How SaaS Businesses Benefit From Free Trial Offers

Could your SaaS business benefit from offering a free trial to potential clients? Although offering customers a chance to use some of your features for free might feel counterproductive, it’s an excellent way to boost your chances of sales. There are endless software companies out there just like yours, giving customers a range of options when it comes to subscribing to services.

This growing market is attracting a huge number of new and evolving SaaS companies, sending competition through the roof. Free trials are just one way to make your business stand out from the crowd. So, what are the benefits of offering a free trial?

Why Offer a Free Trial of Your SaaS Product?

By 2022, the SaaS market is set to reach a value of around $145 billion. That net value is growing faster than ever, thanks to a combination of digital transformation and the challenges of the pandemic.

Though companies have been embracing software for productivity, efficiency, and cost-savings for many years now, the pandemic forced various brands to shift from on-premises tools to more flexible, cloud-based subscriptions. With a free trial, you can show your audience that you’re worthy of monetary investment and outshine the competition.

Benefits of SaaS Businesses offering a free trial

• Improves Brand Reputation (and Authenticity)

  First, offering a free trial to your SaaS customers is one of the easiest ways to make your business stand out.
  Whether you’re trying to earn followers on social media or bring more customers to your website, you’ll notice that people are far more likely to pay attention when they think they can get something for free. A free trial allows you to reach a larger potential audience by taking the risk out of interacting with your brand. Perhaps most importantly, a free trial also demonstrates that you believe in your brand. By offering people a chance to test your service or product before they buy it, you’re essentially saying that you trust your solution to convert your audience.

  Rather than trying to sell your product by describing its features, you can allow your audience to experience the benefits themselves. If you believe in your product and its ability to make a difference enough to offer your customers a test for free, your clients are more likely to believe in you too. At the same time, you can develop an image as a more caring and generous brand because you’re giving people an option to use advanced tools for free – even for just a short time.

• Encourages Long-Term Relationships (Try Before you Buy)

  Often, in today’s software world, customers are more likely to purchase the tools they need on a subscription basis. Doing this means that customers can access the features they need and pay for only what they use.
  At the same time, businesses like yours get to use subscriptions as a way of ensuring a consistent income for your organization.

  Unfortunately, it can be difficult to convince your customers to agree to an annual or even monthly subscription when they don’t know anything about your service and what it can do. If you’re selling software in a B2B environment, such as project management tools or SEO checkers, you need to convince an entire team that a recurring expense is worth it. It’s much easier for an IT professional or buyer to go to their boss and convince them to pay for a subscription when they already have evidence of what the service can do.

  A free trial is an opportunity for your customer to gather all the information they need to ensure stakeholder and executive buy-in for your software. The initial free trial you offer is also an excellent way to get your customers hooked on the amazing outcomes and results they can get with your service. Once they see how great your product is, they’ll be reluctant to give it up.

• Helps You to Gather Social Proof from Fast Adoption Rates

  One of the biggest challenges software companies face is convincing companies to trust them when they haven’t been in the market for very long. Giving your customers a free trial of your SaaS solution is a good way to ensure they can test the services you offer and make sure it’s right for them before they invest any cash, but it can also be a wonderful way to gather social proof. With free trials, customers can quickly and painlessly download or start using your product without having to pay a fee. You can allow your customers to test the product, then offer them a discount on a paid subscription in exchange for feedback and reviews. The reviews you get will be excellent for gaining new potential customers and converting clients in the future.

  At the same time, feedback from existing trial customers can give you tips into on boarding tools and strategies you might need to use to help your clients take full advantage of your service. You can even find companies to partner with on case studies, so you can create advanced marketing resources to help you attract more customers.

Free trials Are a Win-Win

As difficult as it can be to understand the benefits of giving something away for free at first, it’s important to remember that free trials are more than just a way to capture customer attention. With a free trial, you can reach a wider audience, convert more customers, and even boost your chances of better, life-long relationships with repeat clients. Don’t underestimate the free trial.