Live SaaS for a niche audience, several signups but no paying customers yet. What would you try next?

I’m a solo founder, working on this alongside a day job. I’ve built and launched a SaaS for a small professional niche in the UK. It’s live in production with working billing, and a handful of people have signed up for the free trial. Nobody has paid yet. **What I’ve tried so far:** * Asking people in the niche what their biggest time sinks are, in Facebook groups * Following up with the people who replied * A Facebook page and a LinkedIn page * Cold emails to small businesses in the niche, which I’m only just starting **What I’m seeing:** * People are willing to talk about their problems, but very few actually start the trial * Of those who do sign up, some log in once and never come back **What I’d like opinions on:** 1. At this stage, would you spend time on more outreach, or on fixing onboarding so trial users see value faster? 2. Is a 30-day free trial too long for a small-business buyer? Would you shorten it, or ask for a card upfront? 3. How did you get your first 5 paying customers? What worked, and what was a waste of time? 4. Is it worth targeting larger customers (businesses with several staff) first, or should I keep going after individuals? Happy to share more detail if it helps. Thanks in advance.

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u/mentiondesk 1 13 hours ago

I’d definitely tighten onboarding so users hit value right away since engagement drop off often means the aha moment comes too late. Shortening the free trial might help create urgency. If you want to spot actual buying intent in conversations, tools like ParseStream can alert you when people talk about pains you solve, making outreach less cold and more relevant.
u/no_body_12345 OP 1 13 hours ago

Thanks, this is helpful. I’ll look at the first-run experience and aim to get users to engage and complete a task within the first couple of minutes. I’ll also test a shorter trial with reminders and see what happens. Appreciate it.
u/Expert_Temporary_339 1 13 hours ago

the trial length thing is tricky. 30 days might be giving people too long to forget about it. i'd cut it to 14 and make sure the first login immediately shows something useful, not a tour or setup checklist
u/investigatormaker 1 13 hours ago

With trial users logging in once and leaving, I would fix onboarding first; more cold email only feeds the same drop-off. For each new signup, do their first real task with them, such as importing their data, so day one shows the time saved. Thirty days is long for a small-business trial; 14 with no card keeps friction low. Your likeliest first payers are the people in those Facebook groups who already told you their time sinks, since that is where your buyers gather. I make ThreadFox. Your AI researches, writes and publishes Reddit outreach from your Chrome within a job you authorize; the free plan for your SaaS lists Reddit communities whose rules allow a post about it, each rule quoted: https://threadfox.vip/p/dn63g What is the niche, and who signs off on the purchase?