Erin Webster-Shaller's guest appearances

Erin Webster-Shaller

Apptivate: App Marketing Explained

Business of Apps

Sub Club by RevenueCat

Lexi Sydow

App Retargeting

Gessica Bicego

Andy Carvell

Scott Tomkins

David Llewellyn

Sacha Lazimi

Paul Barnes

Ariel Cohen

Brian Krebs

Geoff Cook

Ryan Thorpe

Josh Brooks

Daniel Lopez

Win Mobile

OwlTail

On this episode: balancing mission and monetization, the challenges inherent to referral programs, and why Lose It! had to abandon a big push into paid user acquisition.Top Takeaways🆓 Excellent free products need a large user base to upsell — messaging millions of users about special offers can deliver fantastic returns. (10:32)🚂 Extend onboarding for increased trial engagement by asking more personalized questions to boost trial start rates and tailor the user experience. (14:43)👏 Celebrate user success to drive word-of-mouth marketing and organic growth, while strengthening the bond between users and your brand. (25:47)🥇 Encourage setup of premium features during trials while carefully A/B testing each feature for user resonance. (31:49)🏃 Identify key actions to boost user conversion with the power of data analysis: Target users with discounts or special offers to entice them to upgrade to a premium subscription. (36:29)About Erin Webster-Shaller👨‍💻 VP of Marketing at Lose It!, one of the first health and wellness apps on the App Store.💪 Erin has been responsible for determining whether new features should be premium or free, as well as running A/B testing for messaging.💡 “There’s a lot of gimmicks in the weight loss industry: We try to be authentic and real with what this product can help you do — but also not oversell it [and] promise something that isn’t realistic.”👋LinkedIn | TwitterAbout Paul Apollo👨‍💻 Senior VP of Operations at Lose It!.💪 Paul has been with the company for nine years and has spent nearly that entire time in growth marketing.💡 “We want to make sure that there is an excellent free product available for anybody who wants access to it.”👋LinkedInLinks &amp; Resources‣ Check out Lose It!‣ Work with Lose It!‣ Connect with Erin on LinkedIn‣ Connect with Erin on Twitter‣ Connect with Paul on LinkedInEpisode Highlights[1:45] Mission-driven: Lose It! founder JJ Allaire was tracking calories on a spreadsheet when the App Store was born. Increasing satisfaction for happy users aligned perfectly with the app’s growth.[6:18] No monetization: The app went from being totally free to freemium. The team didn’t even dabble with ads until very late in the game.[7:28] Buying out Series A investors: Lose It! was so profitable it became fully founder- and employee-owned when it was acquired in 2022 by Ziff Davis.[9:22] The feature adoption journey: The team doesn’t test locking features, but they do A/B test messaging and positioning. Apps and Devices is a big crowd-pleaser, Paul explains.[14:02] Loss aversion onboarding: When Lose It! noticed inexplicably longer onboarding, they tested with more questions, which snowballed into significant success. Adding premium features to onboarding didn’t have the same effect.[20:58] 135 million-pound loss: 50 million users came primarily from consistent word-of-mouth growth and organic acquisition. Experimenting with paid acquisition in 2019 didn’t work out.[25:47] Pushing word of mouth: Erin explains how the company gets people to “spread the good word” to lose more, although experimentation showed that referrals aren’t a silver bullet.[31:49] Lifecycle messaging: Paul jumps into the strategy of exposing freemium users to premium and keeping premium users engaged.[38:07] In-app messaging: Lose It! experimented with in-app messaging versus email blasts.

