Archive | Yield Optimization

The Truth Behind Recurring Revenue Growth in Subscription Economy

Goals for revenue growth change over the lifecycle of a company, in both magnitude and composition: Early stage startups want 100 percent growth or more. Late stage startups aim for 60 to 80 percent growth. Companies near the public offering stage are in the 40 percent range. For public companies, growth objectives start to fall below 20 percent. As companies mature, growth begins to blend new customer acquisition with existing customer upgrade and add-on sales—and for the best-performing companies, an increasing percentage of growth comes from existing customers, year over year. In fact, for these best-performing companies, our research shows a direct correlation between average customer lifetime and percentage growth contribution from existing customers. To better understand this dynamic, consider […]

Mind the Gap: Avoiding Revenue Pitfalls in the Subscription Economy

In the book “Consumption Economics,” the authors describe a phenomenon called the “consumption gap” which is essentially the difference between a product’s capability and what a customer actually uses. The authors point out that this consumption gap will be a catalyst for technology business failures in the Subscription Economy. But how does a company know if they have a consumption gap? How do they quantify it? And how do they avoid revenue churn because of the gap? Step 1: Measure the Gap To evaluate if you have a consumption gap, you need to measure and quantify it. That means you need to take inventory on your product’s capabilities and how much a particular customer uses them. For offering, the most […]

Why Data Trumps Experience in Trial Conversions

Probably one of the biggest mistakes publishers can make on converting trials is relying on experience and intuition. The art of implementing and managing trials doesn’t match the science of new data-driven techniques. Using predictive analytics to qualify trial users and focus on those that are most likely to convert can double conversion rates. In a 2012 study, the Aberdeen Group published a finding that companies using predictive analytics have a 73% sales lift versus companies that did not. In a previous note on trials, loyalty was described as a good measure for predicting conversions. This post expands on the loyalty measure to demonstrate how to implement trials scoring that increases conversions. Trial users can be measured and scored any […]

Managing Yield Across Your License Structure

This is the third research alert in a series on pricing. One alert examined why metering access maximizes revenue. The other examined ways in which metering could be effectively applied through tiering at the user level. This research alert examines how to benchmark and manage yield across your license structure, and specifically with site licenses that blend users and discounting. Site licenses give customers unlimited use of a service while paying a flat, discounted price. The customer motivation to buy site licenses is that it makes purchasing decisions easier than trying to determine which users need which licenses. Another customer motivation for site licenses is that it makes on-going administration easier than trying to manage users and license allocations. For […]