In this behind‑the‑scenes coaching session, Jake Setterlun consults with SaaS founder George about improving the conversion of a 7‑day free trial into paid subscriptions. George explains his current funnel: users install a tracking pixel, see leads, then must upgrade to access email outreach tools, domain setup, and automation. He shares his unit‑economics constraints, low trial‑to‑paid conversion (~5%), and the generous bonus stack he offers (50% off first month, one sending domain, three mailboxes for 90 days, a 45‑minute strategy call, masterclass access, and no annual contract). Jake critiques the copy, suggesting a clearer headline, moving sub‑headlines into the main headline, emphasizing the done‑for‑you onboarding, and framing the upgrade around turning leads into customers rather than saving money. They discuss possible drip‑email sequences during the trial, the idea of shared mailboxes to reduce costs, and the importance of simplifying the onboarding steps to prevent users from dropping out. The conversation ends with agreement on positioning the upgrade as an automated lead‑to‑revenue solution and a plan to test the revised copy and funnel.
Chapters
In this video today, we're gonna be pulling back the curtain and showing you a one-to-one conversation that I had with one of our community members of over 4,000 online offer owners that are inside. Again, these are agency owners, coaches, consultants, online experts, SaaS business owners that are all building and scaling businesses to 7 and 8 figures. And this is a behind-the-scenes look of a candid one-to-one conversation. These are conversations that I have every single week with these community members. Enjoy.
I do think, again, without changing the business model and the pricing and like all of that, I would do some kind of onboarding session every week where it's immediately when somebody buys the free trial or gets in that they have to book that. Just make 3 or 4 sessions a week. Um, I mean, you could do a live video or not a live video, a recorded video. They need something. But I, I almost wonder if what you're trying to push on them in the free trial is what's not allowing them to stay, because to me, your ideal customer Yes, the, the email and all that stuff is attractive, but I feel like, again, if I'm just speaking from my point of view, I'm more attracted to the, um, the visitor identity resolution. So is, is it where in the free trial you're trying to get them to be doing email and set up the, you know, the email boxes, domains, et cetera? Whereas what if you just had them put the pixel on their website? They can start seeing all the leads come in and then it's like, hey, part 2, get these, you know, set up your email and start.
So traditionally what I used to have, you know, this aha moment, what we call aha moment, was the— for them to get the replies back, which is a very long journey, right? They have to identify, qualify, and engage, and then they have to get the replies back, which is a very long journey. Right now I want to reduce this journey. The aha moment I want to be Getting the leads, see the quality of the leads, and then you have now to upgrade to email these people. So I'm shortening this cycle to 7-day trial so you can see the leads. If you like the leads and you want to contact them, now you have to pay. Before, it was very open, so people start emailing these people trying to get the replies. They didn't do it properly because they didn't have, you know, enough time. They didn't have my 40-minute session that I offer after they pay, right? So I'm giving them a lot of benefits, right? And they don't have this. They don't have my time. They don't have my specialty around the setting up in the proper way. And they don't have the automations that I have to set them up in the proper way. And they don't have the domains and mailboxes set them up from my way.
Yeah.
So it is— I want to help people out. I want to give them for free everything so they can experience the full platform. But it's impossible for me to— for my unit economics, right? I cannot offer to every single trial those and go buy myself using those costs, uh, buy domains.
Would, would you consider including that in your call, in your monthly cost, like X amount of free inbox, like one domain and one whatever in your monthly cost, and then that way they don't have to—
Yeah, you know what I did? Can I share my screen with you? Is it okay?
Yeah, go for it.
Yeah. Okay.
What I'm thinking, I'm like, you know, how I would specifically build this flow is I would say, you know, get in free 7-day trial, put your— the goal of the 7-day trial is to get a pixel on somebody's active funnel, active website that's getting traffic. They can start see the leads coming through during the 7-day trial. They get an email notification or a text notification. Hey, you got a new lead. You got a new lead.
Yeah.
And then I would be making a call to action that, hey, upgrade, get a free— you get a free inbox. And then even if you wanted to, again, at scale, you would have to figure this out. I would say if you upgrade now, get a free onboarding, 1-to-1 onboarding setup. We'll set this up for you.
Yeah.
And, um, obviously at that point they've, they've upgraded, you've gotten paid. But go for it.
So this is— can you see the screen?
Yeah.
