Year-End Free Trial Conversion Ideas

Today is December 26, 2011.

You have 6 days – including today – until the year 2011 is over and done with.

So what are you doing to convert those currently in your Free Trial to customers in 2011?

It isn’t too late to convert them!

I’m willing to bet that you have some users in your Free Trial that signed-up at a point in December 2011 who, if they convert on the last day of their trial, will convert well into 2012.

Now I’m no accountant, and there are different ways to book revenue, but a trial started in 2011 that converts in 2012 doesn’t usually count toward 2011 revenue.

And since you spent the money in 2011 to get them to your site and to sign-up for the trial in the first place, wouldn’t it be great to get some money from them this year?

I want to convert them in 2011 to maximize my revenue for this year AND I want to start off 2012 with THAT MUCH MORE recurring revenue!

So… what if you could take some small action that would result in the conversion of 10% of your current prospects to customers in 2011?

25%?

50%?

Well, have you thought about simply asking for the sale right now? Today?

This really shouldn’t be as wild of an idea as it is, but far too many SaaS and Web App vendors think that their product will magically sell itself, I guess.

You’d think that the super-low conversion rates most vendors get from their Free Trials would be the first indication that this strategy is failing.

So ask for the sale.

And here are two ideas on how to do just that.

Sit down and craft an email that is written by a human for a human, keeping in mind that a real person will read your email.

Make the email more about them and their needs than you and your product.

And make them an offer to convert right now.

Give them one thing to do in the email – click a link – and send them to a page to enter payment information and become a customer.

Make sure that page is a marketing page that reminds them why they should convert today, and includes trust factors, social proof, etc. – in other words not just an info-collecting page.

Now… if you know what version, bundle, or tier they signed-up to try out, we can get fancy and come up with a truly irresistible offer… a discount on the next level up.

This is one of my super-secret Ninja techniques that works like crazy all day long.

Consider this… if they signed-up for the trial at the $20/mo level, and the next level up is $40/mo… offer them the $40 level for only $30/mo for the first 6 months.

Of course, that assumes you created pricing tiers differentiated on value-based metrics/features/benefits and you’re able to make that next level up sound really cool or valuable, that you tied your trials to the different tiers, etc. but you get the idea, right?

Honestly, there are a lot of ways to convert prospects to paying customers, and many of those are especially applicable right now at the end of the year.

I cover all of that – and a lot more – in the Free Trial Dominator program.

That’s a Paypal link, by the way, but you only need a valid Credit Card to make it work.

And when you join the Free Trial Dominator, you’ll get access to all of this:

  • Core Free Trial Dominator modules
    – Rethinking the ‘Free Trial’
    – Attention Phase
    – Engagement Phase
    – Investment Phase
    – Conversion Phase
  • Free Trial Resources and Tools
  • My Super Ninja Free Trial Tactics
  • Pricing Page Success Formula videos (the full 5-hour series that was priced at $397 by itself!)
  • Master Class on Beta Testing & Pricing (60-minutes / $97 value)
  • Complete Group Coaching Call Archive
  • Private, Members-Only Discussion List where we talk about all-things SaaS & Web App Marketing

PLUS… you’ll get to join us for our Weekly Group Coaching Calls – every Wednesday @ Noon Eastern

– Lincoln
(972) 200-9317

About Lincoln Murphy

I invented Customer Success. I focus primarily on Customer Engagement. Learn more about me here.