💦 Squeezing more💰 out of your trials

+ show me your prompts!  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Hey folks! I wanted to write about how Product Managers are *really* using chatGPT (prompts and all) to help them with their work, but then when I was looking for some interesting prompts + examples...honestly - I didn’t find…well, any. Most of the articles out there are just platitudes like “use it to write your release notes”, “to analyse customer insights”, and worst of all “to give you product ideas” (you can tell the author *wasn’t* a product manager 🤦‍♀️). So now - I want the real deal...show me your prompts 😉 Would you [spare me 2 minutes and fill in this survey on your chatGPT usage?Â]( PLG? Well, yes, but... I feel like PLG went from being the 'it girl' of the product world, to a bit of an underdog in less than a couple of year...because, newsflash: a lot of companies couldn't monetize it: [Image] If you've opened a free trial, or went full-on freemium - chances are you feel like you have not 'reaped the full rewards' of this yet. We've been there too. It wasn't until we actually put in some work into the free trials that we saw the uptick in conversions.  Here are some levers you can pull to increase the ROI on your freemium/free trials: - Determine your monetization strategy: Decide whether you want to use usage-based or feature-based pricing. This decision will influence whether you go for a free trial or freemium model. - Balance value and team size: For feature-based pricing strategies like Calendly and Crunchbase, recognize that adding more team members may plateau the value-growth curve. Consider this when developing your pricing model. - Consider a hybrid approach: Some companies successfully use a combination of both usage-based and feature-based pricing strategies. Evaluate whether a hybrid approach could benefit your SaaS product.  - ​Implement a ['Reverse Free Trial'](model: A SaaS reverse trial is a hybrid approach that combines the best aspects of free trials and freemium models. In this model, users are granted access to the full functionalities of your tool for a limited time, after which they are downgraded to a free plan with limited features if they don't upgrade. This allows users to experience the full potential of your product and encourages them to upgrade to a paid plan for continued access to premium features. Companies like Canva and Toggle have successfully implemented this model, which can be an effective way to drive product-led growth. ❗❗The reverse trial won't work for all companies. Here’s what [Elena Verna]( thinks about it: “If your product has a high cost of giving out trial or occasional in use (MAU), this option may be a bad fit.” [Image] - Design additional funnels for different buying journeys: Cater to the different needs and buying behaviors of customers across market segments by creating specialized sales motions and monetization funnels. - [Gamify your trial experience](: add interactive onboarding elements to help your trial users adopt more of your product features, discover more value and push for upgrades faster.  - ​Integrate self-serve and sales tracks: Your product-led company can have both self-serve and sales tracks that work together, as they play complementary roles in driving user adoption and revenue growth. - Develop the four monetization funnels for PLG companies: Create separate funnels for self-serve, sales-assisted, bottom-up, and top-down market segments. Invest in a few funnels that cater to a range of customer sizes for better market coverage. - Invest in a good lead qualification system: Implement a robust lead qualification system powered by clean data and predictive scoring tools to facilitate automated audience segmentation for each funnel. Read more [here]( and [here](. 'Hidden effects' of freemium:  But this is not the full picture. The thing is - monetization of the free trials is like last-touch attribution in marketing. If you only consider the direct impact - it may be underwhelming on its own. If you look at the indirect effects of offering a free taste of your product - you'll clearly see how it can contribute to more revenue over time. [Image] Elena Verna (if you don't know Elena yet - she's a Growth Advisor, former Head of Marketing at Miro, Reforge EIR, SVP at SurveyMonkey, and Head of Growth at Amplitude 🤯) has written a great post on this [in this Reforge blog](. Here are some 'hidden effects' of freemium: - Higher Willingness to Pay [Image] - Freemium products increase the probability of realizing potential value. - This raises the purchase price buyers are willing to pay. - Increased Network Effects - Free products allow for building a large network of users, increasing the value proposition for paid users - e.g. Spotify, LinkedIn. - Stronger User Habits - Free products allow users to develop a habit before paying, resulting in better retention and higher LTV - e.g. Miro - Growth Loop Acceleration - Freemium enables and accelerates product-led growth loops where free trials and other models cannot, e.g. SurveyMonkey - Earlier Customer Acquisition, Decreasing CAC - Free products help acquire users before they become more expensive to acquire. - Example: Notion - Better Product Insights - Free products provide a larger user base to learn from, decreasing research, R&D, and experimentation costs. This helps in understanding target audience, customer problems, and behavioral patterns better. Loving your freemium more now? 😉 Hope this gives you some food for thought on what you can do to increase the ROI on your freemium/ free trials! Meanwhile - help a fellow product person out! Here are some interesting studies you can take part in: [Product-Led Sales Survey]( - to uncover how sales is efficiently tackling bottom-up selling (by Calixa) [User-centric product growth]( -  to benchmark and shed light on the product-user relationship in product management today (by Usersnap)  And that's all for today. See you next week! [Image] Emilia Korczynska, Head of Marketing at Userpilot I'm a marketing manager obsessed with product growth. Wanna talk? Simply respond to this email! To make sure you keep getting these emails, please add emilia@userpilot.co to your address book or whitelist us. Want out of the loop? Don't remember you subscribed at all? We get it. 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