Natal · B2C · pregnancy and postpartum fitness app
End posts with a soft 'learn more' instead of a sales pitch
What they did
- Stage
- ongoing
In their words
How Removing the Free Trial Grew Monthly Subs 2000% – Nancy Anderson, Natal
Nancy Anderson… so many people to help us with content production over the years, and it just doesn't really work. I have a very specific brand voice that we have to nail. Words really matter, especially in emotionally sensitive topics or niches, like pre and postpartum fitness and health. And healthcare in general, I think, it's a very sensitive area, so you have to be careful with what words you use and what you say. But yeah, I'm just super picky with it.
Nancy AndersonBut recently, we are trying something new, we're bringing them on and I'm trying to get them to understand the brand voice. They're sending over these scripts to review and I'm like... I'm like, "Every word in this..." and he's like, "Okay, so what I'm hearing here is you never want to sell, you never want any copy that's going to sell," and I'm like, "Pretty much, yes." "And at the end, you just want to end it with a soft sell, like, 'Click here to learn more,' like, 'DM me to chat.'" That's what I want. I just want the connection first because I want people, before they get to the paywall, before they're asked to start a trial or even asked to sign up, I want them to know who we are, to feel comfortable with us, to feel safe with us, to feel that we're credible. And in order to have her feel those things, we need to connect with her. We need to build rapport. We need to have responsiveness.
Nancy AndersonI think that this is crazy, but I don't think that a lot of brands do it, but this is just... I mean, maybe it's my niche, I don't know, maybe it's my personality type. But every DM and comment across all social platforms, every email, every in-app post, comment, and DM gets answered within 24 hours and has been for eight years.
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More from this episode
- Sell a program as a monthly 30-day group challenge with before/after photos100 signups in month one, 125 in month two; kept growing
- Run paid social ads before Apple's tracking changeWorked well for a couple of years, then Apple's tracking change hurt it
- Post funny, relatable personal content, not just product postsStories get ~50K views; organic beats competitors' by 90%
- Reply to every DM, comment and email with a real expert within 24 hoursTrial-to-paid ~68% vs 38% typical; not isolated
- Turn down brand deals and affiliate links to keep audience trustGives up an estimated $0.5-1M/year; benefit not measurable
- Turn the questions people keep asking in DMs into your main programOver 1M users; still the top traffic driver
- Merge several niche apps into one app users keep across life stagesLess confusion and a lower price; ARR +20% in Q1 2026
- Narrow to pre- and postnatal fitness and rename the brand away from the founder
- Have your in-house expert coaches film the brand's videosFounder says it's working well; no numbers
- Ask 10-15 onboarding questions and show only content for the user's stage
- Build a new program for every client requestBiggest fail of the year: too many choices, users didn't start
- Offer a free posture check by a real expert that picks the first workout68-70% who finish it complete their first workout
- DM every new user personally and invite them to a coach-run community31% of community joiners return on day 2; no baseline
- Never give away free workouts or freebies
- Let people pay with their health savings account (HSA) at checkoutTens of thousands of dollars in two weeks, unpromoted
- Push 'spend your HSA dollars before they expire' at year end
- Drop the free trial on the monthly planMonthly subs up ~2,000%, annual +21% (founder's rough recall)
- Raise subscription pricesARR still grew 20% that quarter
- Pay influencers to post about the brand
Tags: soft-sell, cta, brand-voice, scripts