How to Maximize Your SaaS Landing Pages

What do you when someone gives you a present?

If you’re like most people, you thank your friend, and then start thinking, “Hmm, what could I give them in return?”

It’s a typical response but have you ever wondered why? It turns out the answer is instinct.

Human psychology dictates that we reward kind actions. When someone is kind to you, you tend to be kinder to them. When you offer something to someone, there’s a higher possibility they’ll offer something back in return.

What has this got to do with getting signups for your SaaS post-click landing pages?

Everything.

Imagine this scenario with me.

You own a SaaS company. Everything looks great, your software is top-notch, and you have an edge over your competition. Your visitors are going to line up to get what you are offering – especially since you’re offering a free trial for an incredibly helpful product. You create a post-click landing page based on this assumption. You hit publish.

And then nothing happens.

There’s no line forming.

No one is buying in – even for a free trial.

And you end up thinking you did something wrong.

Because, well, you did.

Why isn’t your free trial post-click landing page converting?

The above scenario is all too typical.

A study done on 712 small businesses by Groove discovered the conversion rate from visitor to trial was just 8.4%.

So why don’t more people want a free trial?

It’s free and still only 8.4% click on your CTA button.

When you offer your customers a free trial for your product, what are you doing? You’re giving them a gift.

With a free trial, a user gets a valuable solution to a problem without paying for it.

The principle of reciprocity then dictates they should give you something in return, a click on your call to action button. So why do only 8.4% of your potential customers become trial users? Do 91.6% visitors just not think of your product as a solution?

Do free trials simply not work?

The surprising answer is no.

Comparing free samples and free trials

Supermarkets offer free samples.

This is a regular practice. You pass someone with a table providing customers zipping by a taste the latest ice cream flavor, an artisan cheese, or mini pizzas.

Do these tables fail with their free offers?

No.

A study done by The Atlantic on Costco’s free samples highlighted shoppers had an increased chance of buying a product after they had sampled it:

Free samples work. Why didn’t your free trial?

Despite what self-doubt might be telling you right now, your service (probably) doesn’t suck. What needs to be fixed is not your software, but the post-click landing page you’ve created to represent it.

After researching the best practices for post-click landing pages, conversion rates, and why free samples work when free trials don’t, we’ve discovered two psychological principles you can implement with your SaaS post-click landing pages to increase sign ups. These techniques will make your free trial post-click landing page more like a sampling table – a place people just can’t say no.

Show your face

A study on the investigation of in-store sampling promotions revealed the samplers’ interaction with the individual offering the sample factors into the buying process.

What’s the difference between a sample table and your free trial post-click landing page? Anonymity!

Now, I am not telling you to splat your face all across your post-click landing page. The page needs to be about your service. Give your visitors what they need to know about your product with an attention grabbing headline, bullet points of copy all full of the benefits and advantages your service offers over other services available in the field, and an image of your product.

However, you should also make your post-click landing page human. Show them a face like theirs to tell them the service they’re about to pass on was actually created by a human.

Someone just like them.

Tula software does an excellent job of removing anonymity. There’s a headline, the benefits, and a face:

Another great example is the Kissmetrics post-click landing page:

The guy isn’t screaming, “Sign up for the free trial!” He’s just standing there nonchalantly adding human appeal to a SaaS post-click landing page. The headline tells the visitor what they need to know about the service and the guy subconsciously pressures them to sign up.

Introduce some social pressure

When you’re standing next to the sample table with your free mini pizza in your mouth, and you see others buying, you feel obligated to buy, too.

Social pressure works every time.

When your visitors arrive at your post-click landing page, you shouldn’t be the only one telling them your service is worth trying out; there should be others on there raving about your product, too. Include testimonials from clients who tried the free trial and then couldn’t help but upgrade.

Another tactic you can use is to tell them how many people have signed up for the free trial (and then became regular customers). Prove that your product works.

Take, for example, the Basecamp post-click landing page:

Not only does the page tell visitors that 5,570 companies signed up for the service in a week but that 97% of Basecamp customers offer the service a glowing recommendation. The page also removes anonymity by putting up a picture of their customer.

Creating post-click landing pages and getting conversions from them isn’t difficult; you just need to know the right techniques to use and have the right tools by your side. Sign up for an Instapage Enterprise demo today.

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