Web Strategy Micksup

Screencast.com trial period - 7 years

Originally uploaded by bigmick

I noticed on Screencast.com that they are giving me a 7 year trial period. Wow, they are really patient. Or maybe they know I’ll hit the 200mb long before that.

But it raises a good question that lots of companies I’m working with ask.

“How long is a good trial period?”

Of course it’s a piece of string question. It really depends on the product, the customer, the price, and 100 other factors.

Some trial period examples:
- World of Warcraft offers a 14 day trial period and is $15 a month.

- Screencast.com says they offer a six month trial and their service ranges form $7 to $25 a month.

- Quickflix DVD’s by mail offers a month free and ranges from $10 to $40 per month (and their customer service listens to blogs).

- Atlassian offers 30 days free trial for their enterprise wiki and issues management tools.

But here is my list. Please help me refine, build on it.

1. Long enough for someone to love it.

At a minimum, the trial period needs to allow a customer to find it, install it (if required), set it up, play with it, and find the golden joy. And this can’t be a full time job. They have to be able to do all that amongst their normal lives, and generally new stuff gets looked at after the current stuff.

2. Short enough so they don’t exhaust the value.

I remember taking a Dragon Lance computer game back to the store in the afternoon for a refund because I finished it in a few hours. If you product can be a once off use then your should probably consider a cut down version for trial, which leads me to…

3. Give them enough features to get the feel and the love.

I hate it, but screencast software that limits the time you can record or image apps that put a watermark on your pics are a great way to let people see how good you are without taking too much. You can’t limit it so much that I can’t work out if you’re worth it, but a targeted customer will be able to glean a lot just by clicking around or doing some dry runs.

4. Short enough so that they don’t forget about you.

If you’ve got someone to trial you, don’t let that excitement slip away. Of course, if they are not using you, then there is not much chance of paying, but sometimes you set that timeline with the trial length. A seven year trial means I have no rush, but a 7 day trial means if I sign up I need to get down to business.

Comment, email or blog to refine, beat up or add to this list.

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