How Blinkist increases trial opt-in with push notifications
Answer: three BIG discounts in week one.
Over 85–95% of users don’t opt in the first time they see your paywall. It’s huge but it’s normal.
The average trial opt in across all products is 3.8% according to RevenueCat. For me, that feels low. A great trial start rate is 10%, a fantastic rate would be 15%. Depending on the quality of your traffic.
Of the people who do start a trial ~94% will opt-in on day 1. Then a further ~5% in the next 6 days. The remaining ~1% will come in in weeks 2 and 3.
So time is ticking: your users need to opt into a trial to try your full product offering ASAP. If you don’t — they are likely to churn.
In my experience retention of freemium users can be as low as half of that of premium users. Lower retention and engagement metrics generally precede churn — the less people are using the product the more likely they are to quit.
Whilst you can test all you want on your onboarding and paywall (and you should), it’s impossible to get everyone to start a trial in their first session.
There’s a range of reasons why some people won’t hit that ‘start trial’ button the first time they see the paywall, including:
- They need more time to think it through before making a decision
- They’re worried about forgetting and the subscription rolling over
- They feel like they have too many subscriptions already, and want to try the freemium version first
- They may have made another purchase on that day and feel uncharacteristically price-sensitive
- You may have caught someone just before payday, making them hesitant to buy
A lot of these reasons may change in a few days time. That’s where push notifications are crucial to secure the incremental 5–6% trials starts after day one.
Note: This is a more mature monetisation strategy. If you haven’t tested paywall placement, paywall UI, value proposition or pricing, start there first.
To dig into push strategy in more detail, last week I re-downloaded Blinkist.
Blinkist is a Series C-stage B2C subscription app based out of Berlin. It provides audio and written book summaries for the busy bees out there who don’t have time to read.
I was a subscriber back in lockdown when I was on my the ‘self improvement’ hype. I liked to listen to their book summaries but soon realised that I love the feeling of real books and visually filling a bookshelf (makes me feel smart) more than Blinkist’s book summaries.
So, I cancelled.
But I was curious to see how the app changed in three or so years. So, I jumped back in and installed the product.
I saw some new things, some old, but what interested me the most was how they used push notifications and discounts in the first week to drive me to start a trial.
Here’s how they did it in a nutshell:
Now for those with a few more minutes to read on, let’s break it down.
Day 1: install to paywall
I like Blinkist’s onboarding, it has improved a lot in the three to four years since I first downloaded the product.
What’s great is Blinkist has a clear value proposition that gets more specific the further down the funnel you go:
Registration: Understand powerful ideas in 15 minutes
Pre-upsell screen: Build a learning habit you’ll love to keep
Paywall: Get access to unlimited powerful ideas
They also use imagery and illustrations to communicate ideas and concepts, which is great for those of use who don’t read text.
According to NN group, only 16% of people read every word on a page. This is why imagery is so key for the 79% of people who scan instead of read and the rest who don’t read at all (often me: just tap, tap, tap through onboarding as fast as possible…).
However, I wasn’t going to subscribe again given I know this product isn’t for me.
So, I exited the paywall and quit the app without starting a trial, despite the pretty illustrations.
Day 3: discount 1
Around 3pm on the third day after downloading Blinkist, I get this push:
Get 50% off Blinkist Premium….(the rest is cut off…)
Our yearly price is temporarily reduce from £60 to just £29.99
A lesson to keep your push notifications short. I recently ran an AB test where the shorter push had 20% better CTR (relatively). Other sources report double the CTR (i.e. 200%) if your pushes are shorter (like Bumble, for instance).
Side note: I re-downloaded Calm on the same day to look at their onboarding flow. Interesting they’re using the same timings as Blinkist for their discount pushes.
Tapping through to the app I get a half size pop up. The copy here feels a bit small to read, but they did add a nice visual to help communicate value.
Another tap and I’m through to another discount screen. Personally, I’d test two taps to payment instead of three, especially given both screens have the same information on them.
What’s missing here is the lack of a specific time the offer is live. We’re hit with ‘limited time offer’, which rightly uses the scarcity principle to encourage users to take action.
However it is less believable and authentic as there’s no specific time limit. I’d add a countdown timer for 12 or 24 hours to make the ‘limited-time offer’, ‘only today’ badges feel more legit.
Day 4: discount 2
The next day, I get another push:
50% not enough? Here’s a 60% …(cut off again)
Blinkist Premium now down from £60 to just £32.99!
Again on the length, it needs to be shorter. I also think some AB testing on copy could work as the second half is a little basic. I do LOVE the first line though, as it really caught me off guard with the direct question: 50% not enough?
So, I tapped through to see.
Interestingly, I found a bug.
I got to a screen with 40% off if I subscribe to email updates and create an account. I imagine this is another discount flow for those who don’t create an account.
Nevertheless, I tap ‘no thanks’ and I’m taken to the real 60% off screen with the same illustration as before.
You can see from the first screen that Blinkist were also sending me their other content pushes throughout the day.
What’s interesting here is when I tap the normal content pushes, I’m taken to content that isn’t locked. They’re not used as a hook for more trial opt ins.
An interesting test would be to try linking to books that I really want to read, but which are locked behind the paywall. That way Blinkist can use the content to drive trials (not just discounts).
On RevenueCat’s podcast SubClub, Keya Patel and Shreya Oswal from Headspace note how the app optimised monetisation by locking the app down, their advice:
“Don’t be afraid to gate 100% of your content.”
That way, the more users see the paywall, the more users are likely to opt in for a trial. And that’s half the battle.
Of course there are other factors that impact trial opt ins (how contextual/personalised your paywall is, UI, copy, features in the premium plan) but I’ve found time and time again that the simple UX fact remains true: if more users see the paywall more frequently, you drive more trial opt-ins.
As with many things in life you have to ask more than once. It’s exactly the same with subscription apps.
Day 6: discount 3
Two days later, I get the third push:
Our BIGGEST discount … (cut off)
Your final chance, a year of Blinkist for £14.99
Now this one really got me. Seeing the absolute value £14.99 and ‘a year’ made this seem like an excellent deal.
So much so that I nearly purchased.
But didn’t. I have too many subscriptions. The average person in the UK spends £46 per month on subscriptions, which is about £552 per year.
Myself included.
Tapping through the flow, I get the same pop up and bottom sheet as the 50% and 60% (minus the bug from before).
75% off is such a huge discount it makes me think that Blinkist has analysed the probability of someone purchasing after day 6 and its little to nothing. Therefore they’re happy to get you onboard at such a huge discount.
Increasing the discount with decreasing engagement is an excellent way to get incremental trials and subscribers. Unlike Calm, who keep the discounts similar with no escalation.
When the price is a no-brainer, you’re likely to drive subscriptions for the price-sensitive users. Just beware that these users are likely to churn later due to being lower-intent and lower in engagement. Though it is a plus they’re paying you.
In summary: a flow diagram
Days 1 to 7 are crucial for trial opt-ins. Beyond that, you have a much smaller chance of converting users.
Here are some ideas to take away and test:
- Send your first discount after the average time it takes for users to opt into your trial. E.g. day 3
- Ensure you fast follow with a better discount for the users who didn’t engage. E.g. days 4 or 5
- Cut through with some ballsy copy ‘Didn’t like 50% off? Here’s another: 60% off for the next 24h ⏰
- AB test short versus long push copy to increase tap rate
- Try other pushes that drive to paywalls, such as content pushes to premium content/features
- AB test: lock more of the product — like Headspace did — to drive even more subscribers
Any more suggestions to add? Comment to share your ideas ✨
