Hey there ! As I work on the definitive guide to SaaS funnels, I'm speaking with growth experts to learn their funnel strategies. Today, I'm picking the brain of Natalie Marcotullio, Head of Growth and Operations at Navattic, a fast-growing platform for creating interactive demos. We dive into Navattic's sales-led and product-led growth (PLG) funnels, along with the thought process behind designing their freemium plan.

#1 Tell us a bit about yourself.

Natalie Marcotullio (NM): I'm a 2x solo marketer specializing in SaaS startups. I'm currently the Head of Growth at Navattic, an interactive demo platform where I focus on helping SaaS companies give their prospects a better buying experience.

#2 Tell us about Navattic—what does it do, and who is it for?

NM: Navattic helps marketing and sales teams create interactive product demos. Many customers use interactive guided demos on their marketing site (Ramp, Fivetran, Vitally) and as a follow-up asset in the sales process.

#3 Navattic used a sales-led model for a long time. Can you take us through one of your funnels? Specifically, what were your (1) highest-ROI and (2) highest-volume channels?

NM: We've been mostly inbound led at Navattic, our typical sales funnel is someone hears about Navattic → Goes to our website → Views an interactive demo of Navattic → Signs up for a live demo.

Our highest ROI channel has always been word of mouth (WOM). A big part of our WOM comes from prospects experiencing an interactive demo on another website, having a positive experience, and then clicking on the "Powered by Navattic" watermark to learn more about Navattic. 

Our highest volume traffic is organic/ SEO but I think that is because people over-report that they found us via Google or from "searching".

#4 What motivated you to add a freemium plan?

NM: Going into 2024, we had been relying only on our sales-led motion, and like a lot of SaaS companies - we noticed a bit of a slowdown.

We knew that budgets and bandwidth for GTM teams were tighter than ever. Talking with marketers at networking events and conferences, they’d mention they wanted to try out interactive demos but were scared to ask their boss for budget for something they hadn’t proven out.

I also mentioned WOM was our highest ROI channel. We knew that WOM had a natural limit with sales led for two reasons:

1. People are more hesitant to refer a tool you have to pay for vs one you can try for free

2. Fewer companies will put a demo on their website if they have to pay for it

We've already seen our WOM flywheel increase since adding our freemium plan. We've seen multiple freemium users launch their demo and promote it on their website and social channels like LinkedIn. We've also had freelancers and consultants tell us they're going to refer us to clients now that it's free to try.

#5 Walk us through the thought process your team had in designing the freemium plan—the risks considered, market insights leveraged, and levers you relied on.

NM: The main risk was that this would monopolize our sales-led motion. To mitigate that risk, we slowly released our free offering behind the scenes for ~7 months. 

We started with a $50-month plan to test if people could self-serve on our tool. We then used Mutiny to only show a certain % of our website traffic our free plan. Every few weeks we would increase the % of traffic that would see the offer.

Behind the scenes, we were gathering insights from customer interviews, running Wynter tests, and watching Posthog recordings. Using qualitative and quantitative data from all those sources to figure out where our free users were running into friction and continuously make improvements to the product.

#6 What does your PLG funnel look like? How do you guide prospects through signups, and how do you ensure activation and product engagement?

NM: Since we transitioned to PLG, our message is simple: you can now create a forever-free interactive demo. This demo can be featured on your homepage, included in new feature launches, or used in email campaigns—all before you invest in a demo strategy.

Users can sign up for our "Starter" freemium plan from our website.

In chatting with users and watching Posthog recordings, we realized the core problem was that users weren’t anchored on their next step in onboarding and often, it meant they bounced right away.

So, over a few iterations we created a pop up that specifically laid out the steps and helped them get started.

We also added a set-up guide to clearly anchor users on what their next action should be in the product.

This helped us get our activation rate up to 33%.

#7 How does Navattic help early-stage SaaS companies? Where can they learn more or get started?

NM: The main use cases for early-stage startups are to show off pre-release functionality or to help with a big public launch. Instead of just screenshots or a high-level promotional video, interactive demos let your potential customers get hands-on and experience aha moments before they sign up or talk to sales. 

The best way to learn more is to go to our website and sign up for our free plan!

#8 As a marketing expert, what is one piece of advice you would give to early-stage SaaS founders who haven’t yet hired a marketing lead or built a marketing function?

NM: Try to figure out exactly what you want from your marketer before you make the hire.

Especially with a growth title (like mine), it can mean a lot of different things to different people. I often hear founders saying they want a growth marketer, but really they are just looking for someone to bring in more leads. A lot of growth marketers expect some say in the product, so if they want someone for pure lead gen they may be better off with a digital marketer. 

On the other hand, if you have plenty of leads but are trying to figure out PMF or your ICP, you may want a product marketer who can help with messaging and positioning. 

So main advice is to really think about the challenge you're trying to solve before you start looking to hire.

Thank you, Natalie, for joining us today. Wishing you all the best!

Heads up: The definitive guide to SaaS funnels

🤝 Thanks to all who replied to my previous email about your challenges with SaaS funnels. I’ll be covering those in the upcoming ‘the definitive guide to SaaS funnels’. If you have any more questions, just hit reply!

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Ankur Tiwari

Founder, Thoughtlytics

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