This article covers the key aspects of designing and implementing an effective customer acquisition strategy. It zeros in on a few important decisions when it comes to the customer acquisition process:

What is the most effective way to entice prospects to try your product?
Is it better to offer a freemium or a free trial?

Customer expectations are rapidly changing. Consumer companies are often ahead of the curve when it comes to using new technologies to reimagine customer experiences. In our daily lives, we are exposed to numerous, stellar customer experiences that set the standard for us, even in our professional lives. In both the B2C and B2B worlds, companies are selling to individuals. You can call it Me2B, B2Me or B2I (read interview by Bill Price on Openview Labs). Whatever you call it, it has redefined how companies need to engage and sell.

Simply put, SaaS companies must transition and change their customer acquisition strategy to model those in the consumer industry. Business buyers no longer accept long, sales-heavy buying processes.

Just look at the most successful companies in the last generation of SaaS products: Slack, InVision, Asana, Dropbox, Zoom, to name a few. All of them follow a new customer acquisition strategy that puts prospects at the center. They optimize the buying process to fit buyers’ needs. Their customer acquisition strategy enables prospects to try their products before they buy.

The best companies in the new generation of SaaS are focusing on product growth strategies and tactics that bring product growth teams closer to the customer acquisition process. In other words, product leaders are increasingly more involved in the customer acquisition process (read Why Product Teams Must Join the Customer Acquisition Process).

Along those same lines, SurveyMonkey makes it easy for prospects to try and buy their product. Just think about the efficiency: I paid $408 for an annual subscription after just 30 minutes of using their product. Zero overhead was spent, and no salespeople were involved explaining how to use the product or trying to upsell me.

I wasn’t qualified by a Sales Development Representative and I didn’t submit a long lead form to “hear back” from their team. Of course, for the purpose of this discussion I’m omitting the fact that SurveyMonkey spent many years establishing a leading brand in its category (so I can recall it right away). And make no mistake, my buying intent was high too: I had an urgent problem that I had to get off my shoulders. Still, I could have tried a competitive product and not had the same easy, satisfying experience.

Let’s take a deeper dive into why SaaS companies have to re-evaluate and design their customer acquisition strategies and how the pricing model fits into it.