Hey, I'm looking for people who have provided a free trial of digital download software before. Did you put your free trial download behind an email sign-up wall?<p>I currently have an application I'm working on that requires people to provide their email address into a form before they're allowed to download the free trial software.<p>I do this because it allows me to directly reach out to users, provide them with on-boarding emails/updates, and build a mailing list of people interested in keystroke automation (my domain of software).<p>However, I recently posted my software to Reddit and it got a very angry response from prospective users who didn't want to enter their email addresses. They said it put up a barrier and turned them away from downloading.<p>So in your experience, is the added barrier to entry of an email signup worth it, given the richness of interaction you can have with customers over email? Real world experience and examples would be excellent (if you have them).<p>Let me know your thoughts, experience and wisdom!<p>Cheers,
Robin
Update after 7 days:<p>I have removed the email signup and allowed a direct download. So far, the rate of downloads has gone up by a factor of between 5 - 10 times. Hard to know precise numbers at this time but it's looking good!<p>I don't have large enough numbers of users to know how this will impact on conversion, but it follows logically that if the product is the main selling point, getting users to engage with it in the easiest way possible can only be a good thing.<p>I'm now looking at replacing the on-boarding emails I was using with an in-app on-boarding process.<p>Thanks for your help with this one again!
The people who won’t put in an email address probably wouldn’t pay. It is a barrier, but it’s pretty low, and you’re better off spending time making the site more convincing the product is awesome than playing with collecting emails or not. Most times I’ve seen experiments run on this, more often on create an account, you increase the install rate and decrease conversion proportionally. So it’s a question of whether a bunch more nonpaying users provides value to you or not. Though every product is different so ymmv.
I completely agree with the negative feedback on your r/software post. [1] You should not require an email address in order to download free desktop software, especially when there is no accompanying web service.<p><i>> I do this because it allows me to directly reach out to users, provide them with on-boarding emails/updates, and build a mailing list of people interested in keystroke automation (my domain of software).</i><p>What if I don't want to be contacted? Am I expected to provide an email address, wait for the first marketing email (which I never asked for, BTW), and then unsubscribe?<p><i>> the richness of interaction you can have with customers over email</i><p>There's certainly some survivorship bias here. [2] You also need to consider all of the prospective customers that are turned away by this requirement. (Those who elect to sign up for the free trial are, by definition, willing to provide an email address and probably more likely to interact with the developer.)<p>Perhaps you should run an A/B test to investigate the effects of your email requirement. The data will speak for itself!<p>[1] <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/software/comments/b86fsa/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/software/comments/b86fsa/</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias</a>
Let's break down your reasons one by one.<p>* it allows me to directly reach out to users<p>What if I don't want to be contacted? You can add a "news" category to your website (or a subtle "what's new" link in your app's GUI) for people who do want news.<p>* provide them with on-boarding emails/updates<p>What if I don't want that, again? If I need help on-boarding I'll read the documentation or email you myself.<p>* build a mailing list of people interested in keystroke automation<p>How does that benefit me, as a user?<p>Bottom line is, you should be converting people by producing great software, not filling up their mailbox with crap. If your software doesn't convert, then email spam won't either.<p>Also, your current download form includes a "I am happy to be contacted by email" checkbox. If you're happy with people to opt-out, why are you asking for their email at all?<p>Finally you are using a third-party provider for emails and I'm not really comfortable with that and I do not agree to their privacy policy (I hate emails full of nasty stalking links and 1x1 pixels), so even if I wanted to receive news about your software, this would put me off.
From my experience, Reddit is not a good platform to promote stuff if it is not entirely free (requiring email address input doesn't cut it either).<p>As u/idunno246 said, the people who won’t put in an email address probably wouldn’t pay either.<p>I would advise making another webpage without email opt-in for Reddit, and use the one with email opt-in form as default.
Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and insight into this. You make some good points on why an email sign up may not be effective. Therefore, I am currently running a test to see how the website performs when the email signup is removed - it's a direct download.<p>Thanks for your time an constructive criticism!<p>Cheers,
Robin
P.S. For reference, the software product is here: <a href="https://numpadsuperpowers.com" rel="nofollow">https://numpadsuperpowers.com</a> and currently still has an email signup requirement before downloading the free trial.
As a sociological experiment can you add 'How did you hear about x?', 'Type of User' (Student, Organisation, Other, etc) and 'Country' dropdowns to the email form and see what effect that has?