SaaS Free Trials: Common Problems with Sign-up Forms

December 22, 2011 Article by Lincoln Murphy

I just posted the video from the 12/21 Group Coaching call to the Free Trial Dominator site.

I started by showing an email sent by 37Signals to former prospects as a way to get them to come back. It used the “updated feature” method.

I reviewed the marketing sites – from the marketing site, to the Free Trial sign-up process, and first in-app experience – of these five Free Trial Dominator members:

We covered these topics (and more) today:

Common problems with Free Trial Sign-up Forms
Managing in-trial and post-trial expectations during the sign-up process
How having too many data points can have a negative impact on sign-ups
Client Side Validation of form fields
Only having absolutely required fields on the first sign-up form.
How moving optional or less-important (i.e. fields that won’t let you contact the potential customer later) to later in the sign-up process
How even if all fields are required they should be marked as such
The pervasive use of Subdomains in apps and how this can negatively impact sign-ups
Call to Action on Main Site and Sign-up form
Free Trial Tie-in to Pricing Page / Bundles
An overall lack of Sales Copy & Trust Factors (like Phone Numbers) on sign-up forms
How to reduce the number of steps it takes someone to sign-up and start using your App
What “Engagement” means and how to avoid dumping a prospect into your app to fend for themselves.