On this episode: balancing mission and monetization, the challenges inherent to referral programs, and why Lose It! had to abandon a big push into paid user acquisition.Top Takeaways🆓 Excellent free products need a large user base to upsell — messaging millions of users about special offers can deliver fantastic returns. (10:32)🚂 Extend onboarding for increased trial engagement by asking more personalized questions to boost trial start rates and tailor the user experience. (14:43)👏 Celebrate user success to drive word-of-mouth marketing and organic growth, while strengthening the bond between users and your brand. (25:47)🥇 Encourage setup of premium features during trials while carefully A/B testing each feature for user resonance. (31:49)🏃 Identify key actions to boost user conversion with the power of data analysis: Target users with discounts or special offers to entice them to upgrade to a premium subscription. (36:29) About Erin Webster-Shaller👨‍💻 VP of Marketing at <a href="https://www.loseit.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lose It!</a>, one of the first health and wellness apps on the App Store.💪 Erin has been responsible for determining whether new features should be premium or free, as well as running A/B testing for messaging.💡 “There’s a lot of gimmicks in the weight loss industry: We try to be authentic and real with what this product can help you do — but also not oversell it [and] promise something that isn’t realistic.”👋<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinwebster/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/eewebs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> About Paul Apollo👨‍💻 Senior VP of Operations at <a href="https://www.loseit.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lose It!</a>.💪 Paul has been with the company for nine years and has spent nearly that entire time in growth marketing.💡 “We want to make sure that there is an excellent free product available for anybody who wants access to it.”👋<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulapollo/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> Links &amp; Resources‣ <a href="https://www.loseit.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Check out Lose It!</a>‣ <a href="https://www.loseit.com/jobs/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Work with Lose It!</a>‣ <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinwebster/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Connect with Erin on LinkedIn</a>‣ <a href="https://twitter.com/eewebs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Connect with Erin on Twitter</a>‣ <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulapollo/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Connect with Paul on LinkedIn</a> Episode Highlights[1:45] Mission-driven: Lose It! founder JJ Allaire was tracking calories on a spreadsheet when the App Store was born. Increasing satisfaction for happy users aligned perfectly with the app’s growth.[6:18] No monetization: The app went from being totally free to freemium. The team didn’t even dabble with ads until very late in the game.[7:28] Buying out Series A investors: Lose It! was so profitable it became fully founder- and employee-owned when it was acquired in 2022 by Ziff Davis.[9:22] The feature adoption journey: The team doesn’t test locking features, but they do A/B test messaging and positioning. Apps and Devices is a big crowd-pleaser, Paul explains.[14:02] Loss aversion onboarding: When Lose It! noticed inexplicably longer onboarding, they tested with more questions, which snowballed into significant success. Adding premium features to onboarding didn’t have the same effect.[20:58] 135 million-pound loss: 50 million users came primarily from consistent word-of-mouth growth and organic acquisition. Experimenting with paid acquisition in 2019 didn’t work out.[25:47] Pushing word of mouth: Erin explains how the company gets people to “spread the good word” to lose more, although experimentation showed that referrals aren’t a silver bullet.[31:49] Lifecycle messaging: Paul jumps into the strategy of exposing freemium users to premium and keeping premium users engaged.[38:07] In-app messaging: Lose It! experimented with in-app messaging versus email blasts.

Achieving Mission & Profit with Freemium — Erin Webster-Shaller and Paul Apollo, Lose It! 

Ok, a quick experiment - try to recall apps on your smartphone, that you’ve been using since the inception of the App Store? And now, I am not talking about the native iOS apps, no-no, apps developed not by Apple. Can you think of any? If you do have some, at least one, it means the app hasn’t lost your trust and the trust of so many other people. It just works for you all and that’s why to this day it is still on the market. Today, we’ll be talking about one of the apps from the early days of Apple’s App Store, that is still out there and has more than 2 million people using it regularly. Today’s Topics Include:  Erin's background is in the biotech company in Boston and was involved in a wearable product development 7 ingredient recipe to stay afloat for years and years and grow your app's user base to millions of users Ingredient #1 - Maintain an Effective Product Ingredient #2 - Prioritise User Experience Ingredient #3 - Active Free USer Base Ingredient #4 - Empower &amp; Encourage Ingredient #5 - Key Promotion Times Ingredient #6 - Data-Driven Decision-Making Process Ingredient #7 - Stay Selective &amp; Nimble Android or iOS? iOS Erin's first mobile phone. Pink Nokia Razor What features would Erin miss most? Spotify What’s missing from mobile app technology? Software and hardware feature to adapt the smartphone to different use case, based on the time of the day and location.  Links and Resources:  Erin Webster-Shaller's LinkedIn profile Erin Webster-Shaller's Twitter handler. Lose it! website.  Quotes from Erin Webster-Shaller:  ”Since then the company has grown sustainably, we've remained really small and nimble, which really differentiate us in the fitness app space." "We have over 50 million people downloaded the product, collectively they've lost over 120 million pounds." "When you look at the competitive landscape of companies that we've been competing with for the last 14 years, we all have taken very different approaches for the free versus paid landscape. Where do you draw that line? And for Loose it! I think the early team saw the value of  having a really robust free product." Follow the Business Of Apps podcast Linkedin | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

