Should I put the payment at the beginning or end of my onboarding?
Hi guys!
Longtime marketer, first time SaaS builder.
I'm in the earliest stages of building and validating Tangram, my marketing automation tool
The first feature is a marketing plan generator, which will eventually be the product onboarding.
What the current onboarding looks like:
- You pay $19 for the full plan
- You fill out the onboarding
- It gives you a brief overview of what 3 channels you need to get your first 1-100 customers
- Within 24 business hrs you get an email with your marketing plan in Notion detailing strategy + daily to do's for each channel
My question is - should i move the payment to after the brief overview instead of up front?
There's a video on my homepage that explains the process from onboarding through finished plan, but I think customers might be more willing to purchase if the onboarding looked like this instead:
- You fill out the onboarding
- It gives you a brief overview of what 3 channels you need to get your first 1-100 customers
- You pay $19 for the full plan
- Within 24 business hrs you get an email with your marketing plan in Notion detailing strategy + daily to do's for each channel
Thoughts?
This is the product if you're curious: Tangram, marketing plans that don't waste your time
(I'm going to start marketing Tangram heavier in April, I threw this up to stop me from procrastinating (and it works great for an MVP!), but curious what the product peeps would say.)
Test it!
See which converts better.
The other thing to consider besides financial optimization is the feeling you want to get across to users. Job boards do it the 2nd way and I never much liked filling out all my info and then being forced to pay because it felt like a bait and switch. I spend 30 minutes formatting my job post perfectly and then they can charge whatever they want. But...it does work. End of the day, that's up to you!
Good idea Joe!
I have experienced that job post bait and switch and hate it as well.
The experience should be straightforward, friendly, and helpful, just like the brand, so if I do put it at the end, I will make very clear that it will cost upfront.
🤜🏽 🤛🏽
This sounds like something that you could frame as "freemium" vs "pro".
The downside of collecting payment later is that you've increased substantial friction before you get paid - people need to fill in info. Depending on product, some people are happy to whip out their wallet thinking that you will solve a problem, but the actual work of filling in the onboarding is more effort than they're ready for. In that case, onboard after payment.
If, on the other hand, you're able to provide enough value to get people to sign up for the "free" tier, then you have them in your funnel and can start marketing to them. If you have a longer funnel, i.e. you end up with people who come across your product but aren't ready to drop money on it yet, then this can be a great way to get their lead and start drip email sequences or weekly updates etc.
That said, a free tier can be giving away your revenue stream. It's mostly valuable if you can translate it into some virality, e.g. if you're a calendar app or something else that requires sharing to be useful. If you don't have that, then I think you won't benefit a lot from the free tier.
Personally, I'd stick with taking payment up front. Just make sure your marketing pages promote the value really well.
Thank you Anna for such a detailed answer!
I'll keep the payment up front for now then, I think my landing page gives more than enough reason to spend ~$20 up front, especially with the video proof. :)
Agreed, a $20 cost for something as valuable as marketing advice is pretty easy to justify, especially for a business.
Very true!