This iterative process allows for continuous improvement based on real-world user experiences. Engaging customers through product trials not only promotes specific products but also raises awareness about the brand as a whole. Positive trial experiences can lead to word-of-mouth referrals and heightened visibility within target markets.

Many product trials come with time constraints, encouraging users to explore the offering promptly. This limited-time approach creates a sense of urgency and prompts users to take action within a specified timeframe. Offering free access during trials eliminates financial barriers for potential customers.

This accessibility allows users to test all aspects of the product without any upfront costs, increasing their willingness to engage with the offering. A fundamental aspect of product trials is gathering user feedback systematically.

Companies often employ surveys, interviews, or rating systems to collect insights that can guide future developments or modifications based on actual user opinions. In the realm of business, product trials offer a multitude of advantages that extend beyond mere marketing strategies.

These trials serve as powerful tools to enhance customer experience, boost sales performance, and gain a competitive edge in the market. Product trials enable companies to engage with customers on a more personalized level. By allowing individuals to test the product firsthand, businesses can tailor their interactions based on user preferences and behaviors, creating a more intimate and customized experience.

During product trials, companies can gather valuable insights into customer preferences and usage patterns. This data allows for the customization of recommendations and suggestions tailored to each user's specific needs, enhancing the overall trial experience.

One of the key benefits of product trials is their ability to increase customer satisfaction levels. By providing users with the opportunity to explore the product before making a purchase, businesses can ensure that customers are fully satisfied with their decision, leading to higher levels of loyalty and retention.

Product trials have been shown to significantly impact conversion rates by allowing customers to experience the value of a product firsthand. By focusing on providing an exceptional trial experience, businesses can improve customer retention rates in the long run.

Customers who have positive trial experiences are more likely to become repeat buyers and loyal advocates for the brand, contributing to sustained revenue growth.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that customers who participate in product trials often share their experiences with friends and family. This word-of-mouth marketing can lead to organic referrals and increased brand visibility within target markets , amplifying the impact of product trials on overall sales performance.

In today's competitive landscape, standing out is crucial for business success. Product trials offer a unique opportunity for companies to differentiate themselves from competitors by showcasing their offerings in a hands-on manner, capturing consumer attention effectively.

Through well-executed product trials, businesses can cultivate strong relationships with customers based on trust and transparency. This loyalty not only translates into repeat purchases but also fosters brand advocacy among satisfied users, further solidifying brand reputation.

Studies show that offering product trials can attract new customers who may be hesitant to commit without trying first. By lowering barriers to entry and demonstrating product value upfront, companies can expand their customer base and tap into previously untapped market segments.

In the realm of product trials, companies often employ various strategies to engage customers and drive sales. Understanding the different types of product trials can help businesses tailor their approaches to meet specific objectives and target audiences effectively.

Free trial periods typically offer users a set duration during which they can explore the product's features and functionalities at no cost. The length of these trial periods can vary from a few days to several weeks, allowing users sufficient time to experience the offering comprehensively before making a purchase decision.

During free trial periods, users often have access to the full range of features available in the paid version of the product. This unrestricted access enables users to test all aspects of the offering, providing them with a holistic understanding of its capabilities and benefits. Some companies offer free trials as part of their subscription models, allowing users to experience premium features for a limited time before committing to a subscription.

This approach not only showcases the value of the paid version but also encourages users to upgrade for continued access post-trial. Freemium models combine free basic features with premium functionalities available through paid subscriptions. During trials, users can explore both basic and premium features, gaining insights into the additional value offered by premium upgrades and encouraging them to consider subscription options.

Companies often use freemium trials as an opportunity to upsell premium features or subscriptions by highlighting the enhanced benefits and capabilities available in paid versions.

This strategic approach aims to convert trial users into paying customers by demonstrating the added value of premium offerings.

To retain users beyond the trial period, businesses implement retention tactics such as personalized recommendations, exclusive discounts for upgrading, or limited-time offers post-trial. These tactics aim to convert trial users into long-term subscribers by emphasizing ongoing benefits and continued value.

Money-back guarantees assure customers that if they are dissatisfied with a purchased product after a trial period, they can request a refund.

This policy reduces perceived risks for customers, instilling confidence in their purchase decisions and promoting trust in the brand's commitment to customer satisfaction. Offering robust customer support during and after product trials enhances user experiences and addresses any concerns or issues promptly.

