BetterClou

d Taylor GouldVP of MarketingHow to Market Your

Startup to the Enterprise

April 9, 2014

Powering Cloud IT

GET IN TOUCH

@gouldtr

plus.google.com/+TaylorGould

linkedin.com/in/TaylorGould

My BackgroundVP of Marketing at BetterCloud

24th employee and 1st marketing hire at Cloud

Sherpas (now 900 employees, 100M annual

revenue)

Background in digital marketing (SEO / PPC) on

the agency side, but have learned to market to

the enterprise over the past 4 years

2011

About BetterCloud

© 2015 BetterCloud, Inc. All Rights Reserved

32M

50K 105

$47MFounded

Organizations

End Users

Team Members

Venture Funding

BetterCloud provides critical insights, automated management, and intelligent data

security for cloud office platforms. By leveraging open APIs, BetterCloud securely connects

with your data at its source, providing maximum control without requiring any

cumbersome setup.

Company growth story

Inside our growth tactics

How we market to the enterprise

Q&A

© 2015 BetterCloud, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Agenda

BetterCloud’s Growth Story

© 2015 BetterCloud, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Growth Timeline

Research & Build Prototype / Alpha Beta Launch Significant Feature Releases

Enterprise Launch

BetterCloud’s Growth

QUESTION

Is your product a:

a. Painkiller

b. Vitamin

c. Piece of candy

Build a painkiller, e.g. a product that

solves a truly important problem for

your users.

Make sure you’re solving real

problems, not just providing a cool

feature or tool

Our product team did extensive

research before even beginning to

code

Research and Build

Built core “private alpha” group

advocated for us, served as case studies,

spoke w/ investors, etc.

Research moved on from requirements to

UX, making sure we built the features the

WAY people wanted

Prototype / Alpha

Gathered list of 500+ Google Apps admins

interested in trying beta once it launched

Bunching installs in this way allowed us to

jump to #1 in the Google Apps Marketplace

quickly

If your product is in a marketplace, see if

there’s a way to distribute your product

privately before launch

Beta LaunchBetterCloud - Management

Many things went wrong! Architecture didn’t

scale

But most customers were very forgiving

Better to go through these architecture

issues during beta, rather than having

paying customers

Significant Feature LaunchesResponse from a Customer after a significant outage

“Dear David,

Thank for you for the information and we really appreciate your open communications.

We love the product and are always excited to see new developments.

All the best and keep up the great work!”

Repeatedly made customers aware that

BetterCloud would be a paid product with

free version eventually

Surveyed entire customer base in February

2013 to determine optimal price point.

“Would you pay X for BetterCloud?”, with X

randomized.

Pricing and Enterprise LaunchPricing Tip

If you’re in a newer market with no pricing precedents, ask your customers what they would pay for your product.

You don’t have to do what they say, but at least you will have the information.

BetterCloud

BetterCloud

BetterCloud Pricing

Inside Our Growth Tactics

We manage a network of 9 sites, including a

number of microsites focused on certain

themes

Solid base due to upfront investment allows

us to experiment with other channels

Focus on your “purchase” keywords first,

but think about related phrases that can

bring potential users into the VERY top of

your funnel

SEO is Our FoundationSEO Tips

SEO your entire funnel, not just conversion keywords

You HAVE to blog and consistently produce fresh content

Under-used pricing strategy for Enterprise

products

Great if a marketplace is your primary

distribution channel

If freemium is not an option, think about

building free or single-use lead-gen tools,

like HubSpot’s Marketing Grader

Freemium ModelFreemium Tips

Easier to add to free version than to take it away

Force users to try paid version first

Incorporate potential channel partners into

your distribution strategy from the

beginning

Partners work with hundreds of customers

in your target market. Get feedback from

partners early on if possible.

Channel PartnersChannel Tips

Get a partner’s attention by working with one of their key customers

Or by solving one of the partner’s problems! We built a reseller console

Great partners have great relationships with

their customers -> so they’ll try your

product

Typically the largest customers all work with

partners, and while you can get a

customer’s attention, closing the deal

without their partner’s help may be difficult.

Channel DistributionChannel Tips

More sophisticated partners may have multiple teams you can work with

Make it as easy as possible to resell your product

Ultimately, its most important to simply solve common problems that come up in your market. If you do this, everything else falls into place.

Google recommends BetterCloud every time customers bring up certain issues

Our channel partners install our product on every new customer domain because it helps with deployment, and ultimately reduces burden on their support teams (customers can do more on their own).

Focus on Solving Pain Points

How BetterCloud Markets to the

Enterprise

Two Key Frameworks

See, Think, DoUser vs.

Purchaser

Most enterprise products are expensive

The person deciding to spend this money is

often not the person that will use the

product

Think about the “decision line” - users are

below it, purchasers are above it

User vs. Purchaser

Our users are IT people on the “front lines” -

IT / Sys Admins, IT Directors, Help Desk

They are overworked, pressed for time, and

need solutions to their problems ASAP!

The Users

BetterCloud uses a freemium model, so anyone can

install

Person who installs often doesn’t have the authority to

purchase (esp. in orgs above 300-400 employees)

Purchaser typically doesn’t end up using the product

The Purchaser

You need to eventually convince both

We lead with users, by generating content relevant to them and

offering a free trial + free basic version

We then equip the user to convince the purchaser

Market:

features and immediate benefits to your true users, and help

them solve problems quickly

ROI, security, and long-term benefits to decision-makers

How do you market to both?

Below the LineBelow the Line Content

Is relevant to our users, not purchasers

Often helps our users solve a problem

Is almost never primarily about the app

BetterCloud

BetterCloud

BetterCloud

BetterCloud

Below the LineBelow the Line Content

Is relevant to our users, not purchasers

Often helps our users solve a problem

Is almost never primarily about the app

Above the LineAbove the Line Content

Is relevant to our purchasers, not users

Focuses more on ROI and benefits, not the product

Is often not available on our websites, and only distributed through users

$$

$

BetterCloud Enterprise

Automate common tasks and focus on higher-value work

Save money by purchasing comprehensive product instead

of point solutions

Create granular sharing policies to prevent public data exposure

Discover and correct inappropriate Drive, Sites, and

Calendar sharing

Manage group settings and memberships

Schedule periodic password resets

Create and update users in bulk

Cost of BetterCloud

Value to Customer

Tang

ible

Inta

ng

ible

$1-2 / user / month

See, Think, Do Framework

Avinash Kaushik - kaushik.net

How We’re Using “See, Think, Do”

taylor.gould@bettercloud.com