TL;DR: We've started to promote our product and received a lot of attention, but without mentioning that it's going to require a monthly subscription. How would you talk about the subscription without generating a lot of disappointment?<p>We're currently working on a service to help speech therapists which is also have an app. We're planning to start our beta next month, so we've started to spread the word about the product this week.<p>Our strategy was to talk about some of the features of our product, together with useful content for our public to start generating some interest and nurture it until the launch date.<p>Unexpectedly, we've received a lot of attention (actually the amount expected for a month in a week) and a lot of people are sending us messages to ask about the product. This is great, but I'm worried that a lot of people might get disappointed as soon as we start sharing more details with them, as we haven't mentioned, yet, that the service is supposed to require a monthly subscription (+- US$9).<p>How would you manage their expectations in order to introduce the paid plan without a lot of disappointment?<p>Some background:<p>* We're based in Brazil. I don't know if it's something which only happens in here, but people seems to always assume that apps are free.
Here is an email I received from rollbar.com when they announced price increases. I was impressed enough how they chose their words to save the email.<p><pre><code> Your account is on a plan from prices that we set back in February 2015. Back then, we were 5 people in a San Francisco coworking
space trying to figure out if what we were building was going to be useful to anyone other than our early adopters.
Over the past year and a half, we've learned a ton about just how valuable Rollbar can be, how it fits into the modern
software development lifecycle, and where it can go. Tangibly, we have:
* Grown our full-time staff over 3x, from 5 people to 17
* Hired dedicated support staff
* Released and improved countless features, including SSO, 2-factor
auth, and tons of integrations
... and we're extremely excited to keep working on our mission—to help developers build and maintain software, quickly and
painlessly—for many years to come. To have the resources to do that, we need to adjust our prices to better reflect the
value that Rollbar can provide, and we hope that you'll stick with us on this journey.</code></pre>
If most - or all - of your users are Brazilian, then I'm afraid you'll have a hard time. People here don't realize the value in software/apps.<p>Offer a full month trial to your existing userbase, and 1 week trial to new users. The Rollbar email is a great example on how transparency can go a long way. Consider offering different pricing plans with different set of features. Power users are more likely to pay more, and casual users can continue using limited features at a smaller price.<p>Also, as much as I agree with traskjd comment, I don't think it holds true to Brazil. You probably know what I'm talking about. I'm afraid the strategy here must be "price as cheap as you can", unless you are dealing with a very special audience (or with enterprises).<p>I'm happy to know how this turns out. Consider sharing a blog post with your experience :) Good luck / boa sorte.
I would expect speech therapists to want to pay for the app, speech therapy apps and apps for doctors in the states are usually pretty pricey.<p>I wouldn't expect any medical office to balk at $9/mo . . . if anything you should raise the price, that seems too inexpensive. I'd do three plans $49, $99 and $199 depending on features/levels you can offer or maybe per doctor/staff/patient depending on your app.<p>Do you have Hipaa style privacy laws regarding electronic medical records in Brazil? That usually commands a premium here so same app for non-medical $99/mo for medical $199/mo.<p><a href="https://www.appointmentreminder.org/pricing" rel="nofollow">https://www.appointmentreminder.org/pricing</a><p>I think you're pricing too low, if it provides value speech therapists are going to expect to pay for it.<p>Good luck, let us know how it goes.
Hope it helps, but I wouldn't worry about it. Give a trial so they can test it out. If people are disappointed, then they weren't likely to be your target market anyway (especially if they assume the apps are free!)<p>I'd also suggest charging more than $9 a month. I appreciate there's a currency difference between the US & Brazil, however that's really not a lot of money. Consider the human support side alone. One question from each customer would likely take months to recover the cost of (and that's after you paid to acquire them, and provide the service).<p>Just my 2c, but hope it helps!