What Offering A Free SaaS Trial Can Do For Your Company

3 min read
Oct 17, 2016 9:18:49 AM

Get your free SaaS trial today.“Our product is so great, it sells itself!” While this is a nice idea, in today’s world your SaaS company needs to be pretty innovative to get someone’s attention. A great way to prove just how awesome you and your product are is with a free SaaS trial. And who doesn't like free things? We also know how important generating leads is for any company so here are our 30 greatest ways to attract them!

Looking for your next customer? Click here to learn 30 greatest lead generation  tips.

 Here are 5 things to remember when your company offers a free SaaS trial.

  1. See for Yourself

You probably wouldn’t buy a car without first taking a test drive, and the same principle applies when investing in a SaaS product. One of the most valuable reasons for offering a free trial is that it gives people the chance to see for themselves if it lives up to the hype. They want to be confident in their decision, and are not going to make a big purchase without doing some research to understand what they’re getting into.

  1. Remember the Buyer’s Journey

 Because the SaaS sales process tends to move faster, having a free trial button easily accessible to anyone and everyone on your website seems like a great idea. But the challenge is that less than 25% of those people will convert into customers. There are steps you can take to deal with this problem.

With an inbound strategy, it is important to consider where a lead is in their buyer’s journey. “Your content strategy needs to align with the different stages of the buying cycle, and reflect the fact that prospects may pass through those stages at different speeds,” HubSpot advises. Recognize that when a person visits your website for the first time they may be in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey, and looking for a solution to a problem, not to make a purchase.

A free trial of your SaaS product should be one of the last steps a prospect participates in before becoming a paying customer. As Sixteen Ventures writes, “For SaaS vendors, the purpose of a free trial is to create a customer. Period.” It really should be that simple.

  1. Build Trust Early

I bet if someone asked you what your worst customer service experience has been, an answer would come to mind pretty easily. When a person has begun a free trial of your SaaS product, it is the time to lay the groundwork of what they can expect over their lifetime with your company. Make sure there are resources and content available to educate your customers, such as access to customer support, how-to-guides, webinars or tutorials.

Providing a positive experience during the free trial period is a way to start building up loyal customers, and future advocates of your company.

  1. Put Your Best Foot Forward

Just because someone isn’t paying for your product yet, doesn’t mean you should withhold all of your best features. This is an opportunity to hook people on what is so great about your product.  Maybe even consider offering a demo or a training opportunity so that they can understand all of the features that are available. At this point, prospects have little invested in your company. Showing them the value of your SaaS product during the trial helps ensure they’ll stick around when it ends.

  1. Optimize The Trial Length

Don't forget to think about how long your free trial should be. A trial should be as long as it will take someone to understand how your SaaS product will help them reach their goals. A 30-day trial may be standard, but maybe a week, or 14 days, is all someone should need with your product. Look at your data to see how people are engaging with the product throughout their trial.

As a SaaS company, offering a free trial is an opportunity for people to interact with your product and for you to start creating loyal customers and advocates of your brand. Looking for more tips and best practices behind inbound marketing? Then request a free consultation today and so how we can help you grow! Request A Consultation

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