Web registration forms can make or break lead generation strategies and sales. Expedia for example, lost $12 million by adding an extra field to their sign-up form that confuses customers of the website’s registration process. Complex online forms that require too many mandatory fields causes high customer friction, bringing a dent on lead generation strategies and over-all hurting a company’s sales target. Fortunately, there are signs that tell if your website registration form needs to be revamped.
Low page impression due to a complex online form
You may be surprised to know that our attention span is shorter than a goldfish. Conversioner on its 2015 attention span research found that humans can only stay focused for 8.25 seconds versus a gold fish’s full 9 seconds. Not only that, our ability to focus is constantly declining due to the plethora of available technology. Back in 2000, human’s attention span is still averaging 12 seconds – that is 31 percent higher compared to today! Because of this, websites find it challenging to keep visitors engaged and accomplish registration pages that appear too complex due to too many fields and steps. When developing a website signup form, ask yourself the question: What specific customer information do I really need to help me transform them from a lead to a full paying customer? Website registration forms must be short and sweet. This means that your online form size must be minimal, asking only 2-3 pieces of information such as: name, email address and password. Twitter, Shopify and MailChimp are a few good examples of online forms that would prevent your site visitors from clicking the browser’s back button.
High abandonment rate due to a mandatory credit card request
Another culprit of website registration form abandonment rate is asking sensitive information like credit card or bank account information just to sign-up or start a free trial. A study conducted by Totango revealed that software as a service (SaaS) online forms which do not require visitors to enter their credit card information has a higher customer retention rate (i.e. 80 percent) compared to those which ask for one (i.e. 60 percent). What’s more interesting in this study is that end-to-end conversion rate of credit-card free website registration forms are much higher (i.e. 1.2 percent) compared to their counterparts (i.e. 0.6 percent). This valuable information from the study of 100 vendors reveal that by focusing on customer relationships rather than cut throat conversion rate strategies, websites can benefit more by retaining a higher quality and more loyal customer base.
Low page impression due to appearing too spammy
Another sign that your registration form desperately needs a redesign is low page impression (i.e. time a visitor stays on a page) due to appearing too “spammy”. A spammy online form makes visitors feel that their personal information will be misused. If your website sign-up form has the option to register through social media such as Facebook or Twitter, an assurance that your site will not spam their page and friends is essential. Putting website copies such as: “This application will not: post on your page, notify friends of your activity, update your profile or access your messages” will go a long way.
Sign-up form not optimized for mobile
And as more and more customers access social media using their mobile phones, registration page abandonment can also be prevented by providing a web mobile view option that automatically switches when someone accesses your website through their mobile phones. Studies show that customers browse the web 51 percent of the time through their mobile phones instead of desktops. Because of this, if your website doesn’t switch its online form view to display big buttons which can fit big thumbs and index fingers, your website signup form impression and abandonment rate will surely spike on a mobile environment.
High cart abandonment rate
Cart abandonment rate owing from a mandatory website registration is another sign that your registration form needs to be overhauled. According to Baymard institute, at least 69 percent of customers abandon their carts after placing products for check-out. The reason for cart abandonment are numerous, in fact Statistia identified 14 of them:
- Presented with unexpected costs;
- I was just browsing;
- Found a better price elsewhere;
- Overall price too expensive;
- Decided against buying;
- Website navigation too complicated;
- Website crashed
- Process was taking too long
- Excessive payment security checks;
- Concerns about payment security;
- Delivery options were unsuitable;
- Website timeout;
- Price presented in a foreign currency; and
- Payment was declined.
Out of these 14 culprits, it is important to know that cart abandonment rate is directly linked with making registration mandatory for purchase. Shopify made this clear when mentioning that customers are turned-off checking out when being forced to sign-up just to complete buying. When redesigning your website sign-up form, don’t forget how it is linked to your check-out process. Make sure it doesn’t appear as an annoying pop-up that forces an unnecessary step for purchase.
There are a lot more signs telling that your website signup form for is due for redesign. For example, tracking the website sign-up form’s performance and see the rate of page error and time it takes to load, is vital. Technical aspects such as poorly written code, and databases that are not optimized are worthy of looking to make sure that it is not your code that is making you fail. The conversion rate of your website signup form – or the number in which sign-ups turn to full paying customers is another statistical information that your business intelligence engines should be capturing. With enough data, correlation analysis can be made to determine optimization strategies or if it’s time to make a pivot. Remember, signing up your website is the last step on your lead generation strategy. Do not waste all the marketing efforts put to it by making your registration page too difficult to complete.