Responsive customer support channels build credibility with customers, ensuring that they feel supported throughout their trial experience and beyond. Money-back guarantees serve as risk mitigation strategies for customers who may be hesitant about trying new products.

By providing assurance that refunds are available if expectations are not met, businesses reduce barriers to entry for potential customers, encouraging them to engage with products confidently. In the realm of business, conducting a product trial requires careful planning and execution to maximize its effectiveness.

By following structured steps and best practices, companies can ensure a seamless trial experience for users while gathering valuable insights to drive product enhancements and decision-making. When embarking on a product trial , it is essential to establish clear objectives that align with business goals and customer expectations.

Before initiating a trial, define specific metrics that will measure its success. These metrics could include conversion rates, user engagement levels, or feedback ratings, providing tangible data to evaluate the trial's impact. Identifying the target audience for the product trial is crucial in tailoring the experience to meet their needs and preferences effectively.

Understanding the demographics, behaviors, and pain points of the target audience enables personalized interactions and targeted messaging. Determining the optimal duration for the product trial is key to balancing user engagement and feedback collection. A trial period that is too short may not allow users sufficient time to explore all features, while an extended trial could lead to disengagement.

Consider factors such as complexity of the product and user behavior when setting the trial duration. To ensure a positive user experience during a product trial , focus on elements that enhance usability and engagement. Design an intuitive interface that guides users through the product seamlessly.

Clear navigation, informative tooltips, and interactive elements can simplify user interactions and encourage exploration of key features. Implement an onboarding process that familiarizes users with the product's functionalities quickly.

Interactive tutorials, welcome messages, and guided tours can help users understand how to leverage the product effectively from the outset. Offer robust support channels throughout the product trial to address user queries promptly.

Live chat support, FAQ sections, or dedicated helplines can provide users with immediate assistance, enhancing their overall experience and reducing barriers to engagement. After concluding a product trial , analyzing results is essential in deriving meaningful insights for future strategies and improvements.

Utilize various data collection methods such as surveys, analytics tools, or heatmaps to gather quantitative data on user interactions. This data can offer valuable insights into user behavior patterns, feature preferences, and areas for enhancement.

Evaluate user feedback collected during the product trial systematically. Categorize feedback based on themes such as usability issues, feature requests, or overall satisfaction levels.

Prioritize actionable feedback that aligns with predefined success metrics for implementation. Based on data analysis and feedback evaluation from the product trial , implement iterative improvements to enhance the product further. Continuous refinement based on real-world user experiences ensures that subsequent trials or product releases are better aligned with customer expectations.

In the realm of product trials , businesses must navigate various key considerations to ensure the success and effectiveness of their trial initiatives. From legal and ethical compliance to resource allocation and communication strategies, each aspect plays a crucial role in shaping the outcome of a product trial.

When conducting product trials , companies must adhere to stringent legal and ethical standards to protect both consumers and the business itself. Data privacy regulations are paramount in product trials, especially concerning the collection and storage of user data. Compliance with laws such as GDPR or CCPA ensures that user information is handled securely and transparently throughout the trial process.

Maintaining transparency in trial terms is essential to build trust with participants. Clearly outlining what users can expect during the trial, including any limitations or data usage policies, fosters a sense of openness and honesty.

Obtaining customer consent before initiating a product trial is not only ethically sound but also legally required in many jurisdictions.

Clear consent mechanisms ensure that users understand their participation rights and how their data will be utilized during the trial. Effective resource allocation is crucial for the seamless execution of product trials and maximizing their impact on business objectives.

Strategic budget planning ensures that sufficient resources are allocated to different aspects of the trial, including marketing, technology infrastructure, customer support, and data analysis. A well-defined budget helps prevent overspending while optimizing trial outcomes.

Investing in comprehensive staff training equips employees involved in product trials with the necessary skills to interact with users effectively, gather feedback efficiently, and address any issues that may arise during the trial period.

Well-trained staff contribute significantly to a positive trial experience for participants. Robust technology infrastructure is essential for smooth trial operations, data management, user interactions, and feedback collection.

