The 30 day free trial is mostly broken
blog.clinchpad.com
The 30 day free trial is mostly broken
1–10 of 45 posts
Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken
#2 > However, more SaaS applications should also consider a usage limited trial.
Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken
#3It sounds like the author is complaining that some products aren't priced right for people who aren't willing to pay for them. If you don't have much money, you can't afford nice things. The 30 day free trial isn't broken just because you can't afford the end product.
That's like saying a free test drive on a Ferrari is broken because you can't afford it. You knew you couldn't afford it when you took the test drive. Would it be better if they never let you have the test drive simply because you couldn't afford it?
Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken
#4It sounds like the author is complaining that some products aren't priced right for people who aren't willing to pay for them. If you don't have much money, you can't afford nice things. The 30 day free trial isn't broken just because you can't afford the end product. That's like saying a free test drive on a Ferrari is broken because you can't afford it. You knew you couldn't afford it when you took the test drive.…
I don't think he is complaining as much as saying you can get a greater conversion rate if you give the person more time, but limit based on usage when it is used effectively as a non-trial.
A ferrari is too extreme of an example, because they are trying out a few services, potentially developing some business with that service.
A better car analogy would be to let you drive around any cab of a truck to get the look and feel and how everything works at your own pace, and then when you want to hook up the trailer they start charging.
Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken
#5This is a good reminder to think creatively about trials. Would be great to know what testing was done to show the 100 leads trial was the best.
Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken
#6A usage-based trial is really just the same thing as a time-based trial. There is a certain pace at which users are going to use up their usage quota, and that translates to a time period. Generally, though, you want the time period to end after the user has seen the benefits and before they have exhausted their initial enthusiasm or encountered any bugs. Giving a user four months to make their choice probably puts you on the wrong end of all those considerations.
After the time-based trial, there are going to be different packages based on different usage quotas anyway. KISSmetrics is probably catering to very different and more established customers than the author, and their pricing model is structured accordingly.
Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken
#7Another thing I don't like about 30 day free trials is that they usually start right away. Before I know it, I'm getting an email saying that the trial is almost over, and I've barely used it. It takes time to develop a new habit and explore a product or service. This is worse if it requires some integration, setup, training, or data import.
I wouldn't say the 30d free trial is broken, or even mostly broken, but it's not always the right solution.
Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken
#8Another thing I don't like about 30 day free trials is that they usually start right away. Before I know it, I'm getting an email saying that the trial is almost over, and I've barely used it. It takes time to develop a new habit and explore a product or service. This is worse if it requires some integration, setup, training, or data import. I wouldn't say the 30d free trial is broken, or even mostly broken, but it's…
I've seen this in a training subscription product I have worked with. Customers sign up because it's a free trial, then don't come back until they're warned it's almost over. The customers that don't use it in the first 30 days aren't likely to use it in the next 30 anyway.
The solution for the provider is to better engage the users during the 30 day trial. If the only email they get during that trial is the warning that it's almost over then you're probably doing it wrong.
Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken
#9I couldn't disagree more. I've done 30 day trials and unlimited Free plans. Free plans convert much less often and require much more user support time.
Now, do I think a bootstrapped startup should seek out free plans and betas? Of course. Just dont do that with your app.
Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken
#10A usage-based trial is really just the same thing as a time-based trial. There is a certain pace at which users are going to use up their usage quota, and that translates to a time period. Generally, though, you want the time period to end after the user has seen the benefits and before they have exhausted their initial enthusiasm or encountered any bugs. Giving a user four months to make their choice probably puts y…
Slightly tangential, but the KissMetrics 14 day trial makes little sense to me regardless of their target customer base. With an Analytics package you need time to set it up, then time to gather data, then time to analyze it to see how beneficial it is. 14 days just isn't enough to do anything of the sort. That said, I am a satisfied user of KissMetrics. Both their sales and their support team are incredibly helpful and responsive.
The author compared KissMetrics to MixPanel, two services that offer relatively the same thing. MixPanel gives a free account up to 25000 events instead of a 14 day trial. This is a much, much more useful way of introducing the product to a new user.