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Free offer conversions [your opinion]

by dwatrous
5 replies
I've built a site that aims to use a "free offer" followed by a membership. I'm doing all I can to be straight forward about the offer (nothing sneaky), but I'm not getting the conversions that I need to be profitable. So I'm thinking of a small tweak. Please comment if you like one or the other or can think of something that I haven't mentioned yet.

CURRENT) I give away 2 free software DVDs and then the person is on a monthly recurring membership for between $23 and $19 (I've tested both with similar poor results). Each month they get a new DVD and they can cancel anytime, even before the first month charge. There's initial shipping of $3.26. They also get member access to downloads and videos about the software.

ALTERNATE) give away 1 DVD, but ship 2. The second one is to evaluate. If they keep it they I charge them $19. If they return it I don't charge them. Each month I send a new DVD to evaluate/trial and the same thing happens. I also charge them some shipping for each months shipment (maybe $4). They still get member access to the site, but the 'membership' aspect is downplayed. They can still cancel anytime and I would stop shipping trial DVDs.

For the alternate approach I think I would drop the price to $16.

This is the site that I have right now which implements the first scheme:
choicesoftwarezone.com/image-editing-software

Thanks in advance for your opinions and experience.
#conversions #free #free offer #offer #opinion #trial offers
  • Profile picture of the author Chris Pambos
    Perhaps you should assess your free offer.

    If you're currently getting poor conversions on the front end, it could either be the quality of traffic or how you've positioned your free offer.

    I do not understand why you would charge your customer a separate S&H fee each month for them to receive their content when they already pay a monthly subscription fee.

    That could be your problem right there that is turning a lot of people off.

    You should include each months S&H fee as part of the monthly subscription fee.
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    • Profile picture of the author dwatrous
      For the CURRENT approach there's a shipping fee for the first two free DVDs and nothing else. Each month there is NOT another shipping fee, just the membership fee.

      For the ALTERNATE approach I would charge shipping and then only charge them for the DVD if they keep it, not if they send it back.

      Does that clear it up?
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Pambos
        From a quick glance, I believe the style of website you're currently using is what's diminishing your conversions.

        Because you have a content website, you give your visitors so many options to click through to different parts of the website, in most cases, people will forget why they even arrived to the website in the first place, for a solution.

        It's like having a squeeze page with outbound links. You give your visitors multiple paths to take rather than just the one path that they take which leads to the desired action you were after.

        As everyone markets differently, I personally would totally restructure your current website and I assure you conversions would instantly increase with how I would structure that current website.

        Like I said, giving your visitors more than one option is what diminishes your conversions because they don't end up taking the desired action you want them to take due to having so many options.
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  • Profile picture of the author dwatrous
    I suppose you could say that clicking through to other pages is bad when you have a single offer, but that doesn't apply to ecommerce sites that have a range or products. Certainly you want to bring PPC visitors to a relevant page, but after that, so long as they stay on your site, you want them to browse. Just look at amazon.com

    My product is closer to ecommerce since I don't care which free DVD they take first, and I don't mind if they change their mind after they get to the site.

    With all that said, I think there are some design changes I could make, but I've already started a thread in the design forum for that.

    I would love to hear form someone that has an opinion between the two "free offer" approaches that I've mentioned. Maybe someone that's used one or the other.

    Thanks.
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