Free Or Low Cost Trial Periods?
In Internet marketing it’s common use to give away free trials.
This marketing strategy is often used in conjunction with membership sites. You can get a free trial period to check out what the membership is all about and then have to decide whether or not to continue your membership for a periodic fee.
Aweber is an outstanding example of this free trial marketing strategy.
The software industry uses the same free trial method. You can download the software package, sometimes in a limited version, and try it for a certain time period, after which the package becomes inactive unless you buy it.
But let me ask you this question:
How many of the free trial software packages did you really test?
And how many free trial memberships that you’ve signed up to, did you really try out?
I bet there aren’t many.
That is the result of the human behavior. We always want to sign up for every opportunity we see that is of the slightest interest to us, without really asking ourselves if we really NEED it.
People sign up (and buy for that matter) for things they WANT, but may not NEED.
And we only use a paid membership or software package if we really NEED it!
What we are doing by giving away free trials is postpone the difficult burden of making a decision to buy. Therefore, by using free trials, you will end up with tons of prospects who never wanted to buy in the first place.
A better approach may be to offer a low cost trial period, using an offer that is so interesting that you’re prospects can’t resist. While at the same time you have them make that difficult decision to pay upfront, however small the fee may be.
This will definitely result in less free subscriptions, but those who do take the trial period, are really interested in your product. And they’ve already made this difficult decision! In other words, you just qualified your subscribers.
My friend Willie Crawford experimented with this. Willie owns a private label version of an awesome shopping cart system at http://ProfitAutomation.com and for a long time he offered a free 30-day trial period.
Now he offers the same time period for only $3.95. That is a real bargain IF you want to try out a shopping cart with build in multiple autoresponders, affiliate program and tracking software.
Willie reports higher conversions. He says:
My suspicion is that if they pay ANYTHING for a trial, that makes them feel like they’re wasting their money if they don’t use the account, and that’s what accounts for the increased conversions.
Once they get clients/subscribers into the shopping cart or autoresponder database, there is a pressure to keep using the system.
Food for thought!
Whether using free or low cost trials, decent follow up is of the utmost importance. Without a follow up strategy in place, in my opinion free trials are useless. You SHOULD point them to specific places or features that they should try out and you must tell them HOW to use these special features.
Therefore, your follow up serieis must educate the free trial prospects so they learn to use all the features in a short period of time and experience the benefits.
Once you get them to feel these benefits, chances are they’re sold.
Whenever using either free trials or the super low cost entry period, make sure that it’s always clear to the client what they have to pay after the initial period is over. Otherwise, you will end up with dissatisfied customers.
You should experiment with both options and see what works best.
Personally, I’m very curious about the results of such experiments and would really appreciate it if you would share them here.
Post your comments below.
Tags: free trials, memberships, offers, software
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June 9th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
What if you have a physical product like a supplement. I have a new start up and can’t afford to give my product away at this point.
June 9th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Well, you have a point there. I never download free trial software though have signed up on a free trial websites and later subscribed (flickr).
I think free trials would remain important to spread the word and build a brand name. Why would someone pay you even $3.95 (or any other amount) if you have not proved your credibility yet.
June 10th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Good point Case. With a free offer, often there is no incentive to really give it a go, unless, like you say, you really need it.
At least charging a small fee builds some incentive, and provides a cash flow to offset ad costs, kind of like a funded proposal.
What you have to be careful with these days with free trials is continuity programs. Make sure you carefully read the sales letter to make sure that you aren’t opting in for a monthly membership that begins i.e. 30 days after the “free” trial.
June 10th, 2008 at 7:29 am
Excellent post.
In my testings… including my shopping
cart system, a low cost trial consistently
out-pulls a free trial.
The key IS to get them to actually
start using it, and with even a small
investment, as Dan Kennedy says, “They
have more skin in the game.”
Willie
June 10th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Hmm, I’d never thought of it like that.
I wonder if part of the difference in conversion rates is that I’m more likely to download a free trial even if it’s not something I’m specifically looking for. Which means that I may not buy it right then, but might remember it for later and come back for it. With a paid trial, I’m unlikely to try it if I’m just surfing the net and see it, so the only reason I’d download and pay for it is if I’m looking for that type of product.
