For content producers, relationships are at the heart of every user interaction. And relationships drive subscription conversion. But in order to engage visitors and convince them to convert, you have to show them that yours is a brand they want to pay for.

For many users, that starts with registration — the first step that takes them past one-off or casual engagement and puts them on the path to long-term loyalty. Even users who aren’t ready to subscribe will often register — in fact, Piano has seen that visitors with very low subscription conversion rates register at nearly the same pace as those with high subscription conversion rates. And for those users, it’s a key step on the path to subscription: the average conversion rate of registered users is 10 times that of anonymous visitors.

Making the Most of Registration

Five key best practices will help you build on your relationship with your registered users and enhance that value exchange. 

1. Create a clear value exchange.

Whenever possible, connect the registration to the user benefit. It’s not just about registering, but becoming a member, getting these exclusive benefits, getting something tangible in exchange for providing your information. This messaging tends to increase conversion rate and make user consent more likely.

2. Minimize friction.

Utilize email-only registration or social signups for ease of registration and collect additional information over time. You might consider a passwordless initial option to get users in the door, then you can capture other data later on in the user journey.

3. Be transparent.

If you are collecting additional information, tell the user how you’ll use it and what the benefit is for them. For example, don’t just use their email address for ongoing subscriber acquisition emails. Give them something they want and will engage with, like an email newsletter.

4. Treat registered users like customers.

It may take time, but registered users are likely to subscribe, so treat them as you would a valued customer. Create an onboarding experience for registered users as you would for a new subscriber.  Encourage engagement, highlight user benefits and provide relevant content recommendations.

5. Incentivize registration through features.

Though registration walls can be effective, enhanced functionality can also be a strong incentive to drive registration and show the value of your product as a whole. Visitors appreciate things like the ability to save stories for later and a personalized experience focused specifically on them.

However they arrive at your doorstep, registered users have one thing in common: they were motivated enough to come to your site in the first place and see enough value there to sign up and begin a direct relationship with your brand. With the right nurturing, you can build on that — eventually inspiring them to subscribe.

Want to gain more insights from Piano’s benchmarking data? Read Making Every Offer Count: Turning Users Into Subscribers in a Modern Media Landscape.