Turning free users into paying subscribers
Moah describes four iterative conversion experiments, including replacing a subscription link with a prominent red button.
Summary ·Watch at 01:59
Founder conversationLeader $5m+
The Year of Experiments: How We Added $500K at 8M ARR
Trial-ending emails, dunning sequences, and a confirmation page: tests ranked by impact and complexity
Aye Moah · Boomerang
Published September 6, 2024About this resource
- Format
- SaaSOpen 2024 NYC
- Length
- 26 min video
- Inside
- 10 key moments
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What you’ll learn
Moah describes four iterative conversion experiments, including replacing a subscription link with a prominent red button. Moah explains extending the reminder window, adding emails, varying the sending cadence, and making the next step clear.
Read the source passagesKey moments
Find the ideas you need and go straight to the source.
Improving payment recovery with dunning emails
Moah explains extending the reminder window, adding emails, varying the sending cadence, and making the next step clear.
Summary ·Watch at 04:24
Trying the opposite when a test fails
After richer meeting-confirmation pages lost to the control, Boomerang tested a stripped-down page and saw stronger conversion.
Summary ·Watch at 09:10
Prioritizing experiments by impact and complexity
Moah shares Boomerang’s adaptation of RICE, replacing confidence with complexity when evaluating experiments.
Summary ·Watch at 15:20
Launching an experiment program with five people
Moah explains how a proposal template and clear ownership helped the team launch its first experiment within two weeks.
Summary ·Watch at 17:44
Trial-ending email results
“Trial ending experience High impact 3 different emails 4 Iterations $250k worth of extra new subscribers Freemium SAAS”
Dunning email principles
“Easiest Experiment - Dunning Emails No code required. Any Team can do it in one day. Increase urgency Don’t send on the same week day Clear CTA. Ideally RED BUTTON What they will lose Remain polite”
Meeting confirmation page test
“Meeting Confirmation Page Virality Good hypothesis More value prop Guess which variant won High leverage page since every meeting guest has to go through it Control Variant A Variant B”
Experiment results and lessons
“44 experiments executed YTD 19 successes 10 failures 15 in flight 2nd order effect No peeking Big swings vs. Easy wins How to start Templates Checklists What I learned From 44 experiments in 8 months Results Lessons Takeaways”
The upside of ownership
“Dividends for shareholders 4-5x returns for the investors 10 schools in Burma 6 climate tech research projects Annual hackathon week 11 patents Upside of Running This Way Owning your destiny. Dividends Donations Hackathons”
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The Year of Experiments: How We Added $500K at 8M ARR - Slide Deck
Aye Moah is the co-founder and CPO of Boomerang, makers of thoughtful productivity software that helps you focus on what matters. At Boomerang, Moah has built the product team and brought several award winning products to life. Moah was born and raised in Burma. She holds a BS in computer science from MIT.
- Company revenue
- $8M
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Slide by slide
Each slide with a short explanation of what it shows. Open the slide text for its exact wording.
20 passages
Experiment-led growth at Boomerang
Slide text
SaaSOpen, September 2024 The Year of Experiments: How We Added $500K at 8M ARR Aye Moah CEO, Boomerang …by systemically implementing growth experiments
Agenda: three tests, bootstrapping, dividends
The talk has three parts: three growth tests, lessons from bootstrapping to $8M, and what owner-run profits make possible. The tests are ranked by what each does best: trial ending emails for ARR, dunning for ease, the meeting confirmation page for lift.
Slide text
Over the next 20 minutes I’m going to show you 3 TESTS WE RAN Trial ending emails - Highest ARR Optimize Dunning sequence - Easiest Meeting confirmation page - Highest lift BOOTSTRAPPING TO $8M DIVIDENDS, PROFITS, THE FRENCH LAUNDRY Keep it simple Mythical Man-Month What’s the point of this? Dividends 4-5x returns to investors Donations & Hackathons
Improving the trial-ending experience
Trial ending emails added $250k in subscribers
Rewriting the trial ending email was the highest-impact test for this freemium product, worth $250k of extra new subscribers. Over 4 iterations of 3 emails, adding a red subscription button lifted results by +7.26%, and listing the scheduled recurring messages that would fail after the trial lifted it by +17%.
