Beat the Books is a top-notch sports betting community run by “Joke”. The community focuses not on flaunting big wins but on transparency, positivity, and multiplying your bankroll with responsible, efficient betting. Basing performance on units rather than showing off with $$$$$, Beat the Books puts performance in the open—win or lose, it’s all out there for everyone to see.

This puts Beat the Books entirely in a league of its own, since it’s all too easy to broadcast a big win while wiping all of those near misses under the rug. Joke and his team recap all of the results daily, and the numbers tell the story—he and his 10 world class Sports Consultants are really, really good at what they do.

What makes Beat the Books so great? That's what we will be unpacking in this article.

Why Join Beat the Books?

Beat the Books is a community that’s guaranteed to sharpen your sports betting edge by doing exactly what it says on the tin. You can beat the books yourself thanks to access to daily slips and insights from Joke and his team, along with up to the minute notifications for cappers you might want to tail.

The community follows a wide array of sports, and while Beat the Books’ consultants are true experts when it comes to the NFL and NBA, they also provide fantastic analysis of the MLB, NHL, soccer (or football, if you’re not from North America), tennis, and MMA. Not only this, but there are also Discord channels dedicated to college sports, KBO, and even golf—so whatever sport you fancy a flutter at, you can level up your expertise with Beat the Books.

BTB is known for being an extremely positive and knowledgeable sports betting community, and it’s one of the highest-rated groups out there. It’s got hundreds of reviews on Whop, and the average score speaks for itself!

Responsibility and Transparency

Gambling is risky by definition, but Beat the Books sets down a responsible approach right from the get-go. As soon as you join their Discord channel, you’ll be notified that they preach and teach Unit Gambling. This boils down to responsible management of however much money you choose to gamble with, referred to as your bankroll.

This bankroll, whether it’s $200 or $50,000, is then broken down into Units of around 1-3% of the total bankroll—so $2-6 if your bankroll is $200 or $500-1500 if it’s $50,000. What this means is that you’re placing bets that only take a small chunk out of your total bankroll rather than wagering it all in one go. That approach might be exciting but it’s also irresponsible in the extreme, and the Beat the Books team looks at sports betting as a marathon rather than a sprint.

Talking about slips, wins, and losses in terms of units not only levels the playing field, it shifts perspective of sports betting to more of a science, and brings the focus to efficient wins rather than the dopamine rush of winning big bucks. It’s all about doing well with your units, and plenty of Joke’s community members have made millions not by gaping at a wrapped G Wagon, but from poring over detailed spreadsheets or tailing all of a capper’s plays.

Another key pillar of Beat the Books is transparency. All of the experts you can follow at BTB - including Joke himself - post all of their picks in a recap every single day, win or lose. This helps no end, because you know that they’re not just legit, but also legitimately skilled at what they do!

What You Get With Beat the Books

Joining the Beat the Books community is a shortcut to success when it comes to upping your knowledge, and there’s heaps of value on offer when you subscribe to their community. Let’s break it down:

• Key insights. Learn from world class sports consultants including Joke himself, and level up your sports gambling knowledge immediately!
• Daily picks. Get daily alerts and picks for all major sports, all the way from MLB, NHL, NBA and NFL to MMA, KBO, tennis and golf!
• Experts to track. Pick one or more sports you want to bet on and sign up for notifications to follow the moves of experts, compare their sportsbooks to yours.
• Daily recaps. Get daily reports about the expert picks you’re following for full transparency, so you know that you’re tailing the very best.
• Boosts and promos. No more searching high and low for boosts and promos, let the experts do it for you so you can win at a moment’s notice!
• Request a Rep. Talk to the Beat the Books team if you need help getting settled into the Discord community or following cappers.
• Bankroll management. Learn all about responsible betting and the BTB fundamentals, as well as unit tracking fundamentals.
• Sports discussion. Share your slips or just chat about sports in dedicated Discord channels.
• Positive community. Link up with other punters and talk shop, exchange insights, and share in the highs and lows together.

Picking the Right Package

Sold on Beat the Books, or think that it might be the sports betting community for you? We’re not surprised, because they’re a fantastic group with the track record of performance and transparency to back up every single claim that they make. So, where to start?

Well, Beat the Books has a nice selection of options for you to consider! If you’d just like to dip your toes in and see what the water’s like, you can’t go wrong with the BTB Bi-Weekly Membership option, giving you 14 days of full access for just $29.99. This is definitely long enough to check things out and decide whether you’d like to stick around.

Then, if you do decide that BTB is right for you, you can jump over to the monthly membership plan. That’ll save you $10 over the bi-weekly option, so it’s a great deal. That said, we’d recommend the Beat the Books Half-Yearly Membership, which is currently priced at $249.99. It works out the same as the $499.99 Yearly Membership but lets you boost your bankroll a bit in the here and now, while also giving you a free month compared to the monthly deal.

Sign up to Beat the Books today!

Beat the Books is a brilliant choice as far as sports betting Discord communities go, and it’s hard to find another group that provides as much value for the price. They’ve got experts specializing in all of the major sports, so whatever your jam, you’ve got cappers to tail. Transparency is part of the BTB edge, and you can check out all of the experts’ performance as soon as you join via the daily recaps.

👉 So, if you want to learn more about sports betting, all the way from bankroll management and responsible betting to sports books secrets of the very best, Beat the Books is the group for you. Check them out today and sign up to join the rest of the community—most of whom say that they’ve more than paid off their subscriptions from the picks and insights gleaned from the group!

Metrics and KPIs can be extremely powerful tools for any business, and they can allow you to make the best possible decisions for your company by giving you the right data and information.

This is more important than ever in the field of SaaS, where exponential growth is more rule than exception. You need every advantage you can get in order to survive and thrive.

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is one of the most important SaaS metrics for you to track. This guide delves deep into what ARR is, how it works, and why it’s so important to the subscription-based world of SaaS.

What is ARR?

Annual recurring revenue is a SaaS metric that looks at the recurring revenue your business will generate over a period of 12 months. It assumes no significant growth or churn when it comes to customer numbers, and also doesn’t take into account any one-off payments or revenue.

Since SaaS companies tend to use a subscription-based model and therefore rely on recurring revenue, ARR is an accurate indicator of yearly revenue. As such, ARR can be used for growth forecasting and budgeting.

Why is ARR Important?

First and foremost, because subscription models tend to proliferate the SaaS industry, there’s no better indicator of a business's overall health and financial stability than ARR. Getting a clear picture of that crucial top line can actually be quite tricky when it comes to subscriptions, so ARR helps a lot in that regard.

Plus, ARR will not include one-time or one-off payments. This helps not just with accuracy but also ensuring that your estimates are adequately conservative. Recurring revenue is reliable, but one-offs are just that—if you were to receive that same one-time payment every year, it would be classed as a recurring revenue item in any case!

ARR also gives you a perfect baseline upon which you can experiment with different strategy models and forecasts. With it in place, you can build in variables such as different churn or retention numbers, acquisition figures and growth rates, and changes to pricing and CMGR to develop financial scenarios.

Even though a lot of analysts (and even SaaS experts) attach a lot of hyperbole to ARR, its importance cannot be denied. It gives you a realistic and reliable measure of your SaaS venture’s position and allows you to plot your way forward.

Not only that, but you can also look back at your ARR and see whether your strategies have worked by comparing it to the previous years. ARR is an excellent indicator of growth and helps you to easily visualize your company’s trajectory.

How to Calculate ARR

Calculating ARR is simple. Here are a few ways to calculate ARR:

• ARR is the number of paying customers your business has multiplied by the average recurring revenue per customer for a year.
• With access to detailed financial data, you could also calculate ARR by summing up your subscription revenue for the year, adding recurring revenue from add-ons and upgrades, and subtracting revenue lost through cancellations and downgrades.
• Another way to calculate ARR is by simply annualizing your monthly recurring revenue (MRR). This will give you the most up-to-date ARR possible for forecasting purposes. Simply add the amount you gain from existing monthly subscriptions, the revenue from add-ons and upgrades, and the amount from new customers, then subtract revenue lost from downgrades as well as churn. This gives you your true MRR, which you can multiply by 12 to get your ARR.

It’s important to note that revenue from product upgrades and add-ons are taken into account here, along with revenue lost from downgrades. Lost revenue from churn is also accounted for, but these are two very different metrics since they represent problems you can tackle in different ways.

One-offs or non-recurring items such as one-time charges or product purchases, however, are not factored in. Your business is subscription-based, so ARR focuses on recurring items.

How to Use ARR in Your Business

Tracking ARR and calculating it properly is only the first step. There’s no use knowing how valuable a SaaS metric ARR is without putting it to use, so let’s look at some practical applications.

SaaS metrics here

Model SaaS Revenue

The main use of ARR in your subscription-based SaaS business is in financial management. You can ARR in forecasts, budgeting, and cash flow planning. It provides the best possible overview of your financial situation and allows you to set realistic growth targets for your business.

This is also useful when it comes to deploying different strategies such as pricing, including tiers and add-ons. You can experiment safely with these elements, and monitoring your ARR will allow immediate feedback on whether your strategies are working. If you’re already on Whop, you can do all of this in just a few clicks via your Whop business dashboard!

Analyze Product-Market Fit

Growing ARR is an excellent sign that your services or products resonate with the market. Plus, if you compare your ARR data with customer feedback, you’ll have plenty of qualitative insights to gather. Good customer segmentation and comparison of ARR with different customer types can further help you identify what’s working, and apply those lessons to other areas too.

Review Marketing Campaigns

ARR can give you fantastic insights into the performance of your campaigns by comparing the ARR generated from acquiring customers to the cost of the different campaigns. This way you can analyze which campaigns were the most effective. Remember that you can also keep an eye on customer quality in this manner, and allocate more resources to marketing channels that give you customers with a higher lifetime value to your business.

Flag Customer Churn

ARR is also an excellent SaaS metric for the area of churn and retention, since any meaningful dip in ARR may be a sign of churn. You can then dive deeper into the SaaS metrics surrounding churn and retention, investigate any potential issues, and figure out how to manage whatever problems you find. Remember that customer support is one of the best ways to nip problems in the bud, and Whop can help you with that thanks to our 97% rated, 24/7 customer service team!

How to Improve ARR

Improving your ARR is absolutely essential for the long-term success of your business, since ARR is a direct representation of your venture’s financial success and profitability via a 12-month look at subscription revenue. While it’s worth noting that there are plenty of ways to improve ARR, here are some highlights:

• Annual billing: Offering your customers the opportunity to purchase yearly subscriptions, even at a discount rate, can boost your ARR as the majority of cancellations come within the first few months. This way, you’re ensuring a full year of revenue even if the customer churns.
• Upselling and Cross-selling: These are great ways to improve your ARR by increasing the revenue per existing customer. You can do so by showcasing the added value they’ll get if they upgrade.
• Reducing churn: By bringing your churn rate down and increasing customer retention, you can ensure that your revenue stays up. When you see churn starting to increase, it’s imperative that you investigate and address the root cause effectively.
• Supporting customers: Empower your customer service and support teams to ensure customers are able to understand and use the product to its fullest and are taken care of when they run into problems.
• Acquiring customers: Through effective marketing campaigns, lead generation, and sales tactics, you can bring more customers into the fold and boost your revenue.
• Referral and affiliate programs: Referral and affiliate programs are a great way to boost customer acquisition.
• Segmenting customers: You can tailor marketing and sales efforts to optimize how you attract different types of customers, and then you can nurture your high-value customers so that they contribute more to your ARR.

ARR Alternatives

There are several alternative SaaS metrics to ARR that you can use. Each has its own value proposition in terms of what you can learn from them and how you can apply them to your business. Here are a few of them.

MRR

Monthly Recurring Revenue is the basis for calculating ARR, so it’s just as valuable of a metric. However, the best way to use it is with respect to shorter-term trends, using ARR more for strategic matters, budgeting, and forecasting. MRR can give you an excellent view of revenue changes across a few months, meaning that you can track subscription changes accurately and identify issues fast.

ACV

Annual contract value looks at the average annual revenue your SaaS business generates per customer contract or deal. It’s a good way to look at the size and value of individual deals, develop sales strategies, and segment customers, but ARR needs to remain your financial forecasting tool of choice.

CARR

Customer annual recurring revenue measures your firm’s total annual revenue from individual customers, allowing you to assess the value of each customer. This is an invaluable tool when it comes to identifying high-value customers.

Optimize Your ARR With Whop!

Now that you know the value of ARR and what it can do for your business, there’s no better way to boost your numbers than listing your SaaS business on Whop! Keep an eye on real-time financial and subscription data with your Whop business dashboard and rest assured that your customers are taken care of by Whop’s 24/7 customer support team.

👉 Get in touch with the team at Whop today or visit Whop.com to list your business in 10 minutes or less!

Whether you consider sports betting a hobby or part of your income, there’s no denying that it requires a large financial investment - especially if you plan to bet throughout an entire season. Fortunately, there are several different types of sportsbook bonuses and promotions that help you place more bets, with less money.

Sportsbooks often release new betting bonuses and promos. This is to entice new players to join them, as well as to keep their existing customers happy. These promotions usually give you additional funds to play with or allow you to place bets for free with zero risk.

Stay tuned to find out more about which are the best types of sports betting bonuses and promotions, how you can make the most of them, and determine whether they're worth your time. It's important to note that we won't delve into specific bonuses, but instead focus on the types of promotions available across various sports betting apps.

Most Common Types of Sportsbook Bonuses & Promos

No matter what sportsbooks you use, you’ll definitely find a ton of different bonuses in the “Promotions” tab. Here are some of the most common types of promos you’ll come across in all sportsbooks:

Free Bet

Arguably the most ubiquitous sportsbook bonus, a free bet allows you to place your bet without worry. So, if your bet loses, you don’t actually lose any of your own money. If you win, you get to keep your profits, which are awarded to you as real money.

There are different names for free bets according to the platform you play on, such as bonus bets, bonus credits, and free play, but they’re all exactly the same. It’s a free coupon you can use for one bet or sometimes even split it into multiple stakes.

• Free bets often come as part of a sportsbook’s welcome package for new players, but there are also free bet promos for existing bettors from time to time.
• Free bets usually come with certain rollover requirements you need to meet before you can request a withdrawal. That’s why you should always read through the specific bonus terms and conditions before you use it.

Another thing to keep in mind is some free bet bonuses come with restrictions on what types of odds you can bet on. For instance, a welcome package with bonus bets may require you to only place bets on the moneyline to be eligible for the promo.

Deposit Match

A deposit match bonus is another popular promo type you’ll find in all the best sportsbooks. They’re usually reserved for new bettors as part of their sign-up bonus and only apply to your initial or first few real-money deposits.

• For example, if you sign up with a brand-new sportsbook, they may offer you a 100% deposit match up to $500. Essentially, if you make a deposit, you’ll earn the same amount you put in as bonus credits, which you can use to bet on any event you want.
• One issue that often comes up with deposit match bonuses is wagering requirements. Sportsbooks often put strict rollover requirements on large deposit match bonuses, which means you’ll need to place several successful bets before you can withdraw your bonus credits.

Keep in mind that your bets usually need to be placed on -200 or better odds and often exclude specific markets, such as prop bets, which narrows down your options even more.

First Bet Insurance

Some sports betting platforms will offer new players insurance on their first bet up to a specific amount of money. This means that if your first bet loses, you’ll receive your wager amount back in the form of free bets. What’s great about this type of promo is there aren’t too many hurdles to claim it, and the maximum amount you receive back can be huge.

• The first bet insurance does come with a few caveats. The most important one is you actually need to deposit and play with your own money. This makes it hard to utilize the bonus to its full extent, as there are few new bettors who will risk the maximum amount (usually around $1,000) on their first bet.
• Additionally, if your bet is successful, you just receive your payout like usual and don’t get any bonus funds.

Any bonus bets you receive are subject to rollover requirements, making it pretty cumbersome to withdraw, especially if you wagered a large amount to utilize the bonus to its full potential.

Odds Boost

Another great promo you can find on most sports betting apps is odds boosts. Through odds boosts, sportsbooks increase the base odds for a particularly popular market or event to attract even more players. You might get boosted odds on a specific market, such as the over/under, or when you place a same game parlay with a specific number of legs.

• Odds boosts can provide great value to your bets, especially if you’re betting on strong favorites. For example, if the New York Giants are a -110 favorite against the Buffalo Bills and you find boosted odds for them at +105, you should definitely wager a good amount of money as you get a lot of value.
• Similarly, odds boosts are a great resource for arbitrage betting, as they’re usually the best odds for that particular market.

Be aware that sportsbooks always limit the maximum betting amount on these boosted odds, so you can only utilize them if you use a small bet size in the first place.

Reload Bonus

The reload bonus is one of the most common promos for existing bettors you’ll find at online sportsbooks. It works almost identically to a deposit match bonus, where you get a percentage of your deposit as bonus credits to use for your sports bets. But, unlike first deposit bonuses, a reload bonus usually comes with a much smaller percentage.

• Reload bonuses can be very useful if you frequently top up your balance, as they can give you a decent bonus amount, which means more money to wager.
• Most sportsbooks will offer reload bonuses on a weekly or monthly basis or when you reach certain loss requirements.

The downsides of reload bonuses are pretty much the same as with any deposit bonus; you need to make a deposit to take advantage of them, and they’re usually accompanied by wagering requirements.

Parlay Boost

Parlays are generally very popular among sports bettors as they provide an opportunity for huge profits. However, huge parlay bets are definitely not among the best betting strategies, as they come with a higher vig the more legs you add.

• Parlay boosts attract novice bettors into placing larger parlays. Sportsbooks know that new players love the thrill of a parlay with many legs and offer you a scaling odds boost to lure you into adding more legs. While this can lead to a massive win if it hits, one of the legs can easily miss and lose you the entire bet.

Parlay boosts often come with restrictions on which betting markets you can use, as well as a minimum number of legs to make it profitable for the sportsbook. Plus, you’ll often need to add picks with specific betting odds, making it even more risky.

Cashback

A cashback bonus is a way for the sportsbook to return a portion of all player’s losses for them to keep playing on the platform. Therefore, if you’re a winning player, you’ll probably never need to utilize a sportsbook cashback promo.

• Cashback bonuses usually run daily, weekly, or monthly and are based on your total wagering losses for each period. For instance, if you lose $100 in a day and your sportsbook offers a 10% cashback, you’ll receive $10 as bonus bets to place your bets or even real money you can withdraw.
• As with all sports betting bonuses and promotions, cashback promos have certain rollover requirements and market restrictions. For example, you may be limited to betting on the moneyline with cashback bonus credits, which isn’t ideal if you prefer other markets, like over/under bets.

Also, you need to have lost a specific minimum amount of money to be eligible for the promo, and there’s usually a maximum cashback amount you can earn.

VIP Program

A sportsbook VIP program is a loyalty program that rewards you as long as you keep wagering money on the platform. This promotion is particularly popular among high rollers who want a special VIP status to go with their large spending.

• VIP programs usually rely on a ranking or leveling system, where you earn points according to the money you bet. Each level comes with its own perks and rewards, including free bets, higher deposit bonuses, and access to premium and personalized customer support.

This sports betting promo type is most suited for those with large bankrolls. That’s because the best rewards are usually towards the top of the ranking system, and you need to be able to afford frequent and very large bets to reach the higher VIP levels.

Why You Should Utilize Sports Betting Bonuses & Promotions ✅

Regardless of your experience and status as a sports bettor, bonuses and promotions can be very helpful to you for several different reasons.

• Increase Your Bankroll - The best part about sports betting bonuses and promos is they help you play with a larger bankroll thanks to the bonus credits you receive. Plus, daily, weekly, and monthly promos will help you exercise better bankroll management and avoid losing all your money.
• Less Risk Involved: The ability to place your first bet without any risk can be great, especially for new players who are deterred from sports betting for fear of losing. In addition to the first bet insurance promo you’ll find on most platforms, you can utilize several free bets, allowing you to wager with zero risk.
• Potential for Huge Wins: Even if you don’t plan on betting regularly, you should try out some sportsbook bonuses and promotions. You might get lucky and score a huge win from a simple free bet or some bonus credits.

Downsides of Sportsbook Bonuses & Promos ❌

Naturally, it’s not all positive when it comes to sports betting app bonuses, as they come with a few important downsides you should be aware of.

• Mandatory Deposit - While there are a few no deposit bonuses for new players, most sportsbook bonuses and promotions require you to make a mandatory deposit first. This makes them subpar for those with a smaller budget or bettors who don’t want to risk any money.
• Wagering Requirements - The biggest issue with any sportsbook promo is rollover requirements, which mandate you to wager a specific amount before withdrawing any winnings. What’s more, this amount is usually multiple times your deposit plus bonus amount, which can make it hard to achieve.
• Lack of Good Promos for Existing Players - The most generous sports betting promos are usually reserved for new players who sign up with a platform for the first time. On the other hand, existing customers usually receive subpar bonuses, such as smaller free bets or lower percentage deposit matches.

Claiming your Own Sports Betting Bonuses & Promotions 💰

If you want to get your hands on any sports betting bonuses and promotions we discussed, the process is very simple. Just look through a list of the best sportsbooks, pick your preferred one, and sign up for free. Then, choose the bonus you want, make any necessary deposits, and you’ll be ready to start betting in no time.

👉Before you place your bets, don’t forget to look through our sports betting communities. You can find several teams of veteran bettors who will gladly help any newcomer with tips and tricks on placing better bets. They’ll also share their best sports picks with you so that you can get a better shot at huge wins and profits!

It’s often suggested that growth is the only thing that matters in SaaS, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. While customer acquisition and growing your customer base are definitely important, keeping your customers for the longest possible amount of time may be even more so. It is their recurring subscription payments that keep your revenue rolling in.

Therefore, it is extremely important to focus on customer retention in SaaS. Plus, optimizing your SaaS retention metrics will take the pressure off your marketing and sales operations by establishing a solid revenue base.

