How to get your users to say 'shut up and take my money'
Getting users to put their money where their love is, is both a science [is your product meeting their expectations, and then some], and an art [do they enjoy the overall experience of engaging with your product].
Using free trials is a great way to get eyeballs through the door. It's risk-free for the end user and it allows them to test drive your offer and see if it's something that would satisfy a need they have. But, as the product manager, you've got to make sure that you are meeting both your user's end goals and your business goals. That's where the right kind of free trial comes in.
Types of free trials:
The opt-in free trial: No credit card required.
Your users can play around as much as possible with every feature they want to for a specific amount of time. Opt-ins get you more feet into the door, but also more feet out. The higher attrition/drop off rates can happen particularly if a user wanted a specific thing done and is able to do it within the free trial period. If they like you but cannot pay you, they are also likely to create different free trial accounts with different email addresses, so there's that.
Opt-out Free trial: Credit card required, cancel any time.
Freemium free trial: Users can use a few features, but pay for more.
Sandbox free trials: Indulge in this demo, then pay to use the real thing
Usage-based free trial: Pay for how much you use; like iCloud
When you're introducing a new product to the market, you probably do not know which version will be the best for you can do split testing that is centred around the core question: are we optimising for brand recognition or are we wanting more kaching ($$) into our coffers. You can do both, but there are some trade-offs based on the type of free trial you choose.
For this article, we want more $$ coming through those doors. So, what to do.
Increasing conversions from free trial to payment:
Choose the right free trial
Know what their core need is and give them an early win
Stagger the onboarding information flow
Choose a win-win pricing model
Get that feedback!
1. Choose the right free trial
We've already discussed the different types of free trial and lightly mentioned some of the trade-offs involved in each. One of my favourite marketing platforms GetResponse has a 30 day free trial of premium features and free forever features. This means I'm able to send out as many emails as I'd like, set up conversion funnels, add a chat box to my website, etc. This Opt-in free trial is minimal risk, high reward for your users. Its also low-ish maintenance for you, as those who'll stay will stay.
Smartlook takes time to implement so they have a sandbox free trial. Users get to imagine how they'd use it and if they like it, they pay up. It has it's drawbacks such as users cannot add in their own data, but for those who need a service like that, they are more likely to sign up for it. Test out a few trial strategies and decide which one gets you closest to your existing goals, depending on the type of product you have.
2. Know what your users want and give them an early win.
For instance, if your user wanted to create a survey form to send out to their clients, you do not need to take them through the entire catalogue of features or adjacent you have (which are pretty awesome). Now is not the time to upsell.
Get them as close as possible to doing what they came to do, really fast, once that's out of the way and they had a delightful experience, they'll probably go back to your website to see what other things they can do with what you have.
You can map out all the steps involved in getting to the meat of their matter like this:
Then remove all unnecessary steps and get them winning asap.
3. Stagger and personalise the onboarding flow info
There's something called information overwhelm, or the crisis of choice. When your user is still in the process of figuring out their way around your platform (hopefully it doesn't feel like solving a Sudoku puzzle), do not bombard them with emails about how they liked their first day and can they recommend you? Chill.
If you want them to uncover a valuable feature that is related to what they've been looking at [ensure you have a good analytics tool to help you know this], you can send them the info in an email the day after. Let it be focused on helping them solve their needs. Once they're closer to the end of the trial period, you can send in your upsell email with an attractive offer.
Making onboarding as personalised as possible in a staggered fashion helps you user feel special and catered to, hence more likely to stick around.
4. Choose a win-win pricing model
Convertkit ushered me into the world of email marketing when I was an absolute newbie. One of the things I deeply enjoyed most about it isn't just the fact that they have endless resources to help their new users as they got into email marketing world (that they sent staggered, thankfully), it's also the fact that you only pay more when you experience more success (growth in email list, with different tranches). So their users' win is their win. And they do have a free plan for those just starting out with very few subscribers.
Investing in the success of your users tends to have the boomerang effect of helping you succeed too.
5. Getting feedback
You want to lean into the opportunity you have to know what your users think of you, your product and your offer. A key way of doing this, and please don't do this on day 1, is to ask them what they think. A short, quick survey embedded within your website of app can give you loads of info regarding the value add (or not) that the user came looking for and whether or not they found it. You can even offer an extra week of free trial if they answer the survey. And then ask questions that will give you the insight you will need to make improvements or maintain strategy. A tool like JotForm can help you seamlessly do that.
But, ask.
If you'd like to learn more about navigating the PM world as a new product manager, I'd like to share with you your own digital database of all things I wish I knew as I was starting out.
You can find it here.