Show Notes
About half of Userlist’s paying customers never fully set up the email automation they paid for. Jane Portman and Benedikt Deicke built Userlist over nine years for sophisticated SaaS marketers, but its onboarding is free and optional.How do they get customers to do the setup that makes the product valuable and sticky? Making onboarding mandatory, and charging for it, could scare off the very customers they want most. Cohost Mariya Delano and I dig in: A candid working session including: - an onboarding fee that “needs to hurt” - a one-person business that spent $20k on consulting - when a low price looks “suspicious” to buyers - a cofounder admits she can’t do enterprise sales - the $149 tier Jane says should be eliminated - they can’t name one podcast their buyers hear ME ME ME!!! Subscribe on YouTube Subscribe via Podcast 📘 Get my book 📘 My bio + 20 years of articles Twitter | LinkedIn STARRING JANE PORTMAN & BENEDIKT DEICKE Userlist Jane’s UI Breakfast podcast Twitter | LinkedIn Benedikt’s Slow & Steady podcast Twitter | LinkedIn WITH COHOST MARIYA DELANO Kalyna Marketing The Marketing Speakeasy podcast ADMD newsletter LinkedIn REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE TinySeed MicroConf Segment “Marketing Technology Landscape”—chiefmartec TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) - Userlist's stalled growth: who is it for?
(03:53) - Why growing customers cancel
(09:10) - Email ROI is measurable: wrong customers?
(12:51) - Lost champion: spread value beyond one user
(20:09) - Fixing onboarding: HubSpot's forced training
(24:14) - A $10K implementation fee for onboarding
(31:34) - Selling to bigger budgets: the $20K client
(36:29) - Priced below Mailchimp and ConvertKit
(44:00) - Where are the customers for geeky features?
(48:25) - Should Userlist go simple and down market?
(53:52) - Do thousands of geeky marketers exist?
(57:40) - Next steps: interviews and $20K onboarding
(01:03:00) - Be proud of the path that got you here
(01:07:11) - Imposter syndrome and perfectionism
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