How to Automate a Free Trial to Paid Nudge

Free trials bring people in, but they don’t guarantee revenue. In fact, most SaaS companies see the majority of trial users walk away without upgrading. But, with such a vast number of free trial users, is it even possible to even try to convert them?

The answer is yes! Using an automated, behavior-based flow that nudges trial users at the right time with the right message.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up a trial-to-paid conversion journey in Mailmodo, so you can engage users before they drop off and highlight your product’s value.

Why most free trial users don’t convert

A typical trial starts strong with a signup, a quick look around, but the the time the trial ends, the user has dropped off.

The main reasons:

• Key features stayed hidden

• They weren’t reminded at the right time to extend their subscription

• There was no urgency to upgrade

How to automate your free trial to paid flow

We’ll show you how to set up the automation on Mailmodo.

Prerequisites: Create the emails you’ll send using Mailmodo’s no-code editor. Here’s a typical sequence and the list of emails that you might want to create:

• Email 1: Welcome & getting started – Guide users on the first steps to use your product effectively.

• Email 2: Case study or social proof – Show how others succeed using your product.

• Email 3: Offer or paid features – Highlight premium features to demonstrate upgrade value.

• Email 4: Feedback email – Collect input on user experience and suggestions for improvement.

• Email 5: Upgrade nudge – Encourage users to convert to a paid plan for uninterrupted access.

Now, let’s move to setting up the automation:

1. Go to Journeys in Mailmodo and click Create Journey. You can either start from scratch if you want. Mailmodo also has a pre-built journey for the specific use case.

2. Set the trigger via webhook or API. This ensures the email sequence starts automatically when a user qualifies for the journey.

3. In the Journey Builder, add campaign blocks to the trigger.

Now the process of customization depends upon how you choose to create your journey. If you’re using the pre-built journey, make any required changes.

If you’re starting from scratch, insert campaign blocks and set delays between emails to create a logical sequence that guides users from onboarding to upgrade. You’ll also need to set up each block separately.

4. Once your journey is set up, review the entire flow. Test it with a sample user to confirm that triggers, delays, and email content work correctly.

5. When you’re confident everything is working as intended, click Enable. Your automated free trial to paid conversion flow is now live.

Conclusion

Automating your free trial to paid journey ensures users see your product’s value at the right time.

With Mailmodo, you can set up this automation process easily by dragging and dropping blocks to create behavior-driven email sequences that guide users toward conversion and improve your business outcomes.

Want to see it in action?
Sign up for Mailmodo and set up your first trial-to-paid journey in minutes.