Conversion Question
I have a reasonably successful business making 5-10k USD a month from licensing fees for my remote isolated browser / white-label co-browsing solution, based on an open source product. My marketing has consisted of posting free demos to various forums and answering comments around the web. Recently I saw a big spike in use of my free co-browsing demo (~1000 sessions per day, 10x normal usage, after posting a new version, every day for the last week), and considering I could turn this into another revenue stream added a paywall (initially 3.81 for 15 minutes, now 1.33 for 1 hour). I'm still getting 1000 requests per day, but no one is converting to pay. What can I do? What could be causing this? I don't track my customers in anyway (in part because of security, I don't track or record how anyone uses the browser, nor do I track nor use any analytics on the landing page). My landing and marketing pages are functional but basic and unpolished. I thought the 1000 DAUs (many returning judging by IP address), indicated people with a thirst for this solution. But I'm unsure why they don't pay and what can I do to raise conversions. I'm open to any feedback, and admit that this type of business (where people land on the site and pay a one off price for a single use product ~~ the session) is something I'm unfamiliar with and is different to how I've previously made money with this. I think there's something obvious I'm overlooking, and would really value any feedback any of you might have. I've been a lurker here for a while but haven't seen something that answers my question.
@cris798 - Assuming you mean CBWM
First, when I hover over the buttons on that page, my pointer doesn't change over to a finger. Meaning, if someone hovers over the button, it doesn't look like it's clickable. I didn't think it was clickable either, but randomly clicked the button only to find out you redirected me to Stripe.
Next, the "Create a Meeting" button (same behavior as noted above) does not set any expectation of having to pay when clicking the button. So, when I decide to click, and see a Stripe page where I have to pay, it feels a little bait-n-switch. Most users would abandon.
The CBWM page isn't very compelling visually -- it actually looks like it could be a scam site. So, my first reaction would be that I don't want to put any credit card info in because I'm not sure if it's legit. If you made it look more like a real landing page, comparable to other mainstream SaaS homepages, and also offered PayPal, it could increase the perceived trust.
You should, at least temporarily so you can learn what people are doing. For example, run session recording using a tool like SmartLook (or similar). Also, a heatmap tool could be helpful so you know where people are hovering their mouse or clicking.
Would recommend the following:
LMK if you have any questions.
One other idea -- is there a way you could build a paywall into co-browsing session?
Meaning for example, give 15 minutes for free, pause the session once free minutes have run out, then prompt for payment directly in the co-browsing session. Do the payment part in an overlay/modal, then after payment, return to the co-browsing session.
On your site/landing page, you could present two CTAs:
A. 15 minutes FREE
B. $X for X minutes
Either way, and separately, I think it might also be helpful to prompt the user for their email address, and send them a link to start the co-browsing/screen sharing session. That way you have an email address you can use to follow-up with if/as needed.
Maybe even change the flow:
or
The idea is to find a balance between building trust, getting people committed enough to give you something, and reducing friction in sign-up.
May have to test a few different sign-up flows to see which converts the best.
Wow, that's such a fantastic answer. Thanks for giving so much there, @iammike! How can I repay you for this great advice and engaging with my question!?
@cris798 - My pleasure and happy to hear you find the feedback helpful.
No repayment needed. Maybe we can work on something together someday (Product Guy + Software Engineer = 💪)
I'd really appreciate it if you keep me posted on your progress with CBWM, any changes you make, and the impact those changes have on conversions.
OK I will do that! :P ;) xx Thank you again very much ! :p ;) xx
Is being anonymous part of the product offer or can you try pushing people to register?
What's you offer for the paid service? What's different from the free one?..
Thank you for your reply @hatkyinc.
It's the same service, with a paywall. I started it as a free demo and didn't think there's be many people using it, and certainly not repeat using it, but it turned out there were lots of people.
Being anonymous might be important for some people, but I had a previous version that had a signup (but still free) and maybe 20% of people signed up with their email.
What are you thinking are the advantages of registering? The paid service is a 60-minute session of remote browsing / co-browsing. The free was for 15-minutes. People would normally get a couple of 15-minute sessions in a row.
Why Signup?
In a way, it's the 1st step in a relationship, you can't build one with anonymous users
20% signups sound like there is interest and value there to be had
You can make anonymous free 5 minutes and free signed up 15 for example.
Why limit paid to 60 min? why not "unlimited" (could still timeout at like 12/24 hours or something if there are technical issues...)
What people are using it for is a critical piece of information for you IMHO as that should lead you to develop both your product features, marketing, and value proposition. That I think should be your focus for this stage, however, you decide to obtain that information.
Thank you! I guess you mean unlimited for a larger fee, which would make sense. But unlimited for USD1.33 might not. I suppose another advantage of signup is people could potentially persist their state, so if they signed in to stuff on their browser, they wouldn't need to do it again. I resisted that at first because I think people want security and a fresh one each time, but as you say, I don't track how they use it, so that might not be important to them.
I like the advantage of people being able to drop by like in a retail shop, and no long term commitment. But at the same time, you clearly showed me the advantages of having connection. Thank you! :) ;p xx
Better overprice and overdeliver for the start
The cost to trust you and pay something is way larger than the 1$
Your transaction based on one session costs more in transaction effort than in $, that's why an account make more sense, try for a 9.95$ package as the low one, let them buy a credit package if it saves you work
Due an account feel better cause it reduces thinking and trying to predict usage for the customer
Thanks that's a great idea! And a great insight about the price. My potential customers are around the world and i can't assume English as a first language, but I'm okay to translate mails for each language. I've not used email marketing automation before, what do you think is a good one to start with?
Is your site translated?
I think mailchimp is the most known but there are probably 100's that are quite equivalent for 90%+ of the cases
The basic function you want is email at N+
So on signup (you can introduce yourself and ask for free form feedback for example)
on 1 day after (commonly drip-feed ideas on how to use and stories about the product)
after a week
etc
Bonus if you can do hours and not just days
Advance is to be able to put an even in to further split the group.
So you can mark a customer has made his 1st session
And one that exceeded the max time for the session (needs the feature more)
Or any other creative context you can think of
Also, a high priority is to mark people that have already upgraded/paid already... so you don't hassle them to buy after they already did, and you can upsell upgrade and/or tell them about more features they can use and such
The other email stream is blast emails if you want to do like holiday sales and such
(p.s. from your registered users also some would never read or open emails, that's why it's a funnel
one of the email service features is to try to track opens which is lacking, but also clicks which is normally reliable, but you have to actually provoke clicks)