So, this guide will look at customer retention in greater detail, and nail down the 12 key SaaS retention metrics you need to look at. We will even dive into how to interpret SaaS retention metrics, and how you can apply them to your business!

The Importance of Tracking Customer Retention

SaaS businesses tend to use subscription-based revenue models, which are great for cash flow but can easily be disrupted. Customers that you acquire pay you their subs each billing period. So, when you lose a customer, you also lose out on revenue. Not just for that period, but most likely in perpetuity. Once a customer has made a decision to cancel their subscription it can be difficult to win them back.

On the other side of the coin, a customer that sticks with you also does so with far less persuasion (aka expenditure of resources via marketing) than is required to acquire a new customer. Retaining a customer may come with a cost, but that cost is assuredly far less than the cost of acquiring new ones.

Your long-term customers are also likely to be the ones upgrading their plans, too. They’re more likely to pick up your add-ons and generally spend more than brand-new customers.

So, anyone who tells you that customer retention is costly and pointless is doing you a massive disservice. Focus on retaining your customers and delighting them instead, and you’ll not only see your revenue stabilize but grow. Plus, those happy customers might become enthusiastic supporters, spreading the word of your business for you!

Applying SaaS Metrics to Your Business

Before looking at the most important SaaS retention metrics, it’s equally as important to remember that your business is what matters, and some metrics may play less or more of a role depending on the current situation of your business and which stage it’s in. In other words, not all retention metrics are as important for every SaaS business.

Therefore, you should look at the metrics through the lens of your own business model. For example, the period used to calculate many of these metrics may differ based on your model—many SaaS businesses collect subscriptions on a monthly basis. If that’s the case, the period you’ll use to calculate your metrics will be a calendar month. On the other hand, if your business tends toward annual subscriptions, by all means, use a calendar year instead.

12 Key Metrics to Measure SaaS Retention📈

Without further ado, let’s look at 12 key metrics that you can measure retention with, how they impact your business, and what insights they give you. These haven’t been picked in order of importance, and as mentioned previously, the stage your business is in and your current strategies may dictate which of these to prioritize.

#1. Customer Retention Rate

Customer retention rate is perhaps the most important key metric. It measures exactly what percentage of your existing customers are staying with you across a given period. It can serve as a good litmus test as to whether your current strategy or approach meets with the general satisfaction of your customers.

In order to calculate your customer retention, the first thing to do is identify what sort of time period you’re looking at. Once your period is set, find out how many customers you had at the end of the period and subtract the number of acquisitions in that time. Then divide by the number of customers you had at the start of the period.

A 100% score here shows you that you didn’t lose any customers at all over the period! This is the ideal score as far as retention is concerned. In reality, you might not hit 100% every month (or even get anywhere close to it) but you can easily benchmark yourself by looking at the retention rates of other similar SaaS companies.

Improve retention by delighting your customers, communicating with them regularly, and providing best-in-class customer support that’s available around the clock every day of the year. Check out Whop to take advantage of its 24/7 customer support with a 97% satisfaction rate!

#2. Customer Churn Rate

Customer Churn Rate is extremely close in concept to customer retention rate because it looks at how many customers you’ve lost across a given period. In essence, it’s nothing more than the inverse of retention, but it can give you a lot of added value.

For one thing, churn can actually be divided into active and passive churn. With the former, you’re looking at customers who make a conscious decision to cancel their subscription, while the latter refers to involuntary cancellations such as failed transactions and expiring credit cards.

By looking at your churn rate in this manner, you can take action to boost your retention in different ways. The implementation of an exit survey, for example, might help you better identify and isolate the reasons why customers are actively churning. This, in turn, may help you step in and fix any problems faster. By the same token, passive churn can be identified and reduced using measures such as dunning management.

Using a robust SaaS subscription management software might help you bring down your churn rate. For more info on how to choose the right software, check out our guide to 2023’s best SaaS subscription management software options.

#3. Revenue Churn Rate

At first glance, revenue churn rate may seem similar on the surface to customer churn rate. But there is a small difference, one which can add a lot of value to your analysis. By definition, revenue churn rate measures the percentage of revenue lost due to churn from one period to the next. Same thing, right? Actually, not at all!

To highlight the difference and how revenue churn rate shines, imagine a period where you have low customer churn rate and high revenue churn rate. This can happen if you offer different plans or tiered subscriptions. What the numbers are telling you is that you aren’t losing too many customers, but those that churn were from higher tiers or more expensive plans.

So, revenue churn rate can paint an extremely accurate picture of which customers you’re losing or retaining, compared to customer churn rate and customer retention rate which both treat all subscribers the same. How you act on this information will depend on your approach and strategy, but the value of this SaaS KPI lies in the fact that it gives you the ability to do so in the first place.

It’s extremely hard to stop a customer from canceling their plan once they’ve decided to do so, but remember that you still have options. Whop, for instance, gives you the facility to offer a canceling customer a one-time discount offer if they initiate cancellation. This won’t work in every case, but it could help you retain a few customers who might otherwise proceed with cancellation.

#4. Renewal Rate

Renewal rate is a SaaS KPI that measures the percentage of your customers who renew their subscription following the expiry of their previous contract. You can calculate it by dividing the number of expiring contracts in a period by the number of customers who completed renewal in that time.

The ideal renewal rate very much depends on the nature of your SaaS business, but generally, the more customers who renew, the better. Ensure that this is as high as possible by choosing a good SaaS subscription management platform, especially if you have a lot of customers. Communicating with a high number of customers at the right time in this manner is difficult. Automating the process helps!

#5. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

Customer lifetime value, abbreviated either as LTV or CLV, is an extremely important SaaS KPI in general. It is also very applicable to retention. To calculate LTV, multiply the value generated per customer by the length of their lifespan as a customer.

You’ll immediately notice that one of these factors relates directly to retention. If you can’t retain customers for a long time, your lifespan goes down, and your LTV will naturally be low. So, right off the bat, a low LTV compared to other similar businesses may indicate that your retention isn’t where it should be.

Tracking LTV over time is also a great idea because trends can give you some extremely useful information. Decreasing LTV, for instance, could flag a gradual reduction in customer lifespan. Alternatively, it could tell you that you’re acquiring and retaining low-value customers. As such, any sort of trend in LTV can flag your attention, and in conjunction with other metrics can give you some valuable insights that you can act on.

#6. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) & Months to Recover CAC

Customer acquisition cost and metrics related to it, such as months to recover CAC, tend to fall under the acquisition metrics umbrella rather than retention. Still, they can give you some crucial retention-related information.

CAC is all about how much of your resources go into acquiring customers. Months to recover CAC then tells you how long it takes you for a customer to generate enough revenue to recoup that cost, effectively giving you an ROI-like figure on your marketing and sales activities.

The real value of these metrics comes when you compare them to your LTV, which we went over in the previous section. You can learn a lot when comparing CAC and LTV—if your CAC is greater than your LTV, for instance, you’re seeing a huge red flag since the numbers are telling you that you’re spending more on acquiring customers than the entire revenue they pay you across their lifetime.

The CAC:LTV ratio is therefore a crucial one, showing you the effectiveness and sheer profitability of your model at least when it comes to expenditure on acquisitions. Crucially, looking at this ratio and how many months it takes to recover CAC gives you a great idea of your own retention goals. Using this information, you will know how long you need to keep customers in order to break even on them and be able to set other retention thresholds or benchmarks for yourself.

#7. ARPU & ARPA

Average revenue per user (ARPU) and average revenue per account (ARPA) are both useful metrics to look at when considering retention. They’re similar metrics in concept, but depending on your SaaS business’ client profile they may be quite different.

The difference between these two KPIs lies in the fact that your SaaS business may have companies as clients. These companies, in turn, may have several of their employees using your software. The number of users is captured by ARPU, while ARPA would consider that corporate client as a single account.

Tracking ARPA and ARPU over time can be very helpful since they can give you an indication of your growth trajectory. Increasing ARPU especially can suggest that the customers you successfully retain are increasing in value through upgrades, purchasing add-ons, and repeat purchases of your products.

#8. Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Net revenue retention (NRR) gives you an excellent indicator of your retention by measuring the percentage of revenue retained from existing customers over a given period. This ignores revenue from new customers, so it can isolate your retention revenue nicely.

To calculate NRR, calculate the revenue from existing customers at the end of a period and divide it by the recurring revenue from those same customers at the beginning of the same period. If you end up with a result of less than 100%, you can see that churn is losing you revenue. If NRR is over 100%, your existing customers are increasing value beyond what churn is costing you, through upselling, cross-selling, and more.

This is an excellent perspective because it doesn’t just look at focusing on retaining customers but also on the potential to provide more value to your business over time through upselling, cross-selling, and upgrades.

A high NRR shows your ability to derive the maximum value from retention, and it’s one of the most highly sought-after SaaS metrics. Give yourself every chance to maximize your own NRR by signing up with Whop!

#9. Customer Concentration

Customer concentration might be a marketing or sales KPI on the face of it, but it can be very important to retention depending on the nature of your business model. The metric itself looks at how dependent your SaaS business is on a small number of high-value customers.

This can be an especially critical factor if your customer base includes only a limited number of corporate accounts, as it could well be that you have one or two clients whose business dwarfs that of all others.

While the benefits of this are apparent, it can also be a huge risk. However good the relationship may be between yourself and your major client, they could pull the plug at any time and with minimal warning. This could devastate your business overnight, especially if you don’t have enough cash reserves to survive the hit to your cash flow and revenue.

Customer concentration therefore is an indicator of how important retention is and gives you an idea of where you should be focusing your retention efforts.

#10. Expansion Rate

Expansion rate, sometimes called existing customer growth rate, can help you alongside the previously mentioned net retention rate metric. It drills down into how much revenue your existing customers are adding through upgrades, cross-sells, add-ons, and more.

Expansion rate is the sum of all of these purchases, and it shows you the value of customer loyalty and retention in action. You can also analyze expansion rates across different customer segments, which in turn might lead you to focus your retention efforts in one particular area over others.

#11. Customer Health Score

Customer health score isn’t a standardized metric, but many SaaS businesses find themselves building a bespoke solution due to the value that it can bring. The general idea is to keep a finger on the pulse of your customers’ relationship with your business and know where you stand with your customers.

The goal of having a KPI like a customer health score is to be able to predict the likelihood of renewal and churn, and thus have the ability to act on the latter proactively. It’s much more likely that you can repair the relationship with a customer before they decide to cancel than after.

Building a customer health score metric is tricky but certainly not impossible. It’s up to you to decide what information or pieces of data can help you work out where a customer is on the loyalty and satisfaction scale at any given point in time. Once you have some different variables selected, you can weigh them and start tracking things over time.

#12. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net promoter score is a customer satisfaction metric that naturally bears a positive relationship with retention—it stands to reason that the happier a customer is with your service and the more likely they are to recommend it, the more likely they also are to remain a customer for longer.

This SaaS metric is generally measured via a customer feedback survey, attempting to group your customers into “detractors”, “passives”, and “promoters” based on their willingness to recommend you to others.

Using this information, you can assume that those who are happy with your service and willing to recommend it will also stay with you. Plus, it’s possible to attach a risk of churn to customers identifying as detractors. As such, NPS is something of an early warning system that you can use to nip the problem in the bud, by communicating with those customers and trying to address the cause of their dissatisfaction.

Tracking NPS over time can also give you an idea of what your churn or retention rates are likely to be, since any sort of change in trajectory or establishment of a trend gives you a clue as to where your overall customer sentiment is heading. For that reason, it’s an extremely valuable metric in several ways.

Choose Whop to Boost Your SaaS Retention!

As our detailed list suggests, tracking, measuring, and optimizing the customer retention of your SaaS business isn’t a task taken lightly. There are many different SaaS KPIs to help you isolate different aspects of your business that affect retention. By using these metrics, you can derive plenty of high-value insights and act on them decisively to keep your best customers with you for longer.

None of this is possible without the right set of tools, however. From being able to measure all of these metrics in the first place to act on them in an efficient, effective manner, you need the right subscription management system by your side. This is where Whop comes in!

👉 Whop’s subscription management solution is easy to set up and layers on features that will help you every step of the way, from tiered plans, coupon codes and discounts; to cancellation offers, dispute resolution and real-time financial metrics and analysis. With 24/7 customer support, Whop can help you take your SaaS business to the next level. Visit Whop now and talk to the team to get started!

In the world of e-commerce, strategies and marketing tactics are constantly changing. However, one fundamental truth remains unshakable: the key to long-term success hinges on customer happiness. Not only are happy customers more likely to make repeat purchases, they also tend to become the best brand advocates, growing your base exponentially through the power of word-of-mouth recommendations to their own networks.

In this guide, we will explore the importance of customer satisfaction and unveil how Whop can help you to keep your customers happy

Benefits of Customer Satisfaction

Before going too deep into how you can maximize customer satisfaction, it’s important to understand exactly why it matters. Here’s why you should keep your customers happy:

• Increased Loyalty: Repeat purchases are fantastic, but loyalty is so much more than that. Customer loyalty is a significant benefit since you no longer need to spend time or resources on acquisition, making them the most profitable sort of customers for your business. A survey by Aquia revealed that 59% of US consumers reported that once they are loyal to a brand, the brand has their loyalty for life!
• Lifetime value: The repeat purchases that these happy customers make can add up over time, making them valuable contributors to your business. They might also purchase other products or services that you offer, or upgrade to more comprehensive or expensive plans that you offer.
• Positive Reviews: It’s generally true that unhappy customers are more likely to leave a review, so delighting your customers has a two-fold bonus here—not only does it bring your review score up, but new customers are more likely to sign up for your services if they see lots of positive reports.
• Referrals & Recommendations: Happy customers are likely to recommend your product or service to their friends or associates, which means that your sales can grow without needing any additional marketing expenditure on your part.

The Power of Customer Support

So, how can you improve your customer loyalty? Quite simply, in addition to providing the best possible experience when buying alongside a top-quality product, the way to maximize customer satisfaction is through customer service and support. Market sentiment has changed in recent years, and customers expect a higher level of support, with 56% of global consumers saying that customer service is “very important” in brand choice and loyalty.

This is where many businesses fail, as they believe that the customer cycle is complete, and in turn miss out on the benefits of customer loyalty, retention, and referrals. Fortunately, this is where Whop steps in as your dedicated partner, ensuring that your customer relationships flourish!

Whop's Customer Service Solution

Whop's customer support solution offers 24/7 customer support, with an average response time of just 3 minutes. Ensuring customer satisfaction and providing top-notch support can be the difference between success and mediocrity. Let's take a closer look at how Whop directly addresses the challenges of customer support and satisfaction.

#1. Instant Problem Resolution 🕒

Nothing frustrates a customer more than waiting endlessly for a response to their concerns. Whop understands this, and its 3-minute response time ensures that your customers are heard instantly. This swift attention not only resolves issues promptly but also enhances the overall shopping experience, leading to increased customer satisfaction.

#2. Handle Urgent Situations 🚨

Urgent situations can happen at any time, and customer support needs to be available around the clock to address them. Whop combines its fast response times with 24/7 availability to ensure that your customers can receive assistance whenever they need it. Whether it's day or night, weekday or weekend, Whop's immediate resolution capabilities are ready to serve, making a significant difference in critical scenarios.

#3. Build Trust 🤝

As far as a customer is concerned, every purchase carries an element of risk, where they stand to lose money if something goes wrong. Providing value for money is one thing, but it also helps when customers know that they can reach out for assistance at any time if they have a problem with your product or service. Whop offers precisely that assurance, transforming perceived risks into calculated decisions and making your offerings a more trusted choice.

#4. Customer Satisfaction Rate 📈

Whop's customer support boasts an impressive customer support satisfaction rate of 97%, so you know you’re getting the real deal. This sort of satisfaction rate ensures that your customers are happy. When customers feel heard, valued, and satisfied, they are not only more likely to become loyal repeat buyers but also enthusiastic brand advocates. This organic growth through positive word-of-mouth recommendations is a powerful asset for your business.

#5. Preventing Disputes and Chargebacks 💬

Even if a customer ends up needing to refund a purchase, a seamless experience in that regard can lead to them gaining trust in your business and coming back for another product or at a later date. A poor experience when it comes to customer support, on the other hand, is more likely to lead to chargebacks. These are time-consuming and can be extremely expensive for you as a vendor. Whop's unwavering commitment to excellent support reduces the likelihood of disputes and chargebacks.

Unlocking Business Growth Through Customer Satisfaction

To sum up, customer support can be a make-or-break factor when it comes to running an e-commerce business. Happy customers not only fuel repeat business but also act as advocates who can grow your brand's reach, which is why Whop has a 24/7 service team that prioritizes dealing with customer concerns as quickly and effectively as possible. Thanks to this rapid resolution system, your customers know that they can trust your business and the Whop platform as a whole.

Remember that:

• Customer loyalty is a treasure, requiring fewer resources for acquisition and ensuring long-term profitability.
• The lifetime value of satisfied customers extends beyond repeat purchases, potentially encompassing a broader range of your offerings.
• Positive reviews and referrals are natural byproducts of delighted customers, acting as powerful marketing assets.
• Trust is the currency of the digital age, and exceptional customer support is the key to building and maintaining it.

👉 If you aren’t already a vendor on Whop, you can start selling in minutes and take advantage of all of Whop’s advantages - including best-in-class customer service. Visit Whop.com to get started today!

Marketing plays a crucial role in the growth of any enterprise, and running a digital business is no different.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective tools in any marketer’s arsenal, and can quickly help your business reach a broader audience and boost sales.

This guide will help you understand affiliate programs and how to successfully market your affiliate program to the best possible effect.

What is Affiliate Marketing? 🤷‍♀️

Affiliate marketing is a dynamic performance-based strategy that allows you as a business owner partner with individuals, or even other businesses, to promote your products or services. These partners, known as affiliates, are incentivized with a commission for each sale, click, or lead generated through their efforts.

Using this strategy, you can use the reach and networks of others to spread the word about your brand. In exchange, the affiliate earns a small amount of compensation such as a percentage of sales or a fixed amount per lead.

The key element of establishing affiliate partnerships is to link up with affiliates who have an existing audience aligned with your target market. It’s also important to have tracking systems in place to monitor the performance of affiliates and attribute conversions to them correctly.

How To Market Your Affiliate Program 👨‍💻

Now that we’ve outlined what an affiliate program is, here are some steps you can take in order to make the most of your affiliate marketing program:

Whop Affiliate Program

As your digital marketplace of choice, Whop features an enterprise-level affiliate system, complete with all of the features you’ll need. In addition to effective tracking and management of metrics via your Whop Affiliates home page, Whop lets you keep an eye on the performance of your affiliates in real-time.

Content Marketing

One of the most powerful ways you can market your affiliate program is by using genuine, quality content. Whether it’s blog posts, long-form articles, or even videos covering the ins and outs of your digital goods, this is a great way to get search engines to highlight your business. Don’t forget to showcase how affiliates can earn commissions from promoting you within your content!

Influencer Collaborations

If you don’t want to create your own content, consider linking up with a blogger, YouTuber, or Podcaster whose audience overlaps with your own. This can give you access to a wide audience instantly. Personalized affiliate partnerships and attractive commissions can hook even top-tier influencers.

Email Marketing

If you collect the email addresses of your customers or subscribers to your content, a mailing list could be an easy step to take. A newsletter is all that it takes to present your affiliate program to them, showing them the benefits of joining and how to sign up.

Social Media

As the operator of a digital business, you’re already aware of the power of social media, and it’s likely that you already have a sizable social media following. All you need to do is introduce your affiliate program and use posts and stories to explain how people can earn from your program.

Paid Ad Campaigns

Targeted ads with companies such as Google and even Facebook can help you hit potential affiliates more easily, so while this step may cost more than several others, it could give you an extremely high chance of success.

Affiliate Referrals

Affiliate marketing is all about leveraging other people’s networks, so why not expand the reach by letting your affiliates refer potential affiliates? Bonuses or higher commissions for successful referrals will help your affiliates bring more in, widening your net even more.

Monitor and Optimize

There are plenty of internal changes you can make to improve your affiliate program and get your affiliates performing. Whop’s enterprise-level Affiliate program and the Affiliate home page can help you identify your best-performing affiliates and make adjustments to your bonus and commission structure to get the most out of them.

Transparency and Compliance

Your jurisdiction may have set legal standards and various regulations covering operating and managing affiliate programs. Make sure to get familiar with these, and stay transparent about your payment schedules and the criteria you use for earning commissions. That way, you’ll retain the affiliates you do get, and there’s every chance they bring you more.

Affiliate Programs for Businesses: Final Thoughts 💭

An affiliate program is a great way to take your business to the next level, and a good affiliate program can provide significant benefits for how little it costs. To ensure the success of your affiliate program, you’ll need a system for monitoring and tracking your affiliates and their commission. The increase in sales thanks to the reach affiliates give you will likely be well worth the commission fees.

Whop recognizes the value of affiliate marketing, and you can track your affiliates’ performance using the Whop Affiliates home page. Whop’s enterprise-level affiliate system can cover all of your needs, allowing you to focus on finding the right affiliates and growing your business!

If you aren’t already on Whop, join today and get started selling your digital products and services in minutes!

Software as a Service, AKA SaaS, has changed the way that businesses operate. SaaS has transformed how businesses get access to, and make use of, software applications. Plus, as SaaS is affordable, scalable, and easy to use, it has experienced huge growth in the past few years.

As technology advances, so will SaaS. So, as a business owner, it is more important than ever to stay up to date with the latest SaaS developments. In this guide, we will unpack the future of SaaS, and how SaaS applications can streamline and enhance your business.

Artificial Intelligence in SaaS

The Artificial Intelligence scene has exploded in the past year alone. AI is now a part of all of our lives. Now, it is transforming the SaaS landscape too. SaaS applications powered by AI can process enormous datasets, extract insights, and streamline repetitive tasks. As such, the combination of SaaS and AI helps businesses to work more efficiently.

