Product packages and pricing tiers stand as fundamental pillars for any thriving SaaS brand, pivotal in meeting the evolving needs of the market. The race for innovation, feature enhancements, and optimized tiers is a constant pursuit for growth-focused SaaS businesses, keeping them ahead in the competitive landscape. Amidst this complex landscape, the key question arises: How can SaaS brands master the successful launch of these updated offerings? In this week’s episode of “People-First Playbook,” we’re delving into the art of launching updated product tiers within the dynamic world of SaaS. Partnering with Capsule, our featured brand, we’ll unveil tailored strategies, insights, and innovative ideas aimed at guiding SaaS brands, like Capsule, through the complex terrain of introducing new product tiers, ensuring a launch that drives success and revenue. All of this while adhering to a people-first playbook.
Podcast Transcript
What’s up everyone? Happy Tuesday. Welcome back to People First Playbook. I’m with my man, Andy. For those that don’t know Andy, Andy is from Dragon 360. I am Nick. I’m from Tech. We are here to talk about mastering the launch of new product tiers to drive more revenue with our good friends from capsule. Um, for those that don’t know the show,
The show’s all about how do we create a live integrated revenue campaign in 30 minutes or less. We have not been able to do this in 30 minutes. We’ve, we were at 32 minutes last week. We’re gonna hit 30 minutes today. Um, I, I’m feeling pretty confident about it, so I. If you have any questions, submit them via chat.
I am live on my LinkedIn, um, on my YouTube and on my Twitter or x or whatever you call it Now, not sure if anyone even follows me on those other ones, but, uh, Andy, I’m gonna throw it over to you to give a little bit about the background of today’s show. Yep. So today we are talking about product tiers or the launch of new product tiers, which is a prevalent theme across all of SaaS, right?
You have your free trials, you have your starter and base packages, then you got your enterprise packages, that is a full suite, or you know, lots of licenses. However, your products is kind of, uh, oriented. Well, today we’re talking about . The development and creation and going to market of a new product here.
And we’re so happy that Natalie Taylor, the head of marketing over capsule, kind of reached out to us with a campaign initiative that fell right in line with this topic. So, real quickly, the, the big thing here when we talk about the campaign, it’s about building awareness and demand for this new product here that they’re coming into market with.
While also elevating new features and product enhancements that are coming to market at the same time. It’s a common theme that we see across SaaS. I mean, . Nick, I’m sure you saw it at your time at Airme and past lives, right? You come to market with a new tier, but you’re also bringing new opportunities, new features, new upgrades at the same time, right?
A hundred percent. You know what, what’s interesting is Mark and I are trying to solve this within, uh, club pf right now where we’re gonna be introducing like, new tiers through that to drive more revenue. I know it’s not a . SaaS product per se, but I feel like it still has a lot of the same mentality. Um, and I mean, yeah, Alice, which was a gifting platform, which I’m actually wearing the, the shirts I still, you know, like, like their free stuff.
They gave me . Um, but, you know, we had a tearing system as well, and we went through a whole messaging and persona thing. And I, I’m a huge believer in tears. Um, you know, capsule, I’ve actually played around with capsule, so the . I, I made a video this morning that I was sitting down on the ground kind of talking about it, but, um, I made a video and the founder of Capsule actually has the same last name as me.
Um, and I always thought that was interesting. I was like, yeah, you know, it’s not, it’s, it’s not an uncommon name, but I was like, all right, cool. I can dig, I can dig, I can vibe with these people ’cause we have the same last name. We’re not related, but. I immediately bump you up in my book because you have the same last name as me.
Plus Natalie’s been fantastic. Um, huge fan of, you know, the content that she posts out there. Um, I played around with capsule a little bit myself because I am really big into getting more video content out there. Um, so definitely excited for this one. And I think that’s the big thing too, as we kind of talk through today’s conversation, like just to level set and share what capsule does, you know, by their own messaging, they are the fun, fast and easy video edit editor that is purposely built for content and marketing teams.
And as we start to think about like the campaign background here. Right As we, as we build this out, you know, that purpose-built messaging is important because it relates to the campaign itself, which focuses on that creation of that new mid-market offering that I kind of alluded to before. That’s gonna sit between, in capsules instance, their free trial and their enterprise.
