Free trial users not converting? Emails that turn them into customers

How to convert free trial to paying customers?

Write to the people on your free plan or trial at the point where each of them is, because the ones who never started, the ones who are using it and the ones whose trial is about to end need different things from you. An email cannot make someone want a product, but it can tell them what to do next, ask the person who got stuck what happened, and say plainly what the end of a trial means.

The emails, in the order they go

1. A welcome, straight away. It names the one thing to do first. There is a welcome email template to start from.
2. A nudge, a day or two later, for people who have not done that thing. Activation emails covers it, and the nudge stops for anyone who does it.
3. A question from you, about a week in, to people who are still around and have not paid. Ask what they were hoping the product would do. The replies tell you whether the problem is price, a missing piece or timing, and each of those is a different fix.
4. A note before the trial ends, with the date, what happens next, and how to keep going or leave. The trial ending email template has the words.
5. A note after it ends, for the ones who did not pay. Say what is still kept and for how long, and offer a few more days only if you really will give them.
6. A thank-you the day they pay, which also ends everything above for that person.

On a free plan with no end date there is no trial to end, so the notes before and after do not apply. The question from the third step still does, and so does a plain email about what the paid plan adds, sent once someone has been going for a number of days, as long as the paid plan really gives them something they would use.

How a trial ending or a first payment starts one

Kicklace puts each person at the stage they have reached on your Lifecycle map, and an email starts when somebody arrives at a stage or once they have been there a number of days.

• A trial ending. Connect Stripe with one restricted key and no code. Stripe tells Kicklace three days before a trial ends, that lands on the person as a trial ending, and a side road on your map can start from it. The note before goes first, then a wait, then the note after. The Stripe trial ending guide goes through it step by step.
• A trial that is not in Stripe. Your own server can post an event of your own from a daily job, and a side road starts from that instead. Events covers the names.
• A first payment. A payment moves the person to Paying and starts the thank-you. The side road for a trial ending, as Kicklace sets it up, rejoins the road at Paying, so none of the trial emails reach someone who has already paid.
• A free plan. The question and the plain email about the paid plan hang off the Signed up or Activated stage and go once someone has been there a number of days. They stop when the person pays.

Somebody who reached checkout and left without paying is a different case: see emailing people who left a Stripe checkout.

What to leave out

• Fake urgency. Countdowns and "last chance" turn a fair reminder into pressure.
• A discount in the first email. Offer money off only if the replies say price is the reason.
• The same email for everyone. Someone who has not started needs a different one from someone who has.

How Kicklace does it

Paste your website's address and Kicklace reads it, proposes the stages your customers go through, and writes the first emails in your voice. Each email sits on the stage or side road it belongs to, and an email with no words yet has Write for me. Kicklace only reads Stripe. It never charges anybody or changes a customer, a price or a payment.

Nothing sends until you switch a sequence on, and before you do, Kicklace shows who would have got it over the last 30 days and lets you send yourself a test. Each person gets each email once. The demo shows a map like this on your own site with no sign-up, and the price is on pricing.

FAQ

How to convert free users to paid?

Find out where each free user stopped, then send the email that fits: a nudge if they never started, a question if they went quiet, and a plain note about the paid plan if they are using it. Kicklace sends each one from the stage they are at and stops it once they pay.

How to figure out why free users don't convert?

Ask them, in a short email from you with one question, and let them answer by replying. What they say tells you whether to change the price, the product or the timing of your emails.

What are the most effective email sequences for converting free trial users?

No sequence is proven for every product, so start with the short one on this page and read the replies. They tell you what is in the way, and that is the first thing to change.