Optimize skill files for AI agent use with progressive disclosure

- Fix marketplace.json: add 2 missing skills (content-strategy, product-marketing-context) - Refactor 10 skills over 500 lines to use references/ folders: - email-sequence: 926 → 291 lines - social-content: 809 → 276 lines - competitor-alternatives: 750 → 253 lines - pricing-strategy: 712 → 226 lines - programmatic-seo: 628 → 235 lines - referral-program: 604 → 239 lines - schema-markup: 598 → 175 lines - free-tool-strategy: 576 → 176 lines - paywall-upgrade-cro: 572 → 224 lines - marketing-ideas: 566 → 165 lines Each skill now has core workflow in SKILL.md (<500 lines) with detailed content in references/ folder for progressive disclosure. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-01-26 16:39:45 -08:00
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--- a/skills/pricing-strategy/references/tier-structure.md
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+# Tier Structure and Packaging
+
+## How Many Tiers?
+
+**2 tiers:** Simple, clear choice
+- Works for: Clear SMB vs. Enterprise split
+- Risk: May leave money on table
+
+**3 tiers:** Industry standard
+- Good tier = Entry point
+- Better tier = Recommended (anchor to best)
+- Best tier = High-value customers
+
+**4+ tiers:** More granularity
+- Works for: Wide range of customer sizes
+- Risk: Decision paralysis, complexity
+
+---
+
+## Good-Better-Best Framework
+
+**Good tier (Entry):**
+- Purpose: Remove barriers to entry
+- Includes: Core features, limited usage
+- Price: Low, accessible
+- Target: Small teams, try before you buy
+
+**Better tier (Recommended):**
+- Purpose: Where most customers land
+- Includes: Full features, reasonable limits
+- Price: Your "anchor" price
+- Target: Growing teams, serious users
+
+**Best tier (Premium):**
+- Purpose: Capture high-value customers
+- Includes: Everything, advanced features, higher limits
+- Price: Premium (often 2-3x "Better")
+- Target: Larger teams, power users, enterprises
+
+---
+
+## Tier Differentiation Strategies
+
+**Feature gating:**
+- Basic features in all tiers
+- Advanced features in higher tiers
+- Works when features have clear value differences
+
+**Usage limits:**
+- Same features, different limits
+- More users, storage, API calls at higher tiers
+- Works when value scales with usage
+
+**Support level:**
+- Email support → Priority support → Dedicated success
+- Works for products with implementation complexity
+
+**Access and customization:**
+- API access, SSO, custom branding
+- Works for enterprise differentiation
+
+---
+
+## Example Tier Structure
+
+```
+┌────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┐
+│                │ Starter         │ Pro             │ Business        │
+│                │ $29/mo          │ $79/mo          │ $199/mo         │
+├────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┤
+│ Users          │ Up to 5         │ Up to 20        │ Unlimited       │
+│ Projects       │ 10              │ Unlimited       │ Unlimited       │
+│ Storage        │ 5 GB            │ 50 GB           │ 500 GB          │
+│ Integrations   │ 3               │ 10              │ Unlimited       │
+│ Analytics      │ Basic           │ Advanced        │ Custom          │
+│ Support        │ Email           │ Priority        │ Dedicated       │
+│ API Access     │ ✗               │ ✓               │ ✓               │
+│ SSO            │ ✗               │ ✗               │ ✓               │
+│ Audit logs     │ ✗               │ ✗               │ ✓               │
+└────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┘
+```
+
+---
+
+## Packaging for Personas
+
+### Identifying Pricing Personas
+
+Different customers have different:
+- Willingness to pay
+- Feature needs
+- Buying processes
+- Value perception
+
+**Segment by:**
+- Company size (solopreneur → SMB → enterprise)
+- Use case (marketing vs. sales vs. support)
+- Sophistication (beginner → power user)
+- Industry (different budget norms)
+
+### Persona-Based Packaging
+
+**Step 1: Define personas**
+
+| Persona | Size | Needs | WTP | Example |
+|---------|------|-------|-----|---------|
+| Freelancer | 1 person | Basic features | Low | $19/mo |
+| Small Team | 2-10 | Collaboration | Medium | $49/mo |
+| Growing Co | 10-50 | Scale, integrations | Higher | $149/mo |
+| Enterprise | 50+ | Security, support | High | Custom |
+
+**Step 2: Map features to personas**
+
+| Feature | Freelancer | Small Team | Growing | Enterprise |
+|---------|------------|------------|---------|------------|
+| Core features | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
+| Collaboration | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
+| Integrations | — | Limited | Full | Full |
+| API access | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
+| SSO/SAML | — | — | — | ✓ |
+| Audit logs | — | — | — | ✓ |
+| Custom contract | — | — | — | ✓ |
+
+**Step 3: Price to value for each persona**
+- Research willingness to pay per segment
+- Set prices that capture value without blocking adoption
+- Consider segment-specific landing pages
+
+---
+
+## Freemium vs. Free Trial
+
+### When to Use Freemium
+
+**Freemium works when:**
+- Product has viral/network effects
+- Free users provide value (content, data, referrals)
+- Large market where % conversion drives volume
+- Low marginal cost to serve free users
+- Clear feature/usage limits for upgrade trigger
+
+**Freemium risks:**
+- Free users may never convert
+- Devalues product perception
+- Support costs for non-paying users
+- Harder to raise prices later
+
+### When to Use Free Trial
+
+**Free trial works when:**
+- Product needs time to demonstrate value
+- Onboarding/setup investment required
+- B2B with buying committees
+- Higher price points
+- Product is "sticky" once configured
+
+**Trial best practices:**
+- 7-14 days for simple products
+- 14-30 days for complex products
+- Full access (not feature-limited)
+- Clear countdown and reminders
+- Credit card optional vs. required trade-off
+
+**Credit card upfront:**
+- Higher trial-to-paid conversion (40-50% vs. 15-25%)
+- Lower trial volume
+- Better qualified leads
+
+### Hybrid Approaches
+
+**Freemium + Trial:**
+- Free tier with limited features
+- Trial of premium features
+- Example: Zoom (free 40-min, trial of Pro)
+
+**Reverse trial:**
+- Start with full access
+- After trial, downgrade to free tier
+- Example: See premium value, live with limitations until ready
+
+---
+
+## Enterprise Pricing
+
+### When to Add Custom Pricing
+
+Add "Contact Sales" when:
+- Deal sizes exceed $10k+ ARR
+- Customers need custom contracts
+- Implementation/onboarding required
+- Security/compliance requirements
+- Procurement processes involved
+
+### Enterprise Tier Elements
+
+**Table stakes:**
+- SSO/SAML
+- Audit logs
+- Admin controls
+- Uptime SLA
+- Security certifications
+
+**Value-adds:**
+- Dedicated support/success
+- Custom onboarding
+- Training sessions
+- Custom integrations
+- Priority roadmap input
+
+### Enterprise Pricing Strategies
+
+**Per-seat at scale:**
+- Volume discounts for large teams
+- Example: $15/user (standard) → $10/user (100+)
+
+**Platform fee + usage:**
+- Base fee for access
+- Usage-based above thresholds
+- Example: $500/mo base + $0.01 per API call
+
+**Value-based contracts:**
+- Price tied to customer's revenue/outcomes
+- Example: % of transactions, revenue share