Free-to-paid conversion is one of the most profitable ways to boost long-term revenue in SaaS.
The ideal situation for any SaaS company? Having long-term paying customers. Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done. However, there’s one thing that SaaS companies can do to optimize their conversion rates – offer free trials.
Free trials are a great way to demonstrate the value of your product to users. The sooner they see the value. The more likely they are to become a paying customer. This is called free trial conversion – the percentage of users that convert to a paid subscription after a free trial period.
The higher the conversion rate, the more users see your SaaS product value. So, how exactly can you convert free trial users to paying customers? Well, this article covers exactly that, including:
- The importance of a Free Trial
- Steps on How to Convert Free Trial Users to Paying Customers
- Free to Paid Conversion Strategies
The importance of a Free Trial
Many SaaS companies offer a free trial or freemium version of their product because this it’s an easy, high-converting method to get users to see your product’s value. It’s great for SaaS in particular since your product is your main selling point.
Think about it, users tend to opt for a free trial of a product because, well, it’s free. Once they have (limited) access to your product, they are able to see exactly what your product offers and what it can do, so users reach their “aha moment”. By the end of the free trial period, the ideal situation is that the users realize they simply can’t live without it, and so they convert as paid customers.
Yes, the free-trial conversion does work. According to First Pages Sage, an average of 48.8% of users convert organically to a paid account from a free trial in SaaS (opt-out method). Yes, you can convert almost 50% of your free users to paid with a free trial!
Steps on How to Convert Free Trial Users to Paying Customers
The key to free-to-paid conversion is showing your product’s value. There are many ways of doing this directly inside your product, such as optimizing your onboarding, engaging with users with personalized messages, and providing them with the tools and resources they need to make the most of your product.
Having a platform that can combine, create and manage all of the above is super crucial to make sure you’re optimizing that all-important conversion rate. FROGED, a Product Success Platform, does exactly that, allowing you to increase your product adoption using its omnichannel features.
Here’s a quick step-by-step on how to use FROGED to optimize your product for users and boost that free-to-paid conversion rate.
Step 1: Sign up for FROGED
Signing up to FROGED is super easy. Just click on the button below, enter your company details, and you’re good to go!
Step 2: Create and track in-app Events
First of all, you need to understand exactly how users are interacting with your product. If engagement is high, they’re likely to have reached that “aha moment”. If it’s low, you want to find exactly where your users may be encountering friction within your product.
You can create and track in-app events inside your product to monitor exactly when, where, and how users are engaging with your product. Set up events that monitor specific clicks, scrolls, or even customized actions carried out by your users. Then, use this data to accurately identify where your users need more help to understand your product.
Step 3: Segment your Contacts/Users
Now can categorize these users into groups based on the data found in the step before. By doing so, you can personalize your communication with them and make sure each user reaches their “aha moment” based on the unique ways they’re interacting with your product.
Through FROGED, you can easily segment your users or accounts based on how they fulfill certain conditions that you set. Once you have your different user groups, it’s time to optimize their experience by creating hyper-personalized messages.
Step 4: Setup communication with Trial Users
Personalized communication has a huge impact on the conversion of customers. Now that you know exactly how your users are interacting with your product, you can adjust communication to solve their exact needs!
Here are the top 3 ways FROGED lets you communicate with your users via main channels or directly inside your product:
Behavioral Emails
Behavioral emails are a great way to communicate with your users after they have completed a specific event. You can include useful information and strong calls to action to further optimize their onboarding and help them reach specific product-related goals.
In-App Notifications
In-app notifications allow for real-time interaction with your users as they’re using your product. When they engage with different areas of your platform, fire in-app messages in the form of chats, hotspots, and banners to help them use specific tools, explore new features, and more!
Self-Service (via KB and Widget)
Self-service support is the perfect way to let users explore your product and become experts on their own terms. Set up a knowledge base with documentation, case studies, FAQs, videos, and more, and allow users to search for information on their own.
You can also configure and customize a dynamic widget and share the most relevant articles, updates, and access to live chat support. This proactive support will give them all the resources and guidance they need to fall in love with your product!
Free to Paid Conversion Strategies
For SaaS companies in any industry, offering a free trial is a fantastic strategy to convert free users into paid ones. Why? Because it’s the best way for users to discover the value of your product, and realize they can’t live without it.
So, in order to help your free trial users reach their “aha moment”, you need to optimize their in-app experience. By tracking their interactions, segmenting your users, and personalizing communication both inside and outside of your product, you’re on your way to boosting that conversion rate. The best part? You can do all of this inside just one platform – FROGED!
Sign up to FROGED today to use our omnichannel solution and convert your free trial users into long-term paying customers!
