[Sigia-l] Create Account vs. Register

[Troy Winfrey]

> From: "Brett Ingram" < lists at brettingram.com>
> Subject: [Sigia-l] Create Account vs. Register
>
> We have a site with 3 levels of usage -
> Anonymous - where the user can spend up to 20 minutes listening to music
> without giving any information about herself,
> Registered - the user can listen for free (with ads) by giving an email
> address, creating a password, and letting us know her age and zip code
> Subscribed - Pay an annual fee and the user can listen without ads.
>
> We have been debating the language to use - "Create an Account" vs.
> "Register". Currently we mix the two and I am working to make us
> consistent in our use of language.
>
> I have been looking to see if there have been any studies that explored
> this issue at all. So far, I haven't had any luck. Some of my own small
> scale, qualitative studies in the past have shown confusion among users
> as to what they think these words mean.


My vote, coming from the marketing perspective, is to throw out both
terms and use your labels to drive conversions. How about Listen for
Free (stage 2) and Become a Member (stage 3)? I don't know about
studies here, but this kind of thing should be relatively easy to
test. Try splitting the site service: half of incoming users get
served the old site, half get the one with the new buttons. At the end
of the week, have your analytics crew check conversion rates and chew
it all over as a group.

The beauty of web tracking is that it can really take the place of a
lot of traditional user testing. I believe strongly in contextual
interviews for start-from-scratch design, but for relatively simple
behavioral issues or minor site changes, I think these A/B tests are
going to become standard. If you don't know them, imedia.com and
clickz.com have a bunch of quick, free articles on this subject.

Labeling is too often an IA thing, not a marketing thing. Used
properly, it can both respond to and shape your audience. Suppose you
have a segment that's budget-conscious and yet interested (many
college students, I'd bet). While they might not be willing to
subscribe, they'd be a great ad audience. So drive them there with
"Listen for Free." And so on and so forth. Good luck!