Now there’s other product enhancements coming into play, uh, that build off of that team mindset, creating consistently on-brand experiences for videos as an example, there. The challenge in my mind is when we think about creating new product tiers for a SaaS brand, right? How do you do it without cannibalizing other offerings, right?
Your other existing product tiers, and also make sure that you carve out your space in the market and also the minds and hearts of that potential market. So, you know, I don’t, I’ve never been in the SaaS space, right? So I don’t know how the process goes. I mean, Nick, maybe you can speak to this, but like.
When you come up with new product tier, like what does that process look like? It’s, have you, have you gone through it? Yeah, I have gone through it. Yeah. It’s, I, I mean I wasn’t like the decision maker per se. Yeah. But I played a large piece into it ’cause I was revenue facing. Um, it was more of it, again, I think it’s like understanding where you fit within the market.
I think that’s a big piece. I mean, obviously I’m a huge fan of free trials. I understand. You know, you got right now free trial in the enterprise tiers. Leaves a little bit to be desired in that middle, which is why we’re talking about what we are today. Um, but there’s a lot of back and forth, like what need, like what’s the differentiators between each tier that’s going to make someone bump up and pay?
I don’t know. Is it a hundred dollars a month, $500 a month, $2,000 a month, whatever the number is, you have to equate that to value, whether you’re saving someone time in their day, which, you know, going back aside from this, it’s like. One, I love your, your testimonials and the social proof that you have on your website right now.
I mean, you’ve got Kip from HubSpot on there, you’ve got Karen from Zapier on there. Like you’ve got a lot of interesting people. Uh, snowflake the elite from like the head of community at Snowflake and I’ve seen a lot of other creators and influencers talking about capsule lately, which originally what drew me to it.
Um. And I immediately signed up for the free version of it just to play around, but it’s like. To me as someone that like, this isn’t my job for me, this would be like a side, I, I don’t know, a side piece. Like I just want to, it’s like a, it’s like a side project. I want to use video to do more and what do you, what’s gonna be the differentiator for me to pay X amount of dollars extra to get added features or other things?
And I mean, . I think you have a lot of amazing things that are coming under your kind of like feature component of it right now. And I’m, I’m curious, like Andy, on your thoughts on like . W when you’re, and maybe this even isn’t even SAS related, but like in your mind, what are the differentiators typically that you make when you’re, I don’t know, bumping up your cable service or bumping up whatever it is where you’re paying extra for something?
There has to be stuff that goes along with it, right? Yeah. I mean, you hit on it before, like what’s the value add? Am I getting more? You know, bandwidth, if it’s internet, right, do I actually need that bandwidth versus, you know, I have plenty to stream now. Why do I need more? It’s, it’s understanding the value add because it’s, it’s so many brands out there use like the save time and money moniker across everything that they do.
And that’s not like hitting, sure it’s a real thing, but it’s not hitting the, the heart of what . I am trying to save as a consumer or the value add that you’re seeking, right? Yes, there’s an added component there, but you gotta speak to it in a different way to break through the noise, which I think, you know, when we look at like the video editing software space, it is crowded and it is competitive.
I mean, I did this last week on last week’s PFP episode, but like. Just looking at G two and Capterra, there’s over 250 SaaS tools out there that are listed under their video editing software categories. I mean, it’s a, it’s a space that you need to break through and break into, um, and really find your niche to, to build what is possible with this new offering, but also with the product set as a whole.
A hundred percent. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s interesting because I’ve been trying out lots of different tools for, for video and like how to make my video better because I don’t have a team outside of my podcast. I don’t have a team supporting me in my own video creation. Um, even for the stuff that we’re doing for the business.
I mean, I’m just kind of like clicking buttons and figuring out what works ultimately. And so. When we get into the ask for today, you know, so capsule’s already seeing incredible success with its product through various efforts. Obviously, you know, influencers, creators, I mean, I’ve seen, uh, Amanda, um, I’ve seen DG promote it.
I’ve seen a few others as well. So, you know, obviously they’re already working with influencers and creators, um, as well as product-led growth marketing. . Again, that’s how I became familiar with the product. Then they hired Natalie. I connected with her on LinkedIn ’cause I was like, she’s in marketing, VP of marketing, like they’re doing cool stuff.
