How much time do you think it takes to decide a product’s pricing? Whatever figure you say, be sure, it should be more. Companies make tremendous efforts to build and market their products. All this work is done to eventually bring people to the pricing page, where they will decide whether to hit the purchase button or not. Nevertheless, many SaaS companies underestimate the importance of proper pricing. They start thinking about the pricing the day before the launch and finally end up matching their offering to one of the competitors.
Copying competitors is a simple way that is difficult to resist. However, this approach does you and your customers a disservice. Instead of trying to fall in line with your market rivals, it’s way more beneficial to think about what makes you stand apart from the competition. In this article, we’ll learn the pricing page best practices from the companies who bothered to make their pricing work.
And before, let’s make it clear what you should mind when working on your pricing.
How to create pricing that works
Regardless of what you’re selling, a simple time-tracking app, or a complicated all-in-one sales & marketing solution, start your pricing by knowing who your buyers are. In other words, create buyer (or customer) personas. If you think I’m talking about fancy slides with vague concepts, you may have already prepared for one of the C-team meetings, that’s not the case. You need buyer personas created based on thorough quantitative analysis of sales and customer survey data. As a result of this exercise, you should understand what price certain groups of customers are ready to pay for your product, and these insights will underlie a value-based pricing strategy.
Did you get the point? Great, going further.
One buyer persona - one price plan
As soon as you define your target audience the next step will be to offer them the best-match product. It should be a no-brainer for your customers to understand which of your products is specifically tailored to solve their problem.
The smart way is to name the price plans after the customers’ group. For example, it can be a “Bootstrapper - Startup - Professional - Enterprise” plan.
You can also tie the pricing package names and the jobs to be done. It can be something like “Launch - Power Up - Scale.”
Each plan’s price should consider how price-sensitive the target group is and what value they’re willing to pay for.
Build pricing that scales
The scalable pricing concept is based on a value metric, which presents what the customer pays for - per seat, per user, the number of minutes, etc.
Whereas buyer personas, which we discussed above, are crucial for the sales funnel and adequate price plan packing, the value metric allows to differentiate prices and expand revenue along with the increasing value customers get from your product. Put it another way, if a customer gets more value, you can also grasp a part.
The graph below will help explain this thought.
Look at the blue rectangle. It shows the market you cover with your fixed price. You give a specific value and get paid for that value. But actually, you can embrace all that striped area, setting different prices and being price-flexible. To make this simple yet brilliant scheme works, you should flawlessly determine where your customers gain value from your product without tangling them with too diverse and complicated pricing.
Improve page design and user experience
All the hard work will be in vain if your pricing page doesn’t look right. It should not only have a neat and user-friendly design but also be easy to read and comprehend. Ask our designers how to build a beautiful pricing page, and they will brainstorm a bunch of options to choose from. We also have some hints for the SaaS pricing page design you can check.
What you should pay attention to when building your pricing page is that:
- People don’t read; they scan
- People don’t like complicated things they can’t get by a quick look
- And finally, people hate cumbersome wordings and giant feature lists
Regarding the last point, when your future customers land on your pricing page, they expect to see a concise feature comparison facilitating them to make a purchase decision. They don’t actually need a dozen functionalities on your list as they care about 2-3 main features and probably a couple of more specific ones.
Focus on having these three price strategy pillars on your pricing page:
- Positioning based on buyers personas you created before
- Packages that contain features crucial for a particular customers group
- Price plans aligned with values and customers’ willingness to pay for them
Here are some more details you may want to consider implementing on your pricing page.
FAQ and support
In the “Anatomy of a SaaS Marketing Site, it is stated that:
- 76% of companies enable the “Contact Sales” option on their pricing pages
- 66% of pricing pages have an FAQ section
- 13% embed a live chat functionality
Among the points above, I would emphasize the FAQ as these three letters will assist you in beating another three ones - FUD that stands for fears, uncertainties, and doubts.
People feel hard parting with money, so your task here is to mitigate discomfort.
Firstly, identify the reasons that hinder your potential clients from buying your product. You can do this by surveying your leads and customers. Once you uncover the objections, list the most common ones and handle them with your answers.
Currency converter
Showing the product price in customers’ local currency is good but not enough. You will do a great job adjusting the price based on the value the product may have for the different markets.
