How to increase conversion rate fast
Two methods that would quickly increase free-to-paid users conversion rate for your SaaS.
--
Every early-stage SaaS startup with a free trial plan has this problem: users sign up for the service but only a little portion of them actually convert into paying users. Read here what are the reasons for that.
The good news: there are ways to change it quickly. I personally know of two methods that work extremelly well and have proved their efficiency.
1. Go with an opt-out framework
Of course you’re familiar with it. But I will still offer aquick explanation — just to be on the safe side (because some founders actually mix it up with the opt-out for newsletters) .
An opt-in free trial — it’s when a user gets access without providing payment information up-front.
Opt-out free trial — it’s when you ask for credit card details when an account is created.
- An example of an opt-out free trial: Feather.so, Semrush.com , Sparktoro.com
- An example of an opt-in free trial: KatLinks.io, MarkCopy.ai
How efficient is this? According to Tomasz Tunguz, it could increase your free-to-paid conversion rate by up to five times (!!!).
A founder of MarkCopy, Kilian Poulin explains that they started using opt-out from day 1. It helped them validate the idea and provided fast cash (they grew from 0 to $4.5K MRR in 6 months — read more about how they grew startup further to $10KMM). The founder of Feather.io, Bhany Teja, also confirms that opt-out works great for them — users actually start paying if not from day 1 then after the trial period is over.
Sounds amazing, right? Not so fast.
There’s a downside of the opt-out framework. Requiring credit card information is a huge friction for users and usually result in a lot of them abandoning the product before even completing the sign up process.
