So… good problem to have. Too many signups for free trials. The application is scaled for a pretty robust user-base of paid users, but with the limited conversion rate, the funnel is just too wide. Good news is that people want to be in the funnel. Bad news is that it’s taking enough hardware/DB resources that I spend a good part of my day watching the task queue to see how things are going. That’s not how I want to spend my time.
So I’m considering closing the application to new trial accounts again. Users could still join, but they’d have to do so without the benefit of the trial period. I feel good about this because users can see exactly what they’re getting by looking at the example report that’s linked on the front page. I have a hard time envisioning users complaining that they didn’t get what they were expecting.
Also, users have so little on the table (typically $2 to under $20), that even if they didn’t like the product, or failed to understand what they were getting, there’s not too much to complain about with such a limited investment… although I did have one person email me to try to negotiate a lower price than $1.99, so who knows!?
Interest fact in favor doing away with the free trial period: 20-30% of new signups happen before the trial period ends, and most of those happen before it really even begins—before they’ve seen a report.
Still undecided, but this is definitely an option I’m considering for implementation in the near term.
GraphEdge blog 
December 10, 2009 at 10:21 pm |
[…] of 50-200 new accounts. But acquisition isn’t my problem right now. In fact, as I’ve mentioned recently, I’m thinking of closing down my free […]
December 26, 2009 at 7:11 pm |
I would recommend a limited free trial: Give the users one report for free and let them decide to pay if they want more. The problem with a sample report is that there’s little emotional relevance for your potentical customer. We often cannot imagine what our own report would look like and we don’t recognize the names on the report and thus cannot contextualize what it would be like to have your report on a regular basis.
Plus, your service would really appeal to the SEO, online marketing, and commercial interests out there. Show them what their report will actually look like with real data and you’ll be more likely to capture their financial commitment.
My $0.02.
Rich