# Customer reviews in a free-to-paid upgrade email: about +1% lift

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Email (SaaS)
- Elements: Social proof, authority & press, Reviews & star ratings
- Date shared: 2015
- Test run by: [Dashlane](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/dashlane/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/dashlane-uses-customer-reviews-increase-clickthrough
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/dashlane-upgrade-email-reviews/

Adding customer reviews to Dashlane's free-to-paid upgrade email lifted clickthrough and offer uptake by about 1%. Dashlane ran the test itself, and it was published as a MarketingSherpa case study. The gain was small, but it came on an email that had already been optimized for months.

## Result

**about +1% lift**

- Active users: clickthrough and offer uptake rose by about 1%.
- Inactive users: a small lift that the team described as essentially insignificant.
- Overall a modest win. The team valued it because it worked across user types on a very mature email.

## Control

Dashlane's long-standing upgrade email asked free users to move to the paid plan. The team had refined it over many versions, and it was hard to beat.

## Variant

The same email with customer reviews added. Dashlane tested it first on inactive users, then on active users.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- The email had already been tuned for months, so there was little room left for any change to add much.
- The team first thought inactive users had stopped because of trust worries. The weak result there suggests trust was not the main reason they lapsed.
- Reviews still added a bit of reassurance at the moment of paying, which may explain the small gain among active users.

## Caveats

The lift was about 1%, and the source does not say whether that is relative or in percentage points. No sample size or confidence level was shared, and the inactive-user result was not meaningful.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we add customer reviews to our free-to-paid upgrade email, then more free users will upgrade because other users' praise reduces doubts about paying.
- Primary metric: Upgrade rate from the email
- Guardrail: Unsubscribe rate
- Guardrail: Email clickthrough rate
- Guardrail: Refund or cancellation rate on new paid plans
- Who should test it: Freemium SaaS companies with a steady upgrade email and strong reviews. Expect small gains if the email is already well tuned, and don't count on reviews to win back lapsed users.

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Credit: Dashlane ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/dashlane-upgrade-email-reviews/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.