Designing for sign up

Switching from traditional software distribution to SaaS is not only challenging from a technical point of view, put also from a sales and marketing perspective. Yes, your software is simply available out there but that doesn’t make all the prospective customers out there use it.

In a great presentation Joshua Porter shows that one main reason is that people don’t like change. They rather stick to the software they are currently using instead of trying something new – even if it’s for free! Only a discouraging average of 8 percent of the users register for a free account (Which in turn softens the often-heard “Competition is just one click away” to a “… but people won’t leave you that quickly, because they don’t like new things”).

So, what to do to improve sign up rates?
Step one: convince your visitors that your product is great. And be aware, that you have three totally different types of visitors:

• Some users already know that they love your product and only want to sign up – give them a big, colorful button saying “sign up now”
• Some users think your offer might be what they want, but need further information – give them a brief overview over the features you offer accompanied by screenshots or a nice video
• Skeptical users that are not sure what your product does and whether they like it – give them the possibility to try out your product for free, detailed specs and a number to call when they have more questions

Step two: make sign up as easy and painless as possible. You might want to look at this other nice presentation