There are so many reasons you would want someone to register for your site. Whether you have an e-commerce site and want to get users’ emails for your abandoned cart and email marketing blasts or you planned a webinar and want people to sign up through your landing page  - you want those users to register! It’s a great way to increase returning users and you can use it as a tool to increase purchases or other conversions you have for your site!

 ”The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%” -Marketing Metrics

Here are 9 Best Practices for registration form optimization- and at the end of this post you’ll get an update on our latest case study results for the Registration Page Test we ran with Piktochart!

1. Short Is Sweet

If you can reduce the amount of required fields you need in order for users to sign up, try it in a test.  The thing about people these days is that we have a lower attention span than a goldfish (As of 2015 research, we have 8.25 seconds attention span, and a goldfish has a full 9 seconds).

 

In that same research, statistics show that only about 28% of words are read on a page with over 593 words, but 49% of words are read on a page of 111 words. Just to put this into perspective, 593 words is longer than the amount of words in Taylor Swift’s song, Shake It Off, and 111 words is the first verse and chorus of that song.

 

This means we want to keep our registration page with a minimal amount of words, and a low amount of fields because we want people to:

a. Stay  attentive for long enough to register.

b. Feel assured it will end quickly and easily!

This is important to test and not just change on your registration page as it is dependent on your target audience. There have been businesses who have found that when you actually increase the amount of fields you get less registrations, but those who do sign up are more likely to become paying customers. So test and see how your audience responds, checking both registrations and final conversions.

If you find that you need to add more fields, and you cannot make it short and sweet – consider splitting your registration page into easy, simple steps over a few pages and keeping a progress bar so that users always know where they are in the process and how close they are to the finish line! (aka completing the purchase you oh-so-want them to make). If you do decide to test this, we recommend you set up event tracking on each button to track the progress of users through the steps. If there is a drop on a certain step – work on optimizing that page!

2. Keep It Clean

When you want someone to do something on your page, you want to make sure they do only that and have no distractions. You want to make it clear that this is what you want them to do. It’s a simple website optimization technique – take away all distractors. As we saw before, data shows that many internet users do not have a strong attention span. That not only relates to time but also- oh look! A cute puppy and baby youtube video!….You get my point. Therefore, you want the least amount of distractors on your page so that people focus on doing what you want them to do: register.

Another tip to help focus your user is using an image that directs attention to the Call to Action you want them to click on or form you want them to fill out.

 3. Personalize It

Part of registering for your site involves trust. The user needs to trust that:

1. You will not give out their private information.

2. You will not bombard them with emails that are not interesting to them.

3. Signing up will give them value.

4. You are a trustworthy and honest person and they want to join your community.

You can use geo-location to personalize a site,  meaning you show the user that you know where they are. This can appear in many ways. You can make a site in their language. You can put the currency of a product to their local currency. You can give a local phone number for support, or offer free shipping! All of these will help users want to register more!

4. Make It Easy

If you can spare your users the time to fill out the form, do so. For example, if you need an address, perhaps ask for a Zip Code – and then City and State are all filled out! Or use a drop down menu that guesses the completed outcome, so that people can stop typing early.

5. Guide Your Audience

Nothing is more annoying than being told you are wrong about something when you didn’t have all the facts in the first place. You should be clear about what you want your user to do. If you write just “Username” and “Password” within the fields but the Password needs to be 7 characters long and include numbers and a capital letter, you’re going to need to tell the users about it, before they get that error message. There are different ways to do this. You can write it into the form field (showing them what you want them to do) or with small text or a question mark by the field.

6. Social Sign Ups

The Big Dilemma. We discuss in our articles on CTAs and conversion optimization and how important it is to have just one call to action. But then there are Social Sign Ups, and if you offer the Facebook login, do you offer a Google +Login? and then you have two Calls to Action! But if someone doesn’t have a social login, or they prefer not to connect to their social profiles, do you also provide an email login as well?

Well, in this case we would start with considering your product. What information would be most useful for you? Are you providing a newsletter, in which case you’ll want an email? Or are you capable of providing notifications, etc on social profiles?

