Trial Period (Free or Discounted)

Sometimes when offering a new paid membership or subscription, you want to let people sign up now, but not charge them until some fixed date in the future, because all the content isn't going to be available until then. Or just as a promo.

The trial period option allows you to accomplish this, by telling this system how many days after you purchase before you want to begin charging the customer. 

What Happens When a Trial Period Ends?

When the trial period ends, your customer will be charged for the continued subscription if they haven't already canceled. If you have a minimum commitment period that period will begin now preventing them from canceling on their own. 

You may also want to set up a notification email letting them know their subscription is going to end.

Here’s how to do that:

Free Trial on a Subscription Price

1. Select Sales from your Simplero Dashboard and choose Products from the dropdown

2. In the Products list, locate and select the product you want to offer the price on

3. Go to Settings and select the Pricing tab

4. Click on Add price > Recurring:
   
   
   

5. In the Payment section, input the number of days/weeks/months/years you want them to have free access under the Optional Free trial before the recurring payments begin. At the end of those days, their payments will begin:
   
   
   

6. Close the popup when you are done editing.

Discounted Trial on a Subscription

1. Follow steps 1-4 above

2. Under Payment, set the Free trial option to ‘No trial’, then click on ‘Go advanced’.

3. Set the discounted amount on the first period. For how long it gives access for, and if it should repeat or not (only once):

4. If you want to charge another instalment within this period, click the + Add an instalment button just below the amount:
   
   
   

5. Now click on ‘Add period’:
   
   
   

6. Add the amount you want to continue to charge if they move to this period (the non-discounted rate, for example).

7. Close the popup when you are done!

Free Trial on a Purchase

1. Click on Add price > Single payment.
   

2. Enter 0 as the price, and click on ‘Go advanced’.
   

3. Click Add instalment, and choose between after some duration, on a specific date, or on a milestone:
   
   
   
   

Discounted trial on a purchase

Follow the steps above, but enter the discounted rate for the Payment (instead of $0).

NOTE! Your payment processor may have a minimum charge. For example, Stripe requires a minimum $0.50 payment. 

Cancelations

NOTE! If your customer chooses to Cancel after experiencing their trial, they will only be able to cancel themselves if you’ve set it up as a Subscription price type. If you choose the Purchase price type then they’ll need to contact you so you can go in and manually cancel them. 

To cancel the customer:

1. Press Contacts from your Simplero Dashboard

2. Select Contacts from the dropdown

3. Locate and select the customer name

4. Go to the Purchases section, find the product purchase in their customer screen and then click on it to open up the details screen

5. In the Purchase summary screen, select the Cancel button and confirm your selection to cancel:
   
   

Notification of Free Trial Ending

1. Create the notification email in your Email Library that lets them know their Trial ends in X # of Days and they will begin to be charged. 

2. Create an Automation with 2 steps:

   • Step 1 -  Wait X number of days (the number of days will be how long to wait from purchase before sending the free trial ending email. For example, the free trial is 30 days, you want to send the notification email 5 days before they are charged then this step would be to wait 25 days)

   • Step 2 - Add an email that lets them know their Trial ends in X # of Days and they’ll begin to be charged.

3. Go to your free trial price and add a trigger to the price

   • The trigger should read: When Purchase (Activated) >> Do This: Start Automation.

     • Choose the automation, and you’re good to go!

4. Make sure to click the Save changes button when done.

Give Them the Option to Cancel

If you want to give them the option to cancel their purchase right in the notification email you will need to follow these additional steps...

1. Create an automation with a single action step to "Cancel a Purchase"

2. Copy the URL for the one-click start automation

3. Create the notification email in your Email Library and paste in the URL wherein the copy you mention Canceling the purchase. 

4. Make sure to click the Save changes button when done.