Getting Paying Customers is YOUR problem

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You can’t expect your users to stumble upon paying you. Sending your users email reminders and navigating them through a series of steps that will lead them to paying you is key.

One of my favorite freemium website builders, Weebly, does an incredible job. Here is what they do:

Step 1: Get the Users Email Address

Weebly Homepage

Weebly tries to get you into an account as fast as possible. The free sign up form is right on the homepage, they don’t focus on making you watch the video or go to a “Pricing Page”.

Step 2: Create an Easy Hook to Get the User Engaged

Weebly's Welcome Message

Notice the stripped out navigation. Weebly only gives the user two options right after you create an account.

Option 1: Fill out your website title and the type of site you are  building

Option 2: Close the browser

The “Category” question is really interesting. This probably helps Weebly understand who their top customers are and helps them target future customers as well. Another side benefit is Weebly can tailor the user experience based on what category the customer selects.

Step 3: First Sell – Get Your Users to Buy a Domain

Step 3 Weebly Choose Website Domain

If you purchase your domain with Weebly it is a major lock in factor. People hardly ever get rid of the domains they buy. I like how they make this part of their on boarding process and the default option checks to see if you domain is available.

Step 4: Send Timed Emails to Remind Them of Your Service

Step 4 - Weebly - Timed Reminder 1

Checkout how they use my name in the subject line and in the email. Open rates go dramatically up when you include the first name or business name of your customers.

I also really like the “Auto Log-in to Weebly” in the upper right hand corner. I never remember my password and a major barrier to entry for me would be having to go through resetting my password. The “Auto Log-in” removes that worry from my completely.

Step 5: Send a Hard Close Email with a Coupon to get Users to Upgrade

They end the email with a sense of urgency. They really make you feel like you are losing out if you don’t upgrade today. You only get this email if you haven’t upgraded.

When in doubt – Think Like Ikea

Ikea Store Map

Have you ever been to Ikea? If not, there is only one route you can take through the entire store. They make it super simple to buy everything you need. Don’t worry if you forgot something on your list, Ikea will remind you by showing you on your path to the checkout aisle. This worked on me about 2 years ago when I moved to San Francisco. I thought all I needed was a bed, some dishes, and a couch…. Ikea really opened my eyes by showing me all the things that I was missing on my list.

Do you know other companies that have amazing navigation that lead to paying customers? Let me know about them in the comments below.

13 Comments

  1. good post!

    Facebook does an amazing job of on boarding. They get you to sign up, find you friends based on your email contact book, and then they get your friends to try to refer more friends to you.

  2. It seems dangerous because reminder emails feel invasive to me. like the emails that tell people “you have 1 secret crush – sign up now and see who it is”. So where is the line between spam and effective sales leads?

    • Thanks for the comment Wolf.

      You have to do what works for your users. I think you are in the minority of the tech elite. The reason you get emails about secret crushes is it probably works on the general population.

      You definitely want to do things in an ethical way. The worst thing you can do is dilute your brand and create an untrustworthy site.

  4. When you fly into the municipal airport in Buenos Aires, the only way from the gate when you land out the airport goes through the duty-free shop.

    Not by it, through it. You literally can’t leave the airport without walking through a store. Brilliant.

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