So this is the paywall after they try to actually use the engagement on our automations, right? They can see the minimum price, which is discounted by 50% for the first month. So I'm giving them— I lower the bar for the first month so that people can get on board, right? And then I say I have this bonus stack like Alex Hormozi says, you know, all of this bonus with 50%. I give them one sending domain, 3 mailboxes free for 90 days. Because if they pay me, what I'm doing, I'm using this money to go and buy those stuff that worth $50 for me, right? So essentially I make nothing in the first month, but I can offer them the full experience, right? Then I can give them 45 minutes of my founder time to help them set this up in the proper way. And then I give them access to the masterclass where I'm explaining everything, and then I give them no annual contract. So This becomes a monthly. So I'm trying to give them all the good reasons why they should upgrade, but I don't know if this is more confusing now.
I don't think it's more confusing. I'm going to draw on your screen really quick. I would take every single one of your sub— I'm going to call this a subheadline, and I would move that to your main headline just so that— because like people are going to see this and they're either going to Maybe spend some time reading it, but most people are going to like look at it. Okay. Have to pay. I'm going to bounce. It's very similar to direct response advertising. I would be putting, hey, 50% off your first month.
And remove the other one, right? Just have a title.
Yeah. You could put that down below. I just think like you're saying, hey, they have this, they have this. And it's like, that's the subheadline though. And I'm obviously seeing this for the first time. These people are as well. So they need to see that upfront. And that's unfortunately, that's an AI copywriting, just the way that AI does it.
Yeah.
But I would say, you know, includes 1 sending domain, 3 inbox setup, um, includes a done-for-you 45-minute strategy session and implementation call. Um, and then this masterclass you could keep. And then right here I would say something like, Guaranteed pricing or something like that. I like the zero lock-in's not bad, but maybe, maybe change it up and say build monthly, cancel anytime.
Yeah.
And have it set like that.
But is it clear from this that I'm giving— I'm buying for them the domain, or this copy is not clear that I'm taking the cost for this?
Yeah.
I'm literally going to buy the domain, buy mailboxes for them, and give them away for 90 days, for 3 months.
I, yeah, I might even change this up and say instead of saying don't lose the leads you've already found, saying something like start converting, like turn your leads into actual customers or turn your leads into booked appointments automatically.
Yeah.
Or on autopilot. And then I would, instead of saying upgrade now and save 50%, I would say like upgrade now, claim your 1-to-1 onboarding or something like that instead of like the actual save. I don't think saving money is a mover. If somebody like has enough volume on their website and they're spending money on ads, they don't really care about saving money. They care about making more money and ease of use. So I, that's why I would say like the done for you is the most attractive. And then, um, obviously it just being on autopilot and them getting more customers. So I would make some of those tweaks, but what's your current conversion rate? And then I'll let you go.
I want to show between, between what, between trial and paid?
Yeah.
I'm looking something very low around the 5%. It's very low and I have to improve this. I have better funnel when people moving from a website to trial is around 10%. That's good. And then People trying doing the trial is 80%. People that actually do the trial, it's 80% between— I mean, installing the tracking pixel and see the leads. But then it's around 5%. And I think mostly, I mean, partially the reason is because I give it so open at the end that people want to try everything. They want to try email. These people try to create the email campaigns. It takes them forever to set this up. And then they quit. I think most of the times it's because they quit of doing it because it's too hard, right? To build the whole thing.
Yeah, I, you're, you're right for gating it. Like I would say free trial, install the pixel, start seeing leads. And then I would do some kind of like 7-day drip while they're in the trial. I'm sure you have this to actually ascend them into paid, but then something.
Yeah.
So yeah, go for it.
One last idea. Tell me if this is a good idea or not. Something I could do is I could go and buy some mailboxes and domains that I can have them as shared ones. Obviously not the best quality when you do cold outreach, right? But if I could share them between them, then I could save on the costs. And that means that I can have them email people from day one and that cost them nothing.
I still know, I—
But the quality is low, right? The quality will be low.
Yeah, I think the perfect, like the free trial is perfectly fine just showing that, hey, you can get leads. And then I think the call to action on the upsell is start to, I'm gonna automatically turn these leads into appointments.
Yeah.
Without you having to touch anything. I wouldn't worry about the tech of the mailbox and the domain and all that stuff until after they've paid you money. Or be, be, be sending that.
It, it's—
Sell it as a done for you, right? That's the—
I, I would sell it a little bit as like a done for you, um, for them to upgrade into that price point. Yeah. I, I really do think it is like the point of the free trial. I don't think anybody's going in thinking, oh, is your email platform gonna convert leads? The people in the free trial are saying, hey, is this going to work? Am I going to get leads from this? You're proving that in the free trial, and then the ascension has to just be a better call to action of, hey, upgrade and start turning these leads automatically into, into dollars.
Perfect. Okay. Thanks a lot, Jake. That was really helpful.
For sure. Awesome, George. Yeah. Give me a positive.
