But before you take the leap and offer your own free trial, think carefully.
Free trials can't work without follow-up
For a free trial to work, it needs to be part of a overall customer acquisition plan. A free trial without a well-constructed follow-up effort to convert the free trialers into paying buyers isn't worth much.
You should also have a plan for people who tried but didn't buy. They should be part of your target audience for on-going marketing programs.
Free trials do cost money
With a free trial, you are essentially extending the sales cycle by the length of the free trial. Most buyers won't pay you until they need to. That will require more working capital.
Depending on your infrastructure and hosting platform, it will cost you money to host and deliver your solution to free trialers. The cost of computing and storage may be low, but it's not free.
If your solution requires support to get the free trialers up and running, in the form of telephone or chat help, or online tutorials, factor those costs into your calculation.
For some applications, a free trial could essentially give away all the value of the solution. If it's a solution that helps manage a task done once per year, for example arrange the annual user group conference, why would the prospect actually pay for the solution once that task is done?
Does a free trial really show the value?
Consider whether the free trialer will truly see the full benefit of your solution during the course of the free trial. If you're helping them manage a process that takes 6 months, for example, the trialer might not see much value in a 30-day free trial.
Just because a trial is free doesn't mean that the prospective customer will put in the time to learn how to use it. In fact, if it's not immediately obvious how to use your solution, a free trial might actually deter prospects from buying it. "Free" does not compensate for a poor product that's difficult to learn. (See "If it's hard to use, it's hard to sell")
"Free" might not really matter
A trial might show prospects the solution's features and functions for free, but it won't necessarily address concerns about security, reliability, deployment, and integration. For buyers within large enterprises, these other issues may be more important than price.
Alternatives to a free trial
Before you automatically opt for a free trial, think about alternatives:
- A "sandbox" demo would allow the prospective customer to work with the software in a controlled environment. It might provide access to all functionality or it might limit the user to certain features. For example, it might not allow printing or emailing reports.
- Videos could be used to show off the key features of the solution, explain how it would be valuable to the prospect, and demonstrate how easy it is to use.
- A money back guarantee would allow someone to purchase the solution and, if they are not satisfied, cancel their subscription after some period of time to get their money back.
- A no-obligation contract would allow a paying customer to cancel their subscription at any time without penalty. They are under no long term commitment.
With these alternatives, prospective customers can get some experience with your solution. And you might avoid some of the downsides of a free trial.
This work by Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
