Content Strategy for the Free Version
Zoho Invoice is an online invoicing app used by millions of businesses worldwide. After more than a decade of following the subscription-based billing model, the app was made completely free in 2021. But this free version no longer supported a few advanced features. For current users, this meant they had to disable these advanced features and migrate to this new version to use it for free.
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As the sole writer, I took care of the entire user journey - informing users about the free version, educating them, helping them migrate, and finally welcoming them to their free app.
Collaborated With
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2 product managers
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2 engineers
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1 product lead
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1 UI/UX designer
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1 product marketer
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1 support agent
Skills Used
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Cross-functional collaboration
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User-centred thinking
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User education
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Impeccable, clean writing
Audience
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Existing users
Banner To Inform Users
From research, we knew that most of our users on the Free and Basic plans were not using the advanced features that were no longer supported. So we decided to inform them first about Zoho Invoice becoming free. We displayed a non-collapsible banner on the home page, with a button that’ll take users to a screen with more details.
Goal:
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Let users know that Zoho Invoice is now free.
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Inform them about the benefits of the free version.
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Get them to read more details.
Iteration:
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My initial thought was that users will be attracted by the term “Free”.
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I kept the banner header as “Zoho Invoice is now FREE!” and described a few words about the free version.
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The product managers also approved it and we took it live.
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But this banner did not perform as we had expected and it had a poor click rate.
What I finalised:
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Suggested that we highlight how users of each plan will benefit from the free version.
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Reached out to the engineers to know the difference in features between the two plans.
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Drafted separate copies that spoke to the users of the two different plans.
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Iterated over a few versions, got feedback from the managers, and finalised the copies.
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Requested the designer to change the image used on the banner.
Banner content for users on the Free plan
Banner content for users on the Basic plan
Outcome:
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Users were able to see the benefit of switching to the free version. Click rates shot up by 45%, which indicated that we were able to grab the attention of users.
Educating Users
When users learn that something they’ve been using for some time now is suddenly free, it’ll bring up a lot of questions. We wanted to address their doubts within the product itself, so they don’t reach out to support. We had to convey a lot of things in one space, but not make it overwhelming.
Goal:
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Educate users on why Zoho Invoice is free now and clear the doubts they might be having.
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Get them to make the switch.
What I did:
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Conducted 1:1 meetings with the product lead, product manager, and support agent to collect all the necessary information.
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Inferred that users primarily wanted to know the reasoning behind this decision and if they’ll have to compromise something.
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Created user-focused copy that also aligned with the tone of the PR that went out.
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Influenced the designer in deciding the page’s layout and design.
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Worked with the product marketer and wrote a document to educate users about what this free version offers. View PDF.
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Used concise, first-person CTAs.
Outcome:
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Users got clarity about the free version. We had very few users contacting support with doubts. And almost 80% of users visiting this page clicked the button to see if they can switch, which was the desired outcome.
Helping Users Migrate
As the free version does not support a few advanced features, users had to disable them first before switching. To help them do this, we created a migration tool that’ll check if they’re using any of these features and list them out.
Goal:
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Nudge users to disable the advanced features they’re using and help them switch to the free version.
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Minimise the dependency on support.
What I did:
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Talked to the engineers to get the list of features that were no longer supported.
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Grouped these features according to their functionality for better readability.
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Participated in design discussions to decide on the page layout.
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Wrote different copies empathising with the different points of the user’s journey.
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Tested the migration tool to check for any usability issues and gave suggestions to improve the UX.
Copy for users using advanced features
Copy for users not using advanced features
Outcome:
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Though what’s ideal is a way to disable all the unsupported features in one go, we could not do that due to technical limitations. But, with proper UX and clear copy, we were able to guide users on migrating to the free version.
Welcoming Users
After users move to the free version, we wanted to add a pop-up to welcome them. This served 2 purposes. One, this confirmed that they were now on the free version. Two, we wanted to use this space to get users to talk about Zoho Invoice becoming free. This will help us gain prospective customers by word of mouth.
Goal:
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Get users to spread the word that Zoho Invoice is free.
What I did:
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Added the user’s name in the header to present a personalised welcoming message.
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Instead of just asking users to spread the word, I included reasoning for the “why should I” part.
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Iterated many versions of design with the designer.
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Wrote a set of tweet copies that will be pre-filled at random when users choose to share on Twitter. This made it easier for users to post a tweet with a single click.
Outcome:
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This was well received and we saw 200+ tweets from this source. Apart from users sharing the pre-filled tweets, we also saw a lot of them typing in their tweets as well. View tweets.
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The link mentioned in the tweet received over 3k clicks and we got around 55 signups from this.