Comments on: Choosing the limitation of your trial edition http://www.alwinhoogerdijk.com/2009/03/27/choosing-the-limitation-of-your-trial-edition/ Software Marketing, Adwords, SEO, Email Marketing, A/B Split testing Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:28:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Oliver Grahl http://www.alwinhoogerdijk.com/2009/03/27/choosing-the-limitation-of-your-trial-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-2 Oliver Grahl Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:02:03 +0000 http://www.alwinhoogerdijk.com/?p=43#comment-2 Hi Alwin! I totally agree with your recommendations above. The majority of our users buy on trial day #1. So, talking about trial period and limitations also means talking about making the first use experience as positive as possible. If you sell to the user on day #1 because of great first use experience (impulsive buy!), it doesn't matter any more how long the trial would have run and in which way it would have been limited. Having said that the majority of our customers buy on day #1, I see room to try new things regarding days #2+. One thing I'd like to look into is limiting the trial to just a couple of days, maybe five, maybe just one or two. Then offer a trial extension of, say, 30 days, which can be requested by email. This would give us the opportunity to directly follow up with the prospect. I could even think about giving longer extensions up to 60 or 90 days, because this is where lock-in effect locks in. I think if we don't have convinced the user within the first couple of days, we'll never get him. The only exception are corporate buyers. They are not impulsive buyers, they compare and evaluate, and most often more than one person is involved in that. On the one hand, you wouldn't help them with trials expiring too quick and being too much limited. On the other hand, these prospects are usually able to articulate their needs. Either they buy a couple of full licenses for unlimited evaluation, or they ask for an extended evaluation copy. -Oliver www.PDFAnnotator.com Hi Alwin! I totally agree with your recommendations above.

The majority of our users buy on trial day #1. So, talking about trial period and limitations also means talking about making the first use experience as positive as possible. If you sell to the user on day #1 because of great first use experience (impulsive buy!), it doesn’t matter any more how long the trial would have run and in which way it would have been limited.

Having said that the majority of our customers buy on day #1, I see room to try new things regarding days #2+. One thing I’d like to look into is limiting the trial to just a couple of days, maybe five, maybe just one or two. Then offer a trial extension of, say, 30 days, which can be requested by email. This would give us the opportunity to directly follow up with the prospect. I could even think about giving longer extensions up to 60 or 90 days, because this is where lock-in effect locks in.

I think if we don’t have convinced the user within the first couple of days, we’ll never get him.

The only exception are corporate buyers. They are not impulsive buyers, they compare and evaluate, and most often more than one person is involved in that. On the one hand, you wouldn’t help them with trials expiring too quick and being too much limited. On the other hand, these prospects are usually able to articulate their needs. Either they buy a couple of full licenses for unlimited evaluation, or they ask for an extended evaluation copy.

-Oliver
http://www.PDFAnnotator.com

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