How to Convert a Free Opt-in Trial User into a Paying Customer

iframe>

How to Convert Free Opt-in Trial Users into Paying Customers

Getting people to sign up for your free trial is only half the battle.

The more important task is to make them upgrade as this is where your revenue comes from.

What is a good free trial conversion rate?

In 2016, Totango investigated over 300 SaaS experts 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 really best situation . In fact, the free trial conversion rate may change from 1 dollar to 25%:

How is your free trial structured?

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

Opt-in : User registers for free, no strings attached, no payment details provided. When the free trial expires, they are required to pay to continue using the platform.

Opt out : User signs up for a trial and provides credit card details (or agrees to sign a PayPal agreement) to be charged when the trial expires. There are two types of opt-out tests:
- Free until expiration : The user is not charged until the trial period expires
- “The first month is almost free” : User is charged a nominal fee ($1) for the first month.

As a result, the free trial conversions increase over the top:

Opt in to the trial : Lowest conversion rate (15 – 20% best)

Opt out of “Free Until Expiry” : This is when you don't pay for the first month, but you add your payment details to the subscription. You will automatically be charged when the trial period ends. The conversion rate is significantly higher because you automatically charge your users, but that also comes with an increased risk of refund requests and chargebacks.

Opt out of “Almost Free First Month” : Nominal payouts “verify” your testers’ willingness to pay, so conversion rates remain high while risk of higher cashback/lower chargeback. However, not many people will want to sign up for this type of free trial, so you run the risk of losing most of your potential customers.

You may have watched opt-out trials a lot these days as a fun diversion (like Hulu ) and food (like Green Chef ) subscription service.

Example of free trial site from Hulu

For consistency, I will focus on increase conversions of your opt-in test as:

Once you have the customer's billing information, the conversion from the trial plan will happen automatically. There's not much to optimize for.

The opt-out trial structure has many other problems to deal with – aside from conversion optimization – like managing customer expectations and avoiding chargebacks.

Six ways to convert more free trial users

If you offer a free trial without signing up for a credit card, here are a few ideas to help you increase conversions.

1. Shorten the trial period.

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

Well, this could be too much .

In fact, most free trial users make their minds up within 3 days, so by giving them a free trial for so long, you just have to make them think again.

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

You should keep your trial for no longer than 14 days.

At least, this is something to check out.

2. Send a notice of the end of the trial period.

Boost your free trial conversions by sending an “end of trial” email.

Using PayKickstart, you can automate this step using the “end of trial” sequence. The email is activated one day before the user's subscription trial period ends.

This email will notify the user that the trial is about to expire and include a direct link to add their payment information for payment processing.

Multiple membership based website solutions comes with this option. Just don't forget to set it up.

3. Create a comprehensive knowledge base.

The last thing you want to do is leave your testers wondering how to find a certain feature or how to use it. The moment they leave your site to research, they can be lost forever, as this is when they are likely to come across your competition.

Keeping your website clean and clear is one of the most important steps in driving your conversions.

Collect user questions and answer them diligently on your site. Keep your on-site knowledge base growing. Here's how to create Searchable knowledge base on the site to answer all user questions.

For a SaaS platform, you should also answer all questions in a video format that's easy for users to learn- because. Renderforest is a useful video creation platform that will help you put words into videos. They have a ton of templates and tools that let you create whiteboard videos, slideshow videos, and more.

Renderforest is a helpful video creation platform that will help you put words into videos.

Renderforest is a useful video creation platform that will help you put words into videos.

4. Run special offers (seasonal).

Creating special offers has always been an effective way to increase conversions, and free trial conversions are no exception.

With PayKickstart, you can create coupons to give your free trial users a discounted price for the first month.

To create a sense of scarcity, you can also set an end date for your discount to work and market it as a limited-time offer.

5. Take note of your CTA placement.

There's a good balance between reminding your free trial users of the need to upgrade and being so annoying when your free trial isn't even usable.

I personally skipped many of the free trials of SaaS because they asked me to close a pop-up asking me to upgrade on a step-by-step basis.

I get it: You want me to upgrade but give me at least some time to go through it and make an informed decision.

There's no single answer to how to organize your CTAs so they stay effective without being outright annoying, so you'll need to experiment.

You should use user journey analytics tools, for example:

Both methods will give you a better understanding of how your free trial users interact with your site.

Tracking conversions and user paths through your website will help you set up your Page "Upgrade" in the most effective way. Try using Finteza to track your sales funnel – it's super easy to set up and use. It doesn't slow down your website while allowing you to analyze your sales funnel data.

Try using Finteza for your sales funnel monitoring — it is incredibly easy to set up and use

Try using Finteza to track your sales funnel – it's super easy to set up and use

6. Simplify your upgrade options and/or preferences.

Making your users think twice is never a good marketing strategy. Your free trial is designed to let them know what they want.

If you see too few people upgrading, the answer could possibly be that you made it too complicated.

Possibly making your upgrade options less. Or it could be the obvious explanation of the difference.

In fact, simplify pricing and add a comparison chart to their “Upgrades” page has increased Groove's conversions increased by 16% (and revenue by 25%).

" Never complicate what you can simplify . Especially if your competitors are simplifying. Making your customers work to understand your pricing is never the right approach.”