Just before I get into this I know there has been quite a few discussions regarding Free Trials and whether they work or not, but I personally would like to hear people thoughts on them and experiences and think it would be easier to digest in a single thread.
Most discussions about Free Trials I have seen pretty much come to the conclusion that they don’t work and are a waste of time. I’ll even admit I was part of the crowd that thought that too as I had previously tried offering them with little success of converting the trial into a paid subscription and even if I did it wouldn’t last more than a couple of months.
Here is where things get interesting though, a couple of months ago I launched another Growth Service website with a slightly different pricing structure and offered 14 day free trials and below is my Free Trial insights from the past month. With these results the website is only slightly less profitable (by percentage) than my companies primary website, especially when considering the reduced Cost per customer offering the free trial generates.
Don’t get me wrong it is too soon to know if this model is sustainable, but for now it is definitely profitable. Has there been a change in the market? Are people offering Free Trials to the wrong audiences and that’s why they don’t convert? Let’s discuss!
Why would you cancel free trials if they work? For example look at my stats in the original post, with those figures (Which can also be improved) the website is extremely profitable, there would be no reason to remove the free trials.
Hy @alukus thanks for your shares the last days really enjoy reading your threads and posts. Looks like your targeting is pretty much on point Wanted to ask how you setup your free trial? What happens after the 14 days. Is it like netflix amazon so somebody has to cancel actively to stop it?
And what are the prices for your service in the example? And where you get the traffic from? Fb/IG/Google Ads with pixel? Or you have an IG/FB network?
I find it is a great Idea to offer the half price, Im going to implement and test it definetly!
I see great results with dont offering a free trial anymore and tell the clients that the testimonials speak for themselves and that they could literally cancel their subscription every month when they dont like it
After that i convert 5-6/10 with 2-3 leads on your website daily
I think with the method from @FlyHigher123 to charge the half price in the first month it could be 7-8/10
Currently I’m building an Instagram Page with helpful content on Instagram marketing exclusively for brands and businesses. So I will more likely go for $195 per month and $95 for the first month. I will also build a sales funnel which I think gives more opportunities for offering the services for more money.
Yeah I think 50% off the first month is clever, that’s also enough time to warm up and let the clients see the results. I have a client that I’m running a little test project with now who has a network of people interested in my growth service. I’m going to offer 50% off the first month and for each referral that uses my service I will add another month with 50%, I think that in combination with other tactics could work well.
The times I had free trials I make 15 days, ten days warm up to 500 f/u with like 150/200 follow sources
and the last 5 days was the ‘real days’ with follow sources that have 2.0 or more
In the last 5 days the clients saw 80-180 daily and never have big problems with to short or to long trials
Good advice this mate. Exactly what we do apart from half price offers. Our main site is full price, but we have quite a good reputation and well known so I guess that allows us to get away with it.
I think it largely depends on who you’re targeting. Our main website is very highly priced so our customers are typically educated on the product and is very much B2B and most of our work is generated through Affiliates as we pay quite a healthy commission.
Whereas the website the original post is about is a bit more lower end and is positioned more B2C selling to wannabe Influencers etc, where the Free trial is quite a strong hook and I don’t think the results would be as good if we didn’t offer it.
Hey buddy thank you for the kind words I’m trying to be more active on the forum and share my experience a bit more. We collect all billing details on sign up of the trial and are automatically billed after the trial expires. If someone doesn’t want to go ahead after the trial they must message support expressing this. That is one thing I would add as a key point don’t allow users to cancel without contacting you. I understand that you want to make it easier for the user to do it as it saves taking support time up, but you’re literally letting money walk away from you. We have saved so many people wanting to cancel by making them engage in conversation with us and then offering a discount if they stay.
The clients for this free trial site have all been from PPC/FB/IG Ads.
Definitely. Accounts are setup within 24 hours and we have a great process in place to identify good sources to get quick results. I’ve wrote a guide on How to Never Run out of Sources, but the same method can also be used to identify good sources.
Look at the amount of great content in this thread already on gaining clients. Looking forward to what others can contribute.
I would always do “free time” over any discounts/lowering price.
Giving trial time helps retain your price/value without needing to lower it which is better long-term
Also, make sure you do collect the credit card info (I would personally charge them first or right when the trial ends). It requires a significant amount of activation energy to actually cancel service so it gives you another added delay to get more $$$
Wanted to ask how you setup your free trial? What happens after the 14 days. Is it like netflix amazon so somebody has to cancel actively to stop it?