Ready to get started? Let’s get into it!<\/p>\n
What is a product trial?<\/h2>\n
A product trial <\/strong>is one aspect of a product-led growth<\/a> <\/strong>strategy. Essentially, using the product itself as a way to attract, engage and convert users into paid customers.<\/p>\n Rather than try to convince and encourage users with marketing techniques, you let them try out the actual functionality – and let your features do the talking.<\/p>\n There are several different varieties of product trials <\/a>to consider, each with pros and cons. Some are optimized for maximizing app usability, others for conversion.<\/p>\n Choose carefully:<\/p>\n Onboarding<\/a> is a broad term describing the range of activities about getting customers into and experiencing value from your product. <\/strong><\/p>\n It’s not a ‘once and done’ activity.<\/p>\n There are various different phases to consider<\/a>, but they’re all driving toward the goal of adoption<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n The diagram below demonstrates how the onboarding maps onto the entire customer lifecycle: you need to carefully design your onboarding process to move your users from one stage to the next.<\/p>\n User onboarding<\/a> is extremely important to ensuring effective product trials. You want to make sure you’ve got customers engaged from the initial sign-up right the way through.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the right guide and prompt at the right time will help put the user on the right path to activation – and reduce their time to value.<\/a><\/p>\n Let’s explore two of the key drivers.<\/p>\n Firstly, onboarding<\/a> helps boost user activation <\/a>by providing a clear sequence of activities from the moment a user signs up.<\/p>\n Without the solid structure of customer onboarding – designed to help your customers unlock value <\/a>– you run the risk of your users wandering aimlessly around your product.<\/p>\n That inevitably means customer churn.<\/p>\n Another benefit of implementing a customer onboarding process<\/a> as part of your product trials is the impact on retention<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Simply put, activated users (i.e. those who’ve experienced value from using your product) are far more likely to keep using your application<\/a>.<\/p>\n They have evidence it’s worth their while, so their conversion to paid customers is a far simpler exercise.<\/p>\n So what exactly goes into an effective onboarding process? Let’s break down the key elements.<\/p>\n You can think of this as the digital equivalent of a ‘store front’: your sign-up page is a key element to get right in user onboarding.<\/p>\n You’ll need to strike a balance between communicating a clear value proposition and gathering ‘just enough’ information to qualify users (without making it tricky to access your product).<\/p>\n This is the next stage of user onboarding: from the sign-up screen, into the sign-up process.<\/a><\/p>\n You need to bear in mind the same balance as before.<\/p>\n While you want to gather as much information as possible throughout the customer onboarding process (like pain points<\/a>, company info, etc), you don’t want to make it tricky for them to sign up.<\/p>\n A frictionless sign-up flow – potentially by implementing SSO – is the fastest route, but means you’ll sacrifice an opportunity to gather valuable information. However, it’s what many users will expect now.<\/a><\/p>\n If you do need to collect more data, add a progress bar <\/a>(like Fullstory) and split the process onto multiple screens to avoid cognitive friction.<\/p>\n The next element of the customer onboarding process?<\/p>\n Populating the ‘blank slate’<\/a> with personal information gives users a fantastic first impression of your product. <\/a>Otherwise, they’ll be faced with a cold, impersonal, unfamiliar interface – not exactly a warm welcome!<\/p>\n Landing smoothly in your product is critical for them to take subsequent steps toward activation. Adding an action prompt, like Airtable, will do the job.<\/p>\n It helps users get off to a fast start, and much closer to obtaining value from your product.<\/p>\n At this stage of the customer onboarding process<\/a>, you’ve successfully managed to get users signed up and landed within your product.<\/p>\n But that’s not enough.<\/p>\n You need to engage them within the tool itself. There are various UX engagement prompts<\/a> to consider – depending on the context – that can help create a more interactive experience: modals, tooltips<\/a>, checklists, and walkthroughs are just some of the tools at your disposal.