Next, if you found that you prefer collecting data and connecting with users via their social profiles, we would recommend researching your target audience. If your target audience is young and tends to connect with social media, consider putting only one social login option. If you have a range of audiences, consider placing on large call to action, and other options as text links below. Or if you want to put all three, which we considered doing, you can do so but give them equal priority so people can choose what they are interested in most.

7. Something Special For Mobile

Statistics from 2015 research show that Mobile Internet Surfing time is now passed desktop and other mediums, mobile at 51% compared to desktop at 42%. This shows you how crucial it is to be able to access your site from mobile. But the mobile experience is very different from the laptop experience. It is touch screen, the screen is smaller,  and the loading time can differ. Therefore, you should make sure you have a separate registration form specifically fit for mobile.

8. Use Helpful Validation

Validation means when you make sure that your user has filled something out correctly, and if not, they get an error message. Error messages show up when someone forgets to fill something out, or they didn’t follow the directions correctly, or their phone number was entered in the wrong format and they get a message saying “Hey! Correct this!” This is the aspect of the registration process that a lot of us don’t think through but there are good ways to validate and there are not as good of ways. You can also have your registration page validate while an individual types it in to the box, or when the person hits the “submit” button. We recommend you think this out and match it to your page – whether you have a pop up alert, or small red letters near the appropriate field.

My favorite registration process is by Prezi and I’ll tell you why.

First of all, when you put in information, Prezi have these exclamations in green that interact with you and cheer you on. I wanted to fill out more info just so I could see what was waiting for me! They also use conversational language like “So what do you do?” which feels like they are really just trying to get to know you. Lastly, they give options to connect with LinkedIn or Facebook in case you are interested, but use text links so as not to give more than one call to action.

They use humor in their little exclamations, like “You’re on a roll!” which made me smile while going through the process as well – I won’t tell you all the text so that if you ever go through it, you’ll enjoy the surprises. But that’s not all – they have very clear Validation messages as well:

They show you what you got right with the green arrows and the green outline, and they show you what you’re missing with both a red line and an explanation. They keep true to their straightforward style by explaining to you why they want you to fill out that field – to give you a better experience! It feels personal and motivating.

The Registration page is that page in the process where a user decides whether they are sticking with you and want to get that added value, or not. So make sure that, from the homepage, your users know what they’re getting. Use these tips to make the registration easy, straightforward, and filled with the energy you want your users to feel!

 

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…(*drumroll please*)…  The Piktochart Registration Test results!

Original:

Variation:

We designed a page that had less text above the fold, emphasized email more so than social log ins by moving them under the email registration, and kept the energy going from the previous page through the registration process with the bright colors, the fun mascots, and the big bright button. We kept the social proof (testimonials and relevant numbers) on the page below the fold for the information seekers who still weren’t sure.

We tried two different variations actually – one with the social logins below the email sign in, and one with the social logins beside the email registration – for equal focus.

Overall, these pages increased registration conversions by 14%!

What does your registration page look like and do you have your own registration best practices?

 

 

Last month we completed our first round of optimization with Piktochart.

For those of you not familiar with the product (you should check them out), Piktochart is one of the top infographic tools in the world. With hundreds of creative templates, it allows marketers without design experience to create productive, professional infographics in minutes.

We’ve been working with them on optimizing their entire funnel, from sign ups to paying customers. Piktochart are always up for testing and learning in order to provide the best experience for their users, which is a great attitude, and we were excited to join the team!

This is their original homepage:

 

The current homepage already has some good tactics for conversion. They have a brightly colored call to action, a large headline, copy with the word “Discover” (which is a great attention grabber), and easy to digest bullet points.

They also use social proof and write where they have been featured, so that users can see how serious and well known Piktochart is.

The video shows how users can create their infographic – but it is not constantly running, so it does not distract users attention from the call to action, but rather allows the user to control their experience.

Piktochart wanted to work on the emotional targeting strategy and learn more about their customers, so we decided to take the current homepage, and kick it up a notch in terms of the strategy – bringing about the emotional triggers we want the users to feel in order to take action on the homepage.

