Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending January 17, 2025

Going with a marketing-based theme for this year to get everyone's mindset into the growth year ahead


1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK:  Value metric is your business's north star. Similar to the One Metric That Matters in that a Value Metric may be unique to your business or GTM model, these metrics directly align revenue models to customer acquisition models. There are two types of value metrics: functional and outcome-based. Learn more here.


2. MARKETING 1: Are you panicking because you need to quickly plan a 2025 SaaS marketing budget? MKT1 has a detailed guide with practical steps to allocate resources efficiently, maximize ROI, and secure executive buy-in.


3. MARKETING 2. Plan for 2025 - expanding on #2 above. This marketing plan template can help you organize campaigns, track KPIs, and set actionable goals for the year ahead.


4. GROWTH HACKING: Hacks that work edition: Growth hacking isn't dead—it's evolving. Foundation shares some cutting-edge strategies for 2025 to scale in competitive markets. There is some actual gold in there, from viral loops to leveraging micro-influencers.


5. OUTCOME-BASED PRICING: The first new term for your 2025 Tech Dictionaries is outcome-based pricing. It's a pricing strategy tied directly to the value your product delivers to customers, ensuring shared success.


6. DUNNING: Bringing this real term with a weird-ass name back to the newsletter - it's a phrase for involuntary churn (aka bad or failed payments). According to Baremetrics, on average, SaaS and subscription businesses lose around 9% of their MRR due to failed payments. Learn more about a successful dunning (and pre-dunning) process.


7. GTM: Crafting a GTM strategy, especially one that will look rad in the slide deck? This guide details how to create a concise and effective GTM slide, showing investors your market approach, priorities, and scalability at a glance


8. TRIALS: These are proven funnel methods for a solid go-to-market strategy. Check this article on nine ways to optimize your SaaS trial, and then take note from Tomazs Tunguz on how long your customer trial period should be. TL;DR: Longer trials do not convert customers at greater rates. Two weeks, two months, same results.


9. CAMPAIGNS: MKT1's breakdown of effective SaaS campaigns showcases some actionable tactics to boost conversions, refine targeting, and scale this year!


10. CASE STUDY: Check how Customer.io and others leverage upselling and product marketing to boost retention and revenue. There are some great real-world examples (with measurable outcomes).


POD OF THE WEEK: Marketing royalty - Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, two Hubspot co-founders talk about getting the business off the ground and coining "inbound marketing" as a thing.