How a practice-software startup improved freemium to paid conversion

What was stuck

A good product in a crowded healthcare software market. Buyers didn’t yet see why cloud practice management was worth paying for. Professional associations sent plenty of sign-ups, but most stayed on the free plan, and the founders couldn’t see where revenue came from or forecast it.

What we found

• Strong lead generation, weak conversion. Associations brought people in. The middle and bottom of the funnel lost them.
• Many free sign-ups, few upgrades. The free plan worked as a door, but almost nothing walked people through it.
• Little visibility into revenue. No pricing segments and weak forecasting.

What we built, step by step

1. February to April 2023. Defined the target audience and built the marketing plan. Made case studies and a webinar with power users of the product. Recommended industry conferences and respected voices in the field. Gathered testimonials.
2. July 2023. A community and referral plan for paid users, Slack channels to automate onboarding, and early customer feedback sessions.
3. August 2023. A maturity model for the stages of a nurse-run practice, plus customer surveys and a written customer journey.
4. September 2023. A nurture campaign for free users, and live demos at conferences.
5. October 2023. A student discount, and a test landing page built around one promise.
6. November 2023. Email journeys tied to each stage of the maturity model, with nurture emails rewritten around case studies.
7. January 2024. A plan to enter the US through nursing associations, and a webinar for nursing students.
8. February 2024. Revenue attribution in Stripe, so every customer’s source is captured, plus a funnel conversion matrix and churn and upgrade reporting.

What changed

Over the program, paid users grew from about 120 to 180, and monthly recurring revenue grew 168%. The project was recognised in CMC-Canada’s 2024 Consulting Project of the Year awards, and was nominated for the Constantinus Award.

On the Agentic Ascent, the company reached level 1, Connected. Revenue attribution in Stripe was its first step toward level 2, Reconciled: one set of numbers that says where each customer came from.