Using that line of thought, while conversion rates would be higher with a paid trial, actual sales would be higher with a free trial over time, since you’d get spur of the moment purchases and people who come back later in addition to those who downloaded because they were looking for that or a similar product.
It would be interesting to compare the results after an extended period of time and see whether overall sales have gone up or down from a paid trial.
June 10th, 2008 at 7:54 am
With software most all of the ones I signed up to try, I did. It was usually something I needed and so of course I gave it a whirl. That does not mean I bought it though, and the reasons for not buying varies but it was based on trying the product.
Now other products that is another story. I am bad about not actually trying them.
June 11th, 2008 at 12:59 am
This is a very informative post!
I think you’re right about the passing effectiveness of “30-day Trials.” They really are old news, though maybe still effective in some verticals - online dating, for example.
I also like this idea about creating more conversions by asking for a small fee for the trial to create more of a value proposition.
Thoughtful stuff, thanks!
-Jason
June 11th, 2008 at 2:00 am
This is a really good point. It’s easy to ignore something that you have got for free.
But if you have paid even a nominal amount, it’s morel likely to be tried out.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:54 am
If your membership privilege is information you should probably get something out of them even at a reduced rate. Showing they’re willing to pay shows theyre at least worht making an effort to retain.
June 11th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Ever wonder why you never see the word “fr*ee” spelled out in emails anymore and instead see the funky spelling variations? It’s because using the word “fr*ee” is a trigger for spam filters.
Free used to be the most powerful word in the marketing professionals’ dictionary. It’s been used and abused so much now that free has come to mean “worthless”.
Thanks for sharing this valuable tip!
June 11th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Yes, I agree with low cost trials method, other than free trial method. Lot of people we abuse the free trial method, but if it is low cost method only people who need the service or the product we go for it.
Another nice idea is the follow up mail, during the trying period and it can confuse the buyer to go for the product or service after the trial period.
Cheers,
Lovely
June 12th, 2008 at 3:50 am
In the last 6 months as a newbie to internet business, I have downloaded “free trial” stuff. I have either been too busy to try it or confused by it. Sometimes I have even forgotten to cancel before the free trial ends.
This strategy may get more response but from a merchant’s perspective it is not worth it. I have always given my full attention to stuff I have paid for and I can only assume my prospects would do the same.
Cheers,
David
June 12th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Fantastic blog post Case!
For me, hands down, low-cost trials are much better than free ones.
A lot of it has to do with the psychology of trust.
If someone has paid me for something — no matter how small the payment — and *if* I deliver at or above expectations, there is a huge leap in trust.
Charging for the trial, also qualifies the prospect much deeper, so they are likely to convert much better by nature.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:28 am
free trials always provide an incentive to the prospective customer to try out a product or service without knowing what they are buying into .it serves a dual purpose- the business gets a reach to a larger audience and also make some money while making the customers take advantage of the trial offers. It is important to note that a lot of these free trials are sugar coated with the continuity clause and a t times if you do not read the fine print you get stuck with it for a long time .
June 12th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Hmmm interesting concept. I am trying to work out what I should offer potential clients i.e. a free trial or a low discount or something similar but cannot seem to make my mind up but after reading this I am definetely going to move towards a low cost offer. Should one focus on a huge cut discount or short term trial?? What is the best way to conduct a low cost offer?
Thanks for this article
June 15th, 2008 at 9:12 am
I use to sign up for a free trial software. Only do that to software that are related to my work. If its suitable then i will buy the full license.
June 18th, 2008 at 3:18 am
It sort of goes back to the old cliche of choosing to have a list of 100 customers or a list of 1000 prospects.
We all know the answer to that one.
I think it really depends on how you follow up. I recently took up a free option on some blog software and decided to purchase.
What made the difference was that the company followed up by email showing how to get good results with the software and how to get the most out of it.
I was sold…
June 24th, 2008 at 2:32 am
I usually take free trial first before buying a software. If I found out the software is credible and accurate then I will buy it.
August 2nd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Truthful post. It is human nature to want to try something which is free or which is on sale. Therefore free trial or low cost for the first month is a very powerful strategy for marketers. I have tried running free trials on my own site and found that the conversition ratio is much higher than just offering packages at regular prices.
August 10th, 2008 at 9:34 am
I will definitely need a trial copy before purchasing softwares or applications. This is human nature i guess.