At the same time, Machine Learning algorithms help SaaS platforms to adapt to user behaviors and processes. Therefore, SaaS can offer personalized suggestions to your consumers. This gives you a competitive edge and boosts your business.

Examples of AI SaaS:

• HubSpot: Leverages AI to offer personalized recommendations to users.
• Slack: Streamlines workflows and increases productivity with Slackbot. Slackbot automates repetitive tasks, like sending reminders and scheduling meetings.

Vertical SaaS

Up until recently, generic SaaS has dominated the market. Now, vertical-specific SaaS brings an exciting development to the SaaS environment. Vertical-specific SaaS allows brings specialized features, functions, and workflows to businesses, creating industry-specific solutions.

Examples of Vertical SaaS:

• Buildium - a Vertical SaaS solution for the real estate industry. Buildium offers tools that help businesses to manage their rental properties, accounting, and maintenance.
• Kinnser Software - a Vertical SaaS solution for the healthcare industry. It offers a suite of tools that help businesses to manage their patient care, billing, and compliance.

manage your SaaS subscriptions

Cybersecurity in SaaS

While more businesses are adopting SaaS, many business owners are still concerned about data privacy and security. Data becoming breached is a major concern for any business owner. So, SaaS providers must address these concerns. They are doing this by creating more robust security measures. This includes encryption, multi-factor authentication, secure access controls, and more.

Aside from this, SaaS providers are also implementing stricter data protection policies so that they meet privacy regulations. Therefore, you can trust SaaS to keep your business safe, and data secure.

SaaS for Remote Work and Collaboration

Today's working world rarely features a completely in-office team. Since the pandemic, we have seen a huge shift towards remote working. However, in order for teams to work effectively, we must have efficient systems for collaboration. This is where SaaS comes in. SaaS platforms are improving their collaboration features, and creating seamless communication, collaboration, and file-sharing.

As more teams work remotely, SaaS needs to integrate with third-party integrations. As a result, SaaS providers are using open APIs, so that their systems can integrate with other software solutions. What does this mean? Well, you can now create customized workflows with multiple tools integrated!

Data Analytics and Business Intelligence

Finally, we have SaaS BI. SaaS BI is 'Business Intelligence Software as a Service'. SaaS BI is cloud-based, and so can be accessed by end-users through secure internet connections.

Some features of SaaS BI include:

• Cloud-Based Hosting: SaaS BI applications are hosted in the cloud across multiple servers, and accessible by web browsers. Therefore, you access data and analytics from any device with an internet connection.
• Subscription Pricing: Many SaaS BI applications use a subscription pricing model. Through a subscription model, you pay on a month-to-month basis. This saves money for small business owners, as you only pay for the SaaS application for as long as its useful to you.
• Financial Management: SaaS BI can help your financial management. Some aspects of SaaS BI include financial data analysis and regulatory compliance.
• Monitoring: SaaS BI can keep your business safe by monitoring for fraud detection and compliance.

As you can see, SaaS BI is useful for any business. It allows business owners to make informed decisions with data-driven insights, through scalable and cost-effective SaaS solutions.

bootstrapped SaaS

Pros and Cons of SaaS

As with every business decision, there are pros and cons to consider. Let’s take a look at what those are.

SaaS Pros:

• Accessibility: SaaS applications can be accessed via an internet browser, providing round-the-clock availability.
• Operational Management: Operational tasks are simplified with SaaS, as there is no need for installation, equipment updates, or traditional licensing management.
• Cost-Effectiveness: SaaS eliminates upfront hardware costs. Plus, PAYG subscription models offer flexibility.
• Scalability: It's easy to scale SaaS solutions up or down as your business changes.
• Data Storage: As data is stored in the cloud, there is less pressure of managing on-premise data storage systems.
• Analytics: SaaS often provides access to powerful data reporting, so that you can make informed decisions for your business.
• Increased Security: SaaS providers are committed to increasing their security to keep your data safe.

SaaS Cons:

• Loss of Control: You could lose some control over certain aspects of the software, depending on the vendor.
• Limited Customization: Some SaaS applications are limited in their customization options, which may not align with your specific business needs.
• Security Risks: Although SaaS is committed to security, as a business owner you must still exercise caution.

Preparing Your Business for the Future Using SaaS

Thanks to technological advancements and changing customer needs, SaaS continues to evolve. Here, we have outlined just a few of the trends changing the SaaS industry.

It’s up to you as a business owner to stay up to date with the latest SaaS advancements. SaaS trends will shape the future of how software is developed and utilized. One thing is for certain - SaaS leads to improved efficienty, innovation, and growth.

👉 Sign up to Whop today to start selling your SaaS products via Whop.

📊 Read next: SaaS Metrics That Matter

The economic landscape is evolving at breakneck speed. While some fall behind, others keep up and lead the way. Learning a unique skill like creating online courses will allow you to be on the winning side of this dynamic environment, and is perhaps the most valuable investment of your time and energy right now.

One of the greatest rising trends is that of the creator economy, where individuals now hold the power that brands do. Taking part in the creator economy will allow you to go beyond trend chasing. Plus, it will give you the evergreen base of an audience that is worth its size in gold when you learn how to effectively monetize it–and selling an online course to them is perhaps the most lucrative method.

Making an online course is fairly simple once you have a clear roadmap - like the one we provide in this guide. However, it isn’t without its difficulties, as it requires carefully following steps and being patient enough to see each of them through. We will break this guide up into two parts. The first is a five-step guide on how to make a course, and the second is a five-step guide on best practices for launching and scaling your course.

After reading our guide, you’ll be armed with a skill set that no one can take away from you with the potential to make life-changing money and develop a stream of online, potentially passive income.

👉 If you didn’t know yet, Whop makes it easy to launch and market your online course. So, once you’ve read this guide and are ready to get started with your own online course, be sure to sign up – it takes less than 10 minutes and is perhaps the biggest step in your journey to becoming a successful online course seller.

The 5 Steps of Making a Course

Before you even think about selling an online course, you have to understand how to effectively create one.

Here is the 5-step guide on how to make a course that will have the best chance for success based on who you are and what you know:

Step 1: Understanding Your Expertise

In order to make a course that stands out and one that will gain a loyal audience, you need to understand what you are good at.

Although some people go off shilling online courses with little personal experience in the niche, this is not a good method for various reasons. Consumers are catching on to modern-day snake oil salesmen by either not buying from them at all or openly calling them out. In the same vein, consumers are finding and supporting genuine thought leaders who are offering solid advice in a niche.

So if you have no experience in Shopify dropshipping or SMMA, don't hop on the bandwagon of trying to sell a Shopify dropshipping or SMMA course just because they’re hot right now. But, if you do personally have experience in these realms, go ahead! Approach online course creation strategically and sell something that you’re actually experienced in and good at.

Just about everyone who has reached a certain level of education or life experience has a wealth of ideas in their head that someone is willing to pay them for. However, consumers don’t buy just any online course. Your course will have to fall into one of these three main categories for an online course:

Health:

• Workout routines
• Dieting advice or meal plans
• Spirituality and personal well-being

Wealth

• How to make money in (X)
• Mindset/psychological advice related to making money
• Budgeting and financial planning
• Career or technology advice

Relationships

• Dating advice
• Breakup counseling
• Self-care
• Guidance on family dynamics

Every product with a strong and loyal audience falls into one of these categories in one way or another. This is especially true when it comes to digital products as they need to be particularly compelling with the amount of free advice already out there.

If you’re struggling to think of what to sell, think of a topic that is so valuable that someone would buy you lunch, just to listen to you share your expertise. Make sure you like the topic enough that you can see yourself thinking about it and offering advice on it full-time, otherwise, you will likely suffer burnout.

Don’t dive too deep into your idea though until you’ve done some market research so you can see if there’s actually demand for your skill, what similar guides are out there, and how to position yourself to succeed.

Step 2: Conducting Market Research

Every good business plan includes market research, and selling an online course is no exception to this practice.

While this may sound complicated, effective market research can be completed in a few simple steps:

Steps For Conducting Market Research

The steps for conducting basic market research are similar to going through the customer journey and are as follows:

• Search: Go through different platforms such as Google, Instagram, and TikTok and search niche-related phrases and hashtags. See what kind of advice is out there and if the creators have a large audience or not.
• Dive In: Choose a few top creators and read through their bio and posts to see if they have a paid offer being advertised anywhere. Be sure to follow any CTAs (Calls to Action) that they might have that take the customer to a paid offer that might not immediately be apparent. This could look like commenting a specific word in order to receive a DM with an offer.
• Take Notes: Make note of the pricing and how many customers or enrolled students a course might have. Also, see if you can find any patterns or expectations that you can replicate by seeing how long the creator has been around and how many views/likes they get, and what their engagement appears to be.
• Envision: Picture yourself not only as the customer who wants their problem solved but as the creator who offers the paid solution in the form of a course or online coaching.

Using all of your research, see if you can establish a competitive offer that is at least as good or has a unique perspective that others don’t offer. If you feel confident that you can compete or can see yourself alongside them, the next step is figuring out what to name your offer and your brand.

Using Ikigai to Come Up With a Course Topic

The ideal for your online course topic will follow the Japanese philosophy of Ikigai, which is a helpful framework for finding a fulfilling career path.

While it may be impossible to achieve the perfect balance and overlap that the diagram shows, you can find some combination of what you love, what you can be paid for, and what the world needs. In terms of what you are good at, this is the area that you have the most control over, as you can always learn new skills or advance your current ones. So if you feel lacking in this area, take time to bolster it so you can enter the market competitively.

Step 3: Branding and Name Choice

Taking some inspiration from others is good, but having a unique brand and name choice is ideal, especially as more creators vie for the attention of an audience that is increasingly more easily distracted.

As an individual creator, you will probably end up using your personal name as your brand. Still, you need to have more than just your name to make yourself memorable.

Here are two important things you need to know for making a brand:

Define Your Brand Identity

Your brand identity needs to be clear so that you are recognized as a specialist in a certain field. Coming up with it is a process, and should be planned thoroughly so that you are immediately professional and trustworthy when you decide to launch your online course.

Use these questions to help refine your identity. Then, package your identity into your brand:

• Who are you, and what is your story?

Humans have connected through stories more than any other means since the dawn of mankind. Think of any celebrity, role model, or even friend you know and look up to–those you have the strongest connection with are those whose stories you know and love. What’s your story?

The best stories make the audience feel known and understood, so make sure to present empathy with the customer’s current situation, and a path out - a path that generally follows your personal story that they can hopefully replicate it. This is arguably the most important psychological component that causes someone to follow you and buy your course.

• What is your tone? Do you feel most comfortable to come across as casual or professional? Formal or friendly?

Make sure that your messaging is uniform so that customers can know what to expect. Keep it that way across all of your messaging and platforms. Be sure to pick a delivery style that is natural to you, so there shouldn’t be much thinking required in picking your tone.

• Who’s your community? Who do you feel you can connect with and help the most?

This is your target audience. While there is no need to be overly polarizing, you shouldn’t make your message for everyone. Have an ideal audience demographic in mind.

• What is the biggest way that you feel that you can help others through your online course?

Although your course will be niche-specific, there are a few broad ways you can help someone. Are you inspirational and motivational? Is your information highly technical and detailed? Do you help others get more organized and clear on their objectives?

While your course may have aspects of each of these elements, yours will very likely lean more towards one of those areas, so stick with that for your paid course and also the free advice that you’ll post on social media.

• What sets you apart from the others in your field, i.e., why would someone choose you over an alternative?

Becoming a creator today in some ways is easier than ever because of all of the tools at your disposal to create and distribute. However, in other ways, the consumer does have quite a bit of choice nowadays when it comes to enrolling in an online course. So, the market is huge. Having someone pick you over others is a lot like the dating world - you need to stand out in a good way. Sometimes this means having a more helpful or detailed offer than others, or a more genuine mission statement. Perhaps you’re packaging things together in a perspective that is unique and memorable. Maybe you have good visuals or an interesting look.

The ways to stand out are endless, but if there is one broad way to set yourself apart, it would have to be showing genuine passion and care for your audience. Although it may be subtle, your audience will know if you’re genuine in your knowledge and motivation to help them. If you have gotten clear on all of the previous questions, you should effortlessly come across as passionate which is the most sure way to attract a loyal audience.

Make a Great Tagline

After you’ve defined your brand identity, you should be able to come up with a good tagline. This tagline is an extension of your brand and its mission and will reflect the expertise you have in your niche.  You will use this in your bio and/or banner image across all social profiles. This tagline will be the inspiration for your course name, so make sure it is catchy and original.

Even if you can’t think of a unique tagline straight away, think of a subtitle that you can pair with your name. Pick a niche and describe your target audience to quickly resonate with whoever comes across your profile or website.

For example, you can be “Justin- Copywriting Coach for Underpaid Writers”, “Emma- Email Marketing Specialist for Social Media Agencies”, or “Fiona- Financial Planner for Single Mothers”.

Make sure to stick to this tagline in all of your marketing content, perhaps introducing yourself with it at the start of most posts or videos.

Step 4: Start, Complete, and Package Your Course

If you haven't completed the three previous steps, then you're not ready to begin working on your course. So if you don’t feel complete yet on your expertise, market research, or branding, you should continue to refine that before trying to come up with a course that you might change or not follow through with because it didn’t meet the aforementioned prerequisites.

Once you’re certain that you are ready to start, you’ll want to begin by making an outline.

Making an Online Course Outline

No matter the final format of your online course, you need to create a thorough outline that makes your course a complete package so it appears as a solution that your customer will happily pay for.

Here are some rules of thumb for making a good outline for your online course:

• Break down your outline by starting with the solution, then walking backward with the sequential steps that will take the customer to the final solution.
• Start with an engaging and personal introduction, a quick recap of your story, and a thank you for buying your course. This will go a long way in making the customer feel good about their purchase and make them more incentivized to leave positive feedback and recommend your course to others.
• Make sure to begin your course at the level that your audience is at. Don’t make content too elementary if you’re framing your course towards relative experts or those familiar with the field, and don’t be afraid to go super simple if you are marketing to total beginners.
• Each lesson should build upon the knowledge of a previous lesson. Your course may get to a point, especially towards the end of it, where there is an exception to this rule. By this point base knowledge has been established and the student can pick and choose from a variety of specific strategies you have laid out.
• Include in-depth answers to questions that your audience members often ask in your niche. After all, your course is simply a thorough answer to a burning question or series of questions within a certain niche.

Completing Your Course

The outline should only take a few hours to complete, and once you have it done, chip away at each piece bit by bit.

If you don’t consider yourself much of a writer, relieve yourself of pressure and simply make your course conversational, as if you were describing each step to a friend. You can also hire an editor or even a cowriter from a platform like Fiverr or Upwork if you would like as well. Also, perhaps completing your course in video format is best for you, so you won’t have to do deep writing apart from slides or supplementary guides/worksheets.

Go through each section of your outline, and write each until it feels complete. Jump around and revisit previously written sections with fresh eyes if you must. People have different writing and execution styles, and as long as it gets done in the end, that is all that matters.

Having a friend or audience member help by asking you questions for which you provide an answer will help to create the content of your course. Although the answers within your course should be more in-depth than what you have available to the public, don’t think too hard about what to exclude and what to save for the course. Most of the time people buy a course largely due to the convenience factor of having your information all in one place in a sequential fashion.

Above all, be sure to consistently carve out dedicated time in your schedule and set an estimated completion date, perhaps one you are publicly accountable for (e.g. a promised launch date to your audience). Consider using productivity methods such as Pomodoro or Flowtime Technique if they work for you. Don’t overthink, and make sure to have the mindset of having an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), which means that your product is simply good enough. You can always be better, so don’t get into the artist’s trap of overthinking your final product–when it meets the requirements of sufficiently filling your outline, ship it. You can always release updates based on feedback in the future.

To keep things simple, start by typing everything out in a Word document. Once you’re done with that, you can move on to formatting.

Formatting Your Online Course

Once you have the information in your course, you will have to format it for your audience's consumption.

The two most common formats for an online course will be an eBook or a video course.

Creating an eBook

When making an eBook, using a tool like Canva will make it easy to choose good images and templates so your guide looks professional. You can also hire a designer if you have the budget and want to outsource this, just be sure to review the branding and graphics to make sure that it reflects you and your message well.

Pro tip

Making a Video Course

For a video course, be sure to follow the basic rules of thumb for what makes good video content, which include sufficient lighting, a non-distracting and clean background, high sound quality, and of course, a quality camera.

Video courses are more time-intensive and difficult for beginners to produce than an eBook, but the potential payoff can be much higher as video courses can be sold for several times more than a typical eBook, even if the content is similar.

Using Whop to sell eBooks and video courses

Once you have the content complete for your online course, you will have to export it in the correct format for selling and consumption. With an eBook, exporting as a PDF file will typically do just fine, and for a video course, the exact file type may vary but .mp4 and .mov are the most common. It is also possible to host a private YouTube or other video platform link as your course.

It can be difficult to figure out a solution for hosting and selling your online eBook or video course. Even if you are technically competent, it takes time to build and maintain a good solution for hosting your online course securely. Thankfully, Whop makes it simple to sell both eBooks and video courses, in addition to other digital products like private communities, Notion templates, ChatGPT Plugins, and other web apps.

When it comes to a video course, Whop is a particularly good solution as it has all of the features of any competing LMS like easy and intuitive uploading of private lessons and user-friendly navigation, in addition to being in the ecosystem of one of the fastest growing hubs for digital products of all kinds.

Here are the steps you can follow to start selling your online course on Whop today to cash in on your valuable knowledge:

1. Go to whop.com/sell. It will start by asking for your business name, which you should already have by now.
2. Choose the type of product you want to sell.
3. In your dashboard, add a new course.
4. Include pricing and description, and be sure to have a logo and other supporting images like a thumbnail.
5. When you’re ready, you can make your course live by changing its status from Draft to Published.
6. That’s it! For a more thorough walkthrough for publishing your first online course on Whop including screenshots, refer to our full document here.

Step 5: Create a Landing and Checkout Page

The landing page is perhaps one of the most important ingredients in a winning online course. People will spend hundreds or even thousands making this step just right.

A good landing page for an online course will include the following:

• A good headline that immediately addresses the customer’s wants.
• High-quality, engaging visuals.
• Pleasant user experience with a responsive and modern design.
• Concise, compelling text, with clear calls to action.
• Minimal navigation for quick and easy purchase.
• Intuitive visual hierarchy that guides the visitor from curiosity to commitment.
• Trust signals in the form of feedback, logos, good design and various secure payment methods accepted.

Some entrepreneurs choose to use complex solutions or to hire out assistance to help build a good landing page.

However, to save time and money, use Whop.

Whop makes it easy to create a good landing page and solve this critical part of making your course without having to shell out cash to developers or worrying about configuring or coding complicated setups.

Our design for your course landing and payment page is already conversion rate optimized. Whop makes it easy to showcase your brand and its offer within a trustworthy course ecosystem that is getting bigger every day.

Once you have your course up and live, you’re ready to launch and scale it, hopefully to a life-changing income like Joe who made $15,000 on Whop with eBooks in his first 2 months.

5 steps for Launching and Scaling Your Course

Step 1: Gather and Grow an Audience

A course creator is nothing without their audience and the platforms that they use to reach them.

Fully understanding this is one of the critical ingredients of the proper mindset of all successful creators. You can’t get to big numbers without truly caring for your audience and having confidence behind your offer, especially today as consumers become more savvy with better bullsh*t detectors.

Choosing a Platform to Market Yourself

Pick a platform that you feel most comfortable marketing yourself on, and push your content out there. Be sure to begin with your brand identity and taglines in mind.

If you’re comfortable on camera and have good delivery, use Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Instagram is good for posting photos with good captions in addition to reels, and TikTok is best for video and personal connection, in addition to the occasional use of picture slideshows. YouTube has reels that can potentially have good reach, but traditionally, YouTube is best for long form, professionally edited, and in-depth videos that establish you as a niche expert.

For those that are a bit more camera shy, fret not because you can still promote your course without having to do much or any videos or picture posts of yourself at all.

With a good profile picture and bio, you can use text content to promote yourself on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Facebook groups, and even Pinterest to reach your audience.

Creating and Executing a Content Plan

To get people to want to buy your online course, you have to gain trust by giving value before asking for money. You can do this by showing your expertise openly and for free before you seal the deal with a transaction. Write out all of the topics related to your niche that you can, and make a series of posts around each topic and subtopic.

More is always better when it comes to pushing out free advice. While some creators may worry about thinking they have to reserve all the good stuff for a course, it’s better not to withhold almost anything, save for something particularly proprietary.

Since you likely have a full time job or other commitment before your course reaches a liveable income, consider batch creating content when you have time, and using software like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Social Pilot to automate distribution on a predetermined schedule.

If you have the budget, consider hiring a VA or social media manager straight away because content creation can be quite draining and requires patience and consistency before any significant traction or payoff.

Content creation pro tip:

Chasing Trends and Virality

While it may be a good “hack” to hop onto things like trending sounds on TikTok in the hopes of your content becoming viral, this is not a good mindset to approach content creation with. If your incentive is to go viral, you will likely be disappointed as there is a lot of luck involved. Even if one of your videos does end up blowing up, you may have a hard time replicating that. Timing trends is nearly impossible.

Instead of playing the cat-and-mouse game of virality and trends, simply put out good content consistently, and you will grow. Don’t worry too much about the views or engagement unless anything is surprisingly below expectations, in which case you may need to try a different hook or shooting style and see if that converts better. Otherwise, simply make good content consistently because that is an evergreen method that will never go away.

Step 2: Create a Funnel

A funnel, or sales funnel, is simply the path that a person takes to go from viewer to customer. The moment you have steady content going, you need to have a funnel set up. Ideally you will set up the base for the funnel in conjunction with the launch of all of your profiles and content creation.