According to the survey ProfitWell conducted, those SaaS companies that implemented currency and pricing localization grew much faster than their competitors who didn’t bother to execute such adjustments.
Anchoring, “charm pricing,” CTAs
When you are done with logical value-based pricing and prepared a concise and easy-to-follow feature list, don’t forget to add a bit of psychology on your page.
The design tricks below will help your pricing page perform better:
- Anchoring - highlight your most popular plan with attractive elements or bright colors. They should catch a customer’s eye and evoke an irresistible desire to click the button
- Charm pricing - some marketing experts say it doesn’t work anymore. However, it’s worth testing. Put the price ending with 9 or 5 instead of a round figure.
- Action-provoking CTA’s - there is a neverending discussion around a compelling CTAs copy. And the truth is nobody knows what message will work for your business - “Buy now” or “Click here,” or “Choose plan.” One is for sure - your CTA should be clear, not misleading, not too pushy yet engaging. It also should set clear expectations of what will happen next after a customer pushes the button.
Your pricing page is a point where the hours of your hard work bring customers. Treat it accordingly.
One more important thing to mention before we move to the best pricing page examples.
Foster upfront and annual payment
Whereas monthly bills can be more attractive to your customers, upfront and annual payments are what you have to focus on for you as a business. Upfront will secure a healthy cash flow, and yearly contracts ensure long-term customer relationships.
And also be careful with the discounts. Offering the price cuts too often, you won’t be able to sell at regular price. The frequent deals create the expectation in customers’ minds that they should wait for the next promotion.
And now, let’s see the pricing page examples you can learn from.
1. Salesforce (Sales Cloud)
The pricing packages have explicit names and an explanation of what you get within a particular plan. The main plan is highlighted. All price plans encourage annual payment. CTAs are clear with an explicit hint to take a free trial. A proactive chat offers to help with pricing, popping up immediately after you come to the page.
A feature comparison block shows only the main features.
And for those who want to learn more, there is a drop-down list, uncovering all features.
FAQ section covers the most frequently asked questions.
2. Hubspot Marketing Hub
Hubspot speaks straightforward - Pay for what you need (when you need it).
To build a pricing structure accordingly is not that easy, however. Still, Hubspot does a great job and presents its pricing in a transparent and comprehensive way.
Each plan shows value metrics - a number of marketing contacts you will pay for within a specific plan. Hubspot promotes upfront annual payment offering a 10% discount. CTAs encourage contact sales.
And the most appealing - Hubspot ties price plans to the jobs you will have done.
Also, you can calculate your exact price.
And the FAQ section is also there.
3. Campaign Monitor
Unlike competitors, Campaign Monitor places a CTA just at the top of the pricing page.
Though this approach is arguable, the metric’s slider helps check what plan to choose according to your needs.
The pricing packages have a clear structure with a comprehensive feature list and “charm prices” ending with “9”. What is interesting, Campaign Monitor encourages monthly payment, whereas the majority of the SaaS companies focus on annual contracts more.
4. Unbounce
Unbounce tried hard to make their pricing page as easy to comprehend and use as possible. From the value proposition at the top offering scalable plans, we can see that their pricing packages are built using the “jobs-to-be-done” approach.
Showing a monthly plan by default, an annual option is unobtrusively highlighted with tiny fireworks. The most popular plan is outlined. The feature comparison is short and straightforward. Overall, there is a feeling that these guys did everything to ensure customers a seamless user experience.
5. Evernote
I consider Evernote’s pricing page the best in my rating. The plans’ structure is clear and comprehensive. The prices are adjusting dynamically depending on the customer’s IP address. The concise feature comparison is easy to understand. For those who need more details, the extended features list is available.
The FAQ is organized in a drop-down list. Below the FAQ section, Help center and Contact us icons invite to connect in case of additional questions.
As a conclusion
Building a pricing page that sells can be a complicated process. However, being appropriately done, this last and the most critical endpoint will help you turn your leads into customers. Work on buyer personas to create value-based pricing. Ensure your pricing is scalable and easy to comprehend. And don’t forget to make the overall design appealing. Not sure how to do this? Let us know, we are here to help. Also, check landing page best practices and web design examples you can learn from and implement on your side.
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