Which is the better sign up method?
May 11, 2011 9:43 AM   Subscribe

Psychological Question: which is better: let the customer get the trial subscription with minimal info required, or make them do a more formal sign up?

I am in the process of developing a web site to lease code (to draw indicators on stock market charts). I am planning on allowing the customer to try the indicators for a 30 day free trial. After that the customer must subscribe to continue to use the indicators.

The question is how much info should I require from them in order to get the free trial.

I could just ask for a user name (required for the trial to run), or I could ask them to formally set up an account, user name, password etc. My web designer and I disagree on how much info to require.

One thinks it should be as easy as possible to get the trial, more people will sign up, and a few of them who wouldn't have signed up under more strict conditions might eventually subscribe.

The other believes that if you require a complete registration, you weed out the ones who are just window shopping, and get the customers who, because they were willing to go through the additional hassle, are more likely to become subscribers.

Assuming the product is reasonably good and appealing, which sign up method will (probably) lead to the most subscribers?
posted by gnossos to Work & Money (16 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I ask, in all seriousness, why you would care to weed out "window shoppers"? If it makes a huge difference on performance, overhead, or workload on your part, sure, you can try and limit based on that behaviour. If it is of no consequence either way on your end, let people have the path of least resistance. Even if someone is a "shopper" and drops out quickly, if their experience was essentially good, they could turn into an advocate for someone else who is more serious. You lose that by pre-weeding techniques.

If you want to encourage the most people to try your product, and you basically have figured out that anyone who sticks around will be happy to pay and become a full member, just allow people to try it. Don't get in the way of your own success.
posted by qwip at 9:49 AM on May 11, 2011 [2 favorites]


This is something that comes up quite often in user experience these days. Many companies are , in my experience, moving toward requiring as little information as possible up-front, so that the users can get their hands on the experience as quickly as possible.

I would follow that lead. Let the users get in for their free trial with as few requirements as possible, and then get the lengthy registration details from them once they're hooked. Studies, and personal experience, show that people will bail out if they're asked for a lot of detailed information up front.
posted by sweetkid at 9:50 AM on May 11, 2011


If you're going to ask for info, carefully prune, but ask for it now. When the trial is up and the user is deciding whether to pay, I think that might be when you want the least amount of friction.

You can consider using Facebook connect if you want quick account creation.
posted by the jam at 9:55 AM on May 11, 2011


Unless you have a good reason not to want a lot of trial members (ie, they cost you more than they are eventually worth to you), you should make it as easy as possible to sign up.

However, you may want to make sure you get at least an email (or make it so that their user name is an email), even if you don't make them verify it, so that you can send reminder and upsell notes.
posted by tau_ceti at 9:55 AM on May 11, 2011


Perhaps you can A/B test it? Randomly assign users to one group or the other and see which approach gives the best conversion rate, both in terms of initial signups and eventual paying customers. After a little time running the experiment, pick the winner and keep iterating on your user experience.

One advantage of collecting more info is that you can contact them later and sell your services. Lots of sites that do this kind of trial will email or even call the prospective users to see if they have any questions about the product and to encourage them to buy. The advantage that comes from this kind of lead generation may well negate the reduction in users who do sign up for the trial.

Personally, I'm with qwip and sweetkid: get them in the door with the least fuss possible and make them want to subscribe with a kick-ass product. You could even let people create an account in one click using federated login (e.g. facebook, google, twitter, etc...), though this is more common in social apps than business-oriented tools. If you do this, I'd consider adding a note underneath: "we promise we'll never spam your friends" or something to that effect. In addition to federated login, you can offer just a simple email address and password signup form and get users in the door as easily as possible.
posted by zachlipton at 9:57 AM on May 11, 2011 [2 favorites]


The other believes that if you require a complete registration, you weed out the ones who are just window shopping, and get the customers who, because they were willing to go through the additional hassle, are more likely to become subscribers.

Sounds like this person is trying to negatively characterize a very diverse, diffuse group as if they should be shunned altogether. What does "window shopping" even mean? If you're "window shopping," that means you're a potential customer, which is good!

I'm reminded of an interchange on The Office after Michael and Andy go on a sales call that seemed to have potential but was botched by Andy:
Andy: Oh, man, talk about your classic lame-dash-O! Do we even want that guy buying our paper?

Michael: Yes.
In other words, a customer is a customer. Unless you're some elite nightclub where your business will suffer if you let in the wrong people, you're trying to get as many customers as possible. It doesn't make sense to invent some distinction between desireable and undesireable customers.

Every time you add a step that has to be completed on the internet, a large number of people are going to stop there, close the browser window, and move on to something else. This doesn't make them unworthy customers; it's just the way everyone interacts with the internet.
posted by John Cohen at 10:26 AM on May 11, 2011 [1 favorite]


collect just enough to deter people from continuously re-signing up for the free 30 day trial.
posted by edgeways at 10:32 AM on May 11, 2011


I think the idea behind a longer sign-up is to qualify the customer, not to shun potential customers. No-one wants to turn away potential customers, but customers don't like going through hoops only to find they are disqualified by price, features, terms, etc. If you feel the only qualifier is whether they like the product or not, then lower the barriers so they can experience it. However, if there are other (dis)qualifiers, like software platform requirements, high pricing, minimum lease terms, and so on, then you might want a longer form.

However, the issue I have with most signups is that the info isn't used for any qualifying or for technical reasons: i.e. it's solely for future marketing reasons or for signup metrics. For you, I'm guessing you aren't concerned with signups as much as conversions. I think the trick is to be clear (with yourself, not necessarily the customer) on what exactly you are qualifying customers for.
posted by acheekymonkey at 10:41 AM on May 11, 2011


The more barriers you put between you and your customers, the fewer customers you'll have.
posted by Georgina at 10:47 AM on May 11, 2011


As zachlipton wrote, you need to split-test this. A trial arrangement is actually a trial at P price with V value; you really have to test out your terms, to see which, if any, outperforms a simple purchase.

That said, if the code phones home, such that you know who is using your code and whether or not that usage is permitted, I'd be biased toward a trial versus a simple purchase.
posted by darth_tedious at 11:17 AM on May 11, 2011


You want the lowest possible barrier to entry. You get as many users as you can possibly get, you observe their interactions with your app statistically, and then you A/B test the shit out of things to find your highest possible conversion ratio for paid accounts.

If you turn people away at the door with a high-hurdle signup process, you will never, ever convert them. It really is as simple as that.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:42 AM on May 11, 2011 [1 favorite]


The more barriers to entry, the more people will avoid your product. It's just that simple. You want to cast a wide net in the hope of converting as many of the tryers to buyers. If you believe in your product, then why wouldn't you want to make it as easy as possible to have them try it?
posted by inturnaround at 11:44 AM on May 11, 2011


Here's what we decided (after much testing of all variants) at the company-before-last that I worked at. First, you and your web designer have correctly identified the two general groups of people you're working with:

1. Window shoppers. They may or may not want it. They won't jump very many hurdles to get it.

2. The Pre-Sold. They know they want your product, and they will go through as many (reasonable) hurdles as you put before them to get it.

Free trials cater to the Window Shoppers. That is their purpose. Your conversion rates will be low with Window Shoppers - but they WILL be conversion rates. Let's say your conversion rate is only 1%, that's still 1% more people than you would have had otherwise.

Oddly, we found that the Pre-Sold often skipped the free trial and went straight to the paid version. They most likely assumed that the free trial was somewhat crippled. They wanted the whole thing, they wanted it now, and they were willing to pay for it.

It didn't seem fair to us that the Pre-Sold - our best customers - basically wanted our product so badly that they were willing to cheat themselves out of 50% of their first monthly bill. What we ended up doing was offering people a choice:

1. Free 2-week trial, minimal registration, no technical support.

2. Pay now and get your first month at half price.

It's basically the same thing, but it cuts your cost on the back end because your support staff isn't wasting time dealing with a group of customers (Window Shoppers) 99% of whom won't end up going on to buy.
posted by ErikaB at 12:24 PM on May 11, 2011


I work in digital advertising and manage landing page/funnel optimization for my accounts.

What you are describing is a classic question that testing can easily answer. The easiest, no frills way to test this would be to run it one way for a period of time, and measure sign-ups and conversion rates to paying customers, and then switch to the other method and compare.

You can also get a little more precise by using Google Website Optimizer (free).

My gut tells me that if you are targeting someone dealing in finance or with financial matters, they have no problem paying for value where they see it. So your challenge then is to get them to see it as clearly and quickly as possible.

I would say require an email address, and an email confirmation link to opt them in to an email list and then when they convert to a paying customer, remove them from the trial email list. Remarket via email to those still on the trial list with scheduled automated email blasts.
posted by Elminster24 at 4:34 PM on May 11, 2011


The question you're asking reminded me of this article. Generally it seems to be best to make the sign up process as simple and straightforward as possible and get more details as you need them.
posted by eb98jdb at 11:44 AM on May 19, 2011


Dammit http://www.uie.com/articles/three_hund_million_button/ should have been the articles
posted by eb98jdb at 12:47 PM on May 19, 2011


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