Offer upgrade with urgency to reduce SaaS churn

How to use the technique

• Create relevant promotions based on user data, buyer personas, and your software. Such as a limited time discount. Get feedback from users as to what type of promotions they expect. Use our free churn optimization framework to get help on doing research. 
• Link promotions to user behavior. For instance, if a user has used a specific feature of your app during the trial, link promotion to that particular feature. You can reduce churn with this simple technique.
• Create urgency. The upgrade promotion should have an element of urgency attached to it. Let users know this promotion is available for a limited time only.
• Clearly communicate the promotion. Send emails and notifications to pre-sell promotion. Send regular reminders to make users realize it’s urgent and important.
• Describe the benefits of an upgrade along with the promotion. Differentiate upgrade promotion from a simple upgrade for persuasion and reducing churn rate.
• Focus on upgrades. The purpose of the promotion and urgency should be to convert trial users to paid customers. Don’t dilute the actual benefits of the upgrade in the process.
• Measure conversions. Analyze different upgrade promotions. Improve promotions based on user feedback. This free actionable guide will show you how to do it.

Mistakes to avoid

• Offering upgrade promotions to all the users. Don’t do it. Only offer upgrade promotions to users who haven’t converted. Making it a norm will negatively impact conversions as users will always expect an upgrade promotion.
  
• Fake urgency is suicidal. If it’s urgent, make sure it is real. Remove promotion after the said time period passes. Don’t make it permanent.