Ok, a quick experiment - try to recall apps on your smartphone, that you’ve been using since the inception of the App Store? And now, I am not talking about the native iOS apps, no-no, apps developed not by Apple. Can you think of any? If you do have some, at least one, it means the app hasn’t lost your trust and the trust of so many other people. It just works for you all and that’s why to this day it is still on the market. Today, we’ll be talking about one of the apps from the early days of Apple’s App Store, that is still out there and has more than 2 million people using it regularly. <h2>Today’s Topics Include:</h2> <ul> <li>Erin's background is in the biotech company in Boston and was involved in a wearable product development</li> <li>7 ingredient recipe to stay afloat for years and years and grow your app's user base to millions of users</li> <li>Ingredient #1 - Maintain an Effective Product</li> <li>Ingredient #2 - Prioritise User Experience</li> <li>Ingredient #3 - Active Free USer Base</li> <li>Ingredient #4 - Empower &amp; Encourage</li> <li>Ingredient #5 - Key Promotion Times</li> <li>Ingredient #6 - Data-Driven Decision-Making Process</li> <li>Ingredient #7 - Stay Selective &amp; Nimble</li> <li>Android or iOS? iOS</li> <li>Erin's first mobile phone. Pink Nokia Razor</li> <li>What features would Erin miss most? Spotify</li> <li>What’s missing from mobile app technology? Software and hardware feature to adapt the smartphone to different use case, based on the time of the day and location.</li> </ul> <h2>Links and Resources:</h2> <ul> <li>Erin Webster-Shaller's <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinwebster/" rel="noopener nofollow external" target="_blank">LinkedIn profile</a></li> <li>Erin Webster-Shaller's <a href="https://twitter.com/eewebs" rel="noopener nofollow external" target="_blank">Twitter handler</a>.</li> <li><a href="https://www.loseit.com" rel="noopener nofollow external" target="_blank">Lose it! website</a>.</li> </ul> <h2>Quotes from Erin Webster-Shaller: </h2> ”Since then the company has grown sustainably, we've remained really small and nimble, which really differentiate us in the fitness app space." "We have over 50 million people downloaded the product, collectively they've lost over 120 million pounds." "When you look at the competitive landscape of companies that we've been competing with for the last 14 years, we all have taken very different approaches for the free versus paid landscape. Where do you draw that line? And for Loose it! I think the early team saw the value of  having a really robust free product." Follow the Business Of Apps podcast <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/business-of-apps" rel="noopener nofollow external" target="_blank">Linkedin</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/businessofapps" rel="noopener nofollow external" target="_blank">Twitter</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thebusinessofapps" rel="noopener nofollow external" target="_blank">Facebook</a> | <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/businessofapps" rel="noopener nofollow external" target="_blank">YouTube</a>

#113: How Lose It! hit 2 million monthly active users with Erin Webster-Shaller, VP Marketing at Loose it!