Here are the basics of a good funnel:

Have a Wide Reach

At the top is your reach, which you want to be as wide as possible. Posting good content consistently is going to keep the top of your funnel wide and growing. The larger your reach is, the more your customer base and funnel are worth–this is why brands throw money at influencers at certain follower thresholds.

Take Them on a Journey With Clear CTAs

To take the potential customer on the journey down to the purchase, you’ll have to have a clear call to action that will allow them to opt in to a nurturing sequence that allows them to build trust with you.

All platforms have a built in call to action (CTA) of following your profile, which is the most basic step of a customer entering your funnel.

Having a link in your profile either directly to your product or to a resource that allows them to consider purchasing it eventually is another critical step of your funnel that every social media platform provides. Some platforms have requirements before posting links in your bio, like TikTok, which currently requires 1000 followers to do so.

Use Lead Magnets

Having a lead magnet, or a free resource that encourages your customer to give another contact point like their email or phone number, is best done in the form of a free PDF. It can also be a quick one-on-one call if you are selling a higher ticket offer or one-on-one coaching.

The largest benefit that comes with having a lead magnet is owning your customer base directly without having to rely on platforms. Although getting banned is unlikely, it happens, and having a direct point of content with your customers is something that can never be taken away from you. So long as your customers know and trust you, they will potentially continue to buy any products you release.

Follow Up With a Good Sequence

You always have to be warming up prospects and offering as much free value as possible before asking them directly for the sale. Whether you’re using email marketing, texts, or DMs, make sure not to come on too stong but also don’t shy away from highlighting the value of you and your course.

Just about any email marketing tool will allow you to set up and automate a sequence so that everyone who gets your lead magnet will go through this crucial part of your funnel. Keep an eye on performance– this sequence should be tested and updated if it isn’t converting well.

Tier and Update Your Offers

You want the end of your funnel, or offer, to convert as well as possible. Having a high-converting offer is the most effective feedback mechanism that will motivate you for continued success.

It is recommended to start with a cheaper course that requires lower commitment, like a fairly priced eBook, and then sell a higher ticket video course or coaching later.

The higher the price, the higher the trust needed to make a purchase. So if you’re new or have a relatively small audience, start small and grow from there. Eventually, you can have tiered offers, meaning that you will have products in different price ranges with the ability to upsell and downsell.

Make sure to let customers know that you will update your course when relevant, as this will increase trust and likelihood to purchase.

Step 3: Launch, Iterate, and Test

Launching your funnel can happen in one grand event - like notifying your customers of a brand new product in an email blast - or a launch can simply mean that you now have every piece of the funnel in place and are producing content to continue to bring people in.

The launch never truly ends, as in order to have continued success, you must always be iterating and testing your product based on customer feedback, new trends, or newfound knowledge. Just like major brands will conduct tests and launch products based on the aforementioned factors, your personal brand must follow the same practices if you want it to generate a potentially livable and long-term income.

Here are some rules of thumb to follow for effective launching and maintenance of your online course:

A/B or Split Testing

Once you have established certain benchmark impressions and sales, you will have enough data to see if there is a consistent conversion rate. Conversion rate is the percentage of people that end up following through with an offer.

Every platform will share analytics about reach and conversion rate about posts, so if you see a standard percentage across all areas and you think it is a bit low compared to industry standards, feel free to try different creatives or introductory hooks that you think might convert better. You can do the same with your product titles and images and the organization and style of your landing pages.

Running two designs side by side is known as split or A/B testing. Make sure you have enough data before making a decision on which final design to stick with. However, don’t overthink this as sometimes the conversion rate is dependent on too many factors to discover a strong enough correlation with split testing unless the data is obvious (for example, double the conversion rate over a large dataset).

Ask for Customer Feedback and Reviews

The biggest element of trust that will make a potential customer choose to buy is that of other customer’s feedback, often in the form of reviews.

Sometimes integrating a rating system in your product page can be difficult, but this is another thing that Whop has made incredibly easy as reviews and feedback are an included feature for all seller pages.

To gain reviews, especially in the beginning, you may have to ask customers. You can ask them via an automated follow-up email sent to all customers. For higher engagement, send a DM or personalized email. Perhaps offer them an incentive like a discount on another product to encourage them to give feedback. In fact, before you start to even split test, make sure to establish reviews first, because this is perhaps the greatest way to increase your overall conversion rate.

Make What the Audience Is Asking For

An old saying goes that the customer is always right, and while this can never be broadly applied, if the customer is reasonable in their request and you hear the same thing from different people, you should make the requested change.

If you’ve gone through the first parts of this guide well enough, you will likely have a product that is already what your audience wants, but there may be some specific features or questions that you will need to add for an updated version of your course.

Updating your course is especially important. Although it can be time-consuming, if you’re not willing to update your course at all, you won’t be able to compete with those that do.

Step 4: Set up Systems and Processes

In the beginning, you’ll likely be doing everything yourself. However, if you plan is to scale, you will need to build a team.

Before you think about building a real team, you need to set up solid systems and processes so that the team can be effectively onboarded and seamlessly integrated inside your business without friction or potential confusion.

It may be hard to initially understand how to translate your workflow in a way that can be systemized for a team to use. Here are some tips about how to effectively set up systems and processes that you can eventually pass down to a team:

• Be efficient with your time and create a schedule that is most conducive to high productivity for your given situation.
• Keep in mind the Pareto principle, or the 80/20 rule–that roughly 80% of the results come from 20% of the work. Track what is working, and double down on that.
• Start tracking your own time and work within a labeled and organized spreadsheet. Google Sheets or Excel work well.
• Use software like Trello, Clickup, or Notion to create to-do lists that are easy to follow.
• Create SOPs (standard operating procedures), or guidelines, for tasks that you repeat often.

Step 5: Scaling and Hiring a Team

While it is entirely possible to bring a one-man-show business to a significant income, if you want to continue to scale without burning out, you will need to delegate some of your work to a team. This delegation will free up your mental space and allow you to go from working in your business to on your business - a huge shift for entrepreneurs, that some never make.

With an awareness of your productivity, a good workflow, and your systems and processes in place, getting new team members on board should be your biggest focus.

Best practices for hiring include the following:

Understand Your Strengths and Weaknesses

While you may be multi-talented, no one is the best all around. You should know straight away which work you are good at and enjoy doing and which you feel like you always get stuck in the mud trying to do.

Find people who are better than you to make up for your weaknesses to make for a well-rounded business, and never feel threatened by their skills. Everyone has their own strengths.

Establish Your Company Culture and Management Style

If you did a good job of establishing your brand identity and tone, you and your potential employees should have a fairly good idea of what your company culture is like. Just like with your branding, your culture and management style should be compatible with you but also effective at driving the bottom line and keeping you profitable.

Make Clear Expectations

When it comes to hiring, you need to make sure you have easy-to-understand and clear expectations of what someone’s roles and responsibilities are. You can’t blame an employee for doing something wrong or expect them to do something that is unclear. Of course, a certain level of competence will allow good employees to make accurate assumptions and act accordingly, so you don’t need to be too strict on boxing employees in with rigid rules that might be stunting them and the potential of your business overall.

Pro tip

Get Started Selling Your Online Course Today with Whop!

Now that you’ve got the knowledge in this guide, in a matter of time, you’ll have an online course that has the potential to change your life. Bookmark this page and keep it handy so you can refer to it throughout your journey.

👉 When you’re ready, we’re here for you to get started and join our growing group of sellers who are put right in front of our audience that is getting bigger and more loyal every day. Start selling with Whop today!

If you need assistance with anything that isn’t covered in this guide or our selling document, you can always ask us a question in our live chat–we typically respond within minutes. You can even book a call directly with one of our team members if you prefer to have a live conversation.

FAQs:

How much money can I make selling online courses?

Your income will be determined by the price of your offer, the amount of reach you have and the overall conversion rate to your paid offer. The latter is an important consideration when it comes to income, because this is where the money is really made.

If you compare an audience of 1,000,000 followers with a conversion rate of 0.001% vs an audience of 10,000 and a conversion rate of 1%, you’d actually make 10x more money with the smaller audience. To put a figure on the income potential, course creators can earn anywhere from $100 to $100,000 per month depending on the previously mentioned three factors.

Why would someone buy my online course if they can get the information elsewhere for free?

To get a better idea of why someone would pay for information that they could find for free on Google or YouTube, consider the time and convenience factor of having a trustworthy source of information for your topic in one place in a way that solves your problem exactly.

If it takes someone 12 hours of scattered research to compile enough information to help solve their problem, they probably would have rather paid someone that they found in the first hour of research that will condense the possible 10+ hours of research down into one easily consumable resource. This is very much like why you go to a restaurant and pay more for a ready cooked meal rather than buying the ingredients and taking the time to learn to cook the dish yourself.

Should I invest money in ads to sell my course?

While putting money into ads to scale an existing course or audience is good practice, sinking money into ad spend, especially as a beginner with no audience is not the best idea. There are enough tools and platforms for free reach that you can utilize which will help you to build an organic audience that will happily buy from you once you launch your course to them.

Can I sell my online course before making it?

Some creators choose to build their audience first and pre-sell a course before it’s made. This can be a good way to test the demand for your course and to collect some money upfront to feel confident in the production of your course.

However, be cautious if you go the presale route, as there is a lot of pressure to deliver on time for your audience. Plus, your reputation is on the line. A high amount of trustworthiness will need to be established, so you should only consider doing this if you’ve been around a while and have a loyal and decent-sized audience, and don’t expect the offer to have much of a conversion rate. It is not recommended to pre-sell a course if you are brand new to the game.

Do I have to make my online course myself?

Making an online course is a difficult endeavor, and although it’s incredibly satisfying to complete all of the steps yourself, many course creators choose to enlist help in the form of editing, cowriting, designing, and even ghostwriting. Be sure that if you hire help that they are aware of your brand identity and can effectively carry across your message so that your audience gets a course that is reflective of you.

I’m introverted and don’t want to show or market myself, can I still make an online course?

It is common to be camera shy or to feel a bit weird about displaying yourself as a personal brand. Writing an ebook or running a paid community does not require that you show your face at all, although people prefer to see the person that they’re buying from. At the minimum, you can sell a course simply with a profile picture and text posts if you’re using platforms like LinkedIn and X (Twitter), or if using Instagram, you can simply post graphics and text. With a video course, you can use screen recordings and slides with minimal focus, if any, on your face.

Can I resell other courses?

There are some who PLR, or private label rights to a generic guide that you can rebrand and resell, as a way to quickly get started in the info product game. However, you should avoid involving yourself in the resale of premade courses. The big winners in the PLR game are the PLR sellers themselves, not your customers, and not even you. Even though you’ll be able to quickly produce a course, it likely won’t be of high quality or reflective of you and your brand and thus probably won’t make you much money.

Where’s the best place to sell my online course?

With 24/7 customer support that is unbeaten across the entire industry, a fast sign-up process with an easy-to-use interface, and support for more types of courses and digital products than anywhere else, Whop is the #1 preferred way to distribute and manage access to your community, software or digital product. If you don’t know, now you know!

👉 Start selling your course on Whop today so you can cash in on your passion!

📚 Read next: How to Create and Sell Courses on Whop

SaaS, or software-as-a-service, is often viewed as one of the fastest growing industries in the economy, and it’s no exaggeration to describe its recent history of growth as exponential. The industry itself continues to expand in leaps and bounds, and the top SaaS companies can sustain growth rates in excess of 30 or even 40 percent.

In fact, research by McKinsey in 2021 pointed to 22% being the median revenue growth rate among U.S. SaaS companies with over $100 million in revenue. This means that the bar is extremely high, and you need to do the best job possible when it comes to balancing the needs of your SaaS business in order to compete.

To give yourself the best chance of doing so, you need to arm yourself with various SaaS metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that will give you high-quality, actionable intel. This guide will take you through some of the most important ones, so read on!

Why Track SaaS Metrics?

By keeping an eye on certain SaaS metrics, you’re not only empowering yourself with information, but also giving yourself all of the data required for identifying your current position, planning for the future and setting strategy, and making the right decisions.

A solid grasp of these metrics can also help you when it comes to dealing with potential investors when it’s time to secure funding. Data-driven decision-making is crucial in today’s competitive environment, and it allows you to be as proactive as possible—which investors love.

Categorizing SaaS Metrics

In order to add clarity to some of the main SaaS metrics and better show you what they give you, we’ve categorized them into several groups. These include metrics that revolve around customer acquisition, the economic health and situation of your business, customer engagement, retention, and growth.

It stands to reason that different SaaS metrics may be more or less important to you depending on what stage your company is at. If you’re still searching for your problem-solution fit and aren’t at the MVP stage yet, you aren’t too worried about things like retention. There will however come a point, assuming your company keeps growing, that elements like retention become crucial to the health of your business.

Acquisition Metrics

#1. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Starting fairly simple, your SaaS business’ CAC (sometimes called cost per acquisition or CPA) is defined as the cost of acquiring a new customer. You need to consider all of the costs incurred when attempting to acquire a new customer, meaning the total cost of sales and marketing, including your advertising expenses and sales commissions.

The total cost of acquiring customers then needs to be divided by the number of customers you do acquire for that period, giving you the value of your CAC or cost of acquiring a single customer. This can then allow you to benchmark against your competitors and the typical metrics for your industry, letting you assess the effectiveness of your marketing spend and business model.

Customer acquisition cost can be a key metric at every stage of a company’s life, but new companies find it especially critical. If CAC is too high at the start, a company simply may not have enough capital to hit those growth milestones. Many companies have been able to get off the ground far easier by reducing CAC in innovative ways, such as relying on demos and free trials of their products instead of hiring expensive salespeople.

How to Improve CAC

Optimize marketing channels to lower acquisition costs, target high value customers, enhance your SaaS value proposition to attract more customers.

#2. Months to Recover CAC

CAC is a key metric for your SaaS business because you can do a lot with it. It gives you plenty in its raw form, but looking at it from a return-on-investment point of view can also be useful.

If you divide your CAC by the monthly revenue earned from a customer, you can see how long it would take for the customer to repay the amount spent on acquiring them and start earning you actual revenue. This also gives you an idea of how long you need to retain a customer—if they’re churning out before covering their CAC, then you need to ask some serious questions about your business model’s feasibility.

Months to recover CAC is also known as your CAC payback period. It can be difficult to manage because of how important customer acquisition is when your company is growing—many companies have to walk a very fine line when it comes to cash flow at this stage, navigating a tight burn multiple and a high months to recover CAC metric, all while trying to grow their customer count fast.

How to Reduce Months to Recover CAC

Improve initial purchase value by offering higher-tier plans and add-ons while onboarding, decrease CAC, implement referral programs.

#3. ACV:CAC Ratio

Annual contract value is just as important as CAC, but it looks at customer acquisition from a different perspective. ACV is a result of your total annual contract value of all customers divided by the number of customers you have. This gives you the annual contract value of a single customer.

Now, you can take the ratio of CAC to ACV for a direct comparison of what you spend on acquiring a customer to how much revenue they bring in. You can use this information to make better sales and marketing decisions, and optimizing your ACV:CAC ratio can lead to even more profitability.

#4. Lead-to-Customer Rate

We’ve only looked at successfully acquired customers in the previous SaaS metrics, but it’s very unwise to ignore leads when looking at your business’ KPIs. Your lead-to-customer rate, sometimes known as lead-to-account or lead-to-close, gives you a clear idea of your marketing effectiveness by showing you how many leads become paying customers.

You can calculate your lead-to-customer rate by dividing the number of paying customers by the number of leads generated, and use it hand-in-hand with other metrics like leads by lifecycle stage to produce even more actionable data.

It will help to implement closed-loop reporting in order to do this. Remember to check out what your Whop business dashboard can do—if you integrate it with your own customer relationship management processes, you can start analyzing how customers close. This sort of information can help you understand which marketing campaigns work best!

• Conversion Rate: This is a simplified form of the lead-to-customer rate, quantifying how many visits to your websites result in orders being placed in percentage form.
• Cost Per Lead: Just like with CAC, it may be useful to evaluate the amount of money you spend to acquire a lead.
• Inbound Leads: These identify exactly where visitors are entering your website from, letting you position your website ideally for higher quality leads.

How to Improve Lead-to-Customer Rate?

Optimize sales funnel for less friction, tailor approach to different leads, enhance product value proposition.

#5. Leads by Lifecycle Stage

Your sales processes can range anywhere from days to even a year depending on your SaaS products, so in order to improve this area it’s important to identify where your leads are in terms of your own sales process.

Generally, your leads will come through the funnel via different stages. At the beginning, you’ll generate leads from marketing. These potential customers, or prospects, might then come back to your website for a second look, or download some of your informational materials. At this stage, they become a marketing qualified lead (MQL).

Once the prospect moves beyond this initial research phase, they’re worth following up with. This is where your sales team can step in, aiming to capitalize on that interest and open a deal. At this stage, the prospect is a sales qualified lead or SQL.

Here, you can compare how many prospects transition from leads to MQL and MQL to SQL. This’ll give you a great idea of where you need to improve, whether it’s driving traffic to your website or the pulling power of your website and marketing materials.

If your MQL-to-SQL numbers are good, you can infer that your marketing team is generating high quality leads. You can then plug in your lead-to-customer rate! A low lead-to-customer rate on the back of this information will then suggest that your sales team isn’t able to convert those high quality leads to paying customers. This is something you can then act on however you choose, but with the confidence of having very solid data at your back.

• Sales Velocity: This SaaS metric allows you to see how fast your business is earning revenue. It is calculated by multiplying your number of SQLs, how often you close them, and average revenue per deal. Then divide the result by sales cycle or process length.

#6. Qualified Marketing Traffic

As your SaaS business grows, it’s important to recognize that an increasing user base creates website traffic that needs to be separated out from traffic that you attribute to marketing. This is especially so when you require users to log in via your website if they want to use your software.

This means that you need to separate returning users from qualified marketing traffic, which you’re interested in for an entirely different reason. If you don’t take this step, you may end up counting returning users together with your marketing traffic, which will result in a cascade of incorrect data when you’re looking through your marketing and customer acquisition KPIs.

• Traffic: A simple metric that counts the number of visitors to your website. You can learn plenty from this, but consider using qualified marketing traffic instead especially if your customers have to visit your website regularly to log in.
• Hype Ratio: You can also measure the level of “hype” around your company by adding your search volume, social media mentions, and media coverage and dividing that result by your revenue. This can tell you if you’re over-hyped or under-hyped!

Economic Metrics

#7. Gross Margin

The gross margin of your business is likely a metric you’re already familiar with, but it bears mentioning given its importance. It’s the result of subtracting your cost of goods sold (COGS) from your revenue, then taking this figure as a percentage of that same revenue. As an SaaS business owner, your COGS is likely to include items such as software development and hosting costs.

Quite simply, gross margin paints an excellent picture of your profitability, with a high gross margin indicating a high level of profit and a low or negative gross margin alerting you that serious evaluation may be needed.

#8. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

LTV, also referred to as CLV, is a critical SaaS metric that assesses a customer’s long term value to your business. You can calculate your LTV by multiplying the value generated per customer by the length of their lifespan as a customer.

As you might imagine, customer lifespan can vary wildly depending on your product. You may be looking at repeat purchases every few years when it comes to computer processors or hard drives, but for subscription-based SaaS products you may be looking at monthly transactions and lifespans of a couple of years.

So, if your business charges $20 per transaction and your average customer sticks around for 24 months, your LTV is $480. You can make the most out of this metric by working out the LTV of your different customer segments rather than your overall business. That’ll allow you to identify which customers bring the most revenue into your business, and various highs and lows will also stand out for your attention, allowing you to adjust strategy in certain segments if required.

• Magic Number: Now that you have your LTV, you can divide it by your CAC. This ratio, sometimes called the “magic number”, shows you how many times over your customers are paying off the cost of acquiring them. If the ratio is less than one, you have a problem—it’s a clear red flag since it means you’re earning less from customers than you’re spending to acquire them in the first place.
• CAC:LTV Ratio: This is simply the inverse of the magic number, but it’s a useful way to represent the cost of acquiring a customer as a percentage of how much revenue they bring in. It shows you the health of your marketing programs, and also demonstrates how when a customer’s lifetime value is high for a business, spending more on acquiring them can easily be justified.

How to Improve LTV

Establish long term relationships with customers and provide top quality customer service and support, continuously refine and improve SaaS offering, upsell and cross-sell.

#9. Burn Multiple

Your company’s burn multiple looks at how quickly you spend the cash that you have. It’s especially important for startups, who may have a more finite pool of available cash, and it gives you an idea of how long you can sustain operations before needing to raise funds.

To calculate your SaaS business’ burn multiple, divide your current cash balance by the rate at which you spend cash every month. A high burn multiple means that you have a lot of time before you burn through your available funds, and a low burn multiple indicates that you may need to think about raising funds sooner rather than later.

Engagement Metrics

#10. DAU and MAU

Daily active users and monthly active users are simple but extremely valuable data points. They tell you exactly how many unique users are interacting with your SaaS product on a daily and monthly basis, and both provide an excellent reflection on the level of customer engagement you have.

DAU and MAU can also contribute to your customer engagement score since they give you an idea of how often users are logging in and actively using your software.

• Activation Rate: Depending on the nature of your SaaS offering and your customer profile, you may also need to consider this metric. It tells you when a customer actually unlocks the value of your service, such as when a user orders their first item using a shopping app, or keeps using the service after their free trial is over.

#11. Customer Engagement Score (CES)

Customer engagement score isn’t a standard SaaS metric but most companies tend to use a customized version of it thanks to the importance of quantifying customer engagement. This cannot be understated, since the entire point of an SaaS business is to have customers integrate your software into their daily business routine.

The reason that CES isn’t standardized is that different SaaS products may be used in different ways and therefore a “one size fits all” model doesn’t really work. For this reason, you should consider building a CES metric that works for your products.

One way to do this is to analyze the way your existing customers use your products and build a model from there. If you know certain customers are happy with the product, you can identify certain data points such as how often they log into the software, what sort of usage milestones they hit, and so on.

As mentioned previously, you can use metrics like DAU and MAU in this model, and also tie in other KPIs such as retention rate, net promoter score, customer satisfaction score, and so on.

Once you have a list of things to look for and have assigned weights to them based on their importance, you can set up an overall customer engagement score that gives you an at-a-glance reference for how engaged a customer is.

#12. Customer Health Score

Customer health score is extremely similar to customer engagement score in that you might have to build your own customized version of it. It also serves just as important a purpose—while CES evaluates how engaged your customers are, your customer health score attempts to analyze the health of a customer’s relationship with your business and whether there’s a risk of it ending.

It’s extremely important to try and be proactive when it comes to managing customer relationships, and predictive analytics helps in this regard since if a customer informs you that they want to cancel their subscription, it’s generally too late to act. If on the other hand you are able to flag the possibility in advance, you can get ahead of the problem.

To get started putting your customer health score KPI in place, you’ll need to look at the different data points that might serve as signals for either high customer loyalty or potential customer churn. Then, you need to start tracking this information over time.

If, for example, the number of your customer’s employees using your software or the amount of time they’re using it starts to dive, you might be seeing a problem. You can also look at their top performers—if all of their top agents used it one month but fewer and fewer high performers use it in the following months, you’re seeing another flag.

Just like with CES, you can then weigh these different values, and build an overall customer health score that allows you and your employees to monitor your relationships with customers and step in whenever the data starts to alert you to a potential problem in the making.

To ensure maximum customer health, consider selling on Whop! From fantastic 24/7 customer service to an enterprise-level affiliate system and real time tracking of all the KPIs you need via the Whop business dashboard, Whop has everything—and you can get started in minutes.

Retention Metrics

#13. Customer Churn Rate

Customer churn rate is one of the most important SaaS metrics for you to look at because it refers to the amount of customers you lose in a given period. This is absolutely critical because subscription-based business models are dependent on customer retention, and churn directly equates to a loss of revenue.

If that wasn’t bad enough, churn can actually go even deeper. All of the acquisition metrics discussed above show that customer acquisition—or just making a sale—isn’t a simple process.

You’re putting a lot of effort and resources into getting customers through the funnel, and all of that comes with a cost. Customer retention means not having to endure that cost again and again. The “months to recover CAC” metric by its very existence underlines the importance of not letting customers churn fast.

To calculate your customer churn rate, compare the number of customers you lose during a period to the number of customers you started that period with. That figure, expressed as a percentage, is your churn rate.

Customer churn rate should be one of your business’ main KPIs, and keeping this rate low is paramount. If it’s higher than it should be, it could be down to various causes—your pricing models don’t match the value you’re providing, or your customer service may be falling short.

You can fix these issues once you identify them, and one way to do so easily is by moving your business across to Whop. By taking care of things like 24/7 customer service and keeping your customers happy, Whop allows you to put all of your time and effort into getting your products and services just right.

Whatever the cause of elevated churn, it’s important that you find out why it’s happening and put strategies in place to reduce it. It’s also vital to try and find patterns when it comes to churn—if a certain profile of customer is terminating their subscription, you can better tailor a strategy to deal with that profile of customer.

How to Reduce Churn Rate

Identify exact reasons for churn and address them, enhance customer onboarding and training, implement customer retention strategies.

#14. Revenue Churn Rate

Revenue churn rate shares some similarities to customer churn rate, but paints a more detailed picture of churn since it looks at the percentage of revenue lost due to customers either canceling subscriptions or downgrading plans. This can be valuable information because you may have a low churn rate in a given period but high revenue churn, meaning that you lost a significant proportion of high-paying customers in that period.

To calculate revenue churn rate, use the revenue figures rather than raw customer numbers that you did when calculating customer churn. That is, take the amount of revenue lost due to churn in a period and divide it by the recurring revenue you had at the start of that same period.

The value of revenue churn rate is that it draws a straight line between churn and your bottom line. Every customer is important, but losing customers that subscribe to your top-tier plans hurts your finances a lot more.

Remember that Whop can help you deal with churn in several ways. As difficult as it is to stop a customer from leaving once that decision has been made, Whop does give you an option in this regard if you enable it, incentivizing customers to stay on via a one-time discount offer if they initiate cancellation.

#15. Logo Retention

Logo retention is yet another way to measure retention, but this time we’re looking at the percentage of companies (“logos”) that continue to subscribe for and use your SaaS products. The main distinction drawn here is that the number of unique companies are measured, rather than the number of customers you have, groups of whom may be users at a single company.

Essentially, logo retention is a metric that allows you to focus on retention by looking at key accounts rather than raw user numbers. This is a valuable way of looking at it, because it’s likely that your organization is structured to handle accounts rather than individual users—and ensuring retention may come down to relationship management via those accounts.

To calculate logo retention, take the number of companies who were paying customers at the start of a period. Then identify how many of these companies are still paying customers at the end of the period, and divide the latter by the former to get a percentage result of up to 100%.

#16. Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Net revenue retention or dollar retention is a good overall indicator of retention as it shows the percentage of revenue retained from existing customers over a given period. It tells you that your SaaS business is able to retain customers while also growing the revenue generated from them in a sustainable manner.

To calculate NRR, take the recurring revenue from existing customers at the end of a period and divide it by the recurring revenue from those same customers at the beginning of the same period. This’ll show you how much your recurring revenue from those customers is growing, and you can express it as a percentage.

NRR differs somewhat from customer churn, revenue churn and logo churn because those SaaS metrics look purely at retention and keeping customers. NRR on the other hand is valuable because it measures the company’s ability to increase revenue from existing customers, which is extremely important for growth.

How to Improve Net Revenue Retention

Monitor usage data to identify un- or under-utilized features and train customers to use them, drive upsell opportunities with tailored marketing efforts, review pricing regularly to align it with customer value.

Growth Metrics

#17. Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)

Annual recurring revenue is a key SaaS metric that attempts to predict the recurring revenue your business will generate over a year, assuming no significant growth or churn when it comes to customer numbers.

To calculate your ARR, multiply the number of paying customers by the average recurring revenue per customer per year. This doesn’t take into account the possibility of one-off payments or other sorts of revenue, so it provides you with a metric you can easily use when budgeting or forecasting.

In fact, many SaaS companies use ARR to measure their growth rate by comparing the ARR of one year to that of another. An ARR of $10 million one year followed by an ARR of $13 million, for example, would indicate a growth rate of 30%. This in turn suggests that the company is doing a good job when it comes to acquiring new customers and increasing revenue from existing customers.

How to Improve ARR

Develop upselling strategy along with incentives for customers to upgrade to higher-tier plans while also improving customer acquisition.

ARR: The Ultimate Guide to Annual Recurring Revenue

#18. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

Monthly recurring revenue is similar to ARR, but taken on a monthly basis. It’s calculated in exactly the same way with the same assumptions, meaning that you aren’t accounting for one-off payments or revenues and simply looking at the total revenue you can expect to receive from your existing customers each month.

Just as with ARR, MRR can be analyzed month over month to look at your company’s growth rate. It’s a simple but extremely important SaaS metric since most SaaS businesses offer their software on a subscription model.

Furthermore, you can also analyze your MRR (as well as your ARR) on a per-customer basis. This way, you can identify customers that contribute the most to your growth, and initiate strategies such as loyalty or referral programs that may actually result in further growth.

• ARPA: The average revenue per account is another way to understand your business in revenue terms. It’s period-agnostic but looks at growth similarly to ARR and MRR, allowing you to understand how many customers (or accounts) you need to sustain your business.

How to Improve MRR

Focus on expanding your customer base through marketing and sales, upsell and cross-sell customers, regularly review and adjust pricing.

#19. Expansion Revenue

Expansion revenue is a SaaS metric that looks at these more valuable customers in greater detail. It’s well known in business that customer loyalty tends to be an indicator of greater spending, and we’ve also looked at metrics such as net revenue retention that look at increasing the revenue from retained customers.

The customers that you earn the most from may on one hand register for your top tier plans, either coming in at the top or upgrading from lower tier packages. They may also make extra purchases by picking up any additional options that you offer, and generally can be counted on to buy whatever you’re selling.

Expansion revenue is the sum of all of these extra purchases, including up-sells, cross-sells, and add-ons. By analyzing this expansion revenue information, you can look at how your different departments or account teams are getting the most from customers who depend on your products.

#20. Customer Concentration

As the name suggests, customer concentration looks at how dependent your company’s revenue is on a small number of customers. This is an extremely important KPI not just for SaaS businesses but for practically any B2B company—B2C firms sell to a large number of consumers, but many B2B businesses rely on a limited number of customers, or even just a sole customer.

While a high customer concentration does lend itself to relationship building and may allow you to serve your customers very well, it does pose a significant risk. A variety of factors could lead to one of your top customers terminating the relationship, which could have an extremely adverse effect on your revenues if you were reliant on that customer.

To calculate your customer concentration SaaS metric, you can take the amount of revenue generated by the top percentage of customers and divide it by your total revenue. You can also break this down by accounts if that’s how your business works—if you have eight accounts but one of them brings in 70% of your revenue, that’s a high customer concentration.

Having a close eye on this metric allows you to keep an eye on the level of risk associated with your customer base. This is something that the highest levels of the company’s management needs to be aware of, since there’s a legitimate risk of the rug being pulled out from under the business if the top customers decide to walk out for whatever reason.

#21. Customer Monthly Growth Rate (CMGR)

Customer monthly growth rate is one of the metrics that can help you in the battle against customer concentration, because it looks at how many new customers you’re bringing in every month.

To calculate your CMGR, compare the number of new customers you added in a given month to the number of customers at the beginning of the month. This is an extremely important SaaS metric since it quantifies growth, and while it looks at customer numbers rather than revenue, it’s extremely important for a growing company.

A low CMGR can indicate that growth potential is lacking, and ought to be investigated. While no market is infinite in size, it’s possible that a low CMGR is tied to failures in customer acquisition efforts. It could therefore flag that a pivot in marketing strategy is required.

#22. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net promoter score is a customer experience metric that is used across various industries to assess the level of customer satisfaction and loyalty toward a company or product. In general, NPS is calculated by asking a customer how likely they are to recommend the product or service to a friend or colleague on a scale of 0 to 10.

Based on their reply, customers fall under the categories of Detractors (0-6), Passives (7-8, and Promoters (9-10). You then subtract the number of detractors from the number of promoters you have, giving you your net promoter score.

The NPS metric is quite different from most other metrics discussed in this list because it offers a more qualitative analysis than the rest. It allows you to assess customer satisfaction and gives an indication of how much word-of-mouth pull your SaaS business has. This is an extremely valuable way to acquire customers and doesn’t cost you anything, so working to optimize your NPS can definitely pay off in the long run.

As with many of the other SaaS metrics, though, it is also wise to keep a record of NPS over time and see if things change. If your customers’ NPS decreases year-over-year, you may have to take a look at the reasons why before it becomes a retention issue.

How to Improve Net Promoter Score

Improve user experience by acting on customer feedback, provide best-in-class customer service and support.

How to Track SaaS Metrics

Measuring and keeping track of all the SaaS metrics may seem like a daunting task, but they’re well worth it. In fact, many SaaS metrics are quite easy to measure, and traditional spreadsheet tools will do the job—metrics like your burn multiple are simple to keep track of since all you need is access to your cash flow data.

There are plenty of companies offering software and tools to keep an eye on these KPIs, too. That said, before you sign up for one of these, make sure that you know which SaaS metrics are most important for you and your business.

Once you do, shop around! Don’t forget to check out Whop, where you also get access to enterprise level tools and real time tracking of various financial stats. Best of all, Whop takes a lot of the hassle of running an SaaS venture off your hands, so if you’re an entrepreneur who wants to devote maximum time and effort to your product rather than admit, Whop is the place for you.

Whop also allows you to integrate with free tools such as Google Analytics, so if you want to bootstrap your SaaS venture, this is the way to go. Take a look at this guide to getting started with Google Analytics while selling on Whop!

What is the Most Important SaaS Metric?

Some will argue that one SaaS metrics or the other may be most important, but so is context. Your business is unique, and its situation is ever changing. The nature of your business and what its current position is will heavily dictate exactly which SaaS metrics you should be paying most attention to at any given time.

Entire categories of SaaS metrics may also shift into more or less focus given what stage of its lifecycle your company is in. Acquisition metrics, for instance, are paramount when a business is just entering the market. Your main goal is to gain market share, so you might even accept poor SaaS metrics in other areas of your business as long as acquisition and growth numbers are optimized.

By the same token, you’ll want to see your SaaS metrics balance out once your business has hit a certain level of maturity. You’ll probably be focusing a lot more on enhancing retention and metrics like CMGR, still looking to grow but also wanting to keep your customer base happy and continuing to patronize your brand.

So, the most important SaaS metric depends very much on where your company is in its lifecycle, and what direction your strategy is taking it in.

What is the SaaS Magic Number?

The “Magic Number” is a SaaS metric that looks at your customer lifetime value and customer acquisition cost. It divides those two numbers, giving you a ratio that indicates whether your customers are giving you any return beyond the cost you incur in acquiring them.

Quite simply, divide LTV by CAC. If the result is over 1, you’re looking at a sustainable model, although higher is better. A magic number of 5, for example, tells you that a customer is expected to contribute $5 in revenue for every $1 you spent acquiring them.

On the other hand, a SaaS magic number of 0.5 means that for every dollar you spent acquiring customers, they’re only worth 50 cents of revenue to you across their entire engagement with your business.

Given the clarity and importance of the information you get from the magic number, many SaaS experts consider it to be a metric you should track regardless of your business or its current situation.

B2B SaaS Metrics vs. B2C SaaS Metrics

One of the biggest factors when deciding which SaaS metrics to track is whether you’re selling to other businesses or individual consumers. B2B and B2C businesses differ in many ways, and you might also look at SaaS metrics differently depending on which model you follow.

A lot of the fundamentals when it comes to how your SaaS offering interacts with these customers may not change, but the way you do business will.

When you look at your lead-to-customer rate and your marketing funnel, for instance, metrics like MQL and SQL become far more important for the B2B model. When you’re selling to consumers, in some cases they’re just going to find your site and sign up. When it comes to businesses, you need to qualify leads and then act via your sales team in order to have any chance of closing.

There are also more obvious examples such as logo retention, which means the retention of actual company clients, that don’t really apply to B2C SaaS. Customer concentration is another one that shouldn’t apply, although as a small or very new business there may be a point in time that you need to rely on a certain tier of high-value customers.

Use Whop To Optimize Your SaaS Metrics

SaaS is a serious business, and your growth needs to be exponential for any measure of success in this competitive environment. That’s only manageable if you’re on top of every single aspect of your business, and an understanding of the most important SaaS metrics will help to keep your business where it needs to be.

As an SaaS business owner, decision making is paramount, and having all of your KPIs at your fingertips will help you make data-driven decisions and be able to forecast your business situation accurately. Whether it’s ramping up before the next funding round or getting ahead of problems before they even occur, SaaS metrics can give you accurate, actionable intel.

👉 If you’re looking to make the most out of your SaaS venture, don’t forget to check out Whop! As an enterprise solution for entrepreneurs, Whop gives you best-in-class support so that all you need to do is focus on your product. Talk to the team at Whop today.

SaaS (aka Software as a Service) is having its moment in the spotlight, captivating the tech world and beyond. It’s not just a fleeting trend; it’s a booming market that's projected to rake in a whopping $250 billion in 2023. It seems like everyone wants a piece of this lucrative digital pie. And the AI boom came in clutch, with everyone, from startups to tech giants, being able to implement their vision into a SaaS just like that.

That being said, for every successful SaaS business raking in millions, several others can’t get a hold of their customer payment collections. This is the feared process known as SaaS billing.

Like any other business, SaaS startups and businesses need to have a good grasp of their cash flow and revenue. If you employ poor SaaS billing practices, revenue leaks will hit you left, right, and center. On top of that, you’ll end up wasting more time and resources on fixing these problems. And, there goes all the time you could be investing in growing your new project.

Thus, we think this guide is necessary for new and established SaaS companies alike. We’ll delve into how SaaS billing works, which are the different billing models available, and how to choose the best one for your business needs.

We’ll also let you in on a few little secret tips and tricks on optimizing your SaaS billing process, which will allow your business to thrive! If you’re in the SaaS business and looking for a reliable SaaS billing platform, consider signing up with Whop.

Whop is the top online marketplace for all digital goods, including SaaS software, and offers plenty of benefits, such as real-time analytics, flexible payment options to cater to your business needs, as well as 24/7 customer support to solve all your issues.

Understanding SaaS Billing

Before we dive deeper into the more advanced concepts of SaaS billing, let’s have a look at a few essentials. SaaS billing primarily works through subscriptions and recurring payments. This is quite the contrast to traditional one-time payments from a business standpoint.

You see, SaaS businesses are constantly forced to deal with invoices, manage different SaaS subscription plans, and adhere to all local laws and regulations regarding payments. Plus, there’s always the worry that payments just won’t go through.

Another aspect that SaaS companies need to constantly look out for is the balance of their customer acquisition and customer retention rates. While the good old one-off payment software businesses almost solely use customer acquisition as a success metric, SaaS businesses need to make sure these same customers come back to continue their subscriptions.

To do so, they employ different SaaS billing models. There are quite a few of these, so bear with us and let’s check them out:

• Monthly Billing - Almost every SaaS company will offer monthly payments as an option. Think of your monthly Slack subscription or even your Netflix one. They’re using the exact same method. For SaaS customers, monthly billing puts flexibility at the forefront. However, on the business side of things, you’ll need to put in more effort to issue heaps of invoices monthly and maintain a high customer retention rate to remain profitable.
• Annual Billing - Annual payments take away the hassle of dealing with invoices and subscription management on a monthly basis but can be deterring for customers who don’t want to commit for so long. That’s why most annual billing plans come with a discounted price to entice customers since the business can guarantee a higher revenue from the start of the year.
• Pay-as-you-go Billing - This billing model allows customers to pay for certain services they want to use without any recurring payments. This is usually achieved through credits or tokens, which are naturally overpriced compared to monthly or annual billing but provide a lower entry barrier to those who prefer a non-committal approach.
• Tier-based Billing - Another very common billing model is a tiered system, where the SaaS business will offer multiple payment tiers, each with its own features or number of users. This payment model allows customers to start out with a lower fee and potentially move up if they find value in the higher tiers.
• Usage-based Billing - Some customers may have different usage rates for a specific software during different times of the year. That’s where usage-based payments come in; SaaS businesses can charge customers a flat fee at the start of each subscription cycle and an additional usage fee at the end of it.
• Features-based Billing - Payments based on features are particularly helpful for SaaS businesses with a multitude of features in their software. Not all customers will want or need every single feature, so this billing model allows them to choose which features they want to pay for instead of being charged for the entire software.
• Freemium Billing - Freemium billing is excellent for customers who want to ensure your software is valuable to them before committing to a subscription. Through free access for a short period, each customer can thoroughly test your software, and if it’s good, it’ll encourage them to continue with the paid version.

SaaS businesses will usually offer one or maybe a few different billing models that better suit their product and target audience. There’s an argument for offering a variety of different billing models so you can cater to more types of buyers. However, this comes with additional hassle and potential issues during the SaaS billing process.

For the majority of SaaS companies out there, monthly billing or a tiered system will ensure maximum flexibility for customers and few issues for the company. SaaS businesses that sell B2B, or those with mature and highly sought-after software, can offer annual billing exclusively to allow for more stability in terms of revenue.

Pay-as-you-go and usage-based payments are often the go-to for cloud computing services, while platforms with plenty of add-ons and features should look at pricing per feature. Finally, if you want to attract a large audience -which is especially useful for software like mobile apps- consider a freemium model for your SaaS software.

What Does the SaaS Billing Process Include?

In essence, the SaaS billing process consists of getting customers to sign up for your platform, issuing invoices, and collecting their payments. However, in actuality, it’s a much more complicated procedure with several steps and things that can go wrong.

When you secure a new customer for your SaaS platform, they’ll inevitably need to pick their billing option. Regardless of whether you offer one or multiple billing models, you must be 100% transparent. The customer needs to comprehend all aspects of the billing process. What they get, how much they’re charged, when payments are collected, and all that jazz.

Once they select a billing plan, they’ll provide their personal and billing information and start the subscription cycle. And when they authorize the payment, it’ll need to be processed safely through their payment provider, and you’ll need to issue them an invoice. It sounds simple, but let me tell you, it’s far from that. All of these require security and accuracy to avoid any issues that could cause disputes and customer dissatisfaction.

One thing to take into account is the flexibility of the subscription plans you offer in any given subscription cycle. We think it goes without saying, but customers must be able to manage their subscription plan. Their needs may change, enabling them to opt for a downgrade or upgrade to a higher tier with more features and more users.

It’s also important to keep your customers updated on any pricing changes or additional services you may offer. Plus, notifying them when their subscription automatically renews or when there’s a change to their billing model can prevent issues and disputes.

SaaS Billing Challenges & Issues

As you can see, SaaS billing isn’t as simple as it seems at first glance. Frankly, it can be a huge pain before you’ve secured repeat customers – kind of like every other business. Plus, several issues might occur from even the smallest of mistakes. SaaS businesses also have a lot of challenges to face regarding billing on a daily basis.

Customer Churn

Churn is a very important parameter for all SaaS businesses, as it reflects the amount of customers that don’t renew their subscriptions. Simply put, your churn rate is the opposite metric of customer acquisition rate, and it accounts for significant revenue losses if it’s not minimized.

Churn can be separated into two subtypes: voluntary or active churn and involuntary or passive churn.

Active churn refers to customers who willingly cancel their SaaS subscription before it runs out or choose to not renew it.

