The main goal for AlphaSense was to convert visitors on the homepage into a free trial. But their conversion rate could always be improved. When Tommy Culshaw, CRO Manager at the market intelligence platform, investigated, he spotted two key opportunities:

• Effectively visualizing the product: AlphaSense consolidates a vast range of insights — company filings, event transcripts, equity research, and so on. How do you help a brand-new visitor visualize it? How do you make them see the value?

• Building an engaging free trial experience: With a plain trial signup form, users can struggle to imagine themselves inside the platform.

“Our existing signup page may have been creating unnecessary friction,” Tommy says. “It seemed like a missed opportunity to convert more users.”

Today’s buyers are savvy and skeptical. While they don’t trust audacious marketing claims, they do trust their own eyes. While visitors would scroll past slick CTA straplines, Tommy knew he could hook their attention by showing AlphaSense in action.

His hypothesis was simple: “Product transparency will increase the chance that someone will sign up.”

He planned to embed a product screenshot next to the free trial sign-up form. By giving users a sneak peek of the platform, he planned to pique their interest and generate more free trial requests.

Control vs challenger

Tommy designed a simple A/B test: control form design vs. a challenger variant.

First, take a look at the control.

When a visitor clicked “Start my free trial,” the form fired on the left of their screen. The background didn’t change. It remained whatever part of the homepage they were looking at.

Now, take a look at Tommy’s challenger design.

Almost everything is the same — form copy, fields, CTAs. The only difference is the background. Instead of the website, the right-hand panel showed a screenshot from AlphaSense’s product.

It showcased what the platform could do. Do you want to know everything about Amazon? Here’s all the latest news. How are their finances? Check out their earnings reports. Which way is public opinion swaying? Sentiment score change.

“It brings you into the platform,” Tommy explains. “It generates excitement about signing up for that free trial.”

Test, analyze, and scale

Using Mutiny, Tommy tested one against the other. He sent half AlphaSense’s homepage traffic to the control form and half to the challenger.

Instantly, he saw the difference. Conversion rates on the challenger design were higher — much higher. But Tommy is a data guy. He wanted to be sure his experiment was rock solid, so he waited as the visitor count ticked up and his statistical significance crept over the 80% threshold. 

As soon as his sample reached statistical significance, he promoted his experiment to 100% of AlphaSense’s traffic. (In case he needed more proof, the statistical significance eventually hit 98%.)

Same strategy, new setting

The experiment proved Tommy’ hunch: buyers wanted to see the product before signing up. But his challenger form design was still a blunt instrument. Pharma VCs, consultancy firms, and in-house market intelligence teams all got the same product screenshot.

It was time to get more granular.

He turned to AlphaSense’s ABM campaign. When target contacts hit the homepage, they already got a personalized homepage, but Tommy began tweaking the form image, too.

“We can show their company name or the contact’s name,” he says. “There's a lot more to be a lot more opportunity there.”

See how Natalie Marcotullio at Navattic used interactive product demos to 5x the number of signups being generated by a product video.