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💬 This is no doubt one of the most important and critical areas that SaaS founders/makers and the likes of marketers/product managers are always wanting to improve (even if conv. rates from free > paid is decent).
I don't need to go into the numerous benefits, as there's plenty of them - the most obvious being better product adoption and more converted users = more revenue.
Yet, you're here because you may be looking for some inspiration for ideas across strategies/tactics that can be used to help increase conv. rates from free-trial/freemium users to paid customers - and that's what I'm sharing here below, along with some references and software to check out for implementation (to test/experiment).
💬 Alongside examples and tools to check out, I also incl. many other checklists I created that goes deeper into other tactics for that specific area.
One of the key strategy initiative areas for SaaS companies to help with getting users on freemium/free plans to paid, is ensuring they have an awesome onboarding experience, and first few days on the app.
It's all about reducing time to value.
To help refine your onboarding flow and other activation strategies, I put a checklist together of key tests/experiments and tactics to try (with some examples from top brands).
An important area to optimise when it comes to onboarding and reducing 'time to value', is having a really good and well-optimised welcome email series.
Incorporate the likes of gifs and Loom videos to demonstrate key features.
The key takeaway here to remember though is this - to really nail the email welcome flows, for them to help increase activation rates and signups from free to paid, is ensuring to personalise the flows based on data attributes of the user from signup.
Tailor emails based on their goals, or industries (whatever ICP data/attributes you have available to use). These email flows can work really well when context is taken into the account of the user, to help them see relevance and value faster.
A tactic as a 'free trial' to paid experiment, is that some SaaS products actually give you access to a 'premium' set of features (or usage-based), that are normally part of tiered pain plans as part of the free trial period. Then once the free trial period ends, then you 'lose' access to those features (unless you upgrade onto a paid plan).
A tactical strategy with pricing and free trial periods that I've seen a few SaaS brands do are paid/intro offer free trials, but the payment being much lower for that intro/trial period compared to the normal cost of signing up to the paid plan (during that initial period).
It's something that Ahrefs have used with their famous "$7 for 7 days" trial period.
On the theme of reducing 'time to value', having really good content resources and videos for users can help with users to be educated and adopt key areas of the product faster.
Although creating great video/content is one thing, it also comes down to how it's distributed via key channels (i.e. welcome onboarding emails I mentioned before), and how you place it within the product - for instance, via in-app notifications/pop-ups, and making resources/videos easily accessible within the product itself.
On my opinion, it's critical as part of retention and also upselling/cross-selling users, to have a robust and comprehensive knowledge base.
I've been in positions before myself with products where the documentation and support articles are lacking (or in some cases, barely anything available), and it's resulted in me looking at other products to help solve the problem I had.
There are great tools that exist on the market to make documentation easier to produce, as well as host.
This checklist point is more of a reminder here, but ensure to have automation triggers in place for comms (via email and in-app product) to remind users about the trial period ending.
The key takeaway here is to focus on language/messaging that highlights the value that they're missing out on if they don't upgrade to a paid plan - and what they will miss out on if they stay on the free plan.
Something that I've seen a few SaaS companies do (especially quite a few of the top startups), is to send automated data/usage emails based on users' utilising key features.
It's a great tactic to communicate to users the value that they're getting out of the software.
As part of onboarding and the first few days/weeks for new users, you want to make it as easy as possible to see the value of the product.
One of the more effective strategies to implement is to use the likes of checklists and/or 'to-do' prompts, aligned with completing key steps related to features that you want to ensure they adopt and start using.
A big area of PLG SaaS companies is to drive automation via key channels as part of "winning" back free trial users, or anyone who has downgraded plans.
As a key thing to brainstorm/think about, is coming up with great offers to these segments to get them up upgrade.
In terms of some ideas (which I've seen work well) for winback offers in SaaS, you could test/experiment with:
An effective initiative (which many of you probably do already), is sharing new feature releases and value content related to the product via in-app pop-ups and email automation flows.
Highlight use cases, and ideally social proof elements (like case studies, results, etc) from users/customers that have used these features.
A strategy area that I often share as an area of importance for B2B and SaaS companies are working with and co-creating 'actionable' content with thought-leaders/influencers - and distributing that content via key channels.
It's a big initiative that helps drive TOF/MOF demand gen, but also circulates and helps existing freemium/free trial user segments to see others recommend and show value from the product that they may/may not even know or have thought about.
Lots of various pricing page layouts/options out there that I've seen over the years, and these are some of the key tactical optimisations and elements that matter in my view to maximise potential for good conv. rates:
An idea that's worth considering as an experiment, is sending a personalised email (plain-text) from the founder, where it can ask for feedback, and just simply 'check-in' to see if they're having an issues/troubles - an awesome way to get honest feedback and learn about any potential bottlenecks.
It's a great way to touch base which is outside of the usual marketing automation emails (although of course, you can automate this email still), and makes it a bit more personalised to the user, where they feel like they have an opportunity to share feedback.
As a recommendation, consider adding in a special incentive/offer to prompt users to reply (or sign up via a tracked link).
