Why Create a Trial Period For Subscription Programs in WordPress?
It can be challenging to find successful ways to market and sell your subscription programs. Buyers are often hesitant to commit to a recurring payment for a product they aren’t sure they’ll like.
Sure, you might offer a “30 Day Money Back Guarantee” but that doesn’t always win them over. After all, obtaining that “money back” can be a huge hassle and, depending on the company, impossible.
But there’s one strategy that can increase the amount of signups, and decrease cancellations. And that’s offering an extremely discounted (or free) trial period for recurring subscription programs.
What You’ll Need To Create a Trial Period For Subscription Programs in WordPress
The tool list you need is pretty short:
- A WordPress website
- The AccessAlly Pro membership plugin
- A tag-based CRM (see the current list of integrations)
How Does A Trial Period For Subscription Programs Work?
Trial periods for subscription programs are fairly straightforward.
The new subscriber submits their credit card info to purchase a discounted access to your online course for a specific amount of time. For each recurring payment of the subscription after the trial period, they’re charged the normal, non-discounted amount.
How To Implement A Trial Period For Subscription Programs in WordPress
In this example, we’ll set up a monthly subscription with a 30-day, free trial.
Step 1: Install the AccessAlly plugin on your WordPress site & Set Up Integrations
AccessAlly can be installed on your WordPress site like any other plugin. For the order forms and subscriptions to work, your site MUST have an SSL certificate, and your AccessAlly plugin must be integrated with Stripe.
Step 2: Create a New Product
Under AccessAlly > Products, you can add a new product.
Since this is a subscription, choose RECURRING PAYMENT for “Product Type.”
Then, go ahead and fill out the rest of the information for the product in this section: name, price, whatever image you’d like to use for it, and a description.
Step 3: Specify the Length of Your Trial Period
Under the “Recurring Payments” tab, a new set of specifications need to be filled out. Here, you can determine how long the trial period is and decide how often the subscription will have to be renewed.
In this example, we’re setting up a 30-day, free trial for a monthly subscription.
Step 4: Create An Offer
Under the “Offers” tab, create a new offer.
Here, you can select the product that was created in step two and click “Add Product.”
The rest of the options in this section should be filled out – whether or not you want to add CRM tags during the checkout process, if you want AccessAlly to create a new membership site user for the purchaser, etc.
When you’re done, hit “Save Changes”.
Step 5: Add the Offer Shortcode To A New Page
Create a new WordPress page, and add the order form to it via the AccessAlly Shortcode Adder on the toolbar.
Select “Order Form” from the dropdown, and then select the Offer you created in Step 4. Then, add to page.
Step 6: Test Your Order Form
When created properly, your trial period for subscription programs will appear as follows on the AccessAlly order form:
Although there is no charge on the credit card with the initial sign up, the AccessAlly and Stripe integration uses the credit card info to successfully charge any future subscription payments after the trial period is over.