Implementing secure platforms, user-friendly interfaces, analytics tools, and communication channels enhances the overall efficiency and effectiveness of product trials. This is true for both PLG and SLG strategies. But it might be especially problematic for businesses that leverage the SLG motions with deliberate human-oriented intervention.

The reality is, as more business buyers push for a DIY buying process, human-led sales teams are getting fewer at-bats with their customers. Either way, your marketing or selling interventions should be guided by data, which really means guided by your product.

Finally, the handoff between pre-sale and post-sale teams continues to pose a challenge to most selling organizations. The reason is, most organizations treat the motion as a baton to pass between the two teams. The customer might have a successful trial, but for some reason, the post-sale team will still interact with the customer with a clean slate.

This approach creates a disjointed customer experience, and your team fails to build on top of all the valuable insights collected during the pre-sale part of the customer journey.

If the biggest problem is data access and visualization, then your first step is to find tooling that can aggregate product and conversational data and make it accessible to you and your go-to-market teams. To optimize for time to value, you should consider investing in a funnel intelligence platform.

Once all of your product and conversational data is visible only then can you exercise the four rites of customer engagement: right customer, right time, right channel, right message. They help businesses reach customers in an incredibly targeted way. Because of this, customers are now expecting more personalization in their buying experience and this is true for B2C and B2B buyers.

By blurring the lines you can create a truly customer-centric experience. But this ins't a quick fix. You will need to revisit org structures, ownership, compensation, and possibly your selling tech stack. Not small stuff if you ask us. In our opinion, the greatest risk and opportunity in your selling motion right now is how customers try, discover, and find value in your product - no matter where they are in their journey.

Many companies offer product trials but fail to realize that offering them is only half the battle. At FunnelStory, our goal is to help our customers access the revenue intelligence that exists in their product funnels and transition to a more product-led selling experience.

Solutions BY USE CASE. Product Trials Convert Trials to Revenue with AI. Customer Success Product led Customer Success in Minutes. Blog Read Product-led stories hot off the press. Podcast Listen and learn from go-to-market gurus. Join our Slack community Get the answers you are looking for in our community.

Sign In Get Started Get Started. Sign In. Get Started Get Started. The Problem With Product Trials And How To Improve Yours Offering a product trial is only half the battle. Try before you buy Product trials are everywhere these days, especially in the consumer world.

Should you offer a trial? Where others have gone wrong? How to get more from your trials If the biggest problem is data access and visualization, then your first step is to find tooling that can aggregate product and conversational data and make it accessible to you and your go-to-market teams.

Remove the risk in your funnels In our opinion, the greatest risk and opportunity in your selling motion right now is how customers try, discover, and find value in your product - no matter where they are in their journey.

A demo is a free product walkthroughled by a member of the Sales team to show prospective customers how they could get value out of the product It gives them a unique opportunity to test a product with no strings attached while giving your brand an opportunity to gain a customer if they like the product 1. Know what to use when: free trial or demo Product demonstrations and free trials are the most valuable form of content for new users to

Trial product opportunities - Another benefit of offering a free trial is that it can increase customer satisfaction. When customers have the opportunity to try a product or A demo is a free product walkthroughled by a member of the Sales team to show prospective customers how they could get value out of the product It gives them a unique opportunity to test a product with no strings attached while giving your brand an opportunity to gain a customer if they like the product 1. Know what to use when: free trial or demo Product demonstrations and free trials are the most valuable form of content for new users to

Trials are the first time your customer interacts with your product and first impressions matter. Also, it might not seem like it, but your trial is really the first type of onboarding your customer experiences, and the difference between good and great can impact that important metric called retention.

There are a few common mistakes that revenue leaders make when it comes to product trials. We believe the number one mistake is to not leverage all of the product and conversational data that is generated during a trial.

These insights if aggregated, analyzed, and made readily available to yourself and your team, can make revenue more predictable.

The other big mistake is not engaging customers on their terms. This is true for both PLG and SLG strategies. But it might be especially problematic for businesses that leverage the SLG motions with deliberate human-oriented intervention.

The reality is, as more business buyers push for a DIY buying process, human-led sales teams are getting fewer at-bats with their customers.

Either way, your marketing or selling interventions should be guided by data, which really means guided by your product.

Finally, the handoff between pre-sale and post-sale teams continues to pose a challenge to most selling organizations. The reason is, most organizations treat the motion as a baton to pass between the two teams.