<\/p>\n As we discussed earlier, onboarding is not ‘once and done’.<\/p>\n You need to gather feedback to help you understand where users struggle, and their pain points, and spot opportunities for improvement.<\/p>\n Use targeted surveys<\/a> to gather insight at key points in the journey. Keep them short and to the point – targeting relevant user groups – to avoid frustration.<\/p>\n Customer onboarding is never going to be completely plain sailing.<\/p>\n Customers are always going to have their fair share of issues and challenges: so make sure to give them the tools to solve their own problems.<\/p>\n You can do that with a help center within your app to provide contextual help<\/a>. Embed onboarding videos<\/a>, how-to guides, best practices, and more within your knowledge base <\/a>to give users the most effective experience.<\/p>\n Now, why would you kick off a trial in the first place?<\/p>\n You’re hoping to hang on to your users<\/strong>. Let’s explore some of the best practices and techniques for doing exactly that after<\/em> your trial is complete.<\/p>\n A welcome screen<\/a> is your product’s front door. Many organizations send welcome emails that serve a similar purpose: yes, to welcome customers to your app, but also<\/em> as a way to gather valuable data.<\/p>\n Check out this great example below. It gets right to the point of why<\/em> a customer has signed up,<\/a> and what<\/em> they’re hoping to achieve – with one simple question.<\/p>\n The next step to retain your customers is to consistently deliver a relevant, targeted, personalized experience.<\/p>\n Use the data you’ve gathered to understand the distinct user groups<\/a>, then target activities and flows directly to the relevant segments.<\/p>\n For example, you might launch a particular checklist or in-app prompt to one group, and opt for a tooltip for another – all depending on the user’s need.<\/a><\/p>\n If you want to retain your customers, here’s a guiding principle: help users reach the activation point as quickly<\/em> as humanly possible.<\/p>\n Your mission should be to help users experience value.<\/p>\n Checklists<\/a> are an excellent way of doing exactly that. They help drive customers toward <\/a>the next actionable step, helping them to uncover particular features without suffering from information overload.<\/p>\n Sometimes, a prompt isn’t enough. You need to take your users by the hand and guide them step by step through engaging <\/em>with a particular feature.<\/p>\n Building an interactive walkthrough <\/a>is your best bet here.<\/p>\n They’re a far better option than long, boring, and often irrelevant product tours. Chain tooltips together that launch only<\/em> when the relevant action has been taken.<\/p>\n You can’t rely purely on in-app messaging. Sometimes, targeted communication that lands directly in your users’ inbox<\/a> is the best way forward.<\/p>\n If you understand their needs – and where you left off – it’s easy to reestablish a connection with your inactive user base. A tempting offer<\/a> might draw them back in.<\/p>\n Gamification<\/a> is an enormous trend in the SaaS world. It’s a proven technique for engaging and generating value for your customers.<\/p>\n In a nutshell, giving people the feeling they are ‘winning’ vastly increases the likelihood they’ll engage with a specific feature.<\/p>\n The example below shows exactly how gamification<\/a> can directly lead to better product outcomes. Think about how you can leverage similar offers<\/a> in your own product.<\/p>\n It’s not a case of converting users from a trial. You need to keep working to understand their needs over time.<\/p>\n Not only does that give you a better chance of successfully iterating your service to meet their evolving needs, but it also improves things for future customers.<\/p>\n Gather customer feedback <\/a>however you can – surveys are particularly effective – and make sure you start before<\/em> the trial ends.<\/p>\n A key skill for savvy product managers is timing<\/strong>: understanding when<\/em> to take key decisions.<\/p>\n An important element of that is when you try to upsell your customers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Go too soon, and you run the risk of disengaging them (and failing to convert them<\/a>). Go too late, and you miss a golden opportunity to convert interested customers<\/a> and drive revenue.<\/a><\/p>\n Use modals, prompts, or other UX patterns – depending on the context – and choose when you reach out carefully.