Slide text
Trial ending experience High impact 3 different emails 4 Iterations $250k worth of extra new subscribers Freemium SAAS
Dunning-email experiments
Dunning email tests need no code
Dunning emails are the easiest experiment because any team can change them in one day without engineering. The slide shows two payment-problem emails as models: a short, friendly Slack reminder and a longer Amazon notice with numbered steps.
Slide text
Easiest Experiment - Dunning Emails No code required. Any Team can do it in one day.
Longer, more urgent dunning sequence
The dunning sequence was rebuilt from 3 emails over 13 days to 6 emails over 21 days. The rules behind it: increase urgency, vary the send weekday, use a clear call to action (ideally a red button), say what the customer will lose, and stay polite.
Slide text
Easiest Experiment - Dunning Emails No code required. Any Team can do it in one day. Increase urgency Don’t send on the same week day Clear CTA. Ideally RED BUTTON What they will lose Remain polite
Dunning changes lifted recovery to 52nd percentile
After the new dunning sequence went live, Boomerang's recovery rate rose about 12% and its industry percentile went from 29th to 52nd. The percentile stays between 28 and 37 until March, then climbs from May. Recovery rate is 55% in July 2024 versus 42% a year earlier.
Slide text
Recovery Rate Went up ~12% We went from 29th percentile to 52nd percentile in our industry When we deployed the change
Testing the meeting-confirmation page
Boomerang's product: meeting scheduling in email
Context for the third test: Boomerang does meeting scheduling by placing a live image of your calendar in email, and it works across all email clients. The product image did not render on this slide.
Slide text
Boomerang does meeting scheduling Live Image of your calendar. Works across all email clients.
Confirmation page tested with more value prop
The meeting confirmation page is a high-leverage place to promote the product because every meeting guest has to pass through it. The first test added more value proposition: Variant A lists benefits, and Variant B adds a short visual explainer, both against a plain control. The audience is asked to guess the winner.
Slide text
Meeting Confirmation Page Virality Good hypothesis More value prop Guess which variant won High leverage page since every meeting guest has to go through it Control Variant A Variant B
Stripped-down confirmation page won big
After the busier variants failed, going the opposite direction worked: no bright buttons, subtle branding, no marketing copy. With similar view counts in both arms, clicks on the Gmail call to action rose from 1.15% to 19.87% and on the Outlook one from 0.91% to 11.89%.
Slide text
Go opposite direction No bright color buttons Subtle branding No marketing info How do we know to try again? Control Test
Operating an experiment system
44 experiments in 8 months: results and lessons
Across 44 experiments in 8 months, 19 succeeded, 10 failed and 15 are still running. The lessons listed are second-order effects, no peeking at results early, and balancing big swings against easy wins. The takeaways are how to start, templates and checklists.
Slide text
44 experiments executed YTD 19 successes 10 failures 15 in flight 2nd order effect No peeking Big swings vs. Easy wins How to start Templates Checklists What I learned From 44 experiments in 8 months Results Lessons Takeaways
Prioritize experiments by risk, impact, effort
Whether your funnel is well optimized, has too many ideas, or is unoptimized, rank experiment ideas by risk, impact and effort, with confidence crossed out. The spreadsheet shows a backlog with effort size, impact, risk, reversibility and estimated duration for each idea.
Slide text
A Note on How to Start A. Well optimized across the whole funnel B. Too many ideas to test C. Nothing is optimized Risk, Impact, Confidence, Effort Quick poll on where you are
Complexity added to the prioritization score
This step adds complexity to the scoring list: risk, impact, effort and complexity, with confidence still crossed out. A large stylized acronym built from these letters sits above the same backlog spreadsheet, framing it as the team's prioritization method.
