How to Streamline Signup Processes

Most users never make it past your signup form. Not because your product sucks. But because the entry point does. Here’s what most people don’t realize: Your signup form isn’t just a form. It’s a test. It’s a trust check. It’s your first handshake—and users decide within seconds whether to continue or click away. So let’s break down why most signup flows quietly kill conversions— and how to fix them before they drain your growth. 1. You ask too much, too soon. 7 fields. 3 dropdowns. Cognitive overload is real. If it feels like work, they’re gone. ↳ Fix it: Only ask what’s essential. Delay extra info until onboarding. Use autofill, not obstacles. 2. You break trust instantly. No privacy messaging. Just a cold form with a “Submit” button. People don’t sign up when they feel unsafe. ↳ Fix it: Use secure design patterns. Say why you need each field. Add social proof or trust badges. 3. You make it too rigid. Only one way to sign up? Only email? No Google, LinkedIn, or Apple? You’re making them do extra thinking. ↳ Fix it: Offer multiple sign-up options. Pre-fill data when possible. Let them choose how to log in later. 4. You forget about mobile. Buttons that play hide-and-seek? 60%+ of users are on mobile. Your form should feel native. ↳ Fix it: Test on real devices, not just desktops. Use large tap targets. Reduce typing wherever possible. 5. You don’t respect their flow. No progress indicators. No error messages until after they click. And no clear next step. Users feel lost. ↳ Fix it: Use inline validation. Show visual progress cues. Make success feel like success. Fixing your signup form is one of the fastest, highest-leverage changes you can make to increase activation and improve conversions. Make it feel effortless. Make it feel safe. Make it feel like the start of something great. What’s the worst signup form experience you’ve had? ♻️ Share this to help others make forms better. 🔔 Follow Valentine Boyev for more updates!

Expedia deleted one form field. Made $12 million more per year. Your SaaS signup page still asks for your blood type. Now hear me out 👇 That field was "Company Name." Users were entering their bank's name, causing address mismatches. One field. $12M. Here's what I've been thinking about lately. D2C marketers are 10 years ahead of B2B marketers. They've been obsessing over consumer psychology, running millions of A/B tests, and optimizing every pixel of every checkout flow since 2010. B2B SaaS? We're still running signup pages designed in 2018 and wondering why nobody converts. If you kidnapped a D2C growth lead from Allbirds and locked them in a room with your SaaS funnel, here's what they'd fix in the first week: 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄: → Reducing form fields from 11 to 4 increases conversion 120% (HubSpot, 40K landing pages) → Adding Google/social login lifts signup 20-40%. The password field has the highest abandonment rate of any form element. → 24-26% of users leave when forced to create an account. ASOS moved to guest checkout. Cart abandonment dropped 50%. 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲: → Pre-selecting a "Most Popular" plan increases conversion 18-20%. The default effect is so strong that organ donation opt-out countries have roughly double the rates of opt-in countries. Same psychology. Your pricing page should have a default. → First-person CTAs ("Start my free trial") outperform second-person ("Start your free trial") by 90%. 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆: → "No credit card required" addresses cost fear. "Cancel anytime" addresses lock-in fear. "Takes less than 1 minute" addresses time fear. These three lines lift trial completions 17-25%. → Sticky CTAs on mobile (pinning the signup button to the bottom of the screen) beat every single control tested. Minimum 8% lift. One test saw 252.9% increase in order completion. 𝗢𝗻𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: → Average SaaS activation rate is 37.5%. Median is 25%. 3 out of 4 signups never reach the aha moment. → Start your progress bar at 20% complete. Account created = automatic progress. This alone increases completion speed 20%. → Every extra minute in time-to-first-value lowers conversion ~3%. Canva gets users creating in 10 seconds. Notion delivers value in 60. 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆: → Welcome emails get 4-5x higher open rates than any other email you'll send. Revenue per recipient averages $2.35. → Abandoned trial emails recover 10.7% of lost revenue. First email at 30-60 minutes. Not next day. → Annual billing reduces monthly churn from ~10% to ~2.5%. Frame it as "Save 2 months free" not "Save 17%." Each of these individually gives you 5-25%. Stack 10-15 and you're looking at 2-5x total conversion improvement across your funnel. That's the difference between a 2% trial-to-paid rate and a 10% one. Save this. You'll need it next time you touch your signup flow.

