How do you democratize your product?
I'm building an educational product to study singing and charge around $10/month for premium access to my tools.
Around 2 months ago I realized that the freemium model is not doing any good to my conversion rate. I've experimented with various trials and ended up removing them completely.
The conversion rate improved. But another thing started happening.
I started receiving messages through the feedback form from people complaining that it's too expensive and they can not afford it.
I did a little customer research and it turns out that most of these requests come from students and kids who are too shy to expose their interests to their parents and ask to pay for their aspirations.
Needless to say, it makes me feel sad. My target audience is 25+ hobbyists but to reject the kids just because they don't have money... I feel like I might be able to do something here.
So far the best thing I came up with is to offer a "refer a friend" scheme:
Invite a friend and if they sign up get a month for free.
I was hoping that it might open up the gates a bit and also potentially bring some virality to my product. I use Stripe coupons for this, which means I require users to input their CC. So far 90% of these referral sign-ups churn almost immediately.
I was also thinking maybe to ask these people to make some posts on social media and give them premium access for that? But I'm not sure how it will play on my reputation. Might feel like I'm extorting the testimonials from people.
I'm wondering if you have ideas or techniques in mind that I could use? Did you have experience with something similar?
Another post about subscriptions! You may have read my post earlier today
How about… not using subscriptions? Or, not using subscriptions for people with an edu address? Make it something affordable, something they can be gifted for Christmas / birthdays, or something they can save up their money for and purchase.
Some other options to consider for your users are:
Some of these solutions may be harder since you’re using a web app, instead of releasing an electron desktop app. The problem with pure subscriptions is that I lose access to everything the second I stop paying you money—that’s hard for students without a stable source of income.
Sure, I’ve done that to get educational discounts before. I’ll do anything to get my learning materials.
Honestly, I’ve never found this solution to be helpful as a student. Often, it’s impossible to get that first month referral anyway.
Regardless, I hope you do something! Find a way to make it work for kids—you could end up changing their lives. Having taught myself, I know giving back makes a world of difference.
Thanks for suggestions. I actually already sell LTDs, but it seems that the price tag over $100 is too much for some people.
I’m wandering if there is more reliable way to check that they are students, but similarly simple to .edu domain. I like this idea.
Almost every school has edu email addresses and removes access after graduation. Can’t think of an easier or more automated way.
Some like to check class schedules or APIs that verify students, but I don’t think they are any more secure or reliable than just having an edu address. After all, you want to be selling your product, not verifying students.
Checking for a .edu address is what I do, and it’s easy to implement, automate, and handle renewals without taking any of your time per student signup.
That’s great to hear! Thanks for supporting students 😄