• newslepear
  • Posts
  • 🍐#29: Cloud vs self hosted biz model, great Reddit ad, and clean pricing calculator

🍐#29: Cloud vs self hosted biz model, great Reddit ad, and clean pricing calculator

Author

Jakub Czakon
July 22, 2023

Hey,

How do convince a pear to do something? You pearsuade 🍐 it ;)

This week on the agenda:

  • Cloud vs self-hosted business model discussion from Kyle Poyar

  • Meme Reddit ad format from Zesty

  • Pricing page calculator from the older Mux website

  • + a few bonus links at the end

Let’s go!

Developer marketing insights

1. Cloud vs self-hosted business model

Kyle Poyar is easily in the top 5 people I’d follow if Linkedin banned me for posting pears and I had to start

In his recent newsletter (another thing I’d follow) he explained why a cloud, consumption-based business model is (usually) better than self-hosted.

His TLDR is this:

  • If you can just do the cloud service, just do the cloud service.

  • Selling cloud services takes longer than you expect, but the time-to-value for the customer is faster.

  • Ultimately you want to comp reps on consumption just like the customer is paying on consumption.

  • PLG is part of everyone's strategy if you want to be successful, even if you sell to large enterprises.

2. Meme Reddit ad from Zesty

Developer-focused Reddit ad. 33 upvotes, 30 comments.

So Zesty is a company that targets devops folks and helps with cloud cost optimization.

And they decided to run Reddit ads.

So they:

  • Chose the format that works with devs on (some) subreddits

  • The funny message that connects to their main value prop

  • Made it clear that they solved that problem in the copy

  • Added clear(ish) branding

And they got 33 upvotes and 30 comments.

Some of the comments were technical.

One comment that got 67 upvotes was actually

"Okay, this ad is pretty funny"

And I agree, this is a pretty funny ad that I am sure brought them some brand awareness and clicks.

3. Cost calculator from Mux

Sometimes your pricing is just complex. But you can still make it work.

If you want devs to convert, make it possible for them to estimate the cost.

Mux does it nicely with a calculator:

  • They give sliders for dimensions that are obvious to the dev

  • They give (pre) select boxes for things that are a bit less obvious

  • They show additional costs

  • They give you a clear final price estimate

What is crucial is that the calculator dimensions need to be understandable and familiar to the reader.:

  • If you use expected industry concepts (view count, upload, users) you should be fine.

  • If you use weird obscure concepts the best calculator will not help.

The goal of this is to make it possible for a person to get an estimate right here right now.

And not have to set up a meeting with half the team to figure your pricing out.

How can I make this better?

I hope you learned something new. Did you, though?

What would you like to read more about?
Reply to this and let me know.

Talk to you next week,
Pears!

Need more developer marketing insights?

1. Work with me

  • I have a few slots every week for 60-min strategy sessions. We can talk strategy, tactics, brainstorming, whatever you need right now. Book a session ->

  • I also do longer-term advising. We meet weekly/biweekly and I help you hit your dev marketing goals. Reach out ->

2. Join our Slack community

800+ dev tool CMOs, heads of growth, product marketers, and other practitioners talking about things like this:

3. Bonus links to check out

Reply

or to participate.