Passive churn is the number of unintentionally canceled subscriptions that can occur due to payment failures, expiration of credit or debit cards, and other unforeseen circumstances.

Both voluntary and involuntary churn can impact a SaaS business significantly. However, most companies tend to focus on active churn, as it signals that a customer is unhappy with the product. Comparatively, passive churn occurs due to outside factors, which can easily be minimized by using a good SaaS billing service.

Billing Inaccuracies

Inaccuracies during the SaaS billing process are going to happen. There’s really nothing you can do to avoid them 100%, as there’ll always be a small error in data entry or a minor glitch in the billing system. These inaccuracies often lead to more serious problems for the business, like failed payments and incorrect invoicing, which in turn lead to overbilled or underbilled customers.

Billing mistakes can also cause a lot of discontent among both new and existing customers and make them question the business’ reliability. In extreme cases, it can lead to monetary disputes and even legal trouble, which can cause irreparable damage to your company’s reputation.

Payment Issues

Problems in the payment process are usually caused by declined transactions, lack of funds, or expired credit cards and can potentially cause a lot of damage to your SaaS business, primarily through involuntary churn.

Customers on an automatic subscription billing cycle will lose access to your SaaS software if their payment fails, and they might not even realize it.

Also, even the smallest hurdle when paying can have a significant impact on a customer’s perception of your platform and their overall experience. That’s why most SaaS businesses strive to make the subscription payment process as seamless and hassle-free as possible.

And let’s not forget that every declined payment is a net loss in revenue. If your company has to constantly deal with payment issues, its cash flow will be impacted, and it’ll need to pour in more money and time to fix these problems.

Pricing Scheme

With so many pricing models, you’ll probably feel overwhelmed as to which one you should choose for your SaaS company. We get it. Before launch, you’ll need to research the market and determine which pricing model matches best with their target audience.

Giving access to price tiers with different features will allow the business’ customers to choose which plan fits them best and what features they truly need. SaaS businesses should also provide pricing flexibility to accommodate different types of audiences, such as enterprises or non-profit organizations.

As always, the pricing scheme should be properly optimized to ensure maximum revenue for the business, as well as customer value. The value perception of a business’ customer base can easily sway the pricing scheme of a SaaS product, as it’s easy for them to look towards other options if they feel the asking price doesn’t represent good value.

How SaaS Payment Software Deals with Billing Issues

As we mentioned above, SaaS companies’ sworn enemy is billing issues. That’s where dedicated SaaS billing software comes in to save the day by automating the entire billing process. So, we’d basically call these SaaS for SaaS? That sounds about right!

Each SaaS billing software can be programmed to perform a set of purposeful checks to prevent errors when a customer tries to pay for their subscription. Every time a payment fails to go through, the payment software will automatically detect it and try to resolve it by notifying the customer.

You can also program it to try to recollect the failed payments during a specific time period, which means the customer won’t lose out on the service due to things like insufficient funds. This takes away a large portion of passive churn, a SaaS retention metric that hurts businesses significantly.

More advanced SaaS payment platforms can even provide personalized strategies for trying to collect customer payments based on how each client usually completes a transaction or why the payment failed in the first place.

All in all, SaaS billing software can take the customer experience to the next level. It provides several quality-of-life options and solutions for billing mistakes and failed payments, and makes sure that every transaction is safe and secure, all at the same time. Plus, you can then utilize all data tracking the software does to optimize your pricing and revenue and improve your scalability and growth potential. That’s a win-win any day of the week!

Choosing the Best SaaS Billing Software

So, you’ve decided to try out a SaaS billing platform for your business. Well, this was only the beginning. There are so many factors for picking the best one. Here are some bite-sized factors to help you pick the perfect SaaS billing software for your company:

#1. Billing Model Variety & Flexibility

Offering various billing models should be a priority, especially if you haven’t decided which one fits your business. You can A/B test a few different ones, such as a subscription model or a usage-based model, before committing to one.

It’s also very important for your SaaS billing software to offer flexibility in case you want to offer multiple billing models. For example, if you plan to target both the B2B and B2C markets, having a flexible system is basically a prerequisite so that you can account for different customers.

#2. Subscription Management

We’ve already talked about the importance of automating your company’s SaaS billing process, and managing your customers’ subscriptions is the most important part of it.

Whether you work on a recurring billing model or a subscription model, your billing software needs to be able to conduct the entire payment process automatically without you having to put in the time and effort. Save that up for growing your product.

If you use a subscription-based model, the software also needs to deal with aspects like free trials, different subscription tiers, and upgrades or downgrades in between billing cycles.

#3. Integration with Payment Gateways

SaaS billing software that has good integration with various payment gateways will allow your business to facilitate seamless transactions with no issues. It’ll also enable you to provide various payment methods to accommodate all types of customers and their needs.

Effortless payments from international customers will also distinguish a great billing software from a good one. If you plan to launch your product worldwide (which you should if you want unlimited growth potential), you need to accommodate for the different international laws and tax regulations regarding payments, and excellent billing software will help you with that.

#4. Dunning Management

Dunning is the systematic communication and payment collection to customers who have failed payments for different reasons. As we already mentioned, payment failures are the number one reason for losing customers to passive churn.

However, these customers don’t necessarily want to cancel your subscription; they may just have issues with their payment method or have run out of funds without even knowing about it.

That’s where SaaS billing platforms come in and utilize dunning to send reminders to those customers to complete their payments. The best SaaS billing software will come up with unique ways to manage dunning and minimize involuntary churn for your business.

#5. Customizable Invoicing

The top SaaS billing software will offer a streamlined invoicing process that will significantly lower the effort and time your staff needs to put into them. Plus, it’ll prevent most mistakes that can cause customer issues that often lead to disputes and general customer discontent.

Also, providing customizable invoices is a key aspect that distinguishes the best billing platforms. SaaS businesses usually want branded invoices that have a specific layout or even personalized invoices for different types of customers.

The best software will offer tons of alternatives for custom invoices to choose from or even give you the option to design a new one that fits your needs.

#6. Security

Ensuring the safety of your customers’ data and payment information is very important and will improve their overall experience and perception of the company. Strong data encryption and compliance with data protection protocols like GDPR will secure all personal data from your customers and prevent any leaks.

Also, it’s paramount to make sure all transactions and financial information are secure both when payments occur and while payment data is stored. Payment security compliance protocols, such as the PCI DSS, are essential for all SaaS businesses that handle payments, regardless of location, number of processed transactions, or payment methods.

#7. Scalability Options

Look, every business wants to grow to its full potential. So, pick a SaaS billing software that grows with you. Or, rather, choose one that can handle your growth. Once your customer base starts to get into the hundreds or thousands, you need your billing platform to be able to handle a larger number of invoices and payments without issues.

You may need to pay a premium for additional invoicing, but that’s nothing compared to the heaps of extra revenue it’ll help you make. Also, the ability to scale down is key; if you find your business swimming in too deep waters or just don’t need some features anymore, you need the option to downgrade your billing software.

#8. Streamlined UI

While not essential in the actual SaaS billing process, a user-friendly interface is a very important quality-of-life feature. The best SaaS billing software will include intuitive menu designs and a well-executed dashboard, which is essential as it contains all the important data and metrics for your business.

Also, being easy to grasp and efficient will make it effortless for all your staff members to navigate and will ensure your workflow is maximized. Finally, proper documentation and training support from the software company will help ease your team into the software and assist them with anything they have trouble with.

#9. Customer Support Availability

You never know when something might go wrong with your SaaS billing software. Just like your SaaS company, minor errors are inevitable. So, you need to have access to the billing software’s customer support team at all times.

Look for teams of knowledgeable representatives who can deal with tough issues under pressure, as they are the only ones who can help you solve any sudden problems that may come up.

Additionally, 24/7 availability is a must, especially if your business operates after hours, where one problem could halt your entire handling process for hours.

How to Use Whop for SaaS Billing

So, what can Whop offer to your business in terms of SaaS billing? Whop is the single best online marketplace for all entrepreneurs who want a place to sell and advertise their digital products. Whop offers a great SaaS subscription management service that will automate and take care of your entire SaaS billing process.

Firstly, Whop is very easy to integrate into your established business thanks to its simple and user-friendly API. The Whop subscription management suite focuses on minimizing involuntary churn and maximizing customer retention through real-time analytics and clever use of cancellation offers, upsells, and discount codes.

Plus, you can forget about having to deal with customer disputes thanks to the handy Whop “Dispute Fighter” tool, which takes care of all customer issues automatically! With Whop, your business will also be able to process payments from all around the world, with over 135 local currencies and even a few cryptocurrencies supported.

Here’s how you can sign up and start using Whop for your SaaS billing process:

1. Visit whop.com/sell and click the “Sign Up” button.
2. Create your account using your email address or login using one of your social media accounts.
3. Put in the name of your business and Twitter (or X) handle.
4. Choose what your business sells. If nothing resonates with it, pick the “Something Else” option.
5. Once you’re done, you’ll land on the Whop main dashboard, where you can customize all your settings and add the SaaS product that you want to sell on Whop.

Best SaaS Billing Payment Options

Cherry-picking the payment methods you want to support for your SaaS billing is not as straightforward as it might seem. Having multiple options is key, as you’ll need to accommodate all your customers, wherever they are.

At the same time, your payment methods need to be reliable and process transactions smoothly to avoid any issues that may lead to involuntary churn. Some essential payment methods you can consider include:

• Credit/Debit Card - Not having the option to pay by card is a major red flag. Most folks solely use their credit or debit cards for transactions. So, yes, they are a guaranteed inclusion in your payment gateway. Just make sure you can support different card vendors, such as VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and others, to ensure none of your customers gets left out.
• Bank Transfer - The second most popular payment option for all online transactions is bank transfers. The B2B market, in particular, prefers paying for your SaaS product via bank transfer. They either have partnerships or benefits with specific banks, or it just helps a ton with all the accounting malarkey. It’s also worth supporting an ACH system to facilitate small transactions from domestic clients.
• Digital Wallet - Digital wallets currently reign supreme for online payments. Plus, since you’re offering software or digital products, not embracing digital payment methods might put some customers off. Apps like PayPal and Venmo, as well as mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, are pretty much essential for your SaaS business – especially if you plan to market to a worldwide market.
• Cryptocurrency - Cryptos are definitely a worthy addition to your belt of payment options for your SaaS billing, as they allow for fast worldwide transactions with minimal fees and increased privacy. And they’ll bring in an audience of tech folks, which could increase your acquisition rate. Plus, if you use Whop for your SaaS subscription management, you’ll find plenty of popular cryptos, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Tips & Tricks to Streamline Your SaaS Billing Process

We’re almost at the end! Before that, though, let’s take a look at a few tips and helpful insights to make your SaaS billing process effortless and hassle-free:

• Automate Payment Collections & Invoices - If you’re just starting out and only have a few customers, then you’re probably taking care of invoicing manually. That’s alright! However, once your business picks up the pace, you’ll need to create automation for invoices and payment collections to avoid mistakes that lead to customer churn. Not to mention, you’ll get to allocate your team’s efforts to grow the business even more.
• Offer Flexibility to Your Customers - This can be anything from offering different billing plans and tier systems that allow for easy upgrades to providing multiple payment options for your services. Customers love flexibility, and a SaaS business that offers them variety will definitely have an increased perceived value in their eyes.
• Look at Your Analytics - Using a SaaS billing software like Whop will give you access to tons of analytics and subscription metrics. You can look for issues and problems with billing, and even study your customers’ behavior to help you make your next move. Metrics like Churn Rate, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), and Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) are key for all SaaS businesses and are part of most billing software.
• Ask for Customer Feedback - Businesses are nothing without their customers. They are the ones who believe in your product or service and will pay good money for it, so you need to rely on their feedback. Whenever you lose customers to active churn, give them a short questionnaire on why they chose to cancel their membership. Some of the feedback you get may actually help you improve your SaaS business and win them back.

Pick Whop as your SaaS Billing Platform

As we discussed, the SaaS billing process hides several challenges and issues that can arise from the smallest mistakes. That’s why it’s paramount to use an automatic SaaS billing software to handle payments, subscriptions, and invoices to allow you and your team the freedom to focus on growing your SaaS business even further.

👉Ready to start using an automated SaaS subscription management platform? Then sign up with Whop and start selling today! It only requires a few minutes of your time to join thousands of entrepreneurs who’ve created successful SaaS businesses using Whop. Choose Whop for its amazing array of features for SaaS billing and subscription management that will help your company rise to the top!

By now, you probably know the basics of ChatGPT and have likely used it yourself for simple tasks. The Large Language Model (LLM) made by Open AI hit a record for exponential user growth, going to 1 million users in a record 5 days and 100 million monthly active users just 2 months after its launch in November 2022. It’s arguably leading the AI revolution, and many people are already taking advantage of it to scale their businesses or start new ones. You may have seen headlines or Tweets along the lines of “Teen makes five figures in one month using ChatGPT”--but what are people actually doing to make money using the LLM?

Out of the box, ChatGPT has far more capability than you probably know, including the ability to use supplementary plugins and build apps on top of it. So, let’s dive in to learn more about ChatGPT, the kinds of ChatGPT plugins and apps on the market, and how you can use and sell associated plugins and apps.

If you already have a ChatGPT plugin or app ready to go, head to the end of this article to learn more about selling access to your product with Whop!

Things You Might Not Know About ChatGPT

The spectrum of the ChatGPT user ranges from the casual tinkerer all the way up to the super-prompter using the LLM in place of a team to run a profitable business.

That said, it’s hard to estimate what the distribution of users looks like on the spectrum, but it would be safe to guess that most people fall closer to the category of the casual user and that those who reap the full benefits are few. In order to bridge the gap and join those who are cashing in with AI, you need to gain uncommon knowledge about ChatGPT, which includes:

• It can be trained on examples and data
  Simply giving examples to set the context before a prompt can change the reply to something more relevant compared to the standard output. For those who have datasets, you can finetune a ChatGPT model using Python so that it can understand things like trends and sentiments, for example, in the financial markets.
• It can act as a specialist and answer accordingly
  Sometimes, rather than giving an example to set the context, it is more helpful to tell ChatGPT to act as a specialist in a certain field and it will answer all of your prompts and questions in that role. The more descriptive you are, the better your reply will be. For example, if you want marketing advice, you can input a prompt like “Act as if you are a CMO with over 10 years experience serving ecommerce companies with seven-figure monthly ad spend”, and then go on to ask it about a Facebook ad campaign. You can even ask it to act like someone like Elon Musk when replying if asking for business advice.
• It’s never a hard no
  When asking a question, you may be met with a “Sorry, as an AI language model, I can’t answer that” from the model either due to a restriction or because of how you phrased the question. Think of a more clever way to ask for the information you are seeking or simply paraphrase your previous question and you may get a positive reply. For example, you may be asking for the process of a method in code and you may be met with a no, but if you rephrase your question to ask for the first step and then subsequent ones, you may get the full answer.
  Additionally, you can do your own research regarding a DAN–short for Do Anything Now–prompt, which is meant to “jailbreak” ChatGPT to answer anything.
• You can use a VPN to expand functionality and produce broader results
  A VPN makes access to ChatGPT possible if you are in a region where it is banned, whether that’s on a college campus wifi network or in a certain country.  Even if ChatGPT isn’t banned in your region, the results and data still are not the same for everyone, so switching regions on your VPN may help give different and possibly more helpful replies.
• Access the internet live with GPT-4 on ChatGPT Plus
  If you’re looking for an answer regarding technology or current events, you’ll be restricted by date based on the data that ChatGPT was trained on, which puts it behind to roughly 2021. So, anything that has happened since then is not something that the LLM will be able to answer. With a ChatGPT Plus subscription, however, you will be able to use the GPT-4 model which has live web browsing access, allowing it to do research on modern events and technology and produce accurate replies that have real-time data.
• You can use plugins and apps to make the best use of its full capabilities
  Visualization and diagrams, pre-trained chatbots and summarizers, and niche specialists that act like a trained virtual assistant all make for expanded capabilities that bring the model to the upper bounds of its utility

Using ChatGPT Plugins and Apps

While you can continue to tweak your prompts and get more use out of ChatGPT while doing so, those who want to be efficient with their time by leveraging tools that others have built will find using a plugin for ChatGPT the best way to do so. There is also the option of ChatGPT apps that run in the background. The difference between ChatGPT plugins and apps is that a plugin is meant to be used within the ChatGPT interface, and a ChatGPT-based app has its own interface, often in the form of a web-based application.

Examples of helpful ChatGPT Plugins
As of late 2023, you’ll still need ChatGPT Plus running GPT-4 (the free version runs GPT-3.5, and Plus is $20/month) to access plugins. Once you activate your Plus subscription, you’ll be able to access a whole library of plugins, pretty much all of which are free. Here are some examples of the best:

• Development plugins
  For anyone who is a developer or wants to learn how to code efficiently, ChatGPT’s very own Code Interpreter plugin, which is a feature of GPT-4, is a powerful assistant that can help you debug, explain logic, and create workflows. It’s similar to Github’s Copilot, which also uses AI to become your coding assistant. Zapier, which connects a plethora of SaaS and web applications to create automated workflows, has its own ChatGPT plugin which lets you unlock its capabilities even faster.
• Travel Plugins
  Expedia was one of the first companies to create a ChatGPT plugin that is native to their platform. Activating this plugin will give you a travel assistant that you can talk to like a human to organize the logistics of your trip, all the way up to booking everything and even suggesting off-the-beaten-path itineraries. Kayak also has its own ChatGPT plugin.
• Shopping plugins
  A perk previously reserved for the elite, apps like Instacart allow users to instantly summon personal shopping assistants for their consumer needs. Using ChatGPT plugins that are native to the apps unlocks a whole new level of concierge service that will make this experience even more seamless. Companies with plugins and their benefits include Instacart for shopping, OpenTable for restaurant suggestions and reservations, and Klarna for discounts.
• Document readers
  For students or those who conduct research for any reason, it’s common to end up with a pile of digital documents and files that are a headache to sort through. Plugins such as ChatWithPDF allow you to query the text of any and all PDF files that you load it with so you can speed through research like never before. The ScholarAI plugin produces an even broader capability by giving you access to an enormous database of peer-reviewed academic and scientific papers and allows you to browse their contents in the same way you would use Google, but with even more concise and immediately summarized and cited results.

Useful ChatGPT Apps
Since these apps will have ChatGPT as a part of their core function running in the background, you won’t need to have GPT-4 or in most cases even a ChatGPT account to use them–you will simply need to sign up for their service as a customer. Arguably the most useful benefit is having an intuitive interface to work with as opposed to having to interact with strings of prompts in the barebones environment of ChatGPT. Here are some of the main categories and examples for ChatGPT apps.

• Copywriters
  Arguably one of the biggest uses for ChatGPT is its ability to create copious amounts of copy. This shouldn’t be a surprise as it is, at its core, a language model and natural language processing tool. Using prompts can prove difficult and require a lot of priming and testing to produce decent copy, so many turn towards one of the many copywriting tools on the market to have a better out-of-the-box solution. Examples include Jasper and Jarvis, which can pump out thoughtful text for things like social media captions, web pages, and even articles–the latter of which you should probably edit manually and exercise caution with if your goal with them is SEO.
• Chatbots
  Even though ChatGPT in its default form can be interacted with as a chatbot, it won’t be very good if you want any sort of expert advice or if you want a chatbot that can be helpful as an assistant. Genie and Personal.ai can act as not only writers but can act within certain roles that you give it far better than if you were to prompt train GPT, without needing to go through any finetuning process.
• Traders
  By nature, AI is meant to parse and process data at an enormous capacity to create concise insights. Large amounts of data in any area, including trading the financial markets, can produce actionable judgment calls that can inform your trading decisions. General categories in which you can find trading-related ChatGPT apps range from those that can do technical analysis or judge sentiment. Some can even execute trades for you if you feel comfortable enough for them to do so.

How to Build Your Own ChatGPT Plugins or Apps

For the technically inclined, building an app with ChatGPT or a plugin for it is an excellent way to take your product to market and capture the many who want to join the AI movement.

While the specifics will vary wildly depending on the functionality you want from the app, the first step that you will take no matter what is to create and use an OpenAI API key so you can run ChatGPT behind the interface that you design. Designing a user interface that stands out and is pleasurable to use is perhaps the most important part of the app-building process. This is often the main reason that a consumer will use a ChatGPT app that sometimes has only a few prompts and an interface in between simply using GPT directly.

It is possible to create a mobile app that runs on ChatGPT, but a web based application is the more common solution because not only does it require less development to create, but most users are used to accessing AI tools via a web browser as opposed to a mobile app.

Using NoCode to build a ChatGPT app

In today’s age, people sensationalize the speed at which it is possible to launch a functioning piece of software with the help of NoCode tools or even ChatGPT itself.

If you consider that all you need to launch a ChatGPT app is a web app front and back end, there are NoCode solutions that can allow you to build this quickly with little to no development knowledge. You can also learn quite a bit of code simply by asking ChatGPT to show and describe any programming request within its capability, and it can easily output a code-formatted response that you can learn from, test, and debug all within ChatGPT.

Be aware though that if you choose to go the NoCode route or want to rely on ChatGPT to give you functioning pieces of code, you may be able to build something quickly but it won’t be able to compete with the custom development of all of the other ChatGPT apps.

Using Whop to Sell Access to ChatGPT Plugins and Apps

If you have created something of value that you are ready to share with the world, getting it out there where it can be discovered is often the most difficult part. Thankfully, Whop solves this for you by letting you easily go through a process to list your ChatGPT plugin or app that takes less than 10 minutes and will put you in front of our rapidly growing two-sided marketplace.

Here’s how to use Whop to sell access to your ChatGPT app or plugin:

Step 1: Sign up with a store name and branding in mind

Step 2: In the What are You selling step, choose “AI Software”

Step 3: You can choose ChatGPT Plugin,  Webapp or Software (if you want to grant license keys) as your product

Step 4: Once your product is ready, simply publish it on the marketplace and you’re live!

For a visual run-through, watch this video on how to become a seller with Whop:

Another perk of using Whop is that you can easily add files such as a setup guide in addition to selling your software or Webapp access. In addition to selling a standalone app or plugin, some sellers on the marketplace use these to supplement the functionality or as a feature of their paid community.

👉When you're ready to start selling, remember to sign up with Whop! It only takes a few minutes to get started and put your product in front of a thriving marketplace.

The internet is widely regarded as one of, if not the most important inventions of the modern day. It’s also given rise to some of the most powerful corporations that exist today and has sent plenty of businesses, and business models, into the realm of the insolvent and the obsolete.

With the internet has come the 'paywall'. The paywall has become one of the key ways online as well as digitally forward traditional businesses reap revenue from their customers. It’s also become something of a 'dirty' word among consumers accustomed to the internet’s deluge of free information and entertainment.

But what is a paywall, are there different types of paywalls, and how can you as an entrepreneur deploy a paywall without inconveniencing or losing customers? We’ll get into all of that in this guide, so read on!

What is a Paywall?

A paywall is a way of monetizing online content by restricting access to some or all of it until the consumer pays a fee or completes a subscription. It’s a strategy that tends to meet with the ire of many consumers, given that the internet offers a large variety of entirely free content. However, many businesses have embraced the paywall in various forms, especially within the publishing industry.

The paywall can be viewed as an evolution of how print media such as newspapers and magazines were consumed prior to the internet—generally, every household would either subscribe to a newspaper and/or certain magazines, which would then be delivered to their door, or purchase said print media at a newsagent or newspaper stand.

These subscriptions and purchases contributed significantly to the revenues of the respective news firms and publishing houses. With the advent of the internet and the rise of free media, however, these revenues came under threat. While advertising revenue contributes even more heavily to the business’ coffers, this loss of subscription revenue is one that many refuse to swallow—hence the rise of the paywall.

That said, paywalls come in different types and can be used effectively by all sorts of content-based businesses. Despite the fact that consumers tend to dislike them, many firms that use them tend to report increases in subscription numbers after implementing paywalls.

Types of Paywalls

In order to dig deeper into the concept of paywalls and examine whether it’s a good option for your business, we need to take a look at the different types of paywall models. They are:

Hard Paywalls

These are the paywalls that most people think of, where clicking on a link to a news story or article sees the visitor immediately blocked from reading or viewing any content and being confronted with subscription terms. The main risk with hard paywalls is that the visitor simply closes the page, leaves the site, and attempts to search for the same or similar content elsewhere.

Using a hard paywall can therefore severely limit the number of visitors your site has since it’s unlikely that anyone would want to pay before at least sampling your content for quality. For this reason, you’ll generally only find hard paywalls being used by sites with either a unique product or particularly authoritative branding.

A hard paywall can also have a negative effect on advertising revenue, since advertisers are aware that many site visitors won’t be given a chance to see their ads at all. As such, a hard paywall has significant disadvantages not just for the consumer but also for the business using them.

Soft Paywalls

Soft paywalls are extremely unobtrusive, and you can compare them to a “freemium” content model. Generally, there’s a mix of content on offer here—much of it for free, but customers who decide that they like the content and want even more can purchase a subscription to receive extra or exclusive content.

You’ll find soft paywalls in use across a variety of platforms and services, from news sites to blogging platforms and even music and dating apps. Individual content creators also tend to use this model, building up a fan base via free content and operating an exclusive subscriber community whose members pay for more.

Metered Paywalls

Metered paywalls are somewhere in between soft and hard paywalls, because they set a limit on how much content a visitor can access for free before being required to pay. This is an extremely common model in news as well as education, but SaaS firms are also known for using this model in various ways.

This model can be considered quite similar to the soft paywall, but there tends to be one major difference between the two. In a soft paywall, there tends to be a certain section or type of content that’s behind the paywall—or in the case of SaaS subscriptions, a set of advanced features that can’t be used until you subscribe. In the metered paywall model, you can generally access everything, but only a limited number of times.

Dynamic

Websites are extensively configurable, and analytics allow site operators to collect data on visitors and evaluate the way they use the site. In this manner, a publisher or content creator can develop certain insights and models of their customers, anticipating their behavior based on what they have seen.

The end result here is that the paywall can be configured to work differently based on the site visitor’s profile and data. Visitors who frequent the site often or take in a lot of content may be prompted to subscribe fast, whereas occasional visitors may not be prompted at all.

Donations

As content creation becomes even more prevalent and platform after platform begins charging consumers via paywalls, some creators and websites give their subscribers the choice to donate rather than forcing them to pay. This tends to be entirely voluntary, asking consumers of the site’s content to support them if and when able.

This sort of voluntary or open paywall tends to be prevalent across various content creation platforms where visitors can tip creators, but some major businesses including a leading UK newspaper have used this model successfully.

Which Sites Use Paywalls?

As already mentioned in the previous section, various types of businesses use different types of paywalls. It’s common to see soft paywalls being used by various apps, metered paywalls used by SaaS companies, and hard paywalls in play when you visit a big-name U.S. news site.

There’s nothing wrong with using a paywall, and whether you’re a content creator or a SaaS entrepreneur, you may find that different types of paywalls can work for you. There are plenty of examples of firms that have found plenty of success using them, after all.

The Wall Street Journal, for example, is famous for its hard paywalls. One may argue that the small teaser text and access to the home page would qualify for being a soft paywall, but that isn’t so. The site certainly has the branding and name recognition to use a hard paywall successfully, and whatever you may think of the tactic, WSJ has plenty of subscribers willing to pay for their content.

The New York Times charges the same amount overall though at a different frequency, and uses a form of paywall that could be described as metered since it offers access to a limited amount of content with a free account. That said, you may not consider a free account truly free, since you’re paying with your data.

The Guardian, meanwhile, is a fine example of the donation model. You can use the site and read all of the news for free, but you’ll see several appeals for a donation, with the default donation set to a subscription.

In the EU, consumers and businesses alike are far more conscious of data safety, and even this can be monetized via a paywall model. Germany’s Bild, for instance, will allow you to navigate the site for free if you accept tracking and cookies, but requires you to subscribe if you want to proceed without giving up your data.

All of these examples are primarily news-based, but you can look at different services for other examples. All of the streaming sites you’re used to such as Sky, DAZN, or Netflix tend to use hard paywalls since you can’t watch their programming unless you pay. Apps like Tinder use soft paywalls since you can use the app for free but gain significant advantages and extra features if you pay a premium.

How to Set Up a Paywall with Whop

Setting up a paywall is easy if you bring your business to an entrepreneur-focused platform like Whop—and what’s more, you can do so in just a few clicks! All you need to do is visit Whop.com to get started.

You’ll be prompted to create an account, which you can do quickly via an existing Discord, Twitter/X, Google, or Apple account. Alternatively, type in whatever email address you already have for your business.

Your Whop store is what customers will visit to complete their payment to your paywall. You can also integrate Whop with your site, but what’s important here is that your Whop store name corresponds to whatever brand you use for your business.

Once you’ve selected the general nature of your product or service, you’ll be led to your Whop Business Dashboard. Feel free to get comfortable with it, and don’t forget to check the Billing section for payment options. The Product section, however, is what we’re most interested in right now.

Here’s where the magic happens. If you’re a content creator, you might want to give paying subscribers access to your Discord or Telegram. Well, pick one of those! You can also paywall particular URLs using the External Link option.

If you need more assistance setting up your store page or getting your paywall just right, just schedule a call with one of the Whop team via your business dashboard!

Should You Use a Paywall?

Whether or not to implement a paywall for your business is not a decision to be taken lightly. Just like any major strategy revolving around monetization, it depends on a lot of factors, and certain types of paywalls may be more or less suitable for your business depending on what stage of growth you’re in and how powerful your brand is.

When to Use a Hard Paywall

The most black-and-white of the paywall options is the hard paywall. As we’ve already mentioned, consumers don’t like it and your advertisers probably won’t like it either. You’re only going to want to consider a hard paywall if you’re either a highly reputable brand name in your niche, or if you have some sort of unique product.

Television networks like Sky, for example, bid millions for the right to broadcast various sporting events because it gives them exclusivity. They can then lean on this exclusivity to implement a hard paywall, knowing that they’re the only legal option for consumers who want to watch those events from the comfort of their own homes.

When to Use a Soft Paywall

A soft paywall is a lot more manageable for businesses of all sizes, and it allows you to continue growing your brand without throttling your growth, especially if you’re in the content creation business or an app developer.

Free access ensures that you’ll have the maximum number of users or visitors, and as long as you maintain a certain level of quality, plenty of these will consider switching to your paid subscriptions or buying premium options. Most content creators use this option, putting free content out there to build an audience and running a subscriber community on platforms like Whop with extra content and exclusive benefits

➡️To read more about setting up a subscription for your Discord server, click here

When to Use a Metered Paywall

A metered paywall could be a good option for your business if you want to offer your customers a lot of free value but also gain revenue from those who extract the most value from your product or service. That’s why this model is often seen in SaaS—you can offer a limited number of things like reports for free but then charge for an unlimited amount since, if the client needs that quantity, it clearly has value to them.

➡️To read more about SaaS subscriptions, click here

When to Use a Dynamic Paywall

A dynamic paywall can require a certain amount of sophistication to implement since you’ll need to collect and analyze the right data and set up algorithms to execute the strategy correctly. That said, it can definitely pay dividends in terms of giving you the ability to target different groups of customers in different ways—this can really optimize your acquisition process.

When to Use Donations

Donations can be an excellent option but have a low probability of bringing in significant revenue. Relying on them as a primary source of revenue can be a very risky idea, since they rely not only on your delivering a significant quantity and frequency of high-value products, but also on the likelihood of your target customer donating.

The Guardian is an excellent example of this, since not only is the paper’s reporting of an objectively high standard, but it’s also not unreasonable to imagine that the average Guardian reader is willing to donate money.

If your target customer fits a similar profile, you might certainly consider donations since not only will your customer appreciate high quality content for free and be likely to donate, but your advertisers (likely your primary revenue source) will pay you a premium since your customers are also more valuable to them.

Use Whop to Manage Your Paywall!

Whether or not to set up a paywall can be a difficult decision, but you can make it easy for yourself by identifying your goals and the immediate aims of your business. If you’re a growing content creator, a strategy like a hard paywall might be shooting yourself in the foot, but donations might see your top line stagnate if you don’t already have the advertising money flowing in. As such, deciding on whether to implement a paywall and then picking which one is something that’s best done carefully and with a partner like Whop.

👉When you sign up to Whop, whatever your business, you can set up the right paywall for you. Even better, you have all of the analytics on hand so you can track how your new paywall is transforming your business, retaining the ability to make effective, agile decisions. Visit Whop.com to sign up or talk to the team today!

Dropshipping is perhaps one of the hottest terms in the younger entrepreneurial generation today. While the basic definition of dropshipping is likely understood, the landscape is not. This guide aims to shed light on this often misrepresented topic. Upon finishing this guide, you should be able to know enough about dropshipping and what it might take to succeed with this method in 2024 and beyond.

Dropshipping Explained 🛍️

Simply put, dropshipping is a fulfillment method that allows you to sell an existing product without having to ship it yourself. This is done by selling another company’s product, which likely already has a good concept and market demand. Because you aren’t shipping the product, you also don’t have to worry about logistics and inventory management.

Dropshipping can be a great way to get started with making money in ecommerce because of these previously mentioned perks, however, making money should not be your only goal.

The ideal dropshipping goal

Once you start to make money, you should move on to the real goal of dropshipping, which is to eventually create and own your very own product and store. Having your own store will allow you to establish a brand outside of the competitive landscape of other dropshippers selling the exact same product. This gives you the longevity and the potential to make a lasting brand.

In fact, many companies that end up becoming large multinational brands start out with dropshipping. They began this way in order to prove the product/market fit and to exercise their marketing skills. Gymshark for example, which is now a billion-dollar company, started out as a dropshipping store and evolved to make its own products from there.

To summarize, dropshipping really should be used as a stepping stone to discover a winning product. Once you have found that product, use the revenue to fund the development of a unique product with your own branding that you can sell and scale.

Pros and Cons of Dropshipping 📋

Before we dive in with some basic tips on how to find your first dropshipping product and create your very own store, it is good to be aware of both the pros and cons of dropshipping, which are as follows:

Pros

• No need for product development, which can be costly in both time and money
• Can be quite easy to find and sell a winning product if you are among the first to reach the right audience
• Many supplementary tools, platforms, and communities exist that can aid in your success
• With enough organic reach on platforms such as TikTok, you can sell your product with little to no ad spend.

Cons

• Winning products tend to be saturated, so competition is incredibly fierce
• No control over the shipping time, which might be long, can lead to returns and customer dissatisfaction
• Some products that are trending may no longer be in vogue sooner than expected
• Heavy reliance on volatile distribution channels (ads, organic reach)
• The business model may instill an unhealthy habit of never-ending trend chasing

Where to Find Your First Dropshipping Product 💻

Now that you have been made aware of the pros and cons of taking on the business of dropshipping, you will need to take the first step of finding your first dropshipping product.

While some people try to populate a store with several products hoping that one will bite (or even worse, test multiple products in different niches simultaneously), you should really only pick one product to focus all of your efforts on.

Choosing just one product will allow you to get an understanding of what a targeted audience might look like, how to capture attention and effectively market, and how to frame a product attractively so that it converts.

To get you started, here are some tips on how to find your first product and its supplier.

Product discovery tips:

Look at the ads being served to you
Several dropshipping stores are successful to the point of having large ad budgets, so if you spend enough time on social media, you will eventually be shown an ad that is selling a product fulfilled through dropshipping. Many times it isn’t apparent that the product is being dropshipped because it looks like a clever invention, but more often than not, it’s another company’s previously made product being marketed to you by a dropshipper.

Search TikTok
One of the biggest marketing funnels for dropshipping today is TikTok. Consumer behavior is shifting and favoring user-generated content, mostly on TikTok and Instagram, so much so that Amazon has launched a product discovery page that is similar to any other endless scroll-style video feed that you are used to on the other platforms.

Normally, if you scroll long enough, you’ll come across a dropshipping product. A tip to find a product quickly without the doomscrolling is to search the hashtag #tiktokmademebuyit.

Take a look at the comments to see if people say they “need it” or have bought it–this sentiment shows the demand.

Consider themes and seasonality
Selling a product to an audience that is already primed to like it is the easiest game to play in business. This is why sports and other franchise-level merchandise are such ridiculously profitable business models, and also why there are heavy-handed laws against infringing on this territory because it would be too easy to sell something to this crowd.

Rather than worry about infringing on a name brand or franchise with a cult following, you can sell a product that is within a certain theme or season. For example, you could focus on Valentine’s Day products or summer essentials. While these sales cycles may be short-lived, they can make for an excellent way to make money fairly quickly and incentivize you to continue in your ecommerce journey in different areas.

Dropship merchandise if you have an existing audience
If you already have an existing audience and decent reach, you can take advantage of the simple logistics and fulfillment of dropshipping without needing to go through a product hunt by selling merchandise. Instead of printing and fulfilling your own merch, you can actually dropship things like T-shirts, stickers, and mugs using a print-on-demand supplier like Printful or Custom Ink. Amazon has its own Merch by Amazon program which serves the same function.

Finding your supplier

Some people overcomplicate this step but it’s actually incredibly simple. Simply go on Aliexpress or Alibaba and search a description of a product that you have seen, and the product will probably show up. Examples of search terms that will yield a dropshipping product include “Mini projector”, “Crystal Water bottle”, “Dragon lighter”– just type what you have seen, and the search engines, perhaps to your surprise, will show you the exact same product at 50% of the price or less.

Pro tip 💡 : Pay attention to the estimated shipping times. Two to three weeks may be standard for these products, but this timeframe might cause too much customer dissatisfaction, so look for suppliers with a 7-10 day shipping timeframe if possible, or consider searching for domestic suppliers by Googling your product + domestic supplier.

Creating Your First Dropshipping Store 🛒

Once you’ve settled on a winning product, you will need to create your store. Due to website builders and other pre-made solutions, this step is more simple today than ever.

One of the most popular solutions is Shopify. Not only do they have a slick and easy-to-use interface for both shop owners and customers, there are dedicated plugins such as DSers that help with the listing and fulfillment of your dropshipping products.

Tip 💡 : Selling a digital product is an excellent alternative to dropshipping. Whop makes it simple and easy to do so–make sure to sign up here if you have a product to sell!

Marketing Your Product 📢

Now that you have your winning product and a store, it’s time to start spreading the word about it to the masses.

You should keep your marketing simple, and while it’s good to test things out, don’t go too crazy spending money on ads or sponsorships without first trying to reach an audience organically.

Learning to gain an audience on social media platforms is one of the most valuable entrepreneurial skills that you can have today. So, consistently posting videos that highlight your dropshipping product will help you hone this skill and get paid as you get better.

To summarize, here are the general categories for marketing your dropshipping product:

Different dropshipping marketing methods

• Organic reach on social media platforms- best done with consistent posting of a variety of attention-sustaining videos with a great hook
• Paid ads- it is recommended to only start dropping money on ads once your product is already selling, so your intent here should be to test and scale
• UGC and Sponsorships- While user-generated content, or UGC, can be highly effective, it’s hard to predict the reach, even for large creators. This is why you should be the number one producer of user-generated content for your own store and product.

Is Dropshipping Worth It?

While it is certainly within the realm of possibility to earn a living dropshipping, expect to deal with the elements of luck, competition, frustration, and fleeting trends that are all inherent to this realm of ecommerce. As with any business, once you have sufficient knowledge of the landscape and your skills, it is really up to you to make the final call.

Whop has several communities where you can learn about dropshipping from the experts. Join one of these pro groups for your highest chance of success, and as always, best of luck in your entrepreneurial endeavors.

If digital products are more your thing, check out our guide to creating and selling digital products with Whop!

Are you looking for the best way to distribute and sell your eBook? Look no further! We think that Whop is the ideal place for digital creators, and this article will show you just how easy it is to start selling your eBook today.

Read on for a simple, easy-to-follow 5-step guide on how to sell eBooks on Whop - the best digital marketplace for entrepreneurs selling top-quality content.

1: Sign up with Whop

Whop is all about making your life as an entrepreneur easy, and signing up is no exception. Just visit Whop.com and click on “Start Selling” at the top right of your screen. Here you can watch a quick introductory video, or just click right through to get started!

Account creation is really easy, too. All you need is an email address, so if you’ve set up a dedicated business email or Twitter account for your eBook, sign in with that instead of creating an account.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully signed up to Whop and are now logged in. Time to take the next step.

2: Create a Company on Whop

Since you signed up as a seller, Whop will now prompt you to create your new store. This is similar to creating a company, so if you already have your branding for your eBook, use that.

You can also drop your Twitter information here, but don’t worry, you can also do that later on. Just hit Next to proceed.

3: Choose eBooks as a Product

You should now be presented with a prompt asking you what sort of products you want to sell. If you don’t see eBooks listed here, just select “Something else” and you’re good to go.

Welcome to your brand new Whop Business Dashboard! Your first order of business is to select your mode of choice, of course—whether you’re the dark mode or light mode type, Whop’s got your back.

It might be a good idea to check out Whop’s video tutorials here, and your dashboard will point them out now. They won’t go away, though, so don’t worry—you can always come back and watch them later. There are also some helpful links to other dashboard tutorials, documentation, and you can even create an appointment for an onboarding call with the Whop team via Calendly.

4: Create Your First Product

Now that you’re comfortable with your Whop business dashboard, it’s time to put your eBook up for sale! If you’re not quite there with your book just yet, don’t worry, you can also test the process out with a placeholder product. Simply click “Create Product” and you’ll be prompted for product type once again:

If eBook isn’t an option, pick Something Else again. On the next screen, you’ll be asked what you want your customers to see. Here, you’ll find eBook as an option on the bottom right. Go ahead and choose that.

Now just hit “New eBook” and upload it. Once you’re done, your customers can visit your Whop storefront to download it!

5: Register for Stripe Payments

Remember that you’re not finished until you give Whop a way to send the revenue from all those eBook sales to your bank account! One of the most common ways to do this with minimum fuss is Stripe. Whop offers a Stripe integration to make payments a breeze.

To set it up, go to the Settings section of your dashboard and click on the Billing tab. This shows you all of your options, so give them a look—but when you’re finished, go to the Credit/Debit field.

Now just click “Connect Stripe” and then enter your Stripe API keys! If you don’t already have a Stripe account, click on “No, I don’t have a Stripe account yet” instead. That’ll get you all set up with Stripe and link it to your Whop store.

👉 And that’s it, you’re ready to start selling eBooks on Whop. You can also sell your eBook on other stores simultaneously, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a platform where setup is quite as fast and easy. Click here to start selling today!

For a visual run-through of the setup process, watch this video tutorial on getting started as a seller with Whop:

How to Become an eBook Author

Now that you know how easy it is to sell your eBook, all that remains is to create your eBook. If you have already created your eBook, consider reading through this guide anyway to make sure that you have hit all the key points as an eBook author. Creating an eBook is easier said than done, and given how easy Whop makes selling, making your eBook is the hard part. So, we’ll try and make it easy for you by outlining some of the main steps you need to take to get your project off the ground.

Identify Your Niche

It goes without saying that a successful eBook is all about the value the author provides, so the best place to start is with this. It’s likely that you’ve got at least a couple of eBooks in you, whoever you are—you just need to find them. What you’ll write about will likely depend on what subject areas you’re experienced in or passionate about.

A lot of successful eBook authors are industry experts and have significant amounts of expertise in certain areas, but just as many are hobbyists. You can have as much success with a cookbook or even a children’s book as you might with self-improvement, money-making, or productivity.

Whatever you decide to write about, you have every chance of success if you either have knowledge or passion about your niche—having both doesn’t hurt either!

