The magic of this model lies in the possibility of an avalanche-like development of business through outreach activities.
In October 2014, Slack – a tool for instant communication in a team – became one of the fastest growing business applications of all time. The growth of daily active users doubled in three months, up to 500 thousand, and an estimate of $ 1.12 billion, Slack is obliged to word of mouth. Bill Macaitis, director of marketing, calls this concept client-referral-growth.
Instead of selling directly, the team seeks to create a product that will make the users happy. So much so that they feel they should recommend it. Or even pay.
By offering a freemium version like in Slack, you get an easy way to get people to try your product and drag it to their side.
Obtaining experience of using and evaluating the benefits of your product without the risk of losing anything (and this is important!), They have one foot on your side, and you have contact details.
Then to grow a contact into a paying customer, or simply shocked by the coolness of your project a fan who recommends it to everyone. Like Slack.
In general, if you instill in users love and dependence on your freemium product, they are more likely to pay to get more. And most importantly – they will take the responsibility to disseminate information among their circle of contacts.
It’s not for me to explain to you how word of mouth works.
Examples of successful implementations of free tariffs
The variety of freemium offers today is an unimaginable amount. We have gathered here 11 user-delighted services, which should be equal to everything else.
1. Wistia
Allows users to upload up to 25 videos in HD, no size limit. If you are just starting to learn video marketing, and not against Wistia’s copyright (which is mandatory for the freemium version), then the service is well suited for small businesses, because Offers a wide range of embedding and distribution options, and even simple analytics.
2. MailChimp
If you have less than 2000 contacts on your mailing list, Mailchimp is what you need! In the freemium tariff, you can send up to 12,000 emails per month and use Mailchimp for Facebook and WordPress integration to expand the database.
3. SoundCloud
Today, SoundCloud is known as a favorite place for beginning DJs, artists and musicians, as well as a useful platform for hosting podcasts and other audio content. The freemium tariff allows you to download a total of up to 3 hours of audio and allows you to download each track up to 100 times.
4. Evernote
Basic account Evernote allows you to create an unlimited number of notes and download up to 60 megabytes of content per month, as well as remotely interact with other users.
Offline access to notes is only available through a desktop PC, but even so, this freemium product is an extremely useful tool for sharing notes, making decisions and writing official documents.
5. Optimizely
A powerful tool for A / B testing. The free plan will allow you to test various functions of your site (on the same domain) or mobile applications to determine which option will provide maximum clicks and conversion.
If you are not using HubSpot Enterprise, and have never checked the content of your site, buttons, etc., Optimizely’s freemium is an invaluable alternative
6. SurveyMonkey
Thanks to the SurveyMonkey baseline, you can create a survey of up to 10 points in length and collect up to 100 responses. If you collect feedback from customers of your business and conduct surveys – this is a simple and effective option, and it is also very convenient for small businesses.
7. Skype
The free Skype tariff allows you to communicate one-on-one or in a group of up to 25 people via text messages, video or voice calls with any user in the world. For international or travel companies, this is an easy-to-use and reliable option to support face-to-face relationships.
8. Hootsuite
For small and medium businesses that are just starting to work with social media, the free Hootsuite plan is a great starting point. With it, you can schedule and track posts simultaneously for three profiles on three different platforms. In addition, it allows you to work with two RSS feeds and view simple metrics to measure performance.
10. Join.Me
The Free Join.Me tariff allows you to instantly exchange computer screens with a colleague, create desktops, and also allows you to make voice calls online, which makes cooperation with remote colleagues or international clients quick and easy.
10. RedConnect
Callback for a small site is a luxury. The free RedConnect plan allows you to receive up to 1000 callbacks from customers monthly. The downside is that the client and the operator do not connect in one line, the call comes only to the employee of the company. The main thing is the substitution of numbers. The operator on the screen of his phone sees the number of the visitor, and can call the customer in one motion. A great option for a novice online store.