After users sign-up, they get into your fantastic app. You show them the basic features, and you've even done some data analysis to figure out what users need to do to increase their chances of sticking around. When they're in, they're hooked.
But your conversion rate still isn't great. Something is stopping people from taking the plunge and starting to use your app, which is constraining your growth.
If this has you nodding along, you might be suffering from a problem at login. Even if you have a great product, you're not going to succeed unless you actually get users to join. It's time to make a change to the way you're getting users to sign-up, and we have some tips.
1. Use Social Login
One of the best ways to improve your conversion rates is to use social login. Why? Because it's one of the easiest ways for people to sign-up. The benefits of social sign-up are clear — anywhere from a 20-60% increase in conversion — and it works for users because they don't have yet another name and password to remember. One click and they're in.
This means that, when a user finds your app, they can sign-up almost without thinking about it — there's nothing to make them stop and consider whether or not it's worth the effort to sign-up before they've even seen what you can really do.
In the same vein, you can setup your login with a smart sign-up form. With this, your users don't have to fill in a whole form during sign-up, because you've filled it in for them. An example of this is frictionless sign-up, an integration by Segment that you can use with your login. A user puts in their email, to get their sign-up started. Then, the Segment integration retrieves and fills in their name and job information filled out, speeding up the sign-up process.
Taking the hassle out of your users' sign-up experience is a no brainer, and with the broad range of social login options available, there's no reason you can't add a few networks and tricks to your login or sign-up form.
Auth0 can help B2C companies to enrich the profile of their customers through an easy to use Modern Customer Identity Management solution. Increase brand loyalty with better conversion, boost your revenue with new user acquisition, and secure customer identity with state-of-the-art technology.
2. Show Them Their Friends
FOMO isn't just a trend — it's an actual, psychologically rooted phenomenon. People want to know what their friends are doing, and feel anxious when they're left out. And if you can tap into that psychology by showing people their friends using your app, you're going to be more likely to get them past your login. Check out how Facebook pulls your list of friends from your Facebook profile to encourage you to use Messenger:
The easiest way to tap into this is by making it a breeze for your users to invite their friends to your app. Ensuring that your product is convenient to share with friends, such as configuring App Invites on Facebook, can be especially effective. If someone gets your app recommended via an invitation from a friend, that exposure will help you convert that person into a user.
For example, if you and your buddy are really into soccer, you might be much more tempted to sign-up for World Cup Challenge if you see that they've invited you to play with them.
Showing people their friends as soon as they get past the login page is also a great motivator to stay on social apps. The trick is to configure your social login to acquire their friends from their profile.
Immediately seeing their friends will make people feel like your app is a natural extension of their network. Showing potential users right at sign-up that they know people who are active on your app will drive them to convert because they have a natural desire to see what their friends are up to — and what they've missed out on.
3. Personalize Their First Experience
Just as showing people their friends when they sign-up is a good way to demonstrate the value of your app, personalizing a user's first experience can help you get people from signing up and onboarding to being a dedicated user.
One easy way to connect from the very first login is to use geography to your advantage. Whether you're showing them recommendations in the area, getting regional news on their feed, or sampling a rainy day playlist to match the weather, using their location to customize what they see at sign-up will help them feel welcomed, and let them know that they can personalize their own experience.
For example, Foursquare asks for a user's location during sign-up. Then, when they enter the app, new users immediately see suggestions near them. This demonstrates the value and relevance of their app immediately.
Another way you can hook users into your app is by connecting them to their interests. No matter the focus of your app, there's a way to connect users with what's relevant to their life. If you know a user likes the NBA, you could suggest they follower players or teams. If they're a film buff, have them save the location of their favorite theatre.
This is another place where configuring social login can help you — just as you pulled their friends from their profile, you can also look at pages they've liked or followed. This will help you curate options to show your new users as they work through sign-up and onboarding — which will encourage them to actually get into your app.
Give New Users What They Want
The consistent factor between all three methods to improve retention that we've discussed is simply giving users what they want. Social login reduces friction by eliminating the need for users to remember another username and password. Showing users their friends at sign-up plays into our desire to connect with our friends, while personalizing from the first login connects users directly with their interests.
The old saying there's no second chance at a first impression is never more true than when configuring your login. Driving conversions means catering to your users from your very first interaction. Setting up your login with your users' wants in mind is a great way to raise your conversion rate.
Auth0 provides the simplest and easiest to use User interface tools to help administrators manage user identities including password resets, creating and provisioning, blocking and deleting users.
About the author
Diego Poza
Sr Manager, Developer Advocacy