Do you have a large roster of contacts in your free-trial database, with only a small number converting into paying customers? You're not alone. According to the 2013 SoftLetter SaaS report, 66 percent of companies have a free-trial-to-paying-customer conversion rate of 25 percent or less (mostly less). You want to become more like Beats Music, the subscription music streaming service that, Bloomberg reports, has converted 70 percent of their free-trial customers to paid subscribers in 2014 thus far. We can help:

Beats Music's strategy is to promote the service through partnerships. Target has been providing 30-day trials to shoppers, and Ellen DeGeneres has been on air talking about their product. Beats Music has partnered up with AT&T, which is promoting the service through their TV commercials and is signing up customers online and at its retail store. They also allow for partnering on the plans, with "family plans" providing access to up to five people on each account for only $5 more per month than the individual plan.

Consider your industry. Are there any natural alliances you can draw upon? Reach out and form some strategic partnerships as Beats Music has.

Make It Easy for the Customer

It will take several visits before a visitor decides to subscribe to your service. Hit them with easy value-add each time they contact you, and you will increase your likelihood of conversion.

• If you go to the BeatsMusic.com, the clear graphics and obvious button above the fold to "start your free trial now" make it easy to sign up.


• Check out Restaurant Owner, too. It starts with a pop-up screen populated with your Facebook login data (and capturing customer information) in order to get their free downloads on business plans, templates and best practices.


• Chargify offers customizable sign-up pages that handle recurring transactions including free trial periods, fees, promotions, refunds and more.

Dig Into User Metrics

Of course you want to know how many of your trial offers were activated. Keep digging. Track how well a trial user navigates your system. How many were able to set up their accounts and begin using them? Which parts of your services do your trial users use most? If the customer is a business, is it one person or multiple people who are using it? How frequently is this customer using your system? Given their objectives, is the client taking advantage of the right features?

Use this information to follow up with either a phone call for a high value client, or with a targeted email. You can highlight the value of a particular popular feature that will help their objectives, and encourage them to dig deeper into your product.

Use Email to Your Advantage

According to MarketingSherpa, only 26 percent of companies send emails that include "activation" (how to use a product or service) emails. To differentiate, send a simple, clean welcome email as soon as a trial is activated, including step-by-step instructions on how to get started, a description of how to use a product or service, multiple links to different parts of your site (including a link to the account personalization site) and customer service contact information. Consider including a promotional offer for an instant conversion to a paid subscription or for additional products and services.

Segment your email distribution list, and send more than one email during the trial period—only, however, if doing so would add value by providing compelling content for the target audience. MarketingSherpa found that a weekly newsletter, one that was personalized to better reflect subscriber's preferences, was able to increase reactivation for inactive subscribers for one company (Eventful).

Use email to confirm the end of a trial subscription. At this stage, emphasize the value of the product, showing how easy it is to use your service. According to one trial by Marketing Experiments, an updated message with more value-emphasis and graphics increased revenue per visit by over 200 percent compared to the original version. Beats Music sends out a simple, powerful customer retention email which you can view at ReallyGoodEmails.com. Consider including a retention offer, an offer to purchase an additional product or subscription, an exit survey, or information on how to reactivate membership.

Author Bio
Murray Lunn is a freelance writer specializing in content marketing for online businesses; his work includes business blogging, product development, and brand development.