Create Quality Content

As mentioned, a good eBook is all about the value you can provide the reader. Regardless of what your niche is and what sort of book you’re writing, you need to give the reader what they want—whether that’s answers to a big question, expanded knowledge in a certain area, or just a light-hearted escape from reality.

An eBook is a product, and you’re probably not going to be giving it out for free. Your readers are going to pay good money to read your eBook, so you need to make sure their money has been well spent. There’s far more quantity than quality when it comes to content in the digital space today—so by providing high quality and real value, you’re differentiating yourself right away.

How you go about this is up to you. There’s a famous quote by George R. R. Martin, author of the Song of Ice and Fire series, that reads:

“There are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time…they have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up.”

This “architect” archetype is often recommended, but Martin describes himself as a gardener, someone who “plants a seed” and then “finds out about it as it grows”. Granted, this approach may not always work with the shorter format of an eBook, but you can write first and chop things into shape later.

What’s important, therefore, is the end product, and not the journey. Your book needs to accomplish what it sets out to do in an insightful, engaging manner, and it needs to be professionally proofread and edited to ensure that it’s polished.

Don’t Neglect Design

This one may be unfortunate if you’re more of a wordsmith than a designer, but your cover design is just as important as your content when it comes to attracting a reader. It’s quite likely that your book isn’t going to be the only option when it comes to its subject, so an attractive cover and a good title will help the reader pick your eBook over the others.

You may wonder why this matters since it’s an eBook, not a physical book that a reader needs to pick out of a shelf full of others like it. The reality is that your eBook will face a very similar level of competition, the only difference being that readers will see it on a webpage instead. Cover design matters, so don’t skimp.

In fact, many eBook authors tend to hire professionals to figure out their cover and theme. Remember to stay involved with the process, though—you need to ensure that your designer’s work aligns with your vision and the niche and subject matter of the book.

Publish and Distribute

Even once your eBook is ready for publishing, there are several big decisions in front of you. Publishing used to be a huge hurdle for authors in previous generations, with book publishers serving as gatekeepers to the world of literature. Luckily, the internet has changed this, and all you need to self-publish an eBook is the right platform.

Finding the right platform isn’t always easy, but a little research will get you past this challenge. Most people think of a certain large platform for self-publishing, and while a large platform does offer great reach, many authors have suffered major problems with the industry’s giant. This includes having knock-off sellers of their own eBook on the very same platform.

To avoid these issues, choose a trusted digital marketplace like Whop! It offers everything you need as an author, from a wide audience of consumers to fantastic customer support, and it only takes a few minutes to get set up and start selling.

Market and Promote

Marketing and promotion is another major component of success with eBooks, and as an author, it may sometimes feel as if it’s outside of your wheelhouse. If you neglect marketing completely, the fact is that your book just won’t gain any traction.

As such, it might be a good idea to brush up on social media. It’s both more effective and has greater reach than traditional advertising—for an eBook, you’re probably not looking at more traditional marketing routes like classifieds, radio ads, or even TV commercials. For one thing, those routes can be expensive, especially TV. They also may not reach your target audience as effectively as online marketing.

The readers you regard as your target audience will probably dictate how you go about marketing your eBook. Different platforms may take precedence over others—if you’re going for a younger audience you might look at services like TikTok, whereas professionals tend to be easier to reach via LinkedIn.

You should look to establish a consistent theme when it comes to branding and messaging which ties into your eBook’s subject matter and have a landing page to funnel interest in. Create content to engage your readers via different channels, and consider paid advertising campaigns and collaborations with other creators in your niche too.

Tips for Selling eBooks Successfully

If you want to be successful with your eBook, there are lots of challenges to accept and overcome. Here are some quick tips not just to ensure your eBook is a success, but to maximize your potential earnings from it!

• Be Consistent: Writing and publishing an eBook isn’t accomplished quickly, and it’s important to stay consistent during the entire process. Have a plan and stick to it!
• Outsource: As we described earlier, your eBook is not just about the content—you need design and marketing resources too. If you’re not comfortable handling these areas yourself, there’s nothing wrong with outsourcing or hiring professionals.
• Use Feedback: Feedback is an important part of any creative process, but it’s important to know how to channel it. Don’t get brought down by any negative feedback you might receive, learn instead to use it constructively, and deal with it professionally.
• Don’t Expect Miracles: However good your approach and content, there’s every chance that your eBook isn’t an overnight success. It may take a while, or even several eBooks, before you can rely on it as a primary source of income.
• Be Aware of Copyrights: Don’t use any materials in your eBooks that may be protected by copyright. This means characters, places, themes, and even graphics and illustrations.
• Multiple Income Streams: Once you do make it as an eBook author, you can boost your income by looking at complementary streams. Merchandise, audiobooks, online courses - all of these are great options to make more revenue from your successful project.

Sell Your eBooks on Whop!

Now that you know all about eBooks, from how to get started and choose a niche and structure to how to self-publish, market, and promote your book, it’s time to dive right in!

👉 Whether you’re an experienced writer or just getting started in your craft, remember that Whop truly is the best platform to sell your eBook on. With a diverse and ever-growing array of customers who’ll see it, to all of the benefits you get as a seller, Whop takes care of the operational details so that you can focus on creating. Check out Whop and sign up today or talk to the team to see how Whop can help you!

All online businesses, no matter how experienced, want to bring more traffic to their store. Higher traffic leads to higher sales, yet driving traffic to your online shop is no easy feat. Even the most experienced marketers and entrepreneurs can struggle when it comes to increasing web traffic.

That’s why we have created an informative list of ecommerce marketing ideas. In this article, we will uncover some of the best ways to bring new people to your online store, convert these visitors into customers, and keep them coming back for the long run.

Read on to find out how you can bring more customers to your ecommerce shop and also encourage your existing customers to spend more!

What is eCommerce Marketing?

To put it simply, ecommerce marketing is the use of promotional tactics to drive traffic to your online store, lead customers to buy your product, and increase customer retention after a sale. Therefore, the three main aims of ecommerce marketing are to drive traffic, convert visitors, and retain customers.

It is important to consider all three of these goals and not stop at simply driving traffic. Bringing traffic to your site is worthless if the visits do not convert into sales. Then, if you stop at converting visitors, you miss out on retaining customers. Without good customer retention, you spend time and money bringing in new customers rather than benefiting from repeat sales of existing customers.

A successful ecommerce marketing strategy will help you to increase your brand awareness, generate online sales, and foster customer loyalty. Let’s take a look at the top 13 ecommerce marketing strategies for 2023.

The Best eCommerce Marketing Strategies

Now that we have covered what ecommerce marketing actually is, you might be wondering ‘what is the best ecommerce marketing idea for my business?’. Well, every business is different, so what works for someone else may not work well for you. Your marketing strategy should be tailored to your own needs.

To begin, consider what your goals are. Remember that you want to have a balance of bringing customers in, converting this to sales, and then retaining customers for repeat sales. So, you ideally want to have all three for a robust marketing strategy. If you already have a successful campaign in place that is bringing visitors to your site, focus instead on how you are going to convert and keep these customers. If you have a high level of customer retention but low traffic, turn your focus to how to drive traffic to your online storefront.

You also need to create a flexible timeline for each of your strategies. Map out how quickly you expect to see results - some results are almost instant (like abandoned cart tactics) whilst others are a slow burn (such as SEO marketing). Aim for a mix of short and long-term strategies to maximize your business growth.

Last (but most definitely not least) choose tools to support your marketing strategies. There are so many ecommerce marketing tools that can integrate with your existing platform and help your brand to grow. These tools can take care of everything from email automation, to 24/7 customer service, and beyond.

👉 If you sell a digital product, then Whop has a great range of tools for business and can help you to successfully level up your business.

13 Ecommerce Marketing Ideas to Boost Your Business 💡

We have taken 13 ecommerce marketing ideas and divided these into three categories.

If you’re looking to bring more people to your online store, check out the ‘driving traffic’ strategies. Then, read ‘converting customers’ to understand how to transform a visitor from a browser to a buyer. Finally, finish up with our ‘ecommerce retention techniques’ to understand how you can keep your customers coming back again and again.

Ecommerce Marketing to Drive Traffic

Start Selling on Marketplaces
Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and even Facebook - all of these have successful digital marketplaces collectively bringing in trillions of dollars a year. According to Oberlo, there are 2.64 billion online shoppers in 2023. That’s a huge one-third of the population buying goods digitally. So, if you want to get your product in front of a large and ever-growing audience, put it on an online marketplace!

With marketplaces, potential customers can easily find your brand by simply browsing categories or specific products. Many customers swear by marketplace shopping, searching through multiple sites to find the best price for what they want. This is why you should not rely on only your dedicated online shop. Use a digital marketplace to reach a new customer base, and put your top products in this extra online store.

• Cost: Varies. Some marketplaces require ongoing platform fees, others take a % of sales
• Time: Short to long-term

If you sell a digital product like access to an online community, eBooks, software, Chat GPT plugins, or more, sign up with Whop today! Getting started as a seller with Whop takes less than 10 minutes. There are thousands of digital goods sellers on the Whop marketplace, and more than 100 million $ has been processed through Whop. Check out the seller documentation to learn more.

Invest in Influencer Marketing
Influencers are everywhere, convincing viewers to purchase the products and services they use through subtle or direct marketing tactics. Many viewers don’t even know that they are being ‘influenced’ - they just want to buy a product that their favorite online celebrity is using.

There are many reasons that influencer marketing works. Some people buy a product promoted by an influencer to feel closer to that person. Others buy the product because they want to become more like that person (this is usually the case with health and fitness influencers). All buyers make the purchase because they trust in what this influencer has to say about the product. As a result, influencers have the power to alter their audience’s purchasing behavior.

Working with an influencer can put your product in front of a wide audience. However, before you jump straight into messaging any and every influencer you come across, you need to do your research. Influencers, whilst highly influential, can also be controversial. Take your time to dive deep into the influencer’s branding, past partnerships and affiliations, any strong views or stances that they share online, and, of course, their audience.

When you have chosen an influencer who aligns with your target audience, values, and branding, reach out to them about how you can work together.

• Cost: Varies. Micro-influencers may offer promotion in exchange for products, large influencer fees can reach into the tens of thousands
• Time: Short to medium-term

Launch an Affiliate Program
An affiliate program is another way to have people share your product on social media. Unlike influencer marketing, affiliate programs make use of your existing customer base.

While influencer marketing puts your product in front of one individual’s large following, affiliate programs encourage all other users of social media (aka non-influencers) to share your product online in return for sales commission. Do not underestimate the power of influencer marketing - this ecommerce marketing tactic can turn your loyal fans into an incredible sales team.

All you have to do is set up an affiliate program that allows individuals to receive a commission on sales made through sharing their link. The bonus is that you do not pay anything upfront. The affiliates only earn money if they are bringing in money.

It’s important to stay on top of your affiliate marketing program. Whop can help here, with the Whop Affiliates home page giving you insight into your affiliate’s sales, commission, and overall success.

• Cost: Minimal - you set the commission percentage
• Time: Short to medium-term

Read more about affiliate marketing with Whop here

Get Serious About SEO
An often overlooked aspect of driving traffic to your site is SEO. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing a website in order to make the site more easily findable and readable. Essentially, SEO is what makes a website deemed relevant and useful for a user searching for a product, answer to a question, person - anything. The better the SEO, the higher search engines rank the page, and the easier it is for new customers to find you. SEO is a complex beast - there is so much that goes into it, from page loading speed and performance to metadata, image alt text, and of course, content. Let’s take a look at just a few of the aspects of SEO.

Firstly, there is your page content. What is your product? What are you trying to sell? Undertake keyword research and consider what your target audience needs to be searching in order to come across your site. For example, let’s imagine that you have a fitness app named ‘Fun Fitz’. Think about how customers are going to find you. While existing customers can search your product name and find your website, how can new customers come across your page without knowing your business name? Would they be searching for ‘budget fitness app’, ‘easy ways to get fit’, ‘free fitness app’, or something else? The aim is to target people browsing for a solution and lead them to the answer on your page.

Keywords and search terms are only one part of on page content. You must also pay attention to your product titles and descriptions, the alt-text and captions of any images, and the headings of any blogs. Some writers fall into the trap of using overly technical terms - instead, use language that your customers can easily understand. Additionally, consider what search engines need to rank your site. Things like title tags, meta descriptions, and site maps all help to push your site up the SEO ladder.

• Cost: Low if you take care of it yourself, however, it is worth investing in a salaried SEO manager, as SEO is a time-consuming, ongoing process that requires a lot of specialist knowledge
• Time: Medium to long-term

Partner with Complementary Brands
Influencer marketing connects you with high-profile names, affiliate marketing allows you to work with your customers, but what about partnering with other brands? A well-loved mantra of many successful businesses is ‘collaboration over competition’, and for good reason.

Begin by researching other brands in your niche. You want to find a brand with a very similar target audience but a different product, one that complements your own. For example, if you sell a fitness app, you could partner with a healthy meal service. There are many ways that you could collaborate with a partner brand. Some brands hop on podcasts or ‘lives’ together and connect that way. Others connect by offering discounts to the partner brand’s products through their own audience. There are even brands that create collaborative products (think Doritos x Taco Bell).

Overall, partnering with another brand means that you can leverage an existing brand’s audience to join your business ecosystem.

• Cost: Varies - discount codes can be low-cost, whereas limited-edition co-branded products will be on the higher end
• Time: Short to long-term

Ecommerce Marketing Tactics to Improve Your Conversion Rate

Once you have successfully driven new customers to your site, it's time to convert these browsers into buyers!

Use Your Email List Efficiently
As an ecommerce business owner, it is so important to have a strong email marketing strategy. You need to be collecting as many emails as you can and making sure that you are putting this mailing list to good use.

There is a fine line between creating value for your mailing list and becoming another annoying inbox filler. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer and consider what you would like to receive as an email, and how often you would want to receive emails. Some businesses can successfully provide value on a daily basis - like a daily news bulletin, while others are more suited to a monthly round-up of key business events.

Another key aspect of email marketing is giving value back to your readers. Sharing business updates may be interesting for you, but what is in it for them? If you want to celebrate a milestone, do so with a special discount for your mailing list! Launching a new product? Mark this with a promotional offer for your loyal customer base. Email marketing is also a great way to promote your affiliate program too, encouraging readers to share your business product in exchange for a commission or simply some free merch.

You can capture emails on your site in exchange for a new customer discount, on social media, and on digital marketplaces.

• Cost: Varies, depending on the requirements of your business
• Time: Medium to long-term

Whop's email marketing solution helps you to have well-designed and high-performing email solutions. From email automation setup to an enterprise package including revenue tracking, template updates, and more, Whop has your email marketing covered!

Make it Easy to Spend Money in Your Store
No matter how many visitors you bring to your online store, if they can’t find what they want pretty quickly then they will leave and shop elsewhere. Searching endlessly for a certain product, its details (such as price, delivery), payment options, and so on, is frustrating and off-putting. If you’re losing customers, then you’re losing revenue.

A well-created ecommerce store should clearly showcase what the store sells and why. It should have a clear value proposition, easy-to-read font, and language (get rid of that complicated jargon!), and clear categories and pages for navigation. Plus, the site should be calming and simple, with purposeful images and a design aligned with your store’s purpose. Create an online store that draws people in, makes them feel that they have found a high-quality solution, and leads them to checkout and purchase your product with ease!

Take a look at any of the storefronts on Whop marketplace to see examples of simple yet effective business storefronts.

• Cost: Varies depending on how many changes you need to implement, and whether you can make changes to your existing storefront for free
• Time: Short to long-term

Put User-Generated Content to Good Use
So you have a great website and an even better product, but how does the buyer know that what you are selling is the real deal? They head to the review section!

According to Trust Pulse, over ‘99.9% of customers read reviews when they shop online. 96% of customers specifically look for negative reviews.’ Plus, ‘60% of consumers believe the number of reviews a business has is crucial when deciding whether to use its services.’

It’s clear that first and foremost you must have customer reviews as a key part of your ecommerce storefront. Negative reviews will appear every once in a while, but these reviews can actually be a great tool to help you improve how you run your business. Additionally, customers pay attention to how you respond to negative reviews. If your responses are combative, they will not want to do business with you. Or, if you do not respond to negative reviews at all, they may come to the conclusion that you do not value your customer. However, if you respond to most (if not all) reviews - positive and negative - then potential customers will see that your business is responsive and cares about customer service.

However, user-generated content, or UGC, doesn’t just come in the form of reviews. You can post photos of customers using your products (with their consent, of course); share positive emails, reviews, and messages that your business has received; and, if this applies to your product, showcase how your business has helped your customers by sharing their own wins.

• Cost: Free - low
• Time: Short to long-term

Whop sellers benefit from a resolution center that streamlines customer concerns for them! As a result, business owners can rest assured knowing that their customers are getting the best experience possible. Happy customers lead to positive reviews.

Recover Abandoned Carts
This is a pretty common ecommerce marketing tactic to push customers over the line to purchase your product. Basically, an already signed-up customer abandons a shopping cart before checking out and is then sent an automated email sequence in an attempt to recover that cart and facilitate the purchase.

While you may think that this is a pushy sales tactic, there are many reasons that carts become abandoned. It isn’t always the case that the customer no longer wants the purchase. In some instances, the cart could become abandoned due to poor user experience, unexpected shipping costs, and technical glitches. Outside of this, external factors like time, taking a phone call (if shopping online), or simply becoming distracted can all lead to a customer having to abandon their online cart.

According to Big Commerce, cart abandonment emails have a 41.18% open rate - that’s almost double the 21% open rate of a typical marketing email. Therefore, abandoned cart recovery emails are a great way to increase your ecommerce revenue.

Create an automated email sequence, and entice your customer to come back and complete their purchase. You can just remind them of the products that they have in their cart, or coax them back with a one-time discount code or a free shipping offer.

• Cost: Low cost, Whop’s email automation setup starts from only $100!
• Time: Short-term

Increase Your CLV
Converting new visitors to customers is great, but you also need to focus on your existing customer base. What can you do to boost the amount that they spend in your ecommerce store?

Rethink your upselling and cross-selling tactics. Upselling is encouraging a customer to purchase a higher-priced version of what they are already interested in. For example, this could be buying a premium SaaS subscription service over the standard offering. Cross-selling is selling related products based on what the customer is purchasing - for example, this could be suggesting an add-on of a meal plan when someone is purchasing a fitness routine.

Focusing on your existing customers is just as important (if not more so) as attempting to attract new buyers.

• Cost: Low-cost to medium-cost
• Time: Short to long-term

To find out more about customer lifetime value, aka CLV or LTV, read our guide to calculating LTV here

Ecommerce Marketing to Increase Customer Retention

Reward Loyal Customers
As we mentioned in the last point, it is crucial to focus on existing customers if you want to boost your business’ profits. Return customers spend on average 67% more than new customers (according to Business.com). So focus on excellent service for your current customer base and you can increase your online sales. As your customer is bringing you value then you too need to give something back to them (other than your product).

Buyers love to feel that they are part of a community or recognized group, so consider implementing a customer loyalty program. Through this type of program, you can incentivize your loyal customers to spend more by offering discounts, limited edition sales, freebies, and special events. There are so many different types of loyalty programs out there, from stamp cards at coffee shops to redeem a free coffee after 10 purchases, to free shipping for VIP customers, and upgrades with points-based loyalty schemes (such as airline travel).

• Cost: Low cost - the discounts or freebies you offer are buffered by the increased spend of the customer
• Time: Short to long-term

If your product is a SaaS offering, read this guide on how you can increase your annual recurring revenue.

Hold a Flash Sale
It’s difficult for anyone to resist a bargain - so if you need to win back your customers, it could be time to announce a flash sale.

A flash sale can work for several reasons. First, it gives your business something to talk about, whether that’s through influencer marketing, your email list, or just your own social media pages. Great design and clear messaging are key here to creating a buzz around your flash sale.

Secondly, you can decide who has access to this sale. If you want to focus on existing customers, offer a sale for customers who already have an account with your business. This is a great way to reward your customers and increase retention and recurring revenue. However, if you want to focus on bringing in new customers, then you could hold a sale for new buyers only - but beware, this may rub existing customers the wrong way. One tactic to hit both new and old customers is to host a flash sale that opens 90 minutes early for existing customers. This way everyone has access to discounted products, but loyal customers get first the pick of the bunch.

• Cost: Depends on the sale type. Be sure to run the numbers and understand how much you need to sell in order to stay in profit
• Time: Short to long-term

Keep Your Customers Happy
As an ecommerce business, customers are the cornerstone of everything that you do. The key to long-term success as an ecommerce business owner is the happiness of your customers.

Happy customers are more likely to make repeat purchases, refer your business to their own friends and families, and ultimately help your business to grow. Therefore, it is imperative that you take care of your customers. Great businesses will offer fast resolution for any issues that arise, and take a great deal of care when dealing with customer disputes. Though the customer’s issue may not seem like a big deal to you, if that customer feels that you haven’t handled their experience well, then they lose trust in you and your business. This can lead to losing them as a customer, receiving a charge-back from your payment service, and it can even affect the reputation of your business if the customer leaves a bad review.

• Cost: Low to medium. While it may cost a little to set up a customer service system, this is offset by increased revenue and reduced disputes
• Time: Short to long-term

To learn more about how you can keep your customers happy, click here.

Start Selling Today With Whop

That’s it - everything you need to know about taking your ecommerce business to the next level.

If you’re a seller of digital goods, why not start selling today on Whop? Sign-up takes less than 10 minutes and you can take advantage of all of Whop’s features - including 24/7 customer service, a listing on Whop marketplace, and a powerful dashboard full of tools to help you grow your business’ revenue.

Plus, with automation tools like Whop’s dispute fighter and email automation, you can focus on your business while Whop takes care of the finer (yet ultra-important) details.

👉 Start selling with Whop today!