4 Ways ‘Pay What You Want’ Drives Greater Success For Your Pools

Matchpool’s new feature is boosting pool admins’ income, without them having to charge a dime

Pay What You Want, the policy that allows your customers (or in our case, pool members) choose their price, may sound crazy, but in reality, it’s a great way to expand your marketing reach and drive greater success and income from your sales endeavors. And though some hurdles do prevent people from offering a Pay What You Want policy in exchange for their products or services, knowing that doing so can lead to marked success, as in the cases of Panera Cafe, which operates entirely on a PWYW basis, the 2007 online sale of Radiohead’s In Rainbows album, and others, may entice you to allow your customers/pool members to value your offering’s worth, on your behalf.

Here are four ways PWYW can drive greater success for your business or pool:

1 — PWYW allows you to increase your reach, by removing barriers to entry

By nature, fixed prices create a barrier to entry. Those who are able and willing to pay can enter, view, or even acquire the paid pool, content, products or services, while those who cannot or do not want to pay — are simply left out. Reducing the required price to zero enables anyone to connect with and get their hands on your offering.

2- PWYW encourages payment according to value

While you may be concerned that doing so will slash your revenues significantly, this cannot be further from the truth. As evidenced in the case of Paste Magazine, which managed to thrive instead of close up shop by instilling a PWYW policy, offering “free entry” for a limited time, in exchange for exclusive content or offers drives your offering’s value, and subsequently the offered compensation up. Way up. In fact, the top three percent of your customers or pool membership base will wind up valuing your offering so high, that they’ll ultimately contribute more than the average amount, which helps make up for low-contributing customers/members.

3 — PWYW helps establish long-term relationships

When a customer or pool member decides what to pay, they are identifying as a member of your “group,” one with vested interest in its future and success. Sharing in this group identity inspires future decision making — additional buy-ins, referrals, etc., as they discover not only care about the benefits their purchase afforded them, but also the success of the brand, organization or pool they identify with and have supported. This serves as the foundation for long-term relationships between a customer and brand or pool member and admin, one that will continue to drive success for you in days, months and years to come.

4- PWYW “replaces” traditional marketing teams

Put plainly, when coupled with an attractive offering, PWYW inspires generosity. In lieu of having a traditional marketing team burn the midnight oil in search of the perfect slogan, gimmick, or promotion, PWYW provides uncertain customers or pool members with a reason to buy in — without placing a payment cap that might otherwise dissuade them from this choice. Without price preventing them from saying “yes,” customers and pool members can make decisions based on their “wants.” In essence, PWYW is the ultimate commercial for the modern day big kid with a case of the gimmies. Which, in all honesty, is most of today’s adult population.

Matchpool’s newest feature is revolutionizing community monetization by enabling pool members to pay what they want

To drive greater success for its digital communities, Matchpool is launching a new and exciting monetization feature — Pay What You Want. Pool members will be able to pay what they want for a match, which users can reject if they feel the offered price is too low. This will allow more matches to be made and more pool members to engage with one another, driving greater pool success.

With Matchpool, monetizing your community keeps getting more innovative. Are you prepared to jump on the PWYW bandwagon?

For more information, visit www.matchpool.com.