The customer might have a successful trial, but for some reason, the post-sale team will still interact with the customer with a clean slate. This approach creates a disjointed customer experience, and your team fails to build on top of all the valuable insights collected during the pre-sale part of the customer journey.

If the biggest problem is data access and visualization, then your first step is to find tooling that can aggregate product and conversational data and make it accessible to you and your go-to-market teams.

To optimize for time to value, you should consider investing in a funnel intelligence platform. Once all of your product and conversational data is visible only then can you exercise the four rites of customer engagement: right customer, right time, right channel, right message.

They help businesses reach customers in an incredibly targeted way. Because of this, customers are now expecting more personalization in their buying experience and this is true for B2C and B2B buyers. By blurring the lines you can create a truly customer-centric experience. But this ins't a quick fix.

You will need to revisit org structures, ownership, compensation, and possibly your selling tech stack. Not small stuff if you ask us. In our opinion, the greatest risk and opportunity in your selling motion right now is how customers try, discover, and find value in your product - no matter where they are in their journey.

Many companies offer product trials but fail to realize that offering them is only half the battle. At FunnelStory, our goal is to help our customers access the revenue intelligence that exists in their product funnels and transition to a more product-led selling experience.

Solutions BY USE CASE. Product Trials Convert Trials to Revenue with AI. Customer Success Product led Customer Success in Minutes. Blog Read Product-led stories hot off the press. Podcast Listen and learn from go-to-market gurus.

Join our Slack community Get the answers you are looking for in our community. Sign In Get Started Get Started. Sign In. Get Started Get Started.

If you can optimize your free trial conversion rate, you may be able to grow much faster than if you only offer a demo. Individual contributors also frequently search for tools to make their jobs easier.

When those employees find a tool that works well for them, they may request that their managers consider purchasing the tool for the whole team. And for managers, purchasing a tool that employees have already tested and begun to adopt is much less risky than introducing a new tool in the hope that employees will adopt it.

If you want to achieve faster user growth and speed up your sales cycle for SMB customers, a self-serve free trial could be a great option, if you take care to mitigate the risks. The biggest risk of a free trial — and one that is often overlooked by companies when they first introduce a free trial — is that you only get one chance to impress users with your product.

If your free trial conversion rate is too low, your user growth may stall or even slow down as compared to when you only offered a demo. The key to a successful free trial is to make sure your users can accomplish something meaningful during the trial.

We explain this further in our guide to improving your free trial conversion rate , but there are two essential steps you must follow to mitigate this risk:. Many companies that offer both a free trial and a demo structure their landing pages with two calls to action: one to start your free trial, and one to request a demo.

Sales teams are still an essential part of most product-led strategies, but their role looks different. To identify those prospects, Sales teams rely on product qualified leads PQLs. A PQL is a lead who has already experienced meaningful value from your product, making them much more likely to become paying customers.

This can be a big problem for opt-in free trials and usage-based trials, especially if customers can get value from your product without much setup. A small amount of abuse of your free trial is inevitable. In this case, it might be better to switch to a freemium model and give away that product for free and find more advanced problems to solve with your paid product.

Even though a majority of software users say they prefer learning about a product on their own through a free trial, there are still many cases when a product demo is a much more effective way to show the value of a product.

As we mentioned before, for most companies, it makes sense to offer a demo, even if you also offer a free trial, because some portion of your customers will always prefer the additional handholding and the opportunity to ask questions before they buy.

But there are a few scenarios where it makes sense to only offer a demo and not a free trial :. We provide a more in-depth analysis of when to use a demo-only model in our article on product-led growth vs sales-led growth. There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding whether to use a demo or a free trial as your primary tool for showing customers the value of your product.

The ProductLed Accelerator helps companies develop a successful go-to-market strategy, whether they choose to offer a demo, free trial, freemium product, or a combination of all of the above. Along the way, we provide case studies, decision frameworks, templates, and worksheets so you can learn how to put the strategies to work for your company.

We host Zoom workshops every Tuesday throughout the program to answer questions and offer feedback. You get access to a private Slack group to connect with your cohort and get help from leading industry experts. Plus, you have access to all course materials for a year.

More than students have taken the program since it launched in , ranging from CEOs to VPs of Product to Customer Success directors.

