Why Freemium Works: It Induces Trial
Sunday, April 26th, 2009As any marketer should know, the adoption process, or steps that people go through before a purchasing decision, works like this:
Awareness –> Trial –> Purchase/Usage
Unfortunately, when it comes to campaigns or initiatives, awareness is all too often the focus, but the linkage between awaerness and conversion or a purchase is so far away, that it doesn’t always work out well for the brand. Trial is just a step that is way too underrated in the marketing process.
Let’s put it this way: Awareness is sitting at the pub watching an ad on the sports channel for a different beer than what you’re drinking. Trial is your buddy next to you asking you to try his beer, which is also a different beer than what you’re drinking. Which is more likely to work better (assuming the beer doesn’t taste foul)?
With a freemium feature (one where basic features are available for free, but extra features are paid for), you incorporate awareness and trial all at once, and that’s something iPhone app creators are doing to gain users in a really competitive and swamped marketplace.
Let’s see how it works:
Awareness
I’m subscribed to App Shopper and a few other blogs that do nothing but aggregate and share the new apps available on the iTunes app store daily. This is where app developers go to to try to get awareness.
Trial
If someone notices an app from any one of these aggregators, the next step would be to download it from the App Store and try it out. I did this recently with Airport Mania and Best of 101 Dog Tricks, and really liked the free versions, though the features were really limited for the free version.
Purchase/Usage
If the apps blow the consumer away (and if they’re good, they will), then purchase is just one click away. From the company’s perspective, there’s nothing to lose. The more people get it free to try, the more people are aware of it and could pass it on to other people willing to buy.
There are so many apps out there (or products, or services) and it’s hard to make a decision to shell out $1.99 (or $19.99 or $199.99) for your offering when all I have to go on is awareness. Offer something that proves your product is kick-ass and worth paying for, and consumers pretty much will do just that.
Tags: adoption process, advertising campaign, aggregator, airport mania, app shopper, awareness, best of 101 dog tricks, competitive marketplace, conversion, induces trial, inducing trial, initiatives, iphone app, itunes app store, marketer, Marketing, purchase, purchasing decision, trial, usage
