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  • #16
    ezz_bee wrote: View Post
    Offering a free trial is great. Offering a free trial but you have to cancel by this date or you'll be charged can be problematic.

    As a customer, if they are asking for credit card info, they're probably putting the onus* on you to cancel or you'll be receiving automated charges. Netflix is particularly crafty with their cancellation policy. As soon as you cancel your account, you no longer have access to their content even though you've paid for the month. I'm sure they do it to try to get you to delay your cancellation to as close to the deadline as possible in the hopes that you miss it and then are charged for the next month.

    I LOVE free trials that don't use my credit card. These are really the only true free trials as there is no obligation on your part for action. You can be passive and let the free trial run out. Obviously, this is not the ideal situation for short term business for companies as the active opt-out will have a higher retention rate. However, I agree that it is NOT the best practice for companies in terms of long-term marketing. Marketing, based on my limited knowledge (1st year MBA course) is about creating customer equity (basically good will from the customer by providing good value for goods and services) which you then trade over the long term for money (repeat business). Regardless, of whether you think the NBA's free trial service is good or bad, how is there customer service on the issue? How easy was it for AJ to file a complaint? Did he feel like anyone heard or listened to his complaint? Did he have to contract multiple people or use multiple means (phone, email, etc) to get answers? In short, did NBA LP provide good service? This is ultimately more important than the philosophical debate about whether customer opt out free trials are the right or wrong business strategy. The customer service is way more imporant.

    Just out of curiosity AJ360, it sounds like this is not the first year you've used the league pass free trial. Based on your experience this year, are you likely to partake in a free trial next year, if it requires your credit card and that you must actively opt-out by a certain date?


    Onus: Difficult or disagreeable task or obligation
    rocwell: This is what I'm trying to say, not that free trials are stupid. League Pass didn't used to ask for payment info up front and require cancellation by a deadline to participate in the free trial. Two main reasons for why the mechanism for requiring payment info up front is a bad move from the consumer's perspective:
    1) It leads to situations exactly like this one, which is a pain in the ass and an extremely negative experience for potential customers.
    2) NBA.com keeps your payment info on file, which is a huge problem for me. I recently had to cancel my credit card, because Adobe, who keeps payment info on file, was hacked and encrypted customer info (including payment info) for something like 2 or 3 million clients was stolen by hackers. There's 0 reason for them to keep my payment info on file, other than so that they can automatically deduct payments if I forget to cancel a subscription. I'm sure they're making some more money in the short-term with the automatic deductions and in a way there's a convenience for returning/permanent customers, but there's also the security risk and the huge inconvenience for anyone who forgets the payment schedule of all their online subscriptions/purchases. Nobody likes to find surprise deductions on a credit card statement, or to have to jump through all the hoops AJ360 had to jump through to figure out how to get your money back.
    "We're playing in a building." -- Kawhi Leonard

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    • #17
      ezz_bee wrote: View Post
      I agree that it is definitely better in the short term, but I'm of the opinion (again though not an expert) that although it would have a lower retention rate having a free trial where the customer has to actively opt-in as opposed to opt-out is a better long term strategy. AND may even be less costly, as you are devoting less employee time to dealing with complaints about the policy and the costs of trying to recover outstanding costs owed to the company, either through direct staff or through 3rd party recovery services.
      They don't give a fuck about retention rate this moment, in my opinion. Not many business can brag about that, but they have a chance to drive huge amounts of traffic trough authority website(s) ( high quality website that is well respected by knowledgeable people in its industry ). They don't even need front page offers to attract customers. They're getting high quality and targeted traffic ( traffic like that always have high conversion ratio. ) to their site. That's why I think they're running free trial offer few times a year for a long term business investment. Free trial offers are tricky. You gotta find a way how to profit now ( usually it doesn't work coz you gotta payout big $$$ to affiliates ) and find the way how to profit in the future.

      LP is running free trial offer(s) not for the customer, it's for affiliates. We love free trial offers because of high commissions ( from $xx to $xxx per lead ). It's a great way to get huge international traffic and some leads for the company tho. This is LONG-TERM, expensive and risky investment. But it holds own benefits, you're not only getting some paying clients but also you're building connections/relationships with affiliates for the future off-the-screen campaigns. ( email marketing, direct mail marketing, SEO blogs to drive traffic to offer and etc. )

      Let's not forget that by running free trial offer they're building their email list and I can bet - their email list is fucking HUGE. ( email marketing still going strong these days[huge $$$, believe me.]. LP can also be affiliate for other guys like NBA shops, Nike, Adidas shops and etc. sure a lot depends on promotional contracts, but we don't want go there. )

      The one thing I know best - their 'unusual' front end offers ( offers can come from email marketing strategy, sign up pages, commission-based contracts and more.. there are plenty ways to run front end offers that's why I said it's a bit 'unusual' because they're mixing up with Internet Marketing and simple, basic marketing. ) are going to MAKE THE MONEY IN THE FUTURE. It's just a matter of time. Most of free trial campaign fail, but successful ones could give you long-term relationships with affiliates, long lasting email list with constant income, some paying membership customers, and it can even lead to more media buyers too. Everything depends on company' marketing strategy and knowing that NeuLion have some very good people in their team, I'm certain - they're running free trials offers for long-term reason, not just to attract few customers for new season or playoff games.

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