<\/p>\n Figuring out how to get users to part with their hard-earned cash and actually pay for your product is a big challenge. It could be product trial onboarding that helps you figure out how to solve it. In this blog, we’ll explore what a product trial is, describe the onboarding process, and give you the tools you need to apply it in your own SaaS. Ready to get started? Let’s get into it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":16594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[665,977,141,866,71,940,90,88,64,381,311,361,340],"class_list":["post-16592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-user-onboarding-category","tag-activation-rates","tag-boost-retention","tag-customer-onboarding-software","tag-in-app-resource-center","tag-onboarding","tag-onboarding-process","tag-personalize-user-experience","tag-personalize-user-onboarding","tag-product-adoption","tag-product-onboarding","tag-saas-onboarding","tag-saas-onboarding-software","tag-saas-onboarding-tools"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTypes of product trials in SaaS businesses<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/state-of-saas-onboarding-userpilot_1205f51ab8b6bac82c47ed4b5138eb30_800.png)
<\/picture>What is the product onboarding process?<\/h2>\n
![\"Product](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Product-Adoption-Process-product-trial-onboarding-userpilot-customer-onboarding-challenges_ca1c3c279fd7f9e0851bed651e331fd4_800.png)
<\/picture>Why do you need to onboard new users during the trial?<\/h2>\n
Onboarding users drives higher product activation rates<\/h3>\n
Onboarding trial users increases retention<\/h3>\n
The elements of a good customer onboarding process for trial users<\/h2>\n
Sign-up page<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/product-trial-onboarding-signup-page-userpilot_43c15a460f7b7dee29432936d8db73c8_800.png)
<\/picture>Sign-up process<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fullstory-signup-product-trial-onboarding_739a11f92cdac7e9cc37ef15858186b1_800.png)
<\/picture>The blank slate<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/airtable-blank-slate-ui-design-product-trial-onboarding_681c4fcde83d3f5259cc350cc6e680f5_800.png)
<\/picture>UX engagement prompts<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/tooltips-product-trial-onboarding-userpilot_76f05625c299f90d6738e7ec3f7aa262_800.png)
<\/picture>Customer feedback<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/miro-product-feedback-product-trial-onboarding_3a2c744297f94643ead0636aaaaf7fc2_800.png)
<\/picture>In-app self-serve support<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/product-trial-onboarding-resource-center-knowledge-base-userpilot_6b9de44bd97a6f11d6099d58312a9927_800.png)
<\/picture>Product onboarding process best practices to retain users after a trial<\/h2>\n
Collect data to understand new customers’ goals<\/h3>\n
![\"Visual](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Welcome-product-trial-onboarding_821e97ca3a87550e56264e434130d83e.gif)
<\/picture>Use data for a personalized onboarding experience<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/product-trial-onboarding-userpilot-segmentation_df40c6d2336ab2fc4bc7786bc3c5e084_800.png)
<\/picture>Help users get to the activation point fast<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/userpilot-dasbboard-aproduct-trial-onboarding_a0db32d6817260a9230e8a0dc25bbbe6_800.webp)
<\/picture>Guide users with interactive product tours<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/product-trial-onboarding-interactive-product-tour_a928c2e719dd48f8a886bc690a620c91_800.png)
<\/picture>Re-engage inactive users with onboarding emails<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Userpilot-free-trial-welcome-email_5304d582c1438b7aa0385e2e29c2ef0b_800.webp)
<\/picture>Use gamification to drive engagement<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/prodpad-product-trial-onboarding-gamification_257f90caef1b3a29e324df8599c0ae5d_800.jpg)
<\/picture>Gather customer feedback before the free trial ends<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/userpilot-product-feedback-form-trial-ending_f5c2eb80aff43a950098db98b1114179_800.png)
<\/picture>Encourage users to upgrade at the right time<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/blog-static.userpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/slack-end-of-trial-modal-freemium-to-premium_4f586949bd9bcfe3d91c52fe355f251e_800.png)
<\/picture>