Malwarebytes is an innovative software company that was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in San Jose, California. The company provides software designed to protect consumers and businesses against malicious threats that consistently escape detection by other antivirus solutions. Their flagship product, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro, has over 300 million downloads and has removed more than 5 billion malicious threats from computers worldwide.
Since 2008, Malwarebytes has leveraged cleverbridge ecommerce solutions and consultative expertise to effectively build customer relationships and generate more revenue for its B2C and B2B product lines. By expertly managing everything from international compliance to local payment methods, region-specific languages and localised currencies, cleverbridge has enabled Malwarebytes to successfully sell software around the world.
However, as Malwarebytes continued to grow, it proved highly difficult to increase revenue, provide sustainable support and acquire customers while only offering a USD 25 lifetime perpetual license for its popular Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro product. Considering that customers require ongoing protection against malicious threats, the product was ideally suited for a subscription billing model. Switching to subscriptions would not only offer Malwarebytes a recurring revenue stream and increased customer lifetime value (CLV), but would also increase convenience for its customers. After much deliberation, the company decided to move Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to a subscription model.
The switch made room for distinct challenges, from a business and marketing perspective, including the issue of retaining customers already acclimated to the perpetual licensing model. According to Marcin Kleczynski, CEO, Malwarebytes: “We didn’t want to alienate an extremely loyal user base, who had been accustomed to our lifetime licenses for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO, by switching them to a yearly subscription. When making the switch, we wanted to add extra value for users having a subscription versus the perpetual license.”
Making the Switch
Eighteen months prior to the launch of the 2.0 version of its anti-malware software, Malwarebytes began developing two key things: 1) a new product with increased value for subscribers and, in close cooperation with cleverbridge, 2) a successful subscription model strategy. The company decided to rename the acclaimed Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO to Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium and make it available from its online store for an annual subscription of USD 24.95. Malwarebytes built in added value by extending the subscription’s coverage for up to three PCs. They also offered free upgrades to users with existing lifetime licenses for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO.
With the product and pricing taking shape, Malwarebytes and cleverbridge began mapping out the new ecommerce, CRM and marketing logistics required for the switch. Because subscriptions are a core competency of the cleverbridge ecommerce platform, much of the required functionality and many of the management requirements were already present. cleverbridges expert subscription capabilities also alleviated many challenges that other software companies face when switching to subscriptions (e.g. revenue recognition, taxation, payment method changes, compliance, analytics and lifecycle management).
“As a premier full-service provider, cleverbridge has always delivered superior ecommerce expertise, technology and services that enabled us to sell all around the world and scale globally,” said Kleczynski. “However, as we transitioned from a perpetual license model to subscriptions, we realised how truly robust their ecommerce platform really is. The transition process was seamless and quick, making it easy for us to continue to grow our business without missing a beat.”
As part of the strategy, cleverbridge designed the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium shopping cart and offer page to look like the rest of the website, creating a unified customer experience. Through the cleverbridge platform, the team also set up a redirect link that would reroute all older links for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO to the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium offer page, effectively eliminating the need for Malwarebytes or any of its affiliates to swap out existing links.
Via an email campaign that deployed two months prior to launch, Malwarebytes introduced the new product and the new subscription model to existing customers. They made it clear to customers that they would honor all lifetime licenses for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO bought prior to the launch date and also offered up a large amount of lifetime licenses for sale. On March 24, 2014 – six years after the launch of the first version– Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium subscription product was launched.
Business Value
On launch day, Malwarebytes began converting existing users to the new version in 5% increments. Although they had been a long-standing cleverbridge client with existing appreciation of cleverbridge’s robust capabilities, Malwarebytes experienced additional benefits with the launch of its subscription product, including:
Business Intelligence
In addition to leveraging cleverbridge’s Business Intelligence (BI) tool, which provides robust customer data and analytics to enable sales optimisation, Malwarebytes participated in cleverbridge’s Subscription Reporting Enhancement Project. In this program, a subset of cleverbridge subscription clients were provided with beta versions of advanced subscription analytic reports. These reports supplied Malwarebytes and other participating clients with extensive metrics at the company level, product level or both, including: churn rates, average revenue per renewal, cohort analysis, and upgrade/downgrade trends. With these advanced subscription success metrics, Malwarebytes is better able to monetise and optimise their products while more accurately predicting future cash flow.
Subscription Management
Malwarebytes also benefitted from cleverbridge’s advanced subscription management and marketing capabilities. With cleverbridge’s integrated email marketing, Malwarebytes users are notified about upcoming renewals and other routine subscription items. From the backend, Malwarebytes can also enable cleverbridge notifications for common customer scenarios like subscription deactivation and reinstatement, upcoming payment method expiration and more to effectively assist customers during renewal time.
Multivariate A/B Testing and Cross-selling
Through cleverbridge’s flexible platform, Malwarebytes has applied real-time multivariate A/B testing on the text used to obtain customer consent for renewal billing at time of initial purchase. cleverbridge also performed extensive testing on the checkout process, enabling Malwarebytes to quickly determine if items like price points, cart layouts and cross-sells are having a significant impact on conversion.
Future Plans
With subscription conversions on the rise and product demands increasing, Malwarebytes plans to continue to utilise cleverbridge’s platform to optimise its ecommerce. Together with the cleverbridge team, Malwarebytes is exploring additional solutions – such as offline payment methods for subscriptions, shopping cart optimisation strategies and additional customer lifecycle management functionality – to better serve customers and grow their bottom line.
“As our business has changed and evolved over the years, it has been extremely comforting to know that we have an ecommerce partner in cleverbridge that can scale and evolve with us,” said Kleczynski. “They’ve always understood how important are customers to us and deliver the best customer experience, while also providing the strategic counsel and reporting tools that allow us to plan for the future.”
About Craig Vodnik
Craig Vodnik is co-founder of cleverbridge - a global full-service ecommerce provider for more than 300 international software and subscription companies including Avira, Corel, Dell, Malwarebytes and Parallels. Prior to cleverbridge, Vodnik held the position of project manager, North America for one of Europes leading ecommerce providers. At the beginning of his career in 1995, he served as the Webmaster of the Chicago Tribune, where he was instrumental in launching the newspaper onto the Internet. Vodnik has over 18 years’ experience in the financial services, advertising and ecommerce industries as well as with experience with several Internet startups. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. You can connect with him on Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.
About cleverbridge
cleverbridge is a proven leader in ecommerce technology, services and expertise for global software and subscription companies that serve consumers and businesses. For more than 300 clients – including Avira, Corel, Dell, Malwarebytes and Parallels – cleverbridge is a true extension of their teams, understanding each client’s billing models, markets, channels and specific ecommerce requirements. cleverbridge provides an unsurpassed customer experience so that clients can strategically leverage ecommerce to effectively build customer relationships and generate more revenue. Headquartered in Cologne, Germany, cleverbridge has offices in Chicago, San Francisco and Tokyo.
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