hootsuite case study 2016 1.pdf
Optimizing Business Results with Subscription Visibility
Hootsuite, (http://www.hootsuite.com) provider of the market-leading social media management system, enables organizations to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Via the company’s web-based social media dashboard, organizations can quickly launch marketing campaigns, manage and measure social media traffic, identify and grow online audiences, distribute targeted messages and manage and measure social media traffic optimizing brand visibility across multiple channels.
The Challenge
Hootsuite had built an impressive business around a baseline product that was free of charge, but saw an opportunity to introduce additional, value-add features and services. So, the company decided to transition to a freemium model, enabling customers to subscribe to individual Hootsuite packages to support evolving social media strategies.
We had aggressive plans to expand our business and needed a solution that would not only keep pace, but help enable our future growth, said Daniel Mathews, Optimization Analyst with Hootsuite. We’re always trying to anticipate what our customers want to do next with our products, and wanted the power to rapidly introduce new services to capitalize on the next wave of opportunities.
CASE STUDY
The Solution
According to Hootsuite, the Aria Subscription Billing Platform was the clear frontrunner as its functionality went beyond just billing capabilities to support and manage the company’s key subscriber activities. The company decided to deploy the Aria Platform to capture key data across its Pro (SMB) and Enterprise customers to drive ongoing, recurring revenue.
To allow customers to make secure, online credit card payments right out of the gate, Hootsuite took advantage of the Platform’s payment connectors integrating the solution with PayPal Express and Chase Paymentech. Now, the Aria Platform oversees invoicing and payment processes of more than 100,000 transactions monthly, accurately tracking and calculating plan add-ons for items such as enhanced analytics and Hootsuite University. Plus, with customers located around the world, Hootsuite takes advantage of the Platform’s multi-language support, translating its statements and event notifications into users’ preferred languages.
We’re a very lean company and want our development team focused exclusively on evolving our product suite to meet customer needs, said Mathews. The Aria Platform saved us critical in-house development time by allowing us to rapidly deploy and immediately sign on new customers advantages worth volumes to our business.
Through the Aria Platform, Hootsuite pushes out special promotions to scale its business. For example, SMBs can take advantage of a 30-day trial, automatically moving to paid subscriber status once the trial is complete. Hootsuite cites the ability to quickly roll out and refine campaigns as the beauty of the Aria Platform adjusting pricing and plans as needed to boost customer loyalty in line with market demands. The Aria Platform is able to evolve with the company so that Hootsuite’s growth is not limited by its internal systems.
And one of the biggest perks of the Aria Platform has been improved visibility into Hootsuite’s overall business, with multiple departments relying on detailed account data to support their daily responsibilities. From the company’s finance department pulling the latest accounts receivables and aging reports; to the service and support teams gaining a full view of account histories to troubleshoot inquiries; to its business analysts pulling reports to analyze conversion and churn trends, the Aria Platform is a core component of daily operations. We wanted a comprehensive billing platform and we got so much more, said Mathews. The Aria Platform is working behind-the-scenes 24x7, capturing the data our staff needs to grow our sales potential, market share and customer accounts.
The Results
As a result of deploying the Aria Platform, Hootsuite was able to rapidly implement their freemium model, rolling out new services faster and more effectively than the company could have done on its own. The company has demonstrated impressive growth since the implementation growing its customer base by more than 40 percent over the past six months. Plus, the company has increased its roster of prospects by being able to test and fine-tune various promotions, coupons and trials.