Offer lifetime access or one year access?
Greetings, I launched a SaaS metrics course over a year ago. I offered 365 days of access, not lifetime, with the reasoning that I will continue to add content.
I am not sure which strategy is the best in the long run. I would love to hear your experiences and tips on how long to provide course access.
Thank you!
Ben
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when we launched Clickacall on Appsumo last year we were repeatedly told that the "lifetime" of a buyer was never really more than 3 years. i.e. after 3 years most LTD clients disappear, so don't worry about needing to service them for longer.
But as @meoweloper says perhaps make is say specifically 2 (or 3?) years. Either will still come across as a damn good deal. LTD has been a good game for a while but is it an option we'll still all be using in future?
With my new aggregated newsletter (launched today) I'm only offering a 12 month deal. I've not offered a monthly option as they are too short for users to evaluate what you offer and for you to roll out improvements - lets face it, there will be something wrong in the early days so if you only have 30 days to wow them then that is hard. An annual deal is a commitment from both sides.
Thanks, Steve!
This is something me and my friend are considering with developing our tool, Marky - and that’s a good point about only having 30 day trial, getting them to commit longer you’ve got more scope for their feedback?
Would you launch the LTD as they pay an amount up front then free forever (or a couple of years) or you literally giving life time free access?
Everyone who buys a product from a startup is taking a risk. They know this and so it's fair to offer them a discount on what you eventual prices will be. And it should be in return for a commitment to not dump you after 30 days, but to stick with it and give it a good go. A monthly fee encourages them to decide too soon, and given there is a good chance you've got bugs and other problems there is a high chance they will walk. And all you've got for it is a very low amount of cash.
In your case, anyone who has already paid for 365 days surely must pay more to get extended? Why not let them "upgrade to lifetime (or 2/3 years)" for a fixed amount?
@steveprocter I really like the lifetime upgrade option. Or 3 years upgrade.
Thanks everyone for your input. All great perspective. I'm realizing that I should extend beyond just one-year access. Or have a lifetime upgrade option (or I'm thinking 3 years which seems like a lifetime!).
I'm not sure what the best strategy is but I will comment from the perspective of a customer. There are two courses I have bought twice (similar to what your talking about) where I believe they provide a substantial ROI in my ability to command a higher wage.
This has proven successful and there was new content I wanted so I bought them again. The issue from my perspective is once I go through the new content there is decreasing value provided by the course. I would like ti revise them on occasion for refreshers where necessary but I don't want to be paying the full price every year. I don't see myself continuing to pay after my current subscription runs out.
The issue is the value of educational products decreases over time to an existing user (because they have consumed much of the content) even then the value prop to a new customer gets better.
Personally, I'd rather buy a course and have life time access and then see the creator spin out new courses that I can buy if I want. I am not sure how this affects your revenue.
One plus to having a course with finite access is it makes it easy to prevent username/password sharing from occurring. I don't know if this is an issue worth addressing but it does accomplish it.
@lightHacking That is some great perspective. I agree. Even if I add a couple more lessons, it's probably not worth the user paying again for year 2. My course is $399.
I don't have any hard data because I've never tested this specifically, but I suspect offering lifetime access would be more profitable. Here's why.
Lifetime access has more appeal and less friction than one year access, which should give you a higher conversion rate.
And I don't think recurring charges will add enough to outweigh that because I don't think enough people would continue beyond the first year, even if there is new content. The motivation for taking a course isn't just to gain knowledge; it's what that knowledge will do for him or her, whether it's land a job, build a product, etc. If your course does that, there is no reason to continue, they've achieved their goal. If it doesn't help, then they won't see the value in it.
Best of luck.
Thanks @SeanKirby. Agreed.
Make it lifetime, but suck some value out of those users with community-generated content.
Have a private forum and engage with them on it.
None of them will still be asking questions after a year. If they stick around, they'll be doing your job for you.
LTD is helpful to generate capital in the beginning, but there are tradeoffs, one is that you need to serve your LTD customers for a lifetime. Therefore you have to be very confident with what you trying to do in terms of commitment to the project.
While there are tradeoffs, there are also benefits of getting LTD users in the beginning, apart from the revenue, the users will also serve as great feedback to further improve your product, and the community effect will also help you boost your motivation and word of mouth.
If the revenue is not the main concern, then consider providing LTD as free giveaways in contests or marketing campaigns, that way you won't have the issue when you have no choice to close down your services (touch wood if that happens) and communicate with angry paid LTD users.
honestly, i don't recommend this at all... especially if you're not sure if the product is going to really resonate.
you'll want faster feedback loops i'd imagine.
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