🥱 Is your paywall boring?
Stop showing the same thing over and over again
Hey there, it’s Jacob at Retention.Blog 👋
I got tired of reading high-level strategy articles, so I started writing actionable advice I would want to read.
Every week I share practical learnings you can apply to your business.
Your paywall is boring.
What if you took inspiration from one of the most engaging apps in the world?
Use the Instagram Stories format to spice up your offer.
Flo creates an interactive offer with the IG Stories format.
Let’s check out how to do this well and why it works
First off, Flo has multiple entry points for the offer
In the app through a small banner
Targeted push notifications
Maybe also via in-app message if I was an active user?
These trigger their multi-screen stories format.
Does every user need the same level of motivation or same information to convert?
Of course not.
If a user has been waiting for a discount, they can skip tapping through the whole “story” and go straight to the offer.
Also see the copy, “Reveal your discount”
This builds curiosity to see what is available.
I’m sure they’ve tested to see whether showing the discount works better then building this “suspense”
Side note: Don’t assume the same offer, discount, or price format will work everywhere the same
With one app I found that European users converted better when seeing the actual price point in the offer vs just the discount amount
While US users converted better when seeing the discount amount and were fine waiting until the actual paywall to see the price point
I assumed that Europeans are more skeptical if they don’t see the price and are think they’re are being deceived. While Americans love an offer or a deal.
For users who aren’t ready to convert yet, they easily tap through the story to see and read more about the benefits of Flo Premium
And at the end of the story they make sure to mention “Sale Ends Soon”
If a sale doesn’t end, it’s just the normal price. Make sure users know the time frame and drive a sense of urgency.
I’ve also seen Flo leverage this “Lifetime discount” offer more frequently
Why?
For a while, most apps used offers that would be ~50% off the first year, and then go to full price or a higher price for the next period.
I’d bet they saw that a large % of these users would cancel their subscription before it renewed for the 2nd year.
The Flo CEO repeatedly boasts about the strong renewal and retention of revenue from older cohorts.
I’m guessing they prioritize longer term revenue and if someone feels like they have a great discount compared to the current price of Flo, they’re much more likely to renew over the long term.
Even if a user likes your product, they know they can cancel, and come back when they’re interested in using the premium features again.
But, what if they think they have a special offer and that they might not be able to access again? Much more likely to retain.
So do the math for your own app, but potentially that lifetime discount makes more sense if you can convert more users AND have those users retain for a longer period.
Lastly, if you go to the paywall, but close it and don’t convert, they show a crying teddy bear and emphasize the limited-time nature of the offer.
That crying teddy bear almost got me to buy!
And it’s always the details that make a great product.
There is a small delay between when you press the CTA button on the paywall and when Apple loads the payment card for you to accept.
Flo shows a nice spinning loading screen thing that reinforces the benefits of the app one more time!
If you have a poor connection, that couple of seconds can decrease conversion because people get distracted, frustrated, or close the app.
Pay attention to the details!
P.S. when I opened Flo again, they showed me one more offer. Don’t keep showing the same offer and message over and over again.
If it didn’t work the first time, why would it work the 2nd time?
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