There’s a number of reasons to pay good attention to exactly what demands you make when it comes to registration. But we probably don’t need to go beyond the biggest: large numbers of users inevitably drop off when shown a registration page. That’s true of any digital experience, and the actual rate can vary widely, but the central truth remains the same: users that you have (probably) paid for are leaving.
This short piece intends to look at why that might be, and what you can do about it. But let’s start with a bold suggestion: unless it’s really important, consider not asking for registration at all, or only when it becomes absolutely necessary.
There’s a trade of here of course. Businesses love getting users to register. They can then send them emails and ‘keep in touch’. Unfortunately, that’s also why users aren’t so keen on the whole deal! Sure - with the help of an awesome platform like Swrve your communications are going to be relevant, useful, effective. But user’s looking at a registration page don’t know that yet! So you might find it worthwhile to forgo the delights of registration until you have delivered some value, or made it clear to the user what is ‘in it for them’. Your retention and engagement metrics may benefit to the extent greater than the ‘cost’ of not being able to communicate as effectively. (I deliberately use the word “may” - you should be testing all of these suggestions)
Two Ways To Improve Your Registration Rates
But if you’ve decided you simply have to ask for registration, here’s two ways to make it a little more effective.
Firstly: ask for less. At least initially keep the information you require as limited as possible. Here’s the FourSquare registration screen. I have to say, if confronted with something like this my immediate questions would be ‘why do they need all this stuff’? Sure, it may well be useful for them, but how might they use it?
It’s well established that more fields mean less form completion, so add them with care at all times. And as mentioned above - test! There is, ultimately no right or wrong answer to any of these questions.
Too much information at FourSquare
Secondly, consider splitting registration. It might be useful (or required) to perform the most basic process immediately. If it is, do so in the simplest way possible and then wait until later to ask for more information. In this way, we may be able to get the best of both worlds - both an early identity and email, and additional information after we’ve shown some value and actually need it.
In the screens above social app Behance demonstrates how users can ‘get started’ with the bare minimum of information, whilst amending and adding to their profile at a later date. And of course, any delay gives an opportunity to test and establish how long that delay should be, and which in-app messages are effective at encouraging further profile completion. Lots to look at!
