Member Acquisition: 4 Ways to Reduce Sign-Up Friction & Decision Fatigue

This Tip of the Week covers topics including:

• 0:44 – What is Friction & Decision Fatigue?
• 2:55 – 1. Offer 3 Membership Plans at Most
• 4:45 – 2. Simple & Fast Registration Form
• 6:58 – 5 Ways To Optimize Checkout Pages To Increase Membership Sign Ups
• 7:35 – 3. Faster Sign Ups with Facebook/Google
• One-Click Facebook Login
• One-Click Google Login
• 8:50 – 4. Ask for the Bare Minimum of Info
• 11:58 – How To Customize Member Profile Form Fields For Your Target Market
• 13:16 – Why Friction May Be Good

This is a segment from Webinar Wednesday 105, recorded live on December 30, 2020.

When you have a membership site, it only becomes successful when people sign up for a free or paid membership. However, before that can happen, you must clear a few obstacles to help your website’s visitors to sign up easier and faster.

What is Friction & Decision Fatigue?

Reducing sign-up friction and decision fatigue is all about nudging potential members in the right direction and making the sign-up process as easy as possible for them.

If people find the sign up process too cumbersome, they might lose interest. Some of the things that make the sign up process more laborious include offering too many membership plans, complex or unclear verbiage, requiring too many details up-front from the new members (more than email and password to sign up), and a hard to find sign-up page.

Keep reading to see how to reduce friction & decision-making fatigue and increase sign ups to your membership website.

1. Offer 3 Membership Plans at Most

The idea here is to help your target audience make a fast decision, so the fewer the options they have to choose from the better.

When describing the membership plans, do not include too many details. Just highlight the most important and beneficial features you provide. They don’t want to be bogged down by too much information.

In the mind of the customer, there is the question of “Why should I sign up on this website and not another one?” or “Why should I choose this membership plan over that?”

Make the decision easy for them by highlighting the primary benefits that each membership plan offers.

2. Simple & Fast Registration Form

This is where you get the visitors to put one foot in so that they can be on their way to becoming full members.

You just want them to create their account right now. Later, they can fill their profile with more details. The only information that you need from them at this point is their email address and password. If you ask for more, you impede the sign up process.

3. Faster Sign Ups with Facebook/Google

While this is not necessary, it is a good option to have on your signup page where you can get people to register with just one click on a Facebook button to use their Facebook account to signup and login.

They can also register with their Google account. You are banking on the premise that at any one time, most people are either logged into their Google or Facebook account. Adding a social media signup option to your website simplifies the signup process a lot. It will also automatically capture their first name, last name, and email address.

Learn More: One-Click Google Login and One-Click Facebook Login

4. Ask for the Bare Minimum of Info

Even after signing up, you still need the new member to complete their profile. However, you don’t want to ask for too much information to cause “form fatigue” and make them abandon their profile halfway through.

In some niches or industries, it might be necessary to ask for a lot of information from them. In such cases, mark the absolutely necessary information as a “required field” and leave the rest of the data fields as “optional.”

A good upsell technique… If members want to add more information to their profile (which might help in attracting more leads, bussines, etc.), they can upgrade their membership plan to a higher tier. They can add more data that may be helpful to people who visit their profile.

Why Some Friction Might Be Good

Sign up friction is not all bad all the time. Sometimes, it is necessary. For instance, it can be a means to prequalify members, ensuring that only serious or qualified people can sign up to your website.

If you are targeting a certain demographic, this “red tape” during the signup process can help to ensure that only people within that demographic get to sign up. For example, if you manage an attorney directory you might want these members to list their credentials in their profile.

If you want quality over quantity, having some levle of signup friction can make the prequalification workload easier for you.

Lastly, it makes the membership site a type of “exclusive club”… something that can help you retain existing members and intrigue prospective members.