Are your tools in a... Toxic Relationship? 💔

"HubSpot, Apollo - Toxic Relationship!" I heard our CEO say that to our new Rev Ops Manager and it cracked me up. 

Many, many tools cause a real headache when it comes to integrating them together.

 In fact, some are currently also causing us a toothache, backside-ache and a heartache.

So it's no wonder product bundling has been the overwhelming growth trend in SaaS and prosumer software. Think Canva. HubSpot. 

The premise is simple - you increase the number of use cases your product caters to, and the product value increases relative to the competitors - because it now can meet more of your users' needs, better.

Just like with the once popular "Skyscraper technique" in SEO - the more, the better. 

We've been following the same route. (Hey hey, btw, we've just added event autocapture & visual labelling - so you don't have to ask your developers to track events anymore. We capture them all automatically. And then you can just label them to add more context for yourself/ rename them as you please. See my little video commercial to understand more ;) ) 

Watch our new feature video announcement! 

Product bundling in SaaS has several strategic benefits - for both your company and your customers:  

1. Increased Customer Value

Bundling products allows customers to access a suite of tools or services at a discounted price, which adds perceived value. This encourages customers to see your offering as more comprehensive and beneficial, helping them achieve more with a single purchase.

2. Higher Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)

By offering multiple products in a bundle, SaaS companies can increase the overall amount customers spend. Even though the individual components of the bundle may be discounted, the total revenue from a bundle is often higher than from individual purchases, boosting ARPU.

3. Reduced Churn

Customers who purchase bundled services are often more deeply integrated into your ecosystem. With more tools or features available to them, they are more likely to stick with your platform, reducing customer churn over time.

But what about the flipside - is the Jack of all trades possibly also a master of none? 

As a longtime user of Unbounce no-code landing page editor, I recently had the dubious pleasure of using HubSpot Marketing's landing pages. You could tell that the specialist tool is sooo much better. Hence - unbundling became the counter-trend to bundling. Instead of adding more products - some companies decided to kill some of their products and ruthlessly specialize to be the best of their kind - but for only one thing. If you're already confused, read on, it does get better. 

So what's the verdict - when should you bundle, and when should you unbundle? 

Now, let's go back to these integrations. How much pain in the back does your tool cause if you need it to be integrated with other tools to bring your users the perceived value?

Does missing out on these integrations create a value gap? Relying on third party tool integrations to deliver your product value is super-risky.

Same with data - whenever you need data from another tool to work, can you think of ways you can collect the data yourself?

So if your product is part of a larger ecosystem, is sticky, and relies on external data to deliver value - building that "ecosystem moat" and bundling seems like a great growth strategy.  Now - how sticky is your tool?

If it's not very sticky (= it's pretty easy to switch) because it's standalone, there's no "vendor lock" etc. - then it's best to be one-of-its-kind and simply-the-best. If that's you - go for unbundling.

Hope this gave you some food for thought - and if you're looking for some real food...join our networking event in Dublin for Product Drive, or join us online: