Convert Your Free Users Into Paying Customers Now!!!

Getting people to subscribe to your free trial is merely half the battle.

The more important task is to urge them to upgrade because this is often where your revenue comes from.

What is an honest free-trial conversion rate?

In 2016, Totango surveyed over 300 SaaS professionals and concluded that, on average, only 20% of free trial users upgrade to a paid plan.

Think about this for a moment: 80% of free trial users never pay.

But that's actually the best-case scenario. In truth, free-trial conversion rates can vary from 1$ to 25%:

How is your free trial structured?

Your free trial conversion rate depends on how you structure your free trial. There are often two ways to approach it:

• Opt-in: Users check-in for free of charge, no strings attached, no payment details provided. When the free trial expires, they're asked to pay to continue using the platform.

• Opt-out: Users check-in for an attempt and supply MasterCard details (or comply with sign a PayPal agreement) to be charged when the trial expires. There are two sorts of opt-out trials:

• Free until it expired: Users are charged nothing until the trial expires

• “The first month is nearly free”: Users are charged a nominal fee ($1) for the primary month.

• Consequently, the free trial conversions increase from the top:

• Opt-in trial: Lowest conversion rates (15-20% at best)

• Opt-out “Free until it expired”: This is often once you pay nothing the primary month, but you add your payment details to register. you're charged automatically once the test period is over. The conversion rate is significantly higher since you charge your users automatically, but it also comes with an increased risk of refund requests and chargebacks.

• Opt-out “First month is nearly free”: The nominal payment “verifies” the readiness of your trial users to paying, therefore the conversion rate remains high while the danger of upper refunds/chargebacks is lower. Yet, not many of us will want to check-in for this sort of free trial, so you risk losing the overwhelming majority of leads.

For the sake of consistency, I’ll specialize in increasing conversions of the opt-in trials, as:

When you have your customers’ payment info, the switch from the trial package happens automatically. There’s not much to optimize for.

The opt-out trial structure has many other problems to unravel – beyond conversion optimization – like managing the customers’ expectations and avoiding chargebacks.

Six ways to convert more free trial users

If you provide a free test period that needs no MasterCard to check-in, here are a couple of ideas helping you to extend conversions.

1. Shorten the test period.

More often than not, the bulk of SaaS companies offer a 30-day test period.

Well, this might be an excessive amount.

In fact, most free trial users structure their minds within 3 days, so by offering them a free trial for too long, you merely make them consider.

Shortening your free trial means accelerating your sales, in many cases.

It is recommended to keep your trial not more than 14 days.

At the very least, this is often something to check.

2. Send trial ending notices.

Boost your free trial conversions by sending “trial ending” emails.

Using PayKickstart, you'll automate this step by using the “trial ending” sequence. the e-mail is triggered at some point before the user’s subscription trial ends.

It will notify the user the trial is expiring and include an immediate link to feature their billing information to process the payment.

Many of the WordPress-based membership site solutions accompany this feature. Just don’t forget to line it up.

3. Create an exhaustive knowledge domain.

The last item you would like to try and do is to possess your trial users to wonder the way to find a particular feature or the way to use it. The instant they leave your site to research, they'll be lost forever, as this is often once they are likely to return across your competitor.

Keeping your site clear and clean is one of the foremost important steps in boosting your conversions.

Collect your users’ questions and answer them diligently on your site. Keep your on-site knowledge domain ever-growing. Here’s the way to create a searchable knowledge domain on your site to possess all of your users’ questions answered.

For SaaS platforms, it's also an honest idea to answer all the questions within the video format for the users to possess a simple walk-through. Renderforest may be a helpful video creation platform that will assist you to put words into videos. They need many templates and tools to permit you to make whiteboard videos, slideshow videos, and more.

4. Run (seasonal) special offers.

Creating special offers is usually an efficient way to boost conversions, and free trial conversions are not any exception.

With PayKickstart, you'll create coupons to supply your free trial users a reduced price for the primary month.

To create a way of scarcity, you'll also set the top date for your discount to figure and sell as a limited-time offer.

5. Mind your CTA placement.

There’s a fine balance between reminding your free trial users of the necessity to upgrade and getting annoying to the purpose when your free trial isn't even usable.

I have personally quit on many SaaS free trials because they got me to shut off the popup demanding me to upgrade on each and each step.

I get it: you would like me to upgrade but give me a minimum of a while to browse around and make an informed decision.

There’s no single answer to the way to position your CTAs in order that they continue to be effective without being utterly annoying, so you'll get to experiment.

6. Simplify your upgrade options and/or options.

Making your users consider isn't an honest marketing strategy. Your free test period is meant for them to understand what they need.

If you see too few people upgrade, the solution could also be that you’ve made it too complicated.

It may be about making your upgrade options fewer. Or it's going to be about clearly explaining the difference.

Another idea is to use a gated approach: segment your free trial users before they check-in for the free trial by having them choose the choices.

Once they check-in, you'll already know their needs and budget and can be ready to sell them an idea they're more likely to wish and be ready to afford.

Conclusion

I hope these ideas will assist you to urge more of your free trial users to upgrade. Good luck!

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