SaaS Marketing Strategy - Free Trial Success Secret 5: Credit Cards are a Red Herring

The 7 Secrets toFree Trial Success

Turn your ‘Free Trial’ into a Customer-Creating Machine!

Lincoln Murphy Presents...

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7 Secrets to Increasing Conversions with Free Trials

Secret #5: Credit Cards are a

Red Herring

Lincoln Murphy


“I’ll ask for a credit card up front so only serious, highly qualified leads enter my funnel” - many SaaS vendors

Lincoln MurphySecret #5: Credit Cards are a Red Herring


Vendors think asking for a Credit Card up front qualifies people, but it simply does not.



One member of my Free Trial Dominator program was adamant that this was the case...



So they convert 48% of their Free Trial signups... pretty good right?



Until you look at their overall numbers...

Unique Visitors (UV): 15k/moTrial Signups: 327 (2.18%)Trialists that convert to customers: 180 (55% of trialists/ 1.2% overall)



How many people would have signed-up for the Free Trial if they didn’t ask for the credit card up front?



Another vendor shared that they got rid of the Credit Card requirement because so many complained about the charges.



In fact, most Web App vendors who’ve dropped the Credit Card requirement did so because of complaints from customers about being billed at the end of the Free Trial



Some of those billings resulted in charge backs (bad for your relationship with your processor)



Many result in bad feelings that have to be - and hopefully are - resolved



All of those complaints and refund requests add overhead that could be avoided



This idea of taking a credit card to start the trial and then 31 days later on a 30-day free trial isn’t on the surface a bad idea, but the execution of the post-signup strategy is often flawed.



Some vendors literally don’t want to bother the person after they’ve signed-up because reminding them that they signed-up might remind them to cancel their account



Not realizing that they will find out - when you bill them - and since they haven’t heard from you in almost a month, the likelihood that they’ll be upset by this charge on their bill that they don’t recognize and ask for a refund (or initiate a chargeback) is much higher than if you communicated with them the whole time.



And of course there are the vendors who have high conversion rate percentages, but when you look at their super-low initial Free Trial sign-up numbers, and the actual number of conversions, it is easy to see that the Credit Card requirement is turning people off.



Yes, asking people for a Credit Card up front turns them off... you aren’t “qualifying them out”.



If someone wants to become a customer today, give them the opportunity to sign-up with their credit card and pay, today.



But if they just want to try (remember, they think they’re just ‘trying’ the product!) your product, they aren’t ready to buy so they aren’t ready to plunk down the credit card; require it, and they’ll bounce.



CC-walls turn off people who aren't ready to commit without seeing what you’ve got



But the truth is, the whole “Credit Card to start a Free Trial” debate is a Red Herring... something that causes us to take our eye off the ball, to focus on it and not on what really matters.



Whether you require a credit card or not to start the Free Trial (<7% of the SaaS vendors that I’ve run into do, BTW), to be successful, you need to have a strong post-signup Free Trial strategy that drives Engagement, Investment, and Conversion!


For the Ultimate Free Trial Resource Guide, visit:

http://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-resource-guide





SaaS Marketing Strategy - Free Trial Success Secret 5: Credit Cards are a Red Herring

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