Your organization’s inefficient sign up process might be costing you new members. As people are valuing their time more than ever, it’s vital that your sign up process doesn’t lead straight to checkout abandonment. Let’s take a look at the best ways to optimize your online sign up form process.

Consider website navigation

New members can only sign up for your organization if they can actually find the sign up form on your website. Whether a prospect is registering for an event, or simply learning about who you are, they should be able to easily navigate to your sign up form. Adding your “Join Today” or “Apply Now” page to the main navigation menu across your website makes it much harder for potential members to miss it.

Example site menu:

Handling Multiple Membership Levels

The majority of organizations only have one or a few types of memberships to offer. These groups will just need one sign up form page that intakes all new members.

However, more complex organizations may prefer to funnel their members to different sign up form pages based on their unique membership structure. For example, a nonprofit organization with both company and individual memberships might prefer to have a company sign up page as well as an individual sign up page. This sign up flow could prevent new members from signing up for the wrong level, and it also creates the opportunity to tailor the sign up pages to your different audiences.

Streamline sign up fields

To avoid checkout abandonment, you should aim to collect only the essential information needed to join and pay. An efficient initial sign up form minimizes the time investment required to become a member of your organization. Members can always answer optional questions and complete their full profile later.

The information we typically suggest collecting at initial sign up is:

• Name
• Company (if it’s a business membership)
• Email
• Phone Number
• Agreement to your terms of service

Once the new member is in the system and paid, then they can be directed to completing nonessential tasks such as uploading pictures, showing interest in groups or committees, and entering any other information you’d like to gather. If a new member is expected to fill everything out at the same time, the user has to spend more time on one page and is much more likely to get interrupted or distracted.

Offer fewer billing options

It’s easy to assume that offering a larger variety of billing frequencies for new members would increase your sign ups. However, too many options to consider can actually delay the new sign up. While offering a mix of monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual, and biannual options is flexible, it can also feel overwhelming and slow down decision making. The most popular options organizations offer are monthly and annual memberships. As these are widely used billing frequency options for most subscription models, your new member is more likely to feel comfortable making this decision quickly.

Find the payment method options that fit your member and organization’s needs. Just like with billing frequencies, the fewer options you offer, the easier the decision for new members. Here are a few of the most popular options that are offered.

• Auto payments only – Your members never miss a payment, but if the membership dues are high, it may also deter new members from committing.
• Mix of online and offline billing – If you’ve had members frequently ask to pay by cash or check, both an online and offline billing option are likely needed.

Create Opportunities for New Members to Get Help

No matter how easy you make your sign up process, there will always be a few hesitant prospects that would feel more comfortable with some in-person assistance. Others may just be getting too distracted in their busy schedules to remember to sign up on their own. Find ways to create high-visibility opportunities for potential members to ask questions or even for guided help. For example, if there’s a major public event coming up, set up a new member sign up station by the door. Event attendees are more likely to join your organization when the benefits are fresh in their mind and right in front of them. This will also give the less tech-savvy new members a low pressure situation to get assistance with completing their profiles.

Items you’ll likely need for a new member sign up station:

• A one sheet or flyer explaining your membership options and benefits
• At least 1-2 laptops/iPads/phones readily available.
• At least 1-2 helpers that know how to walk new members through the sign up process.
• A FAQ sheet for your helpers to reference to quickly answer common or tricky questions.
• Some freebies or small treats for new members that complete sign up that day

You can take a look at the video below to see an example of how easy it can be for new members to join an organization using MembershipWorks.

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