I wanna kind of connect with her and learn from her. And so here we are. And so, but with all these new features in tier coming to market. How can you get the word out there more so that teams can create on-brand videos at scale? I think that’s the ultimate ask that we wanna accomplish today. How can we figure out how to get capsule out there so more teams can create on-brand videos at scale?
Um, and so Andy, you know, obviously this means we start with the people. So let’s, let’s kind of get your breakdown here. Yeah. So let’s talk about the audience here for a second. So, when we look at, you know, the audience that Natalie reached out to us with, right? She mentioned directors of, managers of marketing content, or social at companies that wanna create more videos.
Just like you and I, just like everybody else out there that’s trying to make a presence for their brands, uh, and those companies can range in size from five to 200 people. Now, I think when we look at the competitive landscape and the crowded market that exists with video editing software, my concern here is how can we find opportunities to take the growth and success that capsule has seen, which predominantly has been on the enterprise side of things, and use that as a way to,
Back into what this mid-market audience looks like. Right. Because, you know, I talked to Natalie, she shared some of the customers that they’re working with, and they are well-known logos to go along with testimonials that you referenced before Nick. Like they’ve got the credence, they’ve got the, the, the momentum there.
Right. And when we think about like what are the requirements or the needs of a business that’s looking for a thing such as capsule, right? And to lean into that positioning around teams and on-brand consistency. You know, we have to think about what do those companies look like and who are the decision makers that roll up to that.
For example, . First thing that came to mind when I was thinking about this. Creative directors, right? Mm-Hmm. Those people that sit on top of everything that goes out the door. Doesn’t have to be at an agency like us, doesn’t have to be, you know, at a large behemoth like Salesforce, HubSpot, there can be creative directors that oversee a team of five to 10 content, social, creative people.
And if video is a component of their distribution channels, they need to make sure that whatever gets produced is on . Consistent brand terms, but a hundred percent. That’s the thing that I’m saying though too, as we start to look at like, what does this audience mean? We need to niche down to find out who those people are, but also what are those sub-verticals and sub-markets that are gonna roll up to what capsule’s gonna be able to capitalize on the most?
A hundred, a hundred percent. Well, I was gonna say as well, you know, you, you bring up the creative director and I, I agree. That’s fantastic. Um, but, you know, I could see a lot of like people who are in charge of brand, for example. Mm-Hmm. also, I mean, being, I mean, it might be obviously, I don’t know, maybe it’s like a VP of brand or director of brand or something.
But a lot of companies in B two B that I’ve worked for have had those brand types of . People. And this is, uh, obviously a big thing and I think more and more B two B companies are focusing and doubling down on video. So I could see this being a huge piece there. So I think I agree niche down. Um. I, I think it’s kind of like figuring out what that focus is.
And maybe it’s through, you know, bit more research and kind of just figuring it out. ’cause it is still early, but over time you’re gonna, you’re gonna figure out who that is. You’re gonna niche it down and kind of double down on a certain group or category a bit more. Yeah, and I think the other thing too, to build on that is when we think about right, our audience, we also always think about what are the problems, the pains and challenges that we’re solving for that audience and.
When we think about capsule and right now, kind of it being that on-brand consistent, you know, feature driven product, right? Well, how do we play off of that when this mid-market, mid-tier comes into play? Right. Is consistency still the big driving factor of why somebody’s gonna go and subscribe, uh, and kind of go with this mid-market tier?
Or is that positioning only good enough to get somebody to, to try it out, but maybe not make the hurdle? Uh, to, to buying it in this new offering. So, I mean, I know I’ve had my own struggles with video editing software. You have your own struggles. So when we think about like triggering events, right, what are some of those events that are gonna lead somebody to actually seeking out an awe, a solution or a service or a product like capsule in this case?
Yeah, I mean, I think it’s like, I think it’s understanding a few things. ’cause again, like for me, . Uh, most times, at least in like the video, uh, types of software that I’ve used so far, and again, being an individual user, I’m, I’m starting out at that free trial. How do I go ultimately from free trial to maybe starter slash base or to mid-market?
