Every SaaS business is passionate about their product and they are convinced that their product has what their customer needs. Most SaaS products are genuinely good and compel free trial users to subscribe to them right away. But for a lot of SaaS companies who are not converting the majority of their trial sign-ups to paying customers have to figure out why this is happening and try to improve the conversion rate.
According to research conducted by Totango, the best SaaS companies are able to convert 25% of free trial users sign-up to become paying customers. Also, you have more chance convincing around 70% of your free trial users to become paying customers after using your products for 3 days if a sales rep gave them a call.
Here're some reasons people don't buy after their free trial is over:
You fail to engage users
Failure to engage a customer right after they sign-up for your free trial is often the cause of people not buying your product later on. You have to design your free trial in such a way so that people stay engaged all throughout.
Sometimes, SaaS businesses leave their free trial users to fend for themselves while navigating through the product and then wonder why most of their trial users are leaving. When someone is signing up for a trial, engage them.
Drop a mail, give them a persuasive call, help them get the most out of your product, and then convert them into paying customers. Take a look at the home screen that greets your customer while using your product, make sure that it is attractive and intuitive enough to engage users for a longer period of time. If users don’t like the feel of that, they will most likely leave as well.
Complex UI
Admit it, software and technology intimidate a lot of people and if your SaaS product has a complicated user interface (UI), your users most likely will run off to your competitor’s for a simpler environment. Your SaaS product should be clutter-free and sleek. A few ways that you can make it better:
- Convince your UI designer to create a simple design that will be clutter-free and elegant. You should be aiming at converting more customers rather than showing off your product's complexity.
- Guide users on how to use your product to the fullest.
- Post demo videos and conduct live webinars for your users to understand how your SaaS product works. They can re-watch it later if they want.
Wrong audience
When you have an engaging SaaS product at hand but somehow seem to not convert trial users at all, you should take a look at your audience.
Is this the audience that you targeted in the first place? If you are reaching out to the wrong audience, no one will sign up to buy your product or even finish the trial after a few days.
Depending on your product’s usability, you should reach out to that audience.
If you have a product for a specific industry, you should reach out to that industry rather than reaching out to all industries. You also have to make sure that you get the buyer personas right. Firstly, it will save you a lot of marketing dollars and most importantly save you the trouble of dealing with the wrong audience.
You're Not Leveraging Your Content
SaaS companies tend to revert to a short buying funnel, trying to send people directly to their free trial from every blog post. What you have to realize is that every reader is not ready for the trial or purchase. If you do that then you are losing the opportunity to educate your readers about your product and if that is the best fit for them.
Readers will sign up for a free trial with no clue as to why they signed up for the trial and how your product might suit their needs. Your content should align with the different stages of the buying cycle so that visitors and prospective customers understand your product.
Forcing everyone to sign up for a free trial would just prove to be detrimental for your business. Provide personalized dynamic content based on the stage the buyer is in the sales funnel.
You are not nurturing the leads properly
If your strategy is to engage prospects and educating them before leading them on to take up a free trial, you must have a proper drip marketing strategy in place. Email is one of the best ways to reach out to prospects before, during, and after the free trial period for communication.
When people sign up for a trial, they should get regular nurturing drip emails. Don’t go overboard and bombard users with unnecessary emails, just send them occasional emails that will help them get the most out of your product. Send them tips and tutorials that will guide them through your product easily.
The trial period is too short/long
You can choose a short 7-day trial period, that will motivate users to engage with your product, but it might decrease the conversion rate because of the shorter time span. A longer time span of 30 days is good for SaaS products that have complex in-depth features but it also makes the user lose interest if you cannot engage them for long. So depending on the complexity of your product, you should set the trial period.
Just because most people opt for a month, you don’t have to opt for a month. If you have a fairly simple product at hand, a week is more than enough. Many SaaS products have found the sweet spot for their SaaS trial at 14-day length. But it is for you to decide by analyzing statistics from your previous trials as to how many days will be perfect for your free trial.
No human interaction
It’s perfectly okay to conduct online demos for your product and reach a larger audience. But technology can never replace the human touch. Trial users will be more comfortable if they can speak or communicate with someone who is human(in their language of course).
Offer your users free and personalized demos so that they understand how to use the product and they get to hear a human voice at the other end. Offer your trial users an online chat to answer all their questions and clear all their doubts.
Provide your trial users with phone numbers to call you and email their queries. Keep the lines of communication open and make them as user-friendly as possible.
If you cannot support them during their buying process, users will tend to be skeptical about support after buying as well, hence they may choose not to buy.
Social Proof
Offering case studies of other customers to your trial users will help them understand how your product has helped others. If you have a generic SaaS product, you should offer industry-specific case st`udies so that users can understand how it has helped others in their industry to perform better. Offering testimonials from users who can vouch for your product and support go a long way in successfully closing sales.
At Esanosys we work with SaaS companies of all sizes and help them reduce churn, CAC and increase LTV. Partner with us today for your SaaS marketing needs.