Team members from Adobe, HubSpot, Mixpanel, and Microsoft have used the Accelerator to hone their strategy for a new product launch or transition existing products from sales-led to product-led. After taking our training, participants have seen their free product signups double and their free-to-paid upgrades triple Tettra.

Some participants have seen almost overnight growth in MRR by implementing just a couple of recommended changes in their onboarding process. Others say the program helped their team get aligned around all the changes required in each business unit when moving from a sales-led to a product-led approach.

Trial product opportunities - Another benefit of offering a free trial is that it can increase customer satisfaction. When customers have the opportunity to try a product or A demo is a free product walkthroughled by a member of the Sales team to show prospective customers how they could get value out of the product It gives them a unique opportunity to test a product with no strings attached while giving your brand an opportunity to gain a customer if they like the product 1. Know what to use when: free trial or demo Product demonstrations and free trials are the most valuable form of content for new users to

Companies often employ surveys, interviews, or rating systems to collect insights that can guide future developments or modifications based on actual user opinions. In the realm of business, product trials offer a multitude of advantages that extend beyond mere marketing strategies.

These trials serve as powerful tools to enhance customer experience, boost sales performance, and gain a competitive edge in the market.

Product trials enable companies to engage with customers on a more personalized level. By allowing individuals to test the product firsthand, businesses can tailor their interactions based on user preferences and behaviors, creating a more intimate and customized experience.

During product trials, companies can gather valuable insights into customer preferences and usage patterns. This data allows for the customization of recommendations and suggestions tailored to each user's specific needs, enhancing the overall trial experience.

One of the key benefits of product trials is their ability to increase customer satisfaction levels. By providing users with the opportunity to explore the product before making a purchase, businesses can ensure that customers are fully satisfied with their decision, leading to higher levels of loyalty and retention.

Product trials have been shown to significantly impact conversion rates by allowing customers to experience the value of a product firsthand.

By focusing on providing an exceptional trial experience, businesses can improve customer retention rates in the long run. Customers who have positive trial experiences are more likely to become repeat buyers and loyal advocates for the brand, contributing to sustained revenue growth.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that customers who participate in product trials often share their experiences with friends and family. This word-of-mouth marketing can lead to organic referrals and increased brand visibility within target markets , amplifying the impact of product trials on overall sales performance.

In today's competitive landscape, standing out is crucial for business success. Product trials offer a unique opportunity for companies to differentiate themselves from competitors by showcasing their offerings in a hands-on manner, capturing consumer attention effectively.

Through well-executed product trials, businesses can cultivate strong relationships with customers based on trust and transparency. This loyalty not only translates into repeat purchases but also fosters brand advocacy among satisfied users, further solidifying brand reputation.

Studies show that offering product trials can attract new customers who may be hesitant to commit without trying first. By lowering barriers to entry and demonstrating product value upfront, companies can expand their customer base and tap into previously untapped market segments.

In the realm of product trials, companies often employ various strategies to engage customers and drive sales. Understanding the different types of product trials can help businesses tailor their approaches to meet specific objectives and target audiences effectively. Free trial periods typically offer users a set duration during which they can explore the product's features and functionalities at no cost.

The length of these trial periods can vary from a few days to several weeks, allowing users sufficient time to experience the offering comprehensively before making a purchase decision.

During free trial periods, users often have access to the full range of features available in the paid version of the product.

This unrestricted access enables users to test all aspects of the offering, providing them with a holistic understanding of its capabilities and benefits. Some companies offer free trials as part of their subscription models, allowing users to experience premium features for a limited time before committing to a subscription.

This approach not only showcases the value of the paid version but also encourages users to upgrade for continued access post-trial.

Freemium models combine free basic features with premium functionalities available through paid subscriptions. During trials, users can explore both basic and premium features, gaining insights into the additional value offered by premium upgrades and encouraging them to consider subscription options.

Companies often use freemium trials as an opportunity to upsell premium features or subscriptions by highlighting the enhanced benefits and capabilities available in paid versions. This strategic approach aims to convert trial users into paying customers by demonstrating the added value of premium offerings.

To retain users beyond the trial period, businesses implement retention tactics such as personalized recommendations, exclusive discounts for upgrading, or limited-time offers post-trial. These tactics aim to convert trial users into long-term subscribers by emphasizing ongoing benefits and continued value.

