Ask HN: If you have a free product, how do you give it away?

20 points by flancrest 5 years ago | 11 comments

I run a form SaaS business that offers a free tier as a means of letting people see the app, try the service, etc. I think it's not only a nice resource, of course, but also pretty valuable in its own right, and enough to run a couple small sites off of.

I'd like to partner with organizations and companies that could use it (could be a great part of a larger teaching tool, or an ad-hoc backend for something like codepen) but have no idea how to go about finding them, other than cold outreach.

If you have a free product, how do you give it away? I know this sounds a little like "What marketing?" but are there any channels or strategies that work particularly well when price isn't an issue?

Rodeoclash 5 years ago |

I've been going through this a bit with a tool I've thrown together for doing feedback on video game footage (https://www.volt.school/)

I've had success with cold outreach to users on Reddit (random DMs to them) and Discord communities. Now neither of these are going to help you (unless you've also got a video game product!) but I think it demonstrates that you need to go where the users are and not be afraid to tell people about it. If the product is genuinely useful to the target audience then you're helping them out by letting them know about it, the is especially true if it's free.

Finally, I try to think of marketing like I do with programming. You're solving problems and the solutions to those problems don't always come to you straight away. Sometimes you think of the solution when you're in the shower or on a walk. Sometimes there's more than one solution, or one that works much better than another but you only discover it later. The important part is to keep thinking about the problem and to keep turning it over in your head.

flancrest 5 years ago | |

Thanks! Good point about the similarity between programming and marketing.

Have you done any joint-venture type partnerships with anyone that might be interested in co-marketing your product? I'm trying to think of how to borrow someone else's megaphone

Rodeoclash 5 years ago | | |

Actually yes.

I'd posted a spiel about how and why I'd made the site in a popular subreddit. The post got moderated in such a way that only I could see it and was never made public. A few hours later the owner of the subreddit got in touch with me about the site, mentioned they saw it as competing with what they were doing with their own coaching project. I suggested we have a call to see if we can work together instead and I'm now in the process of putting together a few ideas on how it could work.

I suppose the other thing is it's a grind. You have a few good days and a lot of bad days.

awillen 5 years ago |

Unfortunately this isn't as easy as you think - even if there's no monetary cost, it's still not free to the organizations you're giving it to, because it takes their time and effort. Someone has to spend the time learning about the product and evaluating whether it fits a need.

That means that even though it's free, you have to sell it - maybe that's just through marketing if it's simple enough, or maybe you're going to have to get on the phone with decision makers if it's more complex.

If it's the latter, the fact that it's free honestly may not even be a good thing. Companies have budgets and willingness to pay for things, so the person evaluating it may prefer something that's paid because there's money available anyway and a paid tool is much less likely to disappear tomorrow.

I really recommend thinking about pricing and trying to sell it to a few customers - if that's your ultimate goal anyway, it means you'll be getting feedback from the right people (those who are willing to evaluate it as a paid tool) vs. folks who may only be willing to use it because it's free.

offtop5 5 years ago |

The issue is you'll have to ask for credit card numbers in order to prevent abuse, so you're not really giving anything away. I would still evaluate anything you call free as I would any other product. Plus integrating into my workflow, pitching it to my manager, these things have a real cost.

I'd actually argue you shouldn't offer anything for free, but instead charge whatever makes sense factoring in you're going to have to support customers even if it was a free product. For example if your offering website uptime monitoring, but it's not accurate that can cause a real cost to me

rapjr9 5 years ago | |

If I was evaluating a free product I'd be wary of getting locked into it and then discovering missing features that I would have to pay for. That is essentially your business model, but even paying for a product I'd be wary of lock-in these days. Software can be complex enough that you don't discover missing parts or find the API is written in such a way that moving to a different platform is impossible without starting over, long after your business depends on it. So how does anyone know the product will remain free forever, is it open source? Can I fix problems on my own or will I have to pay you? Part of your marketing should be to show how those who try the free tier won't be locked in so when they grow they have a choice of buying from you, other vendors, or doing it themselves. Basically you are giving away a horse, but potential customers realize you have an ulterior motive and hence are going to be very wary of your gift horse.

hinkley 5 years ago | |

I've heard over and over again that the free customers cost more in support costs than the paying ones. Opportunity costs and burnout are both threats to the success of your projects.

DoctorOW 5 years ago |

I don't work in marketing, I don't own a startup but I've found examples work best. Something I can either play with directly or deploy on the free tier quickly. You're never going to get me to sign up unless I have something I want to do with it immediately.

maxk42 5 years ago |

Really entirely depends on the product / service / industry. Without specifics, we can only give you broad answers. You could always pay for a list from a site like https://www.dataaxleusa.com/

flancrest 5 years ago | |

For a little more context, it's https://formcake.com it's basically a form SaaS tool / endpoint

vladojsem 5 years ago | | |

i was hesitating to answer because i did not know what was the product - now i know.

it looks like a niche product for developer community. what i would try:

* write content around how to create web form in different language + add to each article reason why they should use your saas instead

* create a youtube video that would show how to use the product, focus on researched keywords, e.g. how to make a secured web form

* join slack and facebook group communities

* try to promote your tool on producthunt, not because of the sales - but to gather the feedback

* there are many great products out there and some of them have better product market fit + marketing = what i want to say it is more like a marathon than a sprint

good luck!