Tip: Attract users to your free trial with a challenge funnel

It may sound too good to be true, but there's a way to funnel users to your free trial and get paid for doing it. Create challenges that guide users to the results they seek, and introduce customers to your software along the way.

The idea is to take the end result that your customers are looking for and create a system that manually gets them there. Then offer that result within a short timeframe to potential customers (for example, "Hit #1 in Google for your local market in 7 days") — this is the "challenge". During the challenge, you help them to achieve that result by educating them, walking them through the process, and eventually introducing a tool that will help them along the way — your software. They'll sign up for a free trial and learn all about the software as they complete the challenge. And voila, you've got new trial users who know how and why to use your product.

This worked for Austin Ford of Funnel Build's client, The Credit Repair Club. At prelaunch, 423 people purchased access to their challenge, and 60% of those turned into free trials for their flagship product. This is particularly effective for software with a steep learning curve, but it can work for any SaaS. All you need is the industry know-how to create an effective challenge.