It’s ultimately enterprise or it’s like, hey, like if I love a product, ’cause this happens a lot in MarTech and sales tech. It’s like, if I love our product so much, how can you . Continue to prove an experience. To me that goes way beyond anything that I’ve ever seen. And when I go to another company, I have a set of tools and tech that I’m gonna bring with me.
How do you make capsule top of mind so that whenever someone is leaving a company and going somewhere else, that’s one of the first types of tools and, and, and products that they wanna bring along with them. Um, but I mean, I know Andy, you have a couple more as well. Yeah, and for me it’s, it’s a similar
Purchase journey is what you just described, Nick, right? If I see something, uh, first of all, the triggering event for me is I wanna make my life easier and I want to create something that looks fantastic and sexy without creating a huge lift to do so. I mean, besides James, we’re a team of two people and our designer and our product producer Ian, uh, behind the scenes here today.
That it’s putting our content out there. So, uh, you know, it’s about making our lives easier, but also making it so great that when it goes out there, it showcases our expertise in a visual way. That, to be honest, I don’t care if it’s on brand and consistent. I would actually prefer if it’s not in many cases, but that’s just us as an agency.
Um. The big thing is, you know, getting the opportunity to try all out and play with the tool, seeing what works, what doesn’t. And this goes for any SaaS product. It’s not just video. You know, as an agency we test out so many different tools and one of the big things that I’ll tell anybody on our team, like, okay, well let’s test it out.
Let’s see what it does. And I’ll go and I’ll try to find, I’ll try to break it. Just same with our client’s products. If I can get access to it, I’m gonna try and break it because it means that there’s an opportunity to build a better feature or build a better product. But ultimately, if we find something that works well, then the triggering event is, okay, well what am I willing to pay?
It’s not just triggering me to find a solution to my problem, but finding which tier is best suited to addressing my needs. Hmm. Maybe it’s features, maybe it’s number of licenses, maybe it’s, you know, number of projects or capabilities that exist out there. And in other cases, maybe it’s the support that I know I’m gonna need here because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing and I gotta figure it out myself.
Or I need somebody to come in and have, you know, a monthly consulting call on top of me just kind of getting my hands dirty. So when we think about triggering events, I think that’s the big thing that is a through line on today’s episode. It’s not just about finding the solution, it’s about finding which tier of that solution fits the market’s needs.
Yeah, and I was gonna, the only thing I would add to that as well is like, there has to be education around that. Um, and again, as someone that uses the free tear and that has played around with it. Uh, and again, maybe this is coming, um, but I would love to see a lot more education around like, Hey, great, you’re just starting out.
Here’s like, I don’t know, maybe a checklist of things to get started. And as you move up to different tiers, it kind of educates you in different pieces of the product. Um, but again, it’s just, again, it, it’s just education that ultimately will prevail throughout all this. Yeah, but Nick, here’s the thing. I think when we think about education from the capsule point of view, they are coming into the creation of this new tier from an enterprise
Model that is creating revenue. So education wise, it’s a different type of education than like the DIYs that you and I might care about versus the decision makers and creative directors that are gonna be more focused on ease of use, UIs, making sure shit goes out. That’s really great. Um, and less about the process to getting there or just starting out as noobs or, you know, DIYers.
A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, I, I will never be kip from, from HubSpot, so I can, uh, , I can agree . So I think as we kind of start to transpi trans, uh, pose into like what our ideas are for growth here, for capsule, you know, the first thing is understanding what they got going on today. And Nick mentioned before, right?
They’ve been out for a while now they’re seeing success. We both talked about that. Uh, they’re seeing qualified leads, they’re partnering with creators and influencers. They got the word of mouth flywheel going in a lot of different areas, and now it’s a matter of, okay, well I. They’ve got new features coming into play and they got this new tier coming out.
So how do we accelerate the growth and success of this new tier by generating new revenue streams? Nick, I know you had a couple of ideas for growth. Do you wanna touch on yours first? Yeah, absolutely. So again, piggybacking and I guess building off of this whole creator and influence, I think, which again I, I’m huge into this whole creator economy and influence.
Like, I think there’s so much upside there. Um, I would love to see a capsule creator series. So how can you partner with creators offering the tool for free as you continue to build out these tier in exchange for some behind the scenes editing content? I mean, I don’t know about you, but I love like BTS types of stuff where like, I can see how stuff is made.