LEAD

Questions Erin Answered in this Episode:What was the transition like from director to VP?How did you become comfortable with not having all the answers and being a little vulnerable?What is it that you’re doing every day for yourself so you can be the person and leader you need to be? What are some of those non-negotiables for you?Tell us about your career journey.What’s the worst advice you’ve received in your career?How do we encourage women to feel more confident in speaking up?What do you go to for inspiration?Timestamp:1:14 About Lose It! and Erin4:25 Stepping into the VP role during Covid7:38 Not having the answers9:15 Perspective from peers12:00 Working with an executive coach14:00 Non-negotiable self-care habits18:11 Erin’s career journey26:45 The worst advice Erin’s gotten29:02 Hacks for speaking up32:30 Sources of inspirationQuotes:(8:27-8:45) “Getting really inquisitive. Trying to be more of a coach and not a manager, and create space for the team to do their job. I realized over the last year, that’s what I should have been focused on instead of trying to understand everything that I needed to know as part of this job.”(11:03-11:20) “That notion of confidence and uncertainty, I think of it as, ‘I’m confident that we’ll find the answers. I’m confident that we’ll be able to solve this problem. I don’t know how we’re going to get there, but I believe in the team or I believe in my ability or whoever to get us to the place that we need to go.’”(13:02-13:25) “The whole mindset of this coaching program is that people will become better leaders when they’re more in tune with themselves, essentially. When you know who you are as your person, your authentic self with a capital ‘S,’ you’re more likely to show up in a way that’s authentic to you and to be a leader that people can believe in and follow and they want to work for.”Mentioned in this Episode:Erin Webster-Shaller’s LinkedInLose It!erin@loseit.comHarvard Business Review - Leadership E-NewsletterHBR Women at Work PodcastThe Skimm

<h2>Questions Erin Answered in this Episode:</h2><ul><li>What was the transition like from director to VP?</li><li>How did you become comfortable with not having all the answers and being a little vulnerable?</li><li>What is it that you’re doing every day for yourself so you can be the person and leader you need to be? What are some of those non-negotiables for you?</li><li>Tell us about your career journey.</li><li>What’s the worst advice you’ve received in your career?</li><li>How do we encourage women to feel more confident in speaking up?</li><li>What do you go to for inspiration?</li></ul><h2>Timestamp:</h2><ul><li>1:14 About Lose It! and Erin</li><li>4:25 Stepping into the VP role during Covid</li><li>7:38 Not having the answers</li><li>9:15 Perspective from peers</li><li>12:00 Working with an executive coach</li><li>14:00 Non-negotiable self-care habits</li><li>18:11 Erin’s career journey</li><li>26:45 The worst advice Erin’s gotten</li><li>29:02 Hacks for speaking up</li><li>32:30 Sources of inspiration</li></ul><h2>Quotes:</h2>(8:27-8:45) “Getting really inquisitive. Trying to be more of a coach and not a manager, and create space for the team to do their job. I realized over the last year, that’s what I should have been focused on instead of trying to understand everything that I needed to know as part of this job.”(11:03-11:20) “That notion of confidence and uncertainty, I think of it as, ‘I’m confident that we’ll find the answers. I’m confident that we’ll be able to solve this problem. I don’t know how we’re going to get there, but I believe in the team or I believe in my ability or whoever to get us to the place that we need to go.’”(13:02-13:25) “The whole mindset of this coaching program is that people will become better leaders when they’re more in tune with themselves, essentially. When you know who you are as your person, your authentic self with a capital ‘S,’ you’re more likely to show up in a way that’s authentic to you and to be a leader that people can believe in and follow and they want to work for.”<h2>Mentioned in this Episode:</h2><ul><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinwebster/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Erin Webster-Shaller’s LinkedIn</a></li><li><a href="https://www.loseit.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lose It</a>!</li><li><a href="mailto:erin@loseit.com">erin@loseit.com</a></li><li><a href="https://hbr.org/email-newsletters" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Harvard Business Review - Leadership E-Newsletter</a></li><li><a href="https://hbr.org/2018/01/podcast-women-at-work" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">HBR Women at Work Podcast</a></li><li><a href="https://www.theskimm.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Skimm</a></li></ul>

How to Lead with Confidence and Vulnerability - Erin Webster-Shaller (Lose It!)