We once spent weeks building a really sophisticated onboarding process (which I was really proud of). But I later find out that our clients HATED it. They felt like there was too much forms for them to fill and they would much rather speak to us on the phone. Sure, the onboarding process I had built out made things more organized. But I had to ask myself: Is this onboarding process actually serving my customer? I realized it did not, so I just scrapped it. I've learned with time that every question you ask in your onboarding form pushes your customer further from the result they signed up for. So only keep a question if it truly helps you deliver better results. For example, we run a cold email service at ListKit. If we don't collect information from our clients about their ideal customer profile, their offer, their goals, we can't build their leads list or write their scripts. That onboarding form saves us hours of back-and-forth later. But if you're asking questions just for the sake of having an onboarding process, you're only creating friction. Here's how to fix your onboarding right now: Step 1 - Open your current onboarding form Step 2 - Go through every single question and ask yourself: "Do I actually use this information to deliver the service?" If the answer is no, delete it immediately. Step 3 - For questions you keep, write down exactly how you use that information Example from our cold email service: - Question: "Who is your ideal customer?" → We use this to build their leads list - Question: "What problem does your offer solve?" → We use this to write their scripts - Question: "What's your revenue goal?" → We use this to set campaign targets Step 4 - Test your new form on the next three customers Ask them: "Was this onboarding process helpful or annoying?" If they say annoying, cut more questions. Your onboarding process should establish trust and set your customer up for success. Not make them regret buying. Start this audit today. It takes 15 minutes max and will save you from losing customers who feel overwhelmed before they even start.

After 5 years helping 800+ companies streamline onboarding, here's the most underestimated way I’ve found to eliminate delays: Prescriptive playbooks. Most onboarding failures happen before customers even start using your product. We dump endless configuration options on them and ask them to figure out what they want. I know a software vendor in our space who gives a spreadsheet with 800 rows for their customers to fill, before they can “start” implementing. The result? Analysis paralysis, delayed launches, and frustrated users wondering if they're doing it "right”. Customers do sometimes blame themselves for these delays, but they’ll steer away from your software and software in your space if they have this experience Ever notice how many tools give you templates instead of a blank page? There's a reason for that. Smart companies use more prescriptive and preset configurations: For ex, Slack: Suggested channels and workflows This leverages two psychological principles: → People are more likely to use tools when they feel they've already started → Once started, momentum keeps them going Instead of asking "What do you want to set up?" start with, "Based on companies like yours, here's what we recommend." Map your customer types to proven configurations. Present these as the starting point. This approach eliminates decision fatigue, ensures customers benefit from your best practices, and de-risks launches with proven setups Your customers don't want infinite choices. They just want confidence that they're set up for success.

Your signup flow isn't an interrogation. Stop treating it that way. Most signup flows I go through feel like interrogations. Right after I've filled in my email and password I’m asked for:  1. What’s your role?  2. What’s your job title?  3. What’s your industry?  4. How big is your team?  5. How did you hear about us?  6. What’s your phone number?  7. Are you the decision-maker?  8. What’s your company name?  9. What tools are you currently using? 10. What are your goals with this product? By question number three, I’m already thinking: "I just wanted to try your product, not fill out a survey." Most of these questions don't help me as a user. And that's a problem. Wanna know why? Because the intention behind these questions is wrong. Most questions serve the business, not the user. That’s why people drop off before they ever see the value. Here’s the mindset shift: Only ask questions that help personalize the experience. If it doesn’t improve onboarding, it doesn’t belong in signup. It's all about the intention of the question. Let’s break that down: “What’s your industry?” → Bad: "So we can filter non-ICP leads." → Good: "So we can show relevant case studies." “What’s your role?” → Bad: "So sales can score leads." → Good: "So we can highlight role-specific features." “What’s your goal?” → Bad: "So we can segment for upsells." → Good: "So we can design a tailored onboarding flow." “What's your team size?” → Bad: "So sales can score you and your company." → Good: "So we show them tools to work together." “How did you hear from us?” → Bad: "To feed the ad team." → Good: "To keep content coming where you hang out." In this way, you're not only getting to know your user. You're helping them achieve their goals faster. Every question should serve the user. Not your CRM. Not your sales team. Not your marketing funnel. Sign up is the first step in helping users succeed. Treat it that way.

In my experience, well over 30% of required user onