Pay Now or 30 days free

Choosing options for selling product online

[farmboy]

I have written and sell a number of instructional courses which are delivered by email. Sales are good but I'm constantly tweaking and testing to improve.

Typically, the customer pays up front with the promise of a 30-day or longer money back guarantee.

I'm considering adding one possibly two more options.

The first would be to offer to let customers start a course free for 30 days - 30 day free trial. At the end of the 30 days, the customer can purchase the remainder of the course or just decline and no longer receive installments.

The premise with this option is to lower the barrier to make it as easy as possible for people to start a course and then have the course content be so compelling the customer will want to purchase and not miss out on future installments.

The second option would be to offer both a "pay now with money back guarantee" option and a "30 day free trial option" with those who pay up front getting a better price as opposed to those who take the 30 days free and pay later.

Any thoughts, suggestions, experience, etc. appreciated.

FarmBoy

[Marshall]

The advantage to offering the partial course with opting to buy the full course after 30 days is less "paper work" on both your part and that of the buyer. They don't have to ask for a refund and you don't have to process a return.

All I can add/suggest, is make sure you don't give them too much for free.

Marshall

[HRoth]

Do you get many people asking for their money back at the end of the 30 days?

[farmboy]

Do you get many people asking for their money back at the end of the 30 days?

Very few, certainly less than 1%.

FarmBoy

[Marshall]

Very few, certainly less than 1%

With this percentage, I would say it's not worth it, IMHO. You might actually end up creating more work for yourself.

Marshall

[HRoth]

I would agree. Especially given how many people are all fired up when they start a course and then don't finish it.