We hypothesized, based on our marketing personas (discussed later), that our main emotional triggers were empowerment and energy. Our goal was to to give the user the immediate understanding of what they will be getting with this product, and the energy and empowerment to see themselves creating these infographics!

Our Mission: To Increase Sign Ups

Our Ship: The Homepage

Our Map: Research and Strategy

Step 1: The Ground Work

After researching the market and the competition and understanding the stage better, we discussed Piktochart’s goals and what they wanted to improve.  Piktochart was interested not only in signing more people up to their service but also in getting more people to create an infographic and complete it- so we kept this final conversion goal in mind throughout the process as well.

Our research showed that we should test making users feel a personal connection to the product, and feel empowered to design, as well as energized to continue designing from the homepage through the entire template creation process.

We started with an analysis of the product, the market, and the target audience. We researched the competitors and the target audience, and studied Piktochart’s user data with Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, and Crazy Egg heatmaps.

Step 2: Recognizing and Understanding the Target Audience

Once we had this data, we created several Marketing Personas. With our marketing personas, we were able to develop our strategy and tactics based on the emotions that would trigger our personas.

This is part of one of our marketing personas – as an example for you!

Step 3: Developing Your Strategy

The next step was combining the behavioral information we researched with the emotional research results to define a clear strategy. So we considered what emotional needs will pull our users to take action, and developed tactics that would fulfill those needs.

Step 4: Designing for CRO

When designing for Conversion Optimization, one must consider coloring (and branding), imagery, and copy while keeping those emotional triggers in mind!

Based on our research on the target audience, we knew that many of our users were professionals and students, not graphic designers, who wanted to turn their content into something beautiful even with their lack of design skills. So our copy reflected our understanding – they want to create something impressive, and quickly too.

Here is the variation we created:

The Changes:

1) Image: We wanted to express value and energy, so we changed the image to reflect the end product – the infographic.

2) CTA: The focus was to create infographics, so we put in a clear Call To Action button.

3) Overall Design: To give an overall infographic feel to the whole page we put the title in an infographic style banner, added some texture to the background and cool edges on the page.

4) Bullet Points: Due to the fact that research shows that users read less than 28% of text on the page, we wanted to reduce the overall amount of text on the page, and we kept what we felt are the most important (Nielsen Norman Group). So we selected three bullet points, based on user surveys of what features were important to users and heatmaps, and shortened the subtitle.

5) Copy: In order to make maximum emotional impact, we wanted to refer directly to the user – because we know those words have greater power. So we changed the copy to speak directly to the user.

 

Step 5: Testing

We ran the test for 10 days, using Optimizely, with a 50/50 division for traffic between the Original and the Variation. The variation design improved registration by an overall of 11.4% with an improvement of 14% and 15% on Google+ and Facebook Registration respectively, and an improvement of over 20% on certain browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome.

Next Steps:

After increasing conversion of user flow to sign ups, our next step for the emotional targeting strategy is to optimize the registration page and we’ve just launched it! Our goal is to continue the same strategy through the process of the user funnel. This is the variation we created vs. the original design:

Original:

Variation:

Which variation do you think is going to win?

Ecommerce optimization is a constant challenge of finding the right starting point, tracking and understanding the results. That is why when we set out to work with WallMonkeys we had a clear path in mind: identifying the consumer, optimizing user experience, designing a flow that suited our consumer and ultimately increasing revenues.

Ecommerce Optimization – Where to Start

One of our previous articles, 30 best practices and tips for boosting ecommerce sales, focuses on actionable tips and changes for increasing ecommerce conversion rate. But how do you know where to start and what changes to make first?

A common place people typically start optimizing ecommerce sites is at the checkout page. Assuming this is where people have the most issues, marketers run many tests on the checkout page trying to ensure that as many peoples as possible complete their purchases. However, in our experience, we’ve seen time and time again that this is seldom the right way to go.

