Last week, we changed something that will help small businesses take their marketing to the next level. Rewind a couple years in Infusionsoft history and the only way to try our software was to plunk down thousands of dollars up-front. This was not an easy thing for a small business to do, but the ones who invested did it because they knew the results they could accomplish.
Later in July 2009, we made a shift by letting go of the setup and consulting fee. This move more than doubled the number entrepreneurs who signed up for Infusionsoft … but that wasn’t good enough for us. The answer (or so we thought) was to introduce a ‘free trial’ of the software, of course! So, we went to work.
Here’s where the hard part began.
Why? Many reasons, but one of the biggest was that we needed to further simplify the product and make the free trial experience cleaner and better. Additionally, we didn’t have robust “email throttling” to keep abuse at bay and inexperienced email marketers from shooting themselves in the foot. So, we launched a free trial, but required a credit card to sign up.
The thought was that the credit card would reduce risk of abuse … and for the most part, it did. The verified credit card did a great job reducing risk. It also did a fantastic job of preventing thousands from taking the software for a spin! (For you marketers out there, take note that we had a 75% fallout rate from the initial ‘basic contact info’ form to the next ‘credit card info’ form in our two-step free trial sign up process.) And let’s keep in mind, this statistic includes the fact we did not charge the credit card until people elected to upgrade within their application.
Goodbye credit card free trial!
Take a look at more photos of our celebration of this on our Flickr. We’re all proud of this moment!
Thanks to a massive effort by our product and technical crews over many months, we launched a full-blown, no credit card, free trial this week. This sounds easy, but trust me, it wasn’t — we built our business from the start through monetization; not the other way around. They changed quite a bit of back-end functionality to help new users try Infusionsoft risk-free.
Although it’s going to be really cool for our company, I’m more excited for the new users who will experience the software for the first time. It’s a totally different experience now. The moment users sign up, a video fires up setting the stage for revolutionizing their growth and success. As soon as they hit the homepage of the software, they’re presented with a clear and proven path that points them the way to quick results with the software.
In my opinion, the absolute coolest change is how the software ‘talks’ to new users and ‘shows’ how the automation works, what’s possible, where to go and what to do. It’s an amazing addition to the experience.
If you want to see what it’s all about, sign up for the free trial, and enjoy the ride!
Posted In: Company News & Information
