Acquire Subscription Customers

The Cleverbridge platform helps our clients acquire new subscription customers. The components of the Cleverbridge platform that support acquisitions, along with the acquisition-related use cases that they support, are identified below.

General Platform Functions

Cleverbridge receives a client-generated Customer Self-Service username and password at the time of purchase An order made by a customer and the records associated with it.. This is general functionality, but more important to subscription clients.

Checkout Process

• A new (to Cleverbridge) customer purchases a subscription. This approach is typical when a client first transitions to Cleverbridge and has a large number of existing customers that must be transitioned to the Cleverbridge platform.
• A customer's free trial subscription is converted to a paid subscription automatically. The customer must provide payment Exchange of money for goods and services in an acceptable amount to the customer where the payment amount has been agreed upon in advance. The customer can only pay with an accepted payment method. Each payment has an individual payment cost. information upon signup for the free trial, but will not be charged before the completion of the free billing interval. At the end of the free billing interval, the customer is charged for the new interval, and will continue being charged until the subscription is canceled or modified.
• A customer converts from a freemium subscription product (set up in the client's system) to a paid subscription in the Cleverbridge system.
• A customer converts from a freemium subscription product (set up in the Commerce Assistant) to a paid subscription in the Cleverbridge system. Using the Cleverbridge checkout process for this transaction requires prior creation of a Commerce Assistant cancelation product list that contains the original and the new product. As a best practice, Subscription API Guide is recommended because it supports use of a one-click ordering process (instead of the full checkout process), and transactions of this nature can be included in possible future upgrade reporting. For either approach, the client must have agreed to a processing fee for freemium subscriptions, and the customer must enter payment details during the initial purchase.

Commerce Assistant

• A new (to Cleverbridge) customer purchases a subscription.
• A customer's free trial subscription is converted to a paid subscription automatically. This use case requires that the product be set up for auto-renewal, which is the default.

For more information, see Set Up Subscription Products.

Subscription API

A customer converts from a freemium subscription product (set up in the Commerce Assistant) to a paid subscription in the Cleverbridge system. The client must have agreed to a processing fee for freemium subscriptions, and the customer must enter payment details during the initial purchase. For more information, see use case: Customer Converts from Freemium to Paid Subscription.

About Free Trials

In today’s world, many consumers and businesses are reluctant to pay for things that they haven’t had the opportunity to try first. A free trial is one of the two primary ways how you can allow consumers to try your product or service—the other being a freemium product/service. With a free trial, you are letting prospective customer use the full version of the product/service for a limited period of time, usually for 7, 15, or 30 days. Once the time limit is reached, the customer can only use the product/service by subscribing to it. If everything goes well, the free trial user converts into a paying customer. A famous example of a company that uses free trials is Netflix.

Benefits of free trials are abundant:

• They allow you to demonstrate the value of your product/service, and by allowing users to see it you can influence their buying decision.
• They provide a low entry threshold to get to know a product/service, and prospective customers get a taste of what you provide without having to commit to anything.
• They are a lead-generation technique that can be very powerful for SaaS software, building long-term relationships with leads, and letting you convert a potential client into a satisfied paying customer later.

There are also a few downsides to free trials:

• Users may feel like they are under pressure to determine whether the product/service truly meets their needs.
• If the service does not live up to expectations, users may become frustrated by interruptions from pop-ups or emails informing them the trial has expired and it’s time to pay.

Free Trials Don't Always Make Sense

The main goal of a free trial is to activate users, create usage, and demonstrate value. If you cannot achieve this with your free trial, you probably shouldn’t offer one. Consider whether the free trial user will truly see the full benefit of your product/service during the course of the free trial. For example, if you sell a complex product/service that is difficult to understand and requires a lot of work during the implementation phase, sending users straight to your product/service might not be the best solution. In any case, for a free trial to work, it needs to be part of an overall customer acquisition plan.

Figuring Out the Right Length

Your free trial should be long enough to make your prospective customer feel like they can effectively evaluate your product/service. If the trial is too short, prospective customers may not sign up in the first place. If the trial is too long, users may lack the motivation to check out your product/service, put it off, and then forget about it. To figure out the right length of the free trial, you need to understand your customers and know what the market expectations are.

When to Ask for Payment Information

You might have been asking yourself when you should ask users for their payment information—immediately at the sign-up or at the end of the free trial period? Studies have shown that trial sign-ups go up when prospective customers are not required to provide payment information. People are more willing to try something out if they do have to not whip out their credit card, and they can move forward faster because there is one step less in the sign-up process. However, by asking for payment information up-front, you might get more qualified prospects into your free trial and, as a consequence, convert more free trial users into paying customers. Again, the decision when to ask for payment information depends largely on your product/service and the best solution is to test both alternatives.

How the Cleverbridge platform Supports Free Trials

A free trial period is either set in the product itself or using a coupon code:

• When you set up a subscription product, you can define a free trial period as part of the settings. This is the standard method, which you should preferably use because it is less error-prone.
• You can create a coupon code for free trials and add this code to the checkout process URL. The coupon code gives customers a discount of 100% on the initial interval of the subscription product.

For detailed instructions, see Set Up a Free Trial Period for a Subscription.

From a customer perspective, the free trial experience is often as follows:

1. The customer signs up for the free trial and enters payment information as part of the process but is not charged yet.

