Lior Peosa
Free guide
A 30-day plan
First Run, Empty State, Four Emails
A 30-day plan
First Run, Empty State, Four Emails
Your 30-day plan to turn free trials into paying accounts
Lior Peosa
Your 30-day plan to turn free trials into paying accounts
12 pages · about 5 minutes to read · PDF
Inside the guide
9 chapters, and what each one leaves you able to do.
- 01
Map the trial to payment
You map the exact actions that take a user from signup to paying, before you write any code.
- 02
Build the first-run screen
You decide the one task the new user completes in their first minute and remove every other option.
- 03
Design empty states that show work
You fill each empty state with a sample of the value they will get, not a message about nothing being there.
- 04
Write the four emails in sequence
You draft four emails that arrive on days one, three, five and seven, each with a single job.
- 05
Watch the one metric that matters
You pick the action that predicts payment and track only that, ignoring vanity numbers like logins.
- 06
Repair the leak at trial day two
You find where users stall between signup and that first action, and you fix that one spot.
- 07
Cut the features that delay value
You remove anything that lets a user postpone the task you set, even if it feels useful.
- 08
Automate the follow-up after paywall
You set up the prompts that nudge the user toward the paid moment, without you checking each day.
- 09
Keep the flow running for month two
You hand the checklist to the product manager and schedule a monthly review of the one metric.
Look inside
Two real pages, set exactly as they print.
Contents
- 01Map the trial to payment
- 02Build the first-run screen
- 03Design empty states that show work
- 04Write the four emails in sequence
- 05Watch the one metric that matters
- 06Repair the leak at trial day two
- 07Cut the features that delay value
- 08Automate the follow-up after paywall
- 09Keep the flow running for month two
12 pages · about 5 minutes
01
Map the trial to payment
You map the exact actions that take a user from signup to paying, before you write any code.
You have a free trial live, and the people who sign up are not the people who pay. Before you write a line of onboarding code, list the five actions a stranger must take to become a paying customer. You start with the payment screen and work backwards to the signup form.
For each action, write the trigger that moves the person to the next one, and mark the point where you ask for the card. If you cannot name the action that sits two steps before payment, you have not mapped the trial. The mistake that costs most is mapping the product's features instead of the customer's path, so you build screens that nobody needs. Finish with one sentence: the person pays when they have done these four things. You then check that sentence against a real trial's behaviour on day one.