How do you compete with free?
Hello
I have a business and my largest competitor is free doing it for (Non-profit).
How to compete with free.
Not alone its like khan academy competing with test prep market! (my competitor is not khan but something similar in test prep industry)
What is the best strategy
I'm in the same space. The way I go about it though is to come up with additional features that the free competitor doesn't provide. Could be self assessments, comparison to peers, private communities, etc.
Great idea, what about free plan offering very limited features.
Can both exist (free and paid)?
Hello,
This is just an idea and maybe not a good one, I don't know, but if it is something that doesn't need to much work from you and everything is self-service mainly like khan academy. You could offer money-back guarantees.
You will pass the test or we reimburse you. With some engagement conditions and so on. You will have to re-reimburse some but not all. It will also force you to optimize for your value proposition (success at the test).
I wrote about this problem here; it's not about competing with free, it's about customer-mindedness: https://stackingthebricks.com/how-do-you-persuade-someone-to-pay-for-free-information/
Free often means to compromise. As in compromising quality, support or features.
Look at what your competitor's "customers" are complaining about (check support forums, Facebook, etc) and figure out what you can offer that's so good that people want to pay you money.
Can you be more convenient? I often spend money on things I can buy convenience. E.g., buying print books when a free online text is available.
You have a business, as in already selling? I assume not - once you start selling (and people will buy, since some always assume they get more value if they actually pay), you'll have larger margin to feed back into your product and make it better (vs free, which doesn't).