Episode 758 | Do Free Trials Suck?, What Moves the Needle, and More Listener Questions (with Derrick Reimer)

Startups For the Rest of Us

Rob Walling

Management, Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing

4.8 • 792 Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In episode 758, Rob Walling is joined by Derrick Reimer to tackle a variety of listener questions. They discuss strategies for entering a market with established competitors, including how to position your product without directly attacking rivals. They also reflect on the challenges of free trials, weighing the pros and cons of extending trial periods versus incentivizing onboarding. Episode Sponsor: Most marketing agencies promise growth but never move the needle. But Corey Haines and the team at Conversion Factory? They know how to deliver results. Derrick Reimer said that "Under Corey's marketing leadership, SavvyCal broke into the market with a successful launch and steadily grew to several thousand customers." And Eunice Koo of Less Annoying CRM said that their “first A/B test with Conversion Factory, delivered a 20% increase in visitor to trial conversions within the first two months.” Imagine having a senior copywriter, designer, and web developer at your disposal to turn every marketing idea into a reality. Head to conversionfactory.co and mention this podcast when you book a call for $1,000 off your first month. Topics we cover: (1:18) – How to launch a SaaS product in a market with an established competitor (6:21) – Do I call out competitors by name? (14:24) – How do you really identify what moves the needle in your Saas? (19:59) – Breaking down the “one thing” (23:32) – Selling and marketing SaaS before building (30:36) – What is the goal of your free trial? (39:10) – On the fence between B2B, B2C Links from the Show: TInySeed Applications are open until Feb 23rd Derrick Reimer (@derrickreimer) | X Derrick Reimer (@derrickreimer.com) | Bluesky SavvyCal 757 | TinySeed Tales s4e5: Founder Breakups, Crushing Failures, and the Future TinySeed MicroConf Connect SaaS Institute Start Marketing The Day You Start Coding by Rob Walling Start Small Stay Small by Rob Walling If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes |

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is startup to the rest of us. I'm your host, Rob Walling. This week, I'm joined by
0:04.3	fan favorite Derek Reimer, and we answer listener questions, ranging from, do free trials suck?
0:11.2	How do you decide what moves the needle in your business? And two or three other listener
0:16.6	questions. Before we dive into the questions, Tiny Seed, the accelerator I run for bootstrap
0:22.4	SaaS companies, is open for applications until February 23rd. Head to tiny seed.com slash apply
0:29.9	to find out more. And if you're interested in the right amount of funding, amazing world class
0:35.6	mentorship, advice, and community, that's tini-seed.com
0:39.4	slash apply. And with that, let's dive into listener questions.
0:56.8	It's good to the show.
0:59.8	It's good to be back. It's been a couple of months, I think.
1:04.8	It has indeed. I'm stoked to get into some listener questions with you today. I was here after our episodes go live that people really enjoy our conversations and our rapport.
1:10.9	Awesome.
1:12.0	Well, I enjoy having them.
1:14.0	It's going to have you back, man.
1:15.9	So I'm going to dive into this first question from Anonymous about entering a market with an established competitor.
1:23.4	And Anonymous writes,
1:24.8	Hey, Rob, I wanted to first thank you for all you've done for the bootstrapped
1:27.5	and mostly bootstrapped community.
1:29.5	You're an inspiration to me and countless others.
1:31.8	My wife and I love listening to your podcast
1:33.5	every chance we get,
1:35.1	and you have inspired us to take this next step
	...

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