   Tip

   Optionally, you can have Cleverbridge preauthorize the customer's credit card. Our system checks whether the credit card is valid and can be debited. If the credit card is declined, the customer is asked to change the payment method Describes the actual payment method used by the customer to complete the purchase, for example, Visa, wire transfer, or SEPA Direct Debit. prior to us proceeding with the free-trial registration and subscription activation. Pre-authorization of credit cards potentially increases the trial-to-paid conversion rate and thus your overall revenue. This setting is configurable on a client and product level. For more information, contact Client Experience.

2. If the customer does not cancel within the free trial period, the free trial subscription automatically converts to a paid subscription at the end of the period.
3. The customer is charged for the initial billing interval and will continue being charged until the subscription is canceled or modified.

Set Up a Free Trial Period for a Subscription

You can offer customers a free trial period, such as 30 days. If the customer does not cancel within that time frame, the free trial subscription automatically converts to a paid subscription at the end of that period. A free trial period is set either in the product itself or by using a coupon code. For more information, see About Free Trials.

Set Up the Free Trial Period in the Product

You can set up a free trial on the product level by opening the Products section of the Subscription Commerce Manager (SCM) and the Products & Delivery section of the Commerce Assistant (CA). Depending on your tool of choice, do as follows:

Free Trial Setup in the SCM

1. In the Products section in the main menu of the SCM, select the recurring product you want to set up a free trial period for.
2. In the Pricing sub-section, select Start with free trial period and define the length of the free trial under Length of Initial Billing Interval. The price for Billing Interval 0 shows 0 automatically in the Billing Schedule.

Example

You want to set up a free trial period of 30 days for your product. In this case, you select days and enter 30 under Length of Initial Billing Interval.

3. Define the length of subsequent billing intervals under Length of Recurring Billing Interval.
4. Select Billing Interval 1 in the Billing Schedule and enter unique pricing information in the price grid for Billing Interval 1. This is the amount the customer will pay when the free trial period ends.

Note

If you don't define pricing information for Billing Interval 1, then Billing Interval 0 (as the initial price for the product) will remain the price for all subsequent subscription intervals.

You are now ready to offer customers a free trial period for the recurring product.

Free Trial Setup in the CA

1. In the main menu of the Commerce Assistant, select Product & Delivery > Products.
2. Select the product you want to set up a free trial period for.
3. Click Suggested Retail Price > Base Price.
4. If subscription billing hasn't been enabled for the product, click Toggle Subscription Billing on the top right. Subscription Options appears under Suggested Retail Price.
5. Click Suggested Retail Price > Subscription Options and define the length of the free trial under Initial Subscription Interval A subscription interval is the time period after which a recurring purchase is renewed and billed. The time period can be set in days, months, or years. One subscription can contain x products, all renewing on the same date. .

   Example

   You want to set up a free trial period of 30 days for your product. In this case, you select Number of days and enter 30 under Initial Subscription Interval.

6. Click Suggested Retail Price > Base Price and enter 0 as the price for Interval 0.

   Note

   Interval 0 is the initial price for the product. It will remain the price for all subsequent subscription intervals if you do not enter pricing information for another interval.

7. Select Interval 1 from the drop-down list, and click Add.
8. Enter unique pricing information in the price grid for the Interval 1. This is the amount the customer will pay when the free trial period ends.

You are now ready to offer customers a free trial period for the subscription product.

Set Up the Free Trial Period Using a Coupon Code

You can set up a free trial via coupon code by opening the Campaigns section of the Subscription Commerce Manager (SCM) and the Marketing section of the Commerce Assistant (CA). Depending on your tool of choice, do as follows:

Free Trial Setup via Coupon Code in the SCM

1. In the Campaigns section in the main menu of the SCM, select Promotions > Add Promotion.
2. In the General & Price section, enter a name for the free trial promotion, for example "Shieldware Internet Security – Free Trial".
3. In the Discount sub-section, set up the discount as shown on the screenshot below. For more information on the individual options, see Set Up Discount for Promotion under Add a Promotion.



4. Select the Coupons section and generate a coupon code:
1. Click Add Coupons and select Generate Coupons:
2. Enter information about how the coupon code should be created.
3. Click Submit. The coupon code is added.
5. In the Products section, click Select Product and choose the subscription product you want to set up a free trial period for. For more information on how to do this, see Add Products to a Promotion.
6. Click Submit, then Save and Complete in the upper left corner of the Promotions section.

You are now ready to offer customers a free trial period for the recurring product.

Free Trial Setup via Coupon Code in the CA

1. In the main menu of the Commerce Assistant, select Marketing > Add Promotion. The Promotion portal opens.
2. In the General section, enter a name for the free trial promotion, for example "Shieldware Internet Security – Free Trial".
3. Select the Discount section and set up the discount as shown on the screenshot below. For more information on the individual options, see Set Up Discount for Promotion under Add a Promotion.



4. Select the Coupons section and generate a coupon code:
1. Click Generate. The Generate Coupons window opens.
2. Enter information about how the coupon code should be created.
3. Click OK. The coupon code is added.
5. In the Products section, specify the subscription product you want to set up a free trial period for. For more information on how to do this, see Add Products to a Promotion.
6. Click Save in the upper left corner of the Promotion portal.

You are now ready to offer customers a free trial period for the subscription product.