoom's innovation came in the next part of the decision tree in going perpetual free or faux free. The market was very faux free (meaning it was a very limited freemium plan) with limited feature sets, participants, etc - making it more of a pretty weak trial than anything
Zoom still went faux free trial, but changed up the metric to limit session length to 40 minutes. It didn't seem like much at the time, but by having a large limit on participants (50), giving away most features, and limiting the meeting length, the experience felt fuller.
Users felt like they had a higher quality product, even though the product was very similar to the rest of the market, because the free experience was so rich. Eventually users would need longer than 40 minute meetings which pushed the upgrade and ultimately Zoom's growth.
The big takeaways:
1. Freemium cannot be a crappy version of your product. It's not 2005. That's not how it works anymore.
2. Freemium is a scalpel not a sledgehammer, you need to think through the UX and competitive positioning to properly get the flywheel moving.
1. Freemium cannot be a crappy version of your product. It's not 2005. That's not how it works anymore.
2. Freemium is a scalpel not a sledgehammer, you need to think through the UX and competitive positioning to properly get the flywheel moving.
Give @profitwell a follow and if this was worth at least a $1 to you, please retweet the first post in the thread. We appreciate getting knowledge in the hands of as many folks as possible.
Also, if you want in on Good Better Best, just reply here and we'll hook you up.
Also, if you want in on Good Better Best, just reply here and we'll hook you up.
