Rotating hero images and persistent nav aside, many brands fail when it comes to creating the single most important element of their site or app: registration. Registration is crucial not just to the success of your website, but to the survival of your brand. However, creating a streamlined, efficient, secure way for users to register and login across web properties is a lot harder than it sounds. Here are 5 critical mistakes brands make when it comes to user registration, and how you can avoid them.
Mistake #1: Hidden, Unbranded Registration Forms
Sure, your blog and customer success stories are front and center, but registration and login buttons are in 8pt font and buried in the footer of your site. And once users find them, they’re not even sure whether they’re on your site anymore!
How to Make It Right: Prominently display registration buttons or links at the top of your page for fast and easy access. Remember that registration is not a portal that leads to a user’s experience on your site, but rather an integral part of that experience. Making sure registration flows are inline with your brand’s look and feel increases users’ willingness to share information.
Mistake #2: Asking Too Many Questions
A registration form is no place for 21 questions. 11% of US adults admit to having abandoned an online purchase because the site asked for too much information (Forrester).
How to Make It Right: Limit registration fields to necessary information only, and create additional opportunities for requesting and collecting user information over time as trust is built. Try implementing Social Login, which allows users to register using their existing social identities, granting permission-based access to valuable social data with the click of a button.
Mistake #3: Lack of Transparency
Over half of consumers worry about their information being compromised every time they login to a business website (1&1). However, 77% of online shoppers would trust businesses more if they would only explain how they use their personal information (Get Elastic).
How to Make It Right: Explicitly state the data points you are looking to collect from registered users, and how this data will be used to improve their customer experience. Make this information easily accessible at all times, and provide users with a way to view and control all of their shared data.
Mistake #4: Being Mobile-Unfriendly
Mobile accounted for over 20% of all Internet usage and about 15% of online commerce in 2013 (Smart Insights). Failing to give users a convenient way to register for and login to your site or app via mobile results in losing out on an increasing number of mobile-only consumers.
How to Make It Right: Employ responsive design to optimize your site for smaller screens. Keep consumers logging in on the go by ensuring that registration and login forms are apparent, accessible and simple enough to sign in via mobile. Better yet, allow users to login with touch versus type with Social Login.
Mistake #5: Requiring Separate Credentials for All Properties
Some brands own multiple web properties that users like to access in tandem, but require separate usernames and passwords for logging in to each one. This poor user experience not only creates password fatigue and frustration, but often deters consumers from registering for one or more properties in the first place.
How to Make It Right: Allow customers to move seamlessly across web properties with single sign-on (SSO), which automatically logs users in and out of all associated sites with a single user name and password. SSO creates a much faster, easier login process as well as unites user identity across properties for a more cohesive, personalized user experience.
There’s no doubt about it – registration is hard, but any brand looking to maximize user acquisition must focus on optimizing the login process. Start by reevaluating your site or app’s registration flow and make sure that you are not making any of these 5 costly mistakes!
For more advice on how to increase the volume and measure the value of user registration, download our white paper, Path to ROI: Boosting Demand Gen and Increasing Conversions with Social Login.