STREAMLINE • B2B SAAS • 2024
40% new sign-ups with free trial offer
TIMELINE
2 weeks
ROLE
Product Designer (Me!)
TEAM
Founder
Product Marketeer
Developers
Tl;dr
Streamline let anyone browse and download without signing up. That openness helped discovery but cost us emails and backlinks. I designed a free trial in two weeks: 10 credits on premium sets for web and desktop, earned through email verification. A floating banner and signup modal met users at the moment they hit a paywall.
↑ 40%
Increase in sign ups
↑ 19K
Emails collected
↑ 8%
Increase in upgrades
SOLUTION
10 credits for free on all premium sets for web and desktop platform
We designed a straightforward process that begins with a floating banner shown to any signed-out visitor browsing through premium sets. If the user encounters a premium feature or asset, we prompt a signup modal to guide them through signing up to receive 10 free credits. This achieves our goal of collecting feedback.So, how do we offer value to users? We simply ask them to verify their email to ensure it's a verified account, and voila, they're in!What's more, we offer users a choice. They can upgrade or stick with the free plan once their credits run out. This way, we ensure there's no pressure to upgrade, especially if they didn't enjoy their free trial.
How did we prevent system abusers?
Our dev team really put in the effort to safeguard our free credit system from misuse. We took every step necessary to spot similar email IDs and stop users from registering multiple times with the same email. We even tracked IP addresses to prevent users from creating more than one account. Of course, it's challenging to halt all forms of abuse completely, but through these measures, we managed to reduce it.
OVERVIEW
Streamline is a B2B SAAS asset library with millions of users.
Streamline is a design tool built around a large catalog of high-quality vector assets like icons and illustrations. Designers, marketers, and developers use it to browse huge sets, drop assets into collections, customize them, and export in the formats and sizes they need for products, decks, or code.
WEB APP
PROBLEM
Streamline was not getting enough backlinks or recognition.
Streamline took a pretty open approach right from the start. Users could wander through our entire library, pick an icon, customize it, and download it without having to give us anything in return. Not even an email or a nod of attribution. But, this super open-door policy started to hurt us a bit. We realized we were missing out on collecting emails from our users and weren't getting nearly as many backlinks to our website as we could have.
HOW MIGHT WE
How might we capture user emails with an intention to offer something back in exchange?
The question was not "how do we gate the app." It was "what is worth an email?" People needed a taste of premium value before committing to a plan.
PROCESS
A user once suggested me a cool suggestion during a different research call.
On a research call where we were finding out why users don't convert, a user new to Streamline offered a thought that really stayed with us. They wondered, why not let people test out our service before buying, similar to a gym membership trial? It seemed like a fair approach, giving users a taste of what we offer before asking them to commit. Inspired by this trial analogy, we started thinking: how could we offer value that users would be happy to exchange their emails with us?
OUTCOME
The project helped increase sign ups by 40% and upgrades by 8%.
↑ 40%
Increase in sign ups
↑ 19K
Emails collected
↑ 8%
Increase in upgrades
Data showing the surge in sign ups after the free trial launch.
REFLECTION
My key takeaways and learnings!