2022 Website Trends: Messaging with John Ozuysal

We spoke with John Ozuysal, cofounder and CMO of Datapad, a collective metrics library for your team where you can have instant access to your metrics.

John has built, led, and mentored growth teams at various B2B SaaS companies. He’s also the host of the SaaS Growth Whisperers podcast, where he discusses how successful startup people leverage no code to boost their growth marketing efforts.

In this interview, we discuss:

• Why it’s important to help users understand what they’re paying for
• Letting users get a sense of a product without a demo
• Consistent messaging across ads and landing pages

Of course, thank you for having me. I started my career as an investment banker and then joined the startup scene. Since then, I’ve built and led various B2B SaaS companies.

For the last couple of months, I’ve been focused on advisory roles and recently took on a cofounder role building Datapad.

I’m going to say Slab.com, and what I really love about this website is the pricing page.

If you follow me on LinkedIn, you know I always complain about super confusing pricing pages. Most of the time, you visit a SaaS website and see a bunch of features but have no idea what half of those features do.

Slab reduces the cognitive friction on their pricing page by adding informative tooltips for every feature to help you understand what you’re paying for.

Website #1: Slab.com

What I like about Slab’s pricing page is that you can see exactly what you’re paying for in each pricing plan.

On normal SaaS pricing pages, you see a lot of jargon and keywords you don’t know, but Slab explains exactly what you’re going to get.

I also like their FAQ page. I typically put an FAQ section at the bottom of pricing pages that reflects the questions I receive during my demos so I can answer a prospect’s questions without even talking to them.

So, why do I like this pricing and FAQ page?

Well, if you’re an early-stage SaaS company and are starting a new category, people aren’t used to seeing pricing pages from companies like yours. So you have to spell everything out for them.

By reducing cognitive friction, you can increase conversions.

Explore an interactive demo of Slab:

See why John choose Slab as one of his gold standard websites.

From an early-stage company perspective, I would say that messaging is getting much clearer.

Over the past two years, I saw a lot of confusing copy that wasn’t tied to a product’s value.

But now, early-stage startups’ messaging is simpler. Instead of talking about a tool’s technical capabilities, they are talking about tangible benefits.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that companies realized not everyone wants a demo. So now I’m seeing landing pages where a prospect enters their email to receive a pre-recorded demo in their inbox.

Some companies even put video demos on their homepage. I did that at a company I worked for called Blink. With the rise of product-led growth, I’ve been seeing a lot more sales self-service in general.

Some companies call themselves product-led but they still want you to book a demo, even when a human touch isn’t necessary. I should be able to sign up for and conduct a demo by myself without assistance from a support or salesperson.

I really hate long signup forms where you have to enter your credit card number or enter a ton of information.

This is especially true when a call to action says I can “get started immediately” or “get started for free.” If it’s free, why do you need my credit card information? And if you can’t give me instant access, then don’t advertise your trial as such.

CTAs that don’t accurately manage expectations add friction to the process.

Another thing I hope ends this year is mismatched ads and landing pages. I often click Facebook or LinkedIn ads and then am taken to a landing page or homepage with completely different messaging and look and feel.

At that point, I’m confused, asking myself if I’m on the right page. This creates another source of friction.

I love experimenting with different pages, and one way to do that is with Unbounce. It really helps me run and measure growth experiments.

I use Clearbit and Hotjar often as well.

User onboarding tools like UserGuiding Pendo and Appcues are great, too.

As a company, we’re obsessed with giving people instant access to any metric that they want.

If you’re looking to get all your metrics in one place and pull them in seconds, not in hours, please reach out to me. Message me on LinkedIn or sign up for our waitlist on Datapad, and I would be happy to help you out.