How do I motivate specific groups of customers to upgrade?

Challenge

A software company sought a better way to increase the number of customers upgrading to new product versions, and to accelerate that decision. The company recognized that more targeted, timely, and effective communications would be crucial to success.

The software vendor had been sending upgrade emails to its customers, but was dissatisfied with the 10-15% upgrade rates it was achieving. To improve these rates, it wanted deeper knowledge about how individual customers used the product, tools to help it segment users, and better ways to communicate with each segment based on its unique product usage and needs.

Solution

Using Usage Intelligence, the company now captures detailed information about how users work with its legacy products, and the hardware and operating systems they run on. And, with ReachOut™ in-application messaging, the marketing team can craft and deliver specific messages to each user segment. For example, customers who use one set of features can be shown how the new version makes them more efficient; customers running Windows 7 can be reassured that the new version works well with it; and all customers can be messaged in their local language. Using ReachOut, segmented campaigns can be built and delivered within the application itself, where customers are already engaged, and are most likely to be receptive. The company can also suppress upgrade messages to customers who’ve upgraded recently, and send them tips for using new features instead.

Increased customer upgrades from 10-15% to over 30% immediately.

Results

By incorporating ReachOut in-app messaging into its customer communications strategy, the software company increased upgrade conversions from 10-15% to over 30% almost immediately. These higher conversion rates translated directly into increased revenue.

Drawing on detailed usage patterns captured by Usage Intelligence, the software vendor can optimize feature planning for a new higher-cost, higher-value “Pro” version. The Pro version can then be marketed using ReachOut to specific customers whose usage patterns identify them as ideal prospects.