Should I offer a free trial of my online backup service?
This question is asked most commonly from new resellers who are just starting out with their first branded offsite backup solution. The answer is a resounding YES!!!
A Free Trial is probably the lowest-risk, highest reward sales tool you have available, and we recommend leveraging it as much as possible. Here’s why:
Test Drives result in New Customers
Why do you think car dealerships try so hard to get you behind the wheel? Because it works. Nothing is more effective for selling online backups than installing a free trial of your white label client, securing your customer’s data offsite for a few days, and then bringing it back with a simple restore. The customer sees how easy the process is and since it’s already installed……
No Risk for Customer = More Opportunities for you
People hate committing to something before they are ready, especially if there is a cost involved. With an online backup free trial there is absolutely no risk to the customer, and that makes it easier for you to install more backup accounts, which leads to more paying clients.
No Risk for you
When selling online backup you are not risking inventory, spending money on shipping costs, or worrying about money-back guarantees. All you invest in a free trial is a few minutes to install the backup account, and a little bit of cost in storage/bandwidth during the trial period. That’s it. You can monitor everything from your server dashboard, and even set quota limits so your trial customers don’t back up more data than you’re comfortable with.
So be aggressive with your free trials, and it will pay off for you in additional business. You might even want to add your custom installer to your website and see if folks set up free trials on their own. Each new account is populated on your management console, so you’ll be able to track any unexpected installs.
Feel free to contact us with any questions, or just to kick around ideas on offering free trials. We’re always happy to trade selling tips with our partners.