I can sort of understand why you would say that in a fremium situation every person who signed up is a customer, but if you make money via ads, your customer is whomever pay you for the ad space - not your users.
As soon as you stop treating your users as though they are your customers though you'll find out that the users view is a different one. Calling them (or their data) a 'product' as I've seen some people do is really not the proper way to treat people.
If people pay you for ad space then they're your customers too, and will need to be treated as such. But that does not change the other side much. And plenty of companies have a freemium product and ads at the same time.
I don't think there's anything wrong with viewing the non-paying, ad-consuming users of your product as "users" or "clients"-- it doesn't mean you need to treat them poorly. But, you should remember who your customers are, and what your business model is.
The original poster seemed to think he had "millions of customers". He didn't, and doesn't, and that kind of fuzzy thinking isn't going to bring him any closer to the day when he actually does have millions of customers.
Here's my view of the pipeline or the funnel, whichever term you prefer, for a membership / freemium site:
- the world
- visitors
- recurring visitors
- members
- paying members
The transition from being a transient to being a customer to me happens somewhere between the visitors and the recurring visitors stage, the point where people start to invest in the site, maybe store some content there or make some changes to the state.
All the people from 'visitors' (inclusive) down I'd label as users, and the visitors themselves I'd label prospects.
Fuzzy thinking isn't going to bring him closer, but rigidly defining terms in a way that is not suited to the current model (freemium services), but for instance more suited to selling cars or shoes is also not going to help.
The lines are there, but the transition points are not quite as hard as they are in retail.
Especially not in a subscription environment, users will deserve and demand to be treated as customers long before they fork over their cash or it isn't going to happen.
All the people from 'visitors' (inclusive) down I'd label as users, and the visitors themselves I'd label prospects.
I'd agree. And I'd label the "paying members" as "customers".
users will deserve and demand to be treated as customers long before they fork over their cash or it isn't going to happen
That's a key point. If you have to treat subscribers as if they were customers when they are not paying (i.e., put significant resources into support, etc.), your CAC is going to be high. That's not necessarily a problem in and of itself, but it's worth paying attention to.
Comments
I can sort of understand why you would say that in a fremium situation every person who signed up is a customer, but if you make money via ads, your customer is whomever pay you for the ad space - not your users.
As soon as you stop treating your users as though they are your customers though you'll find out that the users view is a different one. Calling them (or their data) a 'product' as I've seen some people do is really not the proper way to treat people.
If people pay you for ad space then they're your customers too, and will need to be treated as such. But that does not change the other side much. And plenty of companies have a freemium product and ads at the same time.
I don't think there's anything wrong with viewing the non-paying, ad-consuming users of your product as "users" or "clients"-- it doesn't mean you need to treat them poorly. But, you should remember who your customers are, and what your business model is.
The original poster seemed to think he had "millions of customers". He didn't, and doesn't, and that kind of fuzzy thinking isn't going to bring him any closer to the day when he actually does have millions of customers.
Here's my view of the pipeline or the funnel, whichever term you prefer, for a membership / freemium site:
The transition from being a transient to being a customer to me happens somewhere between the visitors and the recurring visitors stage, the point where people start to invest in the site, maybe store some content there or make some changes to the state.All the people from 'visitors' (inclusive) down I'd label as users, and the visitors themselves I'd label prospects.
Fuzzy thinking isn't going to bring him closer, but rigidly defining terms in a way that is not suited to the current model (freemium services), but for instance more suited to selling cars or shoes is also not going to help.
The lines are there, but the transition points are not quite as hard as they are in retail.
Especially not in a subscription environment, users will deserve and demand to be treated as customers long before they fork over their cash or it isn't going to happen.
All the people from 'visitors' (inclusive) down I'd label as users, and the visitors themselves I'd label prospects.
I'd agree. And I'd label the "paying members" as "customers".
users will deserve and demand to be treated as customers long before they fork over their cash or it isn't going to happen
That's a key point. If you have to treat subscribers as if they were customers when they are not paying (i.e., put significant resources into support, etc.), your CAC is going to be high. That's not necessarily a problem in and of itself, but it's worth paying attention to.