Registration forms are essential in today's fast-paced, competitive digital world.
They directly impact everything from your brand's ability to convert leads, collect emails to build your making list, convert casual viewers to subscribers, and more. Unfortunately, it’s also often seen as either a tedious task, a waste of time, and generally, not exactly a lot of fun.
After all, more often than not, when we sign up for something, it’s often because we’re being forced to and not because we want to. That's why it’s important to make sure you optimize your forms both in terms of user experiences as well as security. Especially with concerns about online security increasing every day.
Great forms don’t have to be off-putting and tedious.
A few tweaks here and there will have your users quickly and frictionlessly registering to your brand without making it seem like a chore.
It may not seem like it but minor tweaks can have major effects on any brand or business.
Take travel company Expedia for example. In 2010, after using analytics to determine how they could optimize their registration forms, they found that a single extra line in their registration form had lost them customers worth over 12 million dollars!
Registration forms one of the most important aspects of any online business, so it’s important to make sure you get it right.
How To Optimize Your Online Registration Form And Make It Secure
Visually appealing, secure, and frictionless forms lead to high conversions which directly impact your brand's success. Incorporating these 8 easy practices will ensure your forms go from annoying to amazing before you know it.
1. Keep it short, keep it simple
The last thing you want when you’re trying to convert users to subscribers or registered users is them getting bored and giving up.
Unfortunately, with attention spans shrinking more and more every year, that’s the reality today.
To combat this, your registration forms need to be as simple as possible.
Ask only what’s absolutely necessary. The fewer fields you use, the more likely a user is to complete your form.
Additionally, you can also use drop-downs, auto-fills, and tick boxes to make the process simpler and more convenient.
The last thing you want is users passed out, asleep at their desks after spending hours filling in information. Requiring users to fill in 10 pages of information or knowing the maiden name of their mother's cousin will only lose you leads.
Keep it short, keep it simple, and odds are you’ll keep users and convert leads.
2. Only ask for a password once
It may seem counterintuitive but avoid asking users for their passwords twice.
Luckily, most easy-to-use, creator-friendly online registration forms offer various customizations that enable you to set options like this. So it’s not all gloom and doom.
It is worth understanding why this is though.
The reasons most websites do this is a combination of security reasons and reducing typo errors.
Unfortunately, they tend to do this by masking or hiding your password as you type. While this has its merits, it can often cause frustration for users and lead to leads deciding to rather just not bother if they’re getting it wrong one too many times.
A much better, conversion-optimized, solution is to only ask for their password once.
Asking for password insertion once, when combined with setting a checkbox to unmask their entry as well as an “Are you sure” or “Confirm your password” popup before accepting it is a much more effective approach.
3. Show that you value users' privacy and security
Promising to protect people's privacy, or at least acknowledging their concerns, can go a long way.
When people fill in the form with the details you’re requesting, that's them trusting you. Inputting all that information can leave a user feeling vulnerable, even if you haven't asked anything invasive. Showing that you value that can directly impact your conversion rates.
Being upfront and honest about what you’re going to use their information for, as well as how it’s secured, is massively important.
Labeling your privacy policy on your form is a huge sign of openness and is reassuring to your users. Combine that by incorporating labels or logos of the software you’re using to secure their data. This gives you an aura of professionalism and authority that can impact the way your users feel about your forms.
Peace of mind is priceless, especially in today's data-driving and often invasive digital world.
4. Use Multiple steps
It may sound like we’re contradicting ourselves with this one but bear with us.
According to VentureHarbour, multi-step forms outperform single-step forms in terms of lead generation. This is because multi-step forms are much less intimidating because they split the information you require into 2 or 3 “short forms” or steps that flow easily and frictionlessly from one to the next.
This allows you to save your more information-sensitive questions for last, which generally leads to better results.
Focus on easy-to-input details such as name, email, password first. From there, ask for whatever details you require while still keeping each step as simple as possible. This can range from information regarding anything from payment, address, brand details, or personal status questions.
Multiple-step forms also allow you to use analytics to determine where in your forms prospects leave which enables you to perform A/B testing and improve your forms.
5. Avoid making users start from scratch
We don’t have to tell you how irritating it can be to take the time to fill in a form, click submit, only to have to start over because you misspelled your password or forgot a detail somewhere.
This technique may be effective in terms of ensuring accurate information, but the same thing can be achieved by having a form that just directs users to their mistakes.
Not only will this avoid users becoming annoyed with your brand or site before even trying it, but it will ensure they go on to successfully complete your forms.
6. Make forms visually appealing
It’s not exactly a head-scratcher that your forms should be easy on the eye.
Humans are majorly visually focused beings. If your forms are aesthetically appealing, there's a good chance potential customers will either zone out or leave your registration form.
Good forms aren't just matter-of-fact, information leeches. They encourage users to input their information with bright, clean design and enticing copy. A great example of this is Prezi’s sign-up form.
It combines encouraging users to fill in information, using friendly, conversational messages as you go along. It also offers a simplified log-in method using LinkedIn or Facebook.
The easier, more appealing, and encouraging your forms are, the more likely they are to be filled in completely.
7. Use a convincing Call-to-Action (CTA)
A convincing, compelling Call-to-Action can work wonders for any technique that’s trying to convert leads.
This applies to forms as well.
While there are some standard CTAs like “Signup Now,” “Subscribe Now,” and “Download Now”, the reason they’re common is because they’re effective. If you want your users to do something, you need to direct them to do that.
That doesn’t mean there’s no room to be creative. In fact, creative CTAs that are two or three words and displayed as a bright, eye-catching button can control the entire outcome of your forms.
8. Have mobile-specific forms
3.5 billion people across the world actively access the internet through mobile devices. They’re more than half of all web traffic.
That means if you haven't made the effort to specifically optimize for mobile.
This is because registering using a mobile device can be a completely different experience than a desktop.
Even though you’ll probably be designing your form using a computer, if you don’t account for the smaller screens, and tapping-based interface of mobile devices, you risk alienating a lot of potential customers.
Final Thoughts
Poorly optimized, dull forms are a major turn-off for potential leads.
Before you have a chance to dazzle customers with your brand's products or services, you’ll have lost them. That’s why it’s always a good thing to build your form around the 8 practices we’ve mentioned above.
As you go about crafting your form, make sure to keep in mind the following pointers
Keep it simple
Be visually appealing
Use enticing call-to-action buttons
Only ask for the necessary information
Make the process as easy to move from one point to the next
If at first, you don’t get the results you’re expecting, A/B testing combined with analytics can help you identify your users' pain points. But, as long as you go about it using our guide, that should be as minimal as possible.
While you’re at it, remember that designing a form is still designing. It’s still a creative exercise and so try and let your creativity shine through when and where it can.
There’s nothing more compelling than creativity.