Constant testing has shown us that the best place to start is at the top of the funnel, where the majority of visitors arrive and the greatest impact can be achieved. The first message and visual a visitor experiences has the greatest impact on ecommerce conversion rate and revenues.

The Research Process

During our research period for Wallmonkeys we studied the funnel closely using heatmaps, analytics and other tools that helped us identify and analyze visitor behavior. In addition to the behavioral analysis we dug deep into the consumer psychology and profiled the different types of customers WallMonkeys has.

The behavioral research:

Analyzing the heatmap showed us that 97% of visitors don’t scroll and see the bottom part of the homepage, which led us to focus on the top part of homepage.

The original homepage had 5 rotating images featuring living rooms and offices decorated with wall decals.

Using the heatmap we set on the homepage, there were two big elements we wanted to address:

1. Many people were clicking on the bullets thinking they’re clickable, but they weren’t.
2. The majority of people were using the search bar to start their shopping experience.

The Emotional Research:

In addition to our behavioral research we focused on our emotional targeting methodology.

1. Analyzing and understanding the emotional reason for customer purchasing.
2. Identifying how a customer should feel during the shopping experience.
3. Defining the messaging, colors and images that should be used to create a better, conversion oriented experience.

Initial results:

1. The emotional added value for customers was missing on the page
2. The messaging focused on products and not on the consumer – e.g. “Browse the world’s finest art”.
3. The experience of purchasing a decal or the end result of  a purchase wasn’t communicated well.

Once we completed our research, we decided to focus our initial strategy on our main target audience – parents, mainly mothers purchasing decals for themselves and their children’s bedrooms. Using design, messaging and different images we wanted to communicate the change a decal can make not just to your wall but to your entire home. We wanted to instill a feeling in Wallmonkey’s customers that buying a decal is a fun, fresh and a cool experience that can transform everyday life.

Optimization Round 1:

Originally the look and feel of the site was a business one that included rotating slider images of men and women standing in an office or an empty room.

Rotating Image #1:

 

Slider Image #2

The Changes:

To focus our messaging on our main audience, women purchasing decals for their home or their children, our changes included UI & UX and psychological strategic changes:

1. The slider: It was completely removed to increase conversions and page functionality (e.g. load time). Similar tests we ran in the past demonstrated that one main image works far better than rotating images.
2. Images: To create a more fun, vibrant and lively feeling, we tested two main images. One was a more fun and easygoing image (cats), and the other combined the original business look and feel with new surroundings.
3. Search: Our heatmap and analytics research highlighted the fact that the majority of people search on the site, so we gave it an entirely new look by enhancing it and making it the main focal point for visitors. As you can see below, we used brighter colors from the brand and connected it to the logo. The call to action for search was made more prominent and lively.
4. The bullets: They were removed completely as the heatmap clearly showed that people were clicking on these bullets even though they weren’t clickable.
5. Color Theme: Moving away from the dark background we used a more clean and white background to give the site a lighter and easygoing feeling. The colors of the decals we used were more vibrant and lively in order to communicate a more fun experience.
6. Call to Action: At last we added a call to action button: “Shop Now”.  This was a great way for us to test usability and intent of visitors – would they prefer to search or choose from a vast collection?

Variation #1

Variation #2

The Results:

Round one results showed a 27% increase in direct revenue for the second variation.

The more personal, fun and festive variation won by a large margin. The images of the cats, the colors and the new flow of the homepage provided a better experience for our customers. Adding a direct call to action on the homepage helped navigate visitors in the site to the next step.

Ecommerce Optimization Round 2:

In round two we took the winning variation and made another change in the experience: moving the search bar from the top navigation header to the center of page, essentially making it stand out.

Now that we’d already supplied the visitors with a “shop now” call to action, we hypothesized that centering the search bar for visitors would increase revenues even more.

The results:

At the end of a 30-day testing period there was a 550% increase in revenues. The combination of both enhancing the search bar in this test and the change in strategy in the previous one gave visitors a more meaningful shopping experience.

