Win Report: How rewriting one button increased sign-ups by 39%

Win Reports help you grow your business by showing our methodology at work. Each Win Report showcases a real-world test, sharing the research, insights, and techniques that led to the win.

In the next two minutes, we’ll show you how rewriting one button increased sign-ups by 39%.

The original and variation versions of the CTA at the top of the homepage, side by side. The variation replaces the CTA with more detail about the trail length.

Exclaimer makes email signature management software for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Exchange. The company now manages signatures for more than 10 million email accounts worldwide, at organizations including Sony, HP, Cisco, and the BBC.

Research: When the customers tell you what works, take notice

When we asked Exclaimer’s existing customers what actually tipped their decision, one thing came up again and again. It wasn’t the features or the pricing; it was the moment they tried the product for themselves. Here’s one comment that was typical of many.

“I made a trial account and saw how easy it worked. From that moment I was sold and rolled it out for everyone.”

The free trial, which offered all Exclaimer’s features for 14 days without a credit card, was doing a lot of the closing on the website. Based on our principle, when a lever works, pull it again, we naturally looked for ways to get more visitors into that trial.

You don’t need heatmaps to know that content above the fold gets the highest visibility, and Exclaimer’s site already included a button that linked to the free trial.

If we tested new copy on that button, we’d automatically be testing it across the whole website. (In the desktop version, the header with the button appeared at the top of every page.)

The original hero (or control)

Here’s the homepage with the original button. The button reads “Start free trial.”

The tested hero (or variation)

We rewrote the button so that it stated the length of the trial rather than just naming it. The new button read: “Try it free for 14 days.”

Instead of simply naming the offer, the new copy:

Put the trial’s length in the button. “Try it free for 14 days” tells a visitor what they get and for how long.
Softened the verb. “Try it” feels like it asks less of a visitor than “Start”—an aspect of the Safe Step Principle.

We could leave the Win Report here, but let’s go a little deeper. Why did those three extra words really matter?

“Start free trial” describes an action, whereas “Try it free for 14 days” describes an offer. The original asks the visitor to do something; the variation gives them something.

And the specificity makes the offer easier to evaluate. Visitors no longer have to wonder how long “free” lasts—and fourteen days is long enough to sound like a meaningful opportunity to put the product through its paces.

Result: Conversions increased by 39%

During the test, we observed a 39% increase in conversions for the trial.

If you’ve been following our Win Report series, it won’t surprise you that a small change in copy can have a significant impact, especially on a high-visibility header CTA. Of course, a button is only as good as the content that sits behind it. In this case, Exclaimer’s trial page offers all the features of the product for the full fourteen days without requiring a credit card. That’s a high-value and low-friction offer… which is exactly what the customers in our initial research were telling us.

By stating the trial length and lowering the perceived commitment, we encouraged more visitors to take up the offer.

This test is a useful reminder that sometimes you don’t need to create a more compelling offer. You need to better communicate the offer you already have.

Here’s what our client had to say

Becky Dunne, Head of Product Lead Growth, Exclaimer, the email signature platform trusted by 80,000+ businesses and 10 million email accounts worldwide.

"We knew our free trial was a strong offer, we just weren't communicating it clearly. Simply rewriting our button to spell out the trial length, with no credit card required, made the offer feel far less risky to visitors. That one change delivered a 39% increase in trial sign-ups, without touching anything else on the page.
"It's a great reminder that sometimes the biggest wins come from clarifying what you already offer, rather than reinventing it."

What’s next

As usual, we added the test to our proprietary Wins Database, then looked for ways to apply its lessons to other parts of Exclaimer’s business and then to other clients.

If you want us to grow your profits—quickly and efficiently—check if you qualify for a free one-on-one strategy session with one of our CRO consultants.

We’ll only work with you if we believe we can get amazing results together. Our success has come entirely from positive word of mouth, and we plan to keep it that way.

Thanks to Exclaimer for letting us share these insights (and for being such a great team to work with).

How much did you like this article?

What’s your goal today?

1. Hire us to grow your company

We’ve generated hundreds of millions for our clients, using our unique CRE Methodology™. To discover how we can help grow your business:

Read our case studies, client success stories, and video testimonials.
Learn about us, and our unique values, beliefs and quirks.
Visit our “Services” page to see the process by which we assess whether we’re a good fit for each other.
Schedule your FREE website strategy session with one of our renowned experts.

Schedule your FREE strategy session

2. Learn how to do conversion

Download a free copy of our Amazon #1 best-selling book, Making Websites Win, recommended by Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Moz, Econsultancy, and many more industry leaders. You’ll also be subscribed to our email newsletter and notified whenever we publish new articles or have something interesting to share.

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools and techniques. Many readers tell us they have doubled their sales by following the advice in these articles.

Download a free copy of our best-selling book