The Good

Your SaaS trial window is shorter than you think. Here's where the gap between what you promise and what users experience is quietly killing conversions (and your retention).

Understanding The Promise-to-Experience Gap Your SaaS trial window is shorter than you think.

There’s a question Dan Long asks at every stage of the subscription funnel. Before a brief is written, while a landing page is in production, and again once the design is done. It isn’t about click-through rates or cost per acquisition. It’s simpler than that, and more human: What’s in it for me?

“Anytime we’re evaluating a product or service, we think about it subconsciously as a consumer,” Long says. “As a marketer, we need to think about the human aspect of marketing.”

Dan recently wrapped up six years at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, one of the American South's most storied news organizations, where he served as Senior Manager of Conversions and Optimizations. In that time, AJC grew its digital subscriber base from 24,000 to over 101,000, a transformation driven by a mix of smart product strategy, rigorous testing, and a philosophy that puts the reader at the center of every decision.

We sat down with Dan for a conversation about how he thinks about the subscription funnel, what makes digital media conversion uniquely hard, and why the best optimization work always starts with the human on the other side of the screen.

Dan Long Built a Subscription Machine at the AJC by Designing for the Human First Learn how The Atlanta Journal-Constitution grew digital subscribers from 24,000 to over 101,000.