SaaS companies focus a lot of their marketing on promoting free trial sign-ups—a relatively easy conversion to achieve. But getting consumers to commit to your monthly subscription fee isn’t always so simple. If you want to improve sales and grow your company, you’ll need to start turning trial signups into paid customers. In the article below, we’ll share some of the best SaaS marketing tips for turning free-trial users into customers.
SaaS marketing tip #1 – Establish a sense of urgency with your free trial sign-ups.
One way to help convert more trial users is to create a sense of urgency from the very start. Offering limited trials is one of the most common SaaS marketing techniques. These trials help grab the attention of your audience and create a sense of urgency by promoting an exclusive and limited free offer. The best way for people to fall in love with your product is by using it and experiencing the benefits firsthand. When you set a limit on their experience, it forces those who find value in your product to act quickly so as not to lose their access.
However, you need to make sure that the time period you choose is long enough that users can get used to your software. Ideally, they may even come to rely on it. If you give consumers a chance to thoroughly experience all the benefits of your software, you will dramatically increase conversions. Consider a 14-day trial period at the minimum.
Another way that you can create a sense of urgency is by offering a special promotion to those who convert to a paid plan. This can help make the upgrade more appealing to those users who have been putting off switching to a paid plan or those who might be on the fence. By including extra incentives such as special pricing or premium content, you can help make the audience feel like they are getting more value for their money. The fear of missing out on this special deal will urge them to act quickly to take advantage of the deal.
SaaS marketing tip #2 – Nurture free trial members through email marketing.
Implementing an email drip campaign to nurture relationships is an excellent way to help convert free trial signups to paid customers. Keeping in touch with free trial users through email helps you make sure that your brand is top of mind while they are completing their trial. Through an email nurturing program, you can help guide these users further down the funnel by providing educational materials and other helpful information about the benefits of your offering.
To get started, you will set up a series of automated follow-up emails to send to users over the course of their free trial. You’ll need to decide what content you will deliver to these users and when. We recommend testing your nurturing campaigns to determine the best combination when it comes to the number of emails, how frequently they are sent, and at what point in the trial that you send them.
Your SaaS company should always send an initial “thank you” email to the user as soon as they have started their trial. You can then send some follow-up emails that show the user how to get the most out of your SaaS product through tutorials or other educational materials. If you want to get feedback from users, you can check-in periodically to ensure that they are getting what they need. For your final emails, you will want to remind the user of any promotions you are offering for those who convert during their trial period as well as a deadline reminder before their trial expires.
SaaS marketing tip #3 – Use HubSpot to find promising sales opportunities.
There are a few ways that you can use HubSpot to grow your SaaS business, especially when it comes to increasing conversions:
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Utilize event tracking and workflows for onboarding in HubSpot.
Use HubSpot’s event tracking toolset to monitor your free trial users’ usage. After gathering about 2 to 3 weeks’ worth of data, you can use your findings to gain a better understanding of the steps that each user takes before converting. Then, create workflows to track each free trial and help guide the user through the process if they get stuck. For instance, if you see that a user isn’t moving past a certain phase to the next step in the conversion process, you might send them an email with helpful resources.
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Segment and prioritize users in HubSpot.
Not everyone who signs up for a free trial is going to be a good fit for your software, so why market to them all the same way? Using HubSpot’s lead scoring tool, you can quickly assign values to leads based on factors like industry, company size, or job title. You can then segment users based on lead score. High scoring users deserve more attention, and can therefore be given to sales. Poor quality leads can be put on separate nurturing tracks.
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Create workflows around pricing pages in HubSpot.
Users who visit your pricing page multiple times are most likely interested in making a purchase. You can use HubSpot to create a workflow around pricing pages so that sales can follow up. For instance, you might have HubSpot send a notification to the sales rep after a user has visited the pricing page three or more times. Then, the salesperson will be able to reach out in a timely manner to help encourage the sale.
Let the SaaS Conversions From Free Trial Signups to Paid Customers Begin!
In the end, if you want to convert free trial signups to paid customers, you’re going to have to work hard to track your trial users and deliver exactly what they need at the right time in their buyer’s journey. It’s vital to have a conversion strategy in place for your SaaS marketing that uses some of the tactics above to help encourage trial users to commit to a paid subscription.
Are you ready to tap into the growth potential that exists within the SaaS industry? Sign up for a free consultation with our SaaS marketing experts to see how you can maximize your conversion rates.