Slide text
A Note on How to start A. Well optimized across the whole funnel B. Too many ideas to test C. Nothing is optimized Risk, Impact, Confidence, Effort, Complexity
Kanban board tracks every experiment's stage
Boomerang runs experiments through a Kanban dashboard, with columns from pending deployment and active to time to decide, implemented and rejected. An open card shows pre-flight and post-test checklists covering analytics, announcements and picking a winner. The speaker offers to share the dashboard.
Slide text
Happy to share with folks Experiment Dashboard
Bootstrapping principles and ownership
Revenue climbed to about $8M, then plateaued
Boomerang's revenue grew from nothing in 2010 to roughly $8 million by 2018. It then dipped and crept back up, ending 2024 slightly above that 2018 level. The asterisk on "Bootstrapping" is not explained on the slide.
Slide text
Bootstrapping* Journey
Three principles from bootstrapping to $8M
Three principles come out of bootstrapping to $8M: keep it simple, stay lean, and keep asking what the point of this is. Under staying lean, the slide reminds the audience of the Mythical Man-Month.
Slide text
Keep it simple Stay lean Remember Mythical man-month What’s the point of this? What I learned from Bootstrapping to $8M Principle 1 Principle 2 Principle 3
Owning your destiny pays dividends and donations
Running the company this way pays back in three forms: dividends, donations and hackathons. Investors saw 4-5x returns, the company funded 10 schools in Burma and 6 climate tech research projects, and it holds an annual hackathon week and 11 patents.
Slide text
Dividends for shareholders 4-5x returns for the investors 10 schools in Burma 6 climate tech research projects Annual hackathon week 11 patents Upside of Running This Way Owning your destiny. Dividends Donations Hackathons
The first donated school, in Myanmar
Photo of the first school Boomerang donated, in 2016 in Pwe Hnyet San Village, Myanmar. Children and villagers wave in front of the building holding banners that thank the Boomerang team for the school.
Slide text
The First School We Donated 2016, Pwe Hnyet San Village, Myanmar
Team trips and a celebration dinner
Two team photos show the culture behind the numbers: a group on a beach trip posing with large painted letters, and a dressed-up group, including a child, at The French Laundry restaurant. They illustrate what profits fund beyond dividends.
Slide text
Add a subtitle here
Recap: tests, bootstrapping lessons, dividends
The recap repeats the three parts, each backed by real examples. The tests were trial ending emails, the dunning sequence and the meeting confirmation page. The lessons were to keep it simple and ask what the point is, with 4-5x investor returns, donations and hackathons as the payoff.
Slide text
Over the last 20 minutes, I showed you: … with real examples! 3 TESTS WE RAN This text should be min. 14 px So people at back of room can see Inter font. BOOTSTRAPPING TO $10M DIVIDENDS, PROFITS, THE FRENCH LAUNDRY Bullet 1 Bullet 2 Bullet 3 Bullet 1 Bullet 2 Bullet 3 3 TESTS WE RAN Trial ending emails ($227k) Optimize Dunning sequence ($50k) BOOTSTRAPPING TO $8M DIVIDENDS, PROFITS, THE FRENCH LAUNDRY Keep it simple Mythical Man-Month What’s the point of this? Dividends 4-5x returns to investors Donations & Hackathons 3 TESTS WE RAN Trial ending emails - Highest ARR Optimize Dunning sequence - Easiest Meeting confirmation page - Highest lift BOOTSTRAPPING TO $8M DIVIDENDS, PROFITS, THE FRENCH LAUNDRY Keep it simple Mythical Man-Month What’s the point of this? Dividends 4-5x returns to investors Donations & Hackathons
Thank you from Aye Moah
Closing slide from Aye Moah, CEO of Boomerang, at SaaSOpen in September 2024. It thanks the audience and invites them to reach out to her by email.
Slide text
SaaSOpen, September 2024 Thank You! [redacted email] Aye Moah CEO, Boomerang