> Showcase tiered features in your trial<p>Story time. When I worked on ESPN.com's Fantasy Football rebuild in 2003, showcasing an upgrade was <i>by far</i> the largest converter of free users to paid. You could play with your N buddies where everybody was playing for free, but you could also individually upgrade.<p>Some context: during NFL games on Sunday your team of players would be playing someone else's in your league. As players on your team did things in the real-world NFL games, your fantasy football team would accrue points. There were two ways to see how many points your team had scored: you could wait until Monday morning when the weekly job ran, or you could pay to see your team's live scoring updates as they happened in real time on Sunday afternoons/evening.<p>Here's what drove the most individual upgrades. Someone on my team got the bright idea to show <i>some</i> players' live updates on your roster as a "teaser". You might have 20 players, and two would show live scores. There'd be a big CTA to upgrade to see the other 18 players' scores. It was admittedly pretty cool - you'd watch an NFL game, see one of your players score a touchdown, and then seconds later see his score change in your fantasy league.<p>I don't remember the exact conversion rate but IIRC it was 15%+ (2% is incredible conversion for free to paid).<p>That's one reason why, in my SaaS trial to paid consulting[1], I recommend scattering in-app CTAs to upgrade where contextually relevant. It still converts like crazy (which makes sense - you're trying to do a job, the path forward is right in front of you, and you can pay a few $$ to get the job done).<p>1- <a href="http://www.trialtopaid.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.trialtopaid.com</a>