10Mar2020
Des Traynor, the founder of Intercom shares how the role of marketing is changing as more and more businesses are becoming subscription-based. He points out why marketers should now focus on retention instead of conversion. The old world of marketing is one replete with hacks, tips, tricks, and techniques all designed to get a user to convert. However, in today’s economy, all revenue is moving towards subscriptions, which begs the question ‘What is a conversion today?’ After all, we don’t buy software these days, we subscribe to it. Looking through consumer products the trend is increasing, we subscribe to music, movies, fitness, dinner kits, make-up, razor blades, dog treats. Brands everywhere are fighting for customer monogamy, and in this world it’s no longer enough to obsess over conversions, marketing needs look much deeper into the funnel, moving customers from ‘signed up’ to ‘satisfied’. Key points: • Monthly subscriptions are the future of profitable long-term sales. • Retaining customers is not only profitable, but it is also essential. • Over-marketing a product is disastrous as customers will become disappointed. • Concentrate marketing efforts on the onboarding process. Questions to consider: • Who are my customers? • What does successfully using my product mean to them? • How can I ensure my product continues to be of value? • Is my marketing aligned with my product and does it provide a realistic picture of customer success? You can also find a written summary of the keynote at https://www.nbforum.com/event-summaries/ Bio: Des is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Intercom, a company on a mission to make internet business personal. Des launched Intercom in 2011 as the first to bring messaging for sales, marketing, and customer service to one platform – helping companies of all sizes grow faster by building personal relationships with customers. Before Intercom, Des was the co-founder of Exceptional (now a part of Rackspace), the first error tracking company. Before Exceptional, he was a UX designer for web apps. He’s based in Dublin.