Money-back guarantees assure customers that if they are dissatisfied with a purchased product after a trial period, they can request a refund. This policy reduces perceived risks for customers, instilling confidence in their purchase decisions and promoting trust in the brand's commitment to customer satisfaction.

Offering robust customer support during and after product trials enhances user experiences and addresses any concerns or issues promptly. Responsive customer support channels build credibility with customers, ensuring that they feel supported throughout their trial experience and beyond.

Money-back guarantees serve as risk mitigation strategies for customers who may be hesitant about trying new products. By providing assurance that refunds are available if expectations are not met, businesses reduce barriers to entry for potential customers, encouraging them to engage with products confidently.

In the realm of business, conducting a product trial requires careful planning and execution to maximize its effectiveness.

By following structured steps and best practices, companies can ensure a seamless trial experience for users while gathering valuable insights to drive product enhancements and decision-making. When embarking on a product trial , it is essential to establish clear objectives that align with business goals and customer expectations.

Before initiating a trial, define specific metrics that will measure its success. These metrics could include conversion rates, user engagement levels, or feedback ratings, providing tangible data to evaluate the trial's impact. Identifying the target audience for the product trial is crucial in tailoring the experience to meet their needs and preferences effectively.

Understanding the demographics, behaviors, and pain points of the target audience enables personalized interactions and targeted messaging. Determining the optimal duration for the product trial is key to balancing user engagement and feedback collection.

A trial period that is too short may not allow users sufficient time to explore all features, while an extended trial could lead to disengagement. Consider factors such as complexity of the product and user behavior when setting the trial duration.

To ensure a positive user experience during a product trial , focus on elements that enhance usability and engagement. Design an intuitive interface that guides users through the product seamlessly. Clear navigation, informative tooltips, and interactive elements can simplify user interactions and encourage exploration of key features.

Implement an onboarding process that familiarizes users with the product's functionalities quickly. Interactive tutorials, welcome messages, and guided tours can help users understand how to leverage the product effectively from the outset.

Offer robust support channels throughout the product trial to address user queries promptly. Live chat support, FAQ sections, or dedicated helplines can provide users with immediate assistance, enhancing their overall experience and reducing barriers to engagement.

After concluding a product trial , analyzing results is essential in deriving meaningful insights for future strategies and improvements.

Utilize various data collection methods such as surveys, analytics tools, or heatmaps to gather quantitative data on user interactions. By giving customers the opportunity to try your product or service, you can learn about their experience and use this information to improve and refine your offerings.

This can help you to stay ahead of the competition, and to provide a better product or service over time. Overall, offering a free trial can be a valuable way to gain a competitive advantage, and can help you reach new customers, build trust, and grow your business.

By offering a risk-free way for customers to try your product or service, you can demonstrate its value, gain valuable feedback, and set yourself apart from the competition. Another benefit of offering a free trial is that it can provide valuable data collection and market insights.

When customers sign up for a free trial, they typically provide contact and demographic information that can be used to gain a deeper understanding of your target market. This information can be extremely valuable in helping you to identify trends, preferences, and buying habits, and can be used to inform your marketing and sales strategies.

In addition, by offering a free trial, you can also gain valuable insights into how customers interact with your product or service. This can help you to identify areas for improvement and make changes that can increase customer satisfaction and engagement. By tracking usage and engagement during the trial period, you can also gain a better understanding of which features and functionality are most valuable to customers, and which ones may be less relevant or important.

Furthermore, by collecting data during the free trial period, you can also gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. This can help you to tailor your marketing and sales strategies to better meet the needs of your target market, and to increase the chances that you'll be able to successfully acquire new customers and grow your business.

Overall, offering a free trial can be a valuable way to gain data collection and market insights, and can help you better understand your target market, improve your product or service, and grow your business.

By collecting valuable customer data and using it to inform your marketing and sales strategies, you can gain a competitive advantage and increase your chances of success. Another benefit of offering a free trial is that it can increase customer loyalty. When customers are given the opportunity to try a product or service for free, they often feel a greater sense of ownership and engagement, and are more likely to become repeat customers.

Offering a free trial can also help to build trust and establish a relationship with the customer. By allowing customers to try your product or service before making a purchase, you're demonstrating your confidence in its value and quality, and you're providing a low-risk way for them to see for themselves why it's a great choice.

This can help to increase customer satisfaction and build a strong, loyal customer base over time. In addition, offering a free trial can also help to increase customer retention. When customers are able to try a product or service before making a purchase, they're more likely to be satisfied with their experience, and they're less likely to churn.

This can be especially true when the trial period is followed by a smooth and seamless transition to a paid subscription, as it can help to ensure that the customer experience is consistent and enjoyable throughout. Overall, offering a free trial can be a valuable way to increase customer loyalty, and can help you build strong relationships with your customers, increase customer satisfaction, and reduce churn.

By providing a risk-free way for customers to try your product or service, you can demonstrate your confidence in its value and quality, and increase the chances that they'll become repeat customers over time. Offering a free trial can also be an effective way to overcome objections and convert more customers.

When potential customers are considering a purchase, they may have concerns about the product or service, such as whether it will meet their needs, if it will be easy to use, or if it will provide good value for the price.

By offering a free trial, you're giving them the opportunity to try the product or service for themselves, and to see that these concerns are unfounded. This can be especially effective when the free trial is structured in a way that allows the customer to experience the full value of the product or service.

For example, if you're selling a software application, offering a free trial that allows the customer to use all of the features and functionality can help to build trust and overcome objections, and can increase the chances that they'll make a purchase.

In addition, offering a free trial can also help to address other objections that customers may have, such as concerns about the price or the risk of making a purchase. By providing a risk-free way for customers to try the product or service, you're demonstrating your confidence in its value and quality, and you're giving them a low-risk way to see for themselves why it's a great choice.

Overall, offering a free trial can be a valuable way to overcome objections and convert more customers. By giving potential customers the opportunity to try the product or service for themselves, you're addressing their concerns, building trust, and increasing the chances that they'll make a purchase.

By using a free trial as part of your customer acquisition strategy, you can increase your chances of success and grow your business. Offering a free trial can also result in increased product usage and customer engagement. A self-serve free trial removes that friction.

When implemented as part of a larger product-led growth strategy, a free trial can help you reduce your overall CAC by reducing the size of your Sales team and eliminating sales commissions from a significant portion of your deals. Instead of having to pay a commission for every basic, low-cost package you sell, you can let your Sales team focus exclusively on high-value prospects that need extra hand holding and who can afford to pay a premium price.

If you can optimize your free trial conversion rate, you may be able to grow much faster than if you only offer a demo. Individual contributors also frequently search for tools to make their jobs easier. When those employees find a tool that works well for them, they may request that their managers consider purchasing the tool for the whole team.

And for managers, purchasing a tool that employees have already tested and begun to adopt is much less risky than introducing a new tool in the hope that employees will adopt it.

If you want to achieve faster user growth and speed up your sales cycle for SMB customers, a self-serve free trial could be a great option, if you take care to mitigate the risks.

The biggest risk of a free trial — and one that is often overlooked by companies when they first introduce a free trial — is that you only get one chance to impress users with your product.

If your free trial conversion rate is too low, your user growth may stall or even slow down as compared to when you only offered a demo. The key to a successful free trial is to make sure your users can accomplish something meaningful during the trial. We explain this further in our guide to improving your free trial conversion rate , but there are two essential steps you must follow to mitigate this risk:.

Many companies that offer both a free trial and a demo structure their landing pages with two calls to action: one to start your free trial, and one to request a demo. Sales teams are still an essential part of most product-led strategies, but their role looks different. To identify those prospects, Sales teams rely on product qualified leads PQLs.

A PQL is a lead who has already experienced meaningful value from your product, making them much more likely to become paying customers.

This can be a big problem for opt-in free trials and usage-based trials, especially if customers can get value from your product without much setup. A small amount of abuse of your free trial is inevitable. In this case, it might be better to switch to a freemium model and give away that product for free and find more advanced problems to solve with your paid product.

Even though a majority of software users say they prefer learning about a product on their own through a free trial, there are still many cases when a product demo is a much more effective way to show the value of a product.

As we mentioned before, for most companies, it makes sense to offer a demo, even if you also offer a free trial, because some portion of your customers will always prefer the additional handholding and the opportunity to ask questions before they buy.

Video