Like I just, I pitched this idea like from like, just like a behind the scenes type thing. Um. To a few people that I was like, this could be like really, really cool because like, who wouldn’t turn that down? Especially if you’re like a founder or someone that’s like just building a company. Like, that’s so interesting.
But then if you’re like a creator, um, all the creative journey, the creative flow that goes into that, like then capsule can take this entire series and distribute it across not only all of their socials, they could turn it into blog posts. You could do a lot with this series, you know, individually. Um.
You know, I would sign up for it for sure, but ultimately you wanna show how you made their their life easier. You wanna highlight their content, the people that are there. That’s going to be the social proof written. Social proof is cool. And again, you have amazing testimonials and social proof on your website, but taking an actual video series like this, I just think takes it up a a bit of a level.
Second piece of that is I would love to see a capsule creator studio. So for example, if like, so we have a, a media network, TAC network and we have creators that are creating shows on our media network. So again, owned media. Um, imagine using capsule to power this entire media network for different creators.
I think that could just be really fascinating and I think you’re doing more to ultimately partner with them. I think the third thing that kind of falls under this is like . Many people are get, are afraid to get started with video. I talk to so many people that are like, ah, you know, I’m gonna stick to blogs, newsletters, you know, LinkedIn posts, whatever.
I’m just not a video guy or girl. Um, and they’re afraid how they look on camera. They’re afraid of being off-brand. I. And I think Capsule can do an amazing job at highlighting customer stories to show how you have helped them overcome those fear and make their a, their content. Awesome. I saw Amanda posted it on Twitter or ex of, um, basically like using capsule, like what that kind of looked like.
But I think like, again, like you could blow that out and like do so much more with that. So I again, big fan of that there. Okay, so here’s an idea for what You name that series. It’s the Just send It series. Ooh. Like, just send it. Just go. Just do it. Yeah. . Yeah. I mean, I, I mean, honestly, I, I mean, I wear this hat because again, like haters, hate creators create like capsule again, like I think could be a fantastic fit of this.
It’s like, hey, like listen, people are gonna hate whatever you put out there. Your content’s not gonna be for everyone, but sometimes you just gotta ship it. Sometimes you have to partner with these brands that bring it to life to maybe put you on brand or make you look a bit more professional. Um, so one last thing that I have kind of from like an idea standpoint is thought leadership content around content strategy.
So. Making cool videos is one thing, but if you did a podcast series or something where you brought on the best people in content marketing and or maybe creative directors, maybe brand people, and you talked about various content strategy topics, you could build an audience of content marketers, help them with strategy, and then when they run into the normal roadblock, that video’s hard, capsule’s there to help you save the day.
You have your cape on. Everyone loves capsule. Um. So basically everything above is to build an audience. You could promote that obviously with thought leader ads, um, retarget with a free capsule signup of capsule on top of that to help amplify it. And I think you’re creating more of a product. I think ultimately you’re creating more product level content for upselling, retargeting from free to paid ultimately is, is what you want to achieve here.
So, so just some thoughts. Yeah, and I think mine kind of play off of that a little bit, but in a little bit of a different way. The, the big thing for me is it’s twofold, right? You know, how do we, how do we address the pains and the challenges of the market beyond just kind of creating consistency? And if that is the, if that is truly a through line that people care about.
You know, creative directors, things like that. How can we be fun without kind of just calling it what it is? Right? You know, for example, consistency may be a pain, but like, what’s the real result of not being consistent? Sure. You’re gonna have, you know, this direct I. Side by side of videos that are on brand and off-brand.
But what about the people that are actually critiquing it or letting it go out the door, right? The CMOs, the creative directors, you know, how can you be fun and playful with critiquing creative that is not consistent? It can be fake, it can be real examples, but showing what inconsistency looks like in the real world, and then internally kind of the, the things that happen, whether it’s the critiques, whether it’s the calling you into the office, like, what the hell happened here?
How’d this go wrong? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think there’s, there’s, uh, a playful way that you can show that and also kind of tug at . The egos and emotions of those decision makers, as well as the people on the team that capsule works for. The other thing is I said that time and money are, you know, this through line and this narrative that gets overused, but I.
When we think about it from the perspective of what capsule can do, it is about speed, but it’s also about quality and some of the comparison metrics that they have on the site. Comparing them to DS script, which is what James and I use, uh, or Adobe and other ones. I feel like there’s a way to lean into those industry behemoth comparisons in a fun way where you could almost do like the side by side challenge where great, you know, I’m gonna reach out to you as a potential prospect or an influencer and creator.
Like Nick is right, and say, okay, I’m gonna give you this task. I want you to use your existing suite of tools to do this, and then I wanna see if I can do it faster or have you do it faster in capsule and let’s see what the end product looks like. And really use that as a individual opportunity of showing the power of capsule, but also showing the comparisons it has against the existing
Tech stack or existing kind of well-known tools out there. The big thing here is the objective of getting the product into more hands of your ICP as possible because the creation of assets out of this snackable videos, right? Creation of conversations, even if they’re informally created around the product and the using the product and showing the product firsthand are gonna lead to sales opportunities that are gonna create more flywheel.
Uh, impacts beyond just that individual conversation. It’s gonna lean into those influencers, those creators, and that word of mouth marketing that’s already working so well for capsule. So that’s kind of my ideas for growth, uh, when it comes to this. Yeah. Let’s, and I, I have two kind of two other considerations I’d like to talk about really quickly.
So, transparent pricing. Please use transparent pricing when this new tier goes live. Big fan of this people first, which is what obviously this entire show’s about. Huge fans like Andy and I are huge believers of the people First mentality. Transparent pricing in today’s world is so like people just don’t take, people take it for granted, but it actually means so much.
So transparent pricing I definitely think is a huge piece of that and I would love to see more educational, how-to content. The biggest reason people don’t move forward or renew is because they either don’t know how to use a tool. Or they don’t use the tool. Um, and for me, like I would love to see more of that, especially for a tool that maybe I’m not as familiar with.
So Andy, um, I don’t know if anything else you add or if you want to kind of bring us into some of the takeaways from today. Yeah, and I think the, the recap and the takeaways today kind of just come together when anyone is launching a new product feature and therefore a product here in, in some cases,
It’s about looking beyond just like the bundling of features and the value creation that are, is hopefully evident and clear, as you talked about Nick, and it’s also, it’s going beyond that and looking beneath the surface to understand who that audience is of that new offering and tier, and nailing the positioning of that new tier as well.
Right? It can’t just fall within this big picture of. You know, the positioning that goes across all these tiers for the brand appeals to each and every market that a tier is gonna align to, and it also comes back into play of. Thinking about those triggering events beyond just what’s gonna trigger me to buy capsule or any other SaaS product, but rather what’s gonna trigger me to select this tier versus this tier.
And understanding those customer insights, those market needs, behaviors, and those desires, but also predicting the future. Because SaaS is a constant battlefield. It’s a constant innovation and race to create the best product that’s gonna fit the needs of the market today, but also tomorrow. So you gotta kind of be this, you know, fortune teller and, and look ahead and plan ahead as that product roadmap is built out.
And also along with that, the sales map as it relates to new tiers coming into market. So lots of, lots of things that kind of wrap into this. Kind of idea, Nick and I think we did a, we did an okay job in 29 minutes talking through a lot of it. We did, we did. So let’s wrap it up. So the next episode is on next Tuesday, the 21st, 12:00 PM Eastern.
You know where to find us. I stream on all my channels. So does Andy. Um, in the meantime, if you wanna get updates on our show’s schedule or wanna submit a campaign of your own to feature on the show, visit Dragon three sixty.com/people first playbook. And if you have any questions, comments, feedback on today’s show, we’re not gonna, we’re not gonna get angry at you.
We just wanna be better. Ultimately, we’re just trying to help others give away free advice. Please reach out to Andy and I on LinkedIn. We’re, we’re friendly people. We will answer you. Um, and until then, hang on. Except when it comes to your Christmas decorations, I don’t know if you’re that friendly. Since you’re jumping the gun here on that.
So it’s, I mean, it’s, it’s, when you have three kids, man, you have to make them happy. It’s like, uh, my five-year-old wanted to put it up like months ago. So . Um, but listen, we did it in 30 minutes record time. First time ever. We did it in actually 30 minutes. So we’re gonna leave so we can stay on 30 minutes.
And until next time, we’ll check y’all later. See ya.