TalkingParents · B2C · co-parenting communication app
Track each visitor from first site visit to paying, using your own data
Founder says it's 'paying dividends' after two years; no numbers
Workedanalytics-attribution
What they did
A new B2C-experienced director of marketing pushed for real instrumentation of the customer journey (not over-instrumented). Adjust was dropped as too install-centric, since TalkingParents' real conversion point is matching with a co-parent. Firebase added, then a bake-off between Segment (engineers liked it; marketers didn't want to build UIs in Tableau/Power BI) and Bloomreach, a customer data platform chosen for first-party data. Anyone who visits the site or a landing page once is tracked over time across social, advertising and community touchpoints to conversion.
What happened
Built over the last two years; helps understand how customers think and what they do.
- Effort
- Two years of instrumentation work
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · From Consultancy to $10M in ARR — Vince Mayfield, TalkingParents“We started with Adjust, but the problem with Adjust is that it's centered around that app download. And for us, that isn't a conversion point from us. They can download the app, but it's not effective until they match with a co-parent and they're talking.”
“So we did all that instrumentation in the last two years, and it's really paying dividends in helping us understand how our customers think and what they do.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- TalkingParents: Stop relying on ads and courts; charge the parents who use the appBecame the base of a ~$10M ARR subscription business
- TalkingParents: Fly a co-founder around the country to pitch judges and court clerksAbout 60% of users are now ordered onto the app by a court
- TalkingParents: Keep the website free and charge a monthly fee for the mobile appsStarted at $4.99/month; founder now thinks it was priced too low
- TalkingParents: Ask customers what they'd pay for, then build those features into paid plansEvery price rise bundled features customers had asked for
- TalkingParents: Double the price for current subscribers, but add a feature they asked forLost about a quarter of subscribers vs. half expected; some came back
- TalkingParents: Add a $24.99 plan with video calls and a set bundle of minutesAttracted less price-sensitive customers, mostly on iPhone; some couples both pay $24.99
- TalkingParents: Charge each co-parent separately, so one's video calls nudge the other to upgrade
- TalkingParents: Sell free users copies of their records for court, digital or printed and bound
- TalkingParents: Host regular webinars with outside experts who also take over your social and blog
- TalkingParents: Reply to every app review with a real, caring answer, even off-topic rantsFounder says people feel heard and stay subscribed; no numbers
- TalkingParents: Swap a cheap startup transcription vendor for one that scales and bills per callCut transcription cost in half and gained features
- TalkingParents: Run your main calling feature on a small startup vendor instead of TwilioStartup couldn't scale; flagship feature broke and they moved to Twilio
- TalkingParents: Use your consulting firm's income to pay for building your own appTook ~6 years and ~$1M before subscriptions worked; lean times along the way