Freemium and Frictionless

While companies are chasing freemium and frictionless sales motions, they are missing the main point.

It’s clear that the freemium sales model, where prospects can download products for free, has taken off.  Successful companies like Dropbox are clear winners, but will this work for enterprise B2B marketers?  Well Box, Zendesk, Atlassian, Splunk and others prove that it certainly can.  It’s obviously a marketing model that works.  Prospects try a free version and upgrade to a more robust, paid version easily and seamlessly. This breathes life into ‘see-try-buy’ or frictionless sales models.  So is that all we need?  Freemium sales model is our salvation?

The challenge is that you can’t automate or accelerate a bad experience.  What is important to deliver is a positive and engaging customer experience, and it must be enticing very quickly.  Your prospect must be able to easily understand how to use your product and find it engaging right away.  If they need training or other have requirements to meet, you may be setting yourself up for disaster.  Your prospects will freely download your application only to be confused and wander off – not upgrading to the paid version.  In this outcome, you have just proven why yours is not the right solution.  Even if you convert a small portion of users, you’re building up a base of prospects who now ‘know’ that your solution is not the right one.

So you need to consider a few things as you pursue a freemium strategy.  First, do you have a process where your prospects will be highly successful in their free trial of your product?  If the product is not immediately intuitive and usable, can you provide supporting materials to make their usage successful?  Then, do you have a process either inside the product or as a separate communication path to help them explore your product and ensure a successful outcome?  Finally, what is your process to monitor usage and outcomes from your trial/free users?  How will you know if the process is working?  To quote Stephen Covey, “Start with the end in mind,” or in this case, start with a plan to measure success.  This may be tracking trial usage, getting usage surveys, measuring conversion rates and more.

Strangely enough, your path down a freemium model may start with improving or adding components to the product itself.  A more fool-proof usage process will drive greater success. Constant learning and adjustment will yield great results and hopefully drive that hockey-stick growth curve we all seek.

Lesson: Charity starts at home.  Give a hard look at your product before chasing a freemium model.

Joined my next assignment at ProdIntel Technologies

Hi

Apologies first. I know I have not been blogging for a very long time.

But will try doing so from now. I have just taken up a new assignment with ProdIntel Technologies. We have niche healthcare products which helps in forming a bridge in between the Clinician and the Patient.

Will provide you more details in my next blog.

In the meanwhile, anybody wants any specific information please feel free to connect with me directly.

Want to work at Regalix Inc?

Hiring Inside Sales Executives! 2-4 Years of experience in Inside Sales and Business Development in International Markets for Bangalore Location. Interested candidates can send their resumes ben@regalix-inc.com

Wayanad - Another Memorable Trek

It was another amazing trek at Wayanad (Chembra Peak). Having a long weekend from Thursday last week we decided to introduce trekking to Sai Sharan. As usual decided to drive down to Wayanad-Kalpetta. Started around 8 pm from Bangalore and the city traffic almost made us change the plan. We reached "The Club" at 9.30 pm. After that it was a smooth ride. We reached Gundulpet - Cafe Coffee day at 12.30 in the night.


Gushed down a couple of coffees and spent the night sitting and chatting. Good time to catch up with Family (especially with the busy schedules at work now). Started from Gundulpet @ 4.30 am and reached the Forest gate by 5.15 am. Gates open only by 6 am and luckily the traffic was not as bad as the last time. We managed to scoot through the gates and reached Kalpetta by 8 am in the morning.

We had booked a Villa (3 bedroom) at Kalpetta. Now you must be wondering why? Actually it is a long story. To cut is short, one of my friend was supposed to be joining us for this trip and he had cancelled in the last minute. But the owner was good enough to understand and just charged us Rs.2000 including breakfast/coffee.


Refreshed ourselves and started towards Chembra Peak. Now comes the gala time. We could not believe our eyes, when we saw Sai Sharan trek all the way. We managed to reach half way through (heart shaped lake). Forced to return because a strong breeze swept Sai Sharan off his feet and he fell face flat. Poor kiddo got hurt on his lip and it was swollen really bad.
Few photos taken up there:

Reached back to the room dead tired and slept like a log till Sunday morning.

Started back from Wayanad back to Bangalore on Sunday morning @ 9 am and decided to go to Gopalaswamy betta (Near Bandipur). Good decision and an awesome spot. Check out few photos below to understand how it felt. We literally felt the clouds pass through us and it felt so divine to be there with God's creation.

We still had lots of time and Sai Sharan was requesting us for another visit to the Mysore zoo. So his wish is our command and we landed up going there. Lots of new additions like the Wolf, Cheetah etc.

The Drive back was peaceful and we reach Bangalore by 10.30 pm in the night and crashed into bed directly.

The good thing about this trip is that it purified all the pollution in my body and makes me feel really good. Looking forward for another trip soon.

Brands Going Social to Network with Digital Generation

Bygone are the days when people used to identify brands by advertisements on Televisions, Newspapers & Radios. Today’s Gen-X is captivated into influential Social Media tools like Facebook, Twitter etc and other professional websites like LinkedIn.

Giant Brands (Read Pepsi/CocaCola/Nokia/Apple) had started recognizing this development earlier during this decade and gave it a head start with digitalizing their Marketing efforts towards the Social Media and reaching out to the NextGen. Other smaller organizations have started following suit and there has been definitely a slow & steady upward trend globally towards accepting this fact.

Digital Marketing is a very tricky spot to be and if you do not find the right vendor you are at all probabilities “barking up the wrong tree”. Not only is it the perfect platform to showcase your products but also a very interactive and engaging medium which no marketer can afford to ignore now. Today’s generation is living a Virtual life more than a physical life and we need to be, wherever they are.

Now having said that, brands need to be careful that they are not mindlessly hopping on to the bandwagon. They need to understand the needs and be ready to take the feedback and work on it immediately.

There are quite a few advantages over the traditional marketing:
 Eco Friendly
 More Quicker (Surveys/Feedback received immediately)
 Reach (Targeted Audience)
 Cost Effective
 Better Results
 More Engaging (One-On-One with your prospects/clients)

Regalix Inc. (A Digital Marketing and Technology Company) is a One Stop Solution for all your Digital marketing needs since it is in our DNA. We have been servicing various verticals like Financial (CitiCorp/Western Union), HiTech (NetApp/TIBCO), Film & Entertainment (Universal Studios/BIG Pictures), Retail & Consumer products (Apple/eBay/Lenovo) and many more such verticals. In total we have more than 1000+ satisfied customers in the last 8 years and most of them have been WOM business. That itself explains the implicit trust and confidence our clients shower on us.

One of the biggest concerns faced by smaller brands or growing brands is that they are not able to identify the potential medium of Advertising online. Regalix Inc would help you to not only analyze where you can potentially attract more customers but also assist you in implementing that strategy.

We come with a lethal combination of Marketing with Technology to address your Organizational needs and increase your brand presence in the Digital world. With various options like SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Content Creation (Whitepaper, Website Content etc), PPC (Pay-Per-Click), Lead Generation, and many more such services offered all under one roof – We are one of the best equipped Companies in this sphere.

We can provide you total solutions to all your Digital marketing needs with a touché of Technology. Regalix Inc has close to 9+ years of experience and has worked with the cream of the Fortune 500 Companies.

Headquartered strategically in the Silicon Valley with offices across the Globe, we are in the perfect position to service our clients around the world.

The Leadership team has very well known names in the Valley:
- Vikas Sharan, CEO, IIT Mumbai – 15+ years of experience in Digital Marketing
- Shivraj Asthana, EVP Products & Services, IAS Officer – 20 years of Management & Operational excellence to Regalix.
- Sheetal Dhadial – 10+ years of hands-on experience in Sales/Marketing

- Ben Thomas (Bala) - 12+ years of exposure in End-to-End Sales/Account Management

Contacts:
US Number: 650-331-0759 or India: +91 99861 54159 for any further clarifications or doubts or visit our website at www.regalix.com/home

Appreciate your comments if any

Ben
US Number: 650-319-8860
India: +91 96866 17672

Cricket

A group of common friends decided to start off a cricket team and a lot was happening over the past couple of weeks. (http://groups.google.com/group/sportz-freaks?pli=1)
Finally managed to get all the new team members together to start practice sessions and last Saturday and Sunday was a very momentful day to me.
We practised for 2-3 hours per day and it was really good to find talented players.
First day (Saturday) was okey dokey but on Sunday it was a very serious showcase of talents across the team.
Hope to continue this trend in the coming weeks.

Guardian Angel

This morning while I was travelling to office, I stopped at my regular joint for a nicotine refill. I saw this Pug (dog) being brought out by its owner for a morning walk. The owner decided to stay by the gate and the dog wanted to go further.

It kept looking back at the owner and it took two steps ahead and waited for him. The owner was still undecided as it was quite cold outside. Finally after the dog kept waiting for him, he decided to lock the house and step out with it. The dog was so excited and confidently walked ahead with an eye looking out for the owner.

I saw the kind of trust it had in the owner. It trusted that no matter what there is a person watching my back and I am safe.

Similarly in life, we all have well wishers or what I would like to call as the “Guardian Angel”.

There is a Guardian Angel at every stage/step of our life. They could be your Mother, Wife in your personal life. They could be your Manager/Colleague at your Professional Life. They could be your Teacher/Lecturer at your college.

You need to make sure that whatever success you achieve and the distance you cover at each stage of your life; you always have a Guardian Angel right behind you to watch your back.

Never leave your Angel too far behind and make yourself vulnerable.