Taking the next step

While the majority of marketers focus on A/B testing user behavior and technical changes, a more meaningful impact can be achieved when both the behavior and the emotional profile of our customers are taken into account. Remember, it is most important to think of how the product ultimately makes the customer feel rather on the function of the product itself.

Have you made any meaningful strategic changes on your site lately?

A few weeks ago we finished running our first rounds of conversion optimization tests for one of Asia’s dating sites.

One of the most important and unique things about emotional conversion optimization is the possibility of increasing revenue right from the first step of your funnel before starting to optimize the checkout process. In less than 3 weeks the tested strategies increased signups by 38% and more importantly increased the number of paying users by 304%.

In this conversion optimization case study I will explain what we did, why we did it and what was the conversion optimization strategy. I will also discuss the methodology of the test and of course, the results and the winner of the test.

Test subject: A dating service website. The service itself is offered for free while you’re also asked to upgrade for further matchmaking services and help.

Test goal: Our main target was to increase sign ups (thus getting more leads) and more importantly getting more people to complete the online purchase funnel instead of completing it on the phone with a sales representative.

 

The Research:

As we do at the start of every emotional targeting research, we start by going through the funnel, locating leaks and recognizing frictions.

It’s extremely common to find many issues with Google Analytics account. The najority of companies are usually not tracking information well or don’t have the right goals set up. We  found 2 technical issues on Google Analytics that needed to be addressed:

Issue #1: First, the goal for sign up completion was set with a destination URL. All users, including already signed in users enter this URL, therefore we had no way of knowing who converted from the new landing pages, and who was already an existing user.

Issue #2: The second issue we found related to the paying subscribers. Again, the goal for payment for each of the pricing packages was defined as a destination URL. However all paying users were sent to the same URL, giving us no way of telling which user purchased which package.

The solution: For both technical issues the solution was the same – We added a parameter in the URL that distinguished between new customers and existing users.

Following the technical part of our research we started inspecting the target audience, and we  found major differences in the motives, reasons and behavior of different people within the platform. As usual, different people use the service in different ways and need different emotional triggers. The result of the research was building 2 different emotional strategies that covered: Trust and variety.

Strategy & Emotional Targeting:

The original landing page:

On this landing page you can see a great use of image pointing towards the call to action. In addition, the usage of testimonials and known icons are a great way to increase conversion.

 

Variation 1

The first strategy we designed was trust. We chose a romantic picture of a couple on a sunny day in the beach and created messaging designed to be more personal. We wanted to present the service and brand as unique, experienced and reliable – giving people the understanding that they will find their match in this place.

Variation 2

The second strategy revolved around creating a design that demonstrates the great variety of people they can meet if they use this service. The importance of this strategy was to show the simplicity of the service following the high success and satisfaction rate.

So, what do you think? Which of the variations won? We’ll get to that soon.

First, here are the main elements we changed in the landing pages:

• Design and colors: The images we used all have very pronounce eye contact. Showing the happiness of a young couple in love on one hand, and showing the variety of attractive people on the other hand makes the service become more real and vivid. Both landing pages keep soft and hopeful colors which are associated with feelings of love such as pink, white and soft blue.

• Messaging: The entire messaging on the pages  focused on finding the match of your life. Further more we wanted to show that the dream of finding your soul-mate can come true and is closer than ever. By using specific messaging for these young men & women we were able to trigger a hopeful reality for them which brought them closer towards their dream of finding a partner.

• Call to action: For both our variations we changed the titles and subtitles in order to add a call to action to them, making the call to action more visible and converting.

• User interface: This part includes many small and different changes. We added an explanatory video of the service, to show users what the service is about. Other technical changes were made such as replacing some of the fields of the form, minimizing escape routes out of the site and making the texts more readable by adding icons to each text bullet and shortening the texts.

 

The Results:

Variation 2 won the test. As mentioned earlier, signups were increased by 38% and the number of paying users was increased by 304%. Different emotional targeting triggers were applied along with technical changes that made all the difference. Our current test includes a mobile conversion optimization process and optimization to the desktop funnel. We’ll keep you posted.