Building Freemium Plans the Right Way
Organizations that offer free plans alongside their premium plans, can often benefit from the steady influx of new prospects. By properly utilizing a freemium plan, a business can potentially convert more users into paying customers, increase their customer base and increase engagement and retention.
When to Build a Freemium Plan
A freemium plan can be used to introduce prospects to a product or service, give customers more options for easing into your product and increase customer engagement. Building a well-crafted freemium plan can help your business meet its goals, increasing sales, leads and customer loyalty.
How to Get It Right
In order to get a freemium plan right, you will want to watch out for the following elements:
- Advantageous Feature Offering: Offer features that are advantageous to users while being limited enough that they need to upgrade to a premium plan in order to access the full range of services.
- Compelling Upsell Opportunities: Provide customers with a clear path to upgrading from a freemium plan to a premium plan by highlighting the additional value that a premium plan can offer them.
- Reliable Support: Ensure users can get help easily when needed by providing good documentation, FAQs and customer support options for basic questions.
- Adjustible Options: Be sure to update the freemium plan periodically to ensure users are being offered a plan which is beneficial to their needs.
When done correctly, building a freemium plan that works in conjunction with a premium plan can be a powerful tool in increasing customer base and sales volume. An effective freemium plan should have features that are enjoyable, useful and add value to the customer.
By following the tips above, you can be sure to always have the right freemium plan in place, so you can convert more customers and gain more value from every user. When companies are deciding whether or not to offer a freemium plan, there are a few key considerations to bear in mind. A freemium plan provides basic access to certain services or products from a company for free with the option to upgrade for a fee for more features, and can be an effective way of inviting potential customers to engage with your products or services.
The first thing to decide is whether or not a freemium plan fits with the company’s overall objectives. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to choosing a freemium strategy, and the decision should take into account the product costs, target market and strategic direction of the company. If the product has a recurring revenue model or multiple tiers of service, a freemium plan may be ideal. Likewise, companies targeting novice or casual users may find a freemium plan to be a useful way to attract people who otherwise would not pay for a product or service.
Once the decision has been made to go with a freemium plan, the company must take into account what features will be offered for free and what functions and services might require payment. In general, the goal should be to provide enough features for free that potential customers can get a good feel for the product, but still leave them with a desire for more. For example, free versions of an app should include the basic features with the option to upgrade for additional features or more support.
Finally, a freemium plan will likely be unsuccessful if it is not communicated properly. Companies will need to focus on capturing users’ contact details and build an email list to track customer engagement, while also ensuring they clearly communicate to customers the value of upgrading to a paid plan. Additionally, companies should use metrics and analytics to gain insights into the behavior of customers who use the free version to optimize their freemium plans.
It is important to carefully consider whether or not a freemium plan is the right approach for a company before committing to one and taking the time to refine the plan once launched can help ensure it is successful. By understanding the target market and properly communicating the value of an upgrade, companies can maximize their chances for success when crafting and executing a freemium plan.
