

Sign up in seconds...and then what? - pathdependent
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3168-sign-up-in-seconds-and-then-what

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petercooper
While I love the process outlined in the last sketch (and think many people
will try it out), 37signals discovered back in 2009 that adding a similar
tagline to their headline boosted signups by 30% so the confusion over its
popularity surprises me: [http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1525-writing-
decisions-headli...](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1525-writing-decisions-
headline-tests-on-the-highrise-signup-page)

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tobtoh
"I’ll bet that the time-to-signup isn’t an important anxiety factor."

It is for me. When I'm looking to try out a product, I hate having to jump
through hoops just to get to the download link. Fill in 5 pages of information
(generally with fake data), making sure I'm not opted in to a mailing list,
waiting for that confirmation email etc etc. What a pain in the butt when I'm
not even sure I'll use the product for more than a few minutes.

I have skipped trying out a product on several occasions because I simply
couldn't be bothered going through their signup process.

~~~
vilius
You have gave up your signup process because you were not excited enough.

What article suggest is to "clutter" your minimalistic sing-up form with
useful information on what happens after you sign-up. Hopefully this will
excite the user more. So that filling that extra field or confirming that
e-mail will not be such a pain.

Basically if you are not exciting the visitor, then even a tiniest time-to-
signup won't help.

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jseims
Another kind of evil (but effective) approach is to allow the user to do all
those post-signup activities (like set up a dashboard or create some content),
and then say "now sign up" at the end.

They're already invested, so you get better conversion.

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patio11
Can you explain to me why that is evil? I'm sincerely interested in hearing
that thought process.

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mustafa0x
Deception. More verbosely, you allowed the user to assume something, yet
contradicted this assumption. Somewhat similar when a woman strings a man
along, then requests payment.

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excid3
I would consider it deception if I was being told it was free the entire time
until the sign up step told me it cost money. Allowing me to try this before
registering is more likely to get me to sign up.

~~~
mustafa0x
Failing to inform can be as deceptive as misinforming.

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benihana
Wasn't 37 signals one of the first groups to evangelize saying "Sign up, it
only takes 30 seconds" ?

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kristianc
'When’s the last time you shopped for a software product under intense time
pressure, where every second counts?'

Analytics could definitely be one of those times. If your site is being
Slashdotted, your priority is going to be getting quick access to real-time
data about traffic flows, and not messing about with Google Analytics (which
until recently, didn't even cover real time).

I'm guessing the site in question is GoSquared (the sign up process matches,
at least) - and I've worked on a couple of sites where I've installed
GoSquared precisely because I knew how quick it was to install.

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dkrich
I think Groupon kinda does this for new users (ie, you enter your email, hit
next, it scrolls to the left, you pick your city, etc.)

One thing I've found is that if the purpose/value proposition of your product
isn't already fairly obvious when a user comes to your site, you should spend
more time in marketing the product and educating potential customers instead
of trying to attract people who are pretty much clueless about what you do. On
one of my web apps, having to sign up was the single most voiced complaint
about the site, even though signup literally took less than five seconds.

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erable
While there's some quality fodder there, I couldn't get beyond this line:

"I’ll bet that the time-to-signup isn’t an important anxiety factor."

This isn't the only reason that sign-ups have been pared down; the current
trend of thought on the matter is that it also reduces barriers to conversion.

Engaging your audience without making them jump through numerous hoops is a
great practice, even if that means the occasional company adopts the practice
a little too quickly before the rest of their process is fleshed out. I'd
certainly prefer that to the alternative, where I've invested a great deal of
time with a long form, just to have the same end result, 'and then what?'

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rsinger9
I don't claim that addressing anxiety is the only reason to say "Signup in 30
seconds." However, data about what converts better isn't a reason. Conversion
data gives you correlations, not reasons for the correlations. I prefer to
work from a theory of causality when I'm deciding what to put on the page.

~~~
erable
That's an entirely valid point and for the most part, I agree. Where we seem
to differ is where we feel the balance exists between correlation and
causation. I feel the former still gives very strong contextual direction, and
this shouldn't be ignored, especially when the proposed solution is the 'and
then what' flow.

I'd actually love to see some studies of how that works in practice,
especially given that screen real estate is so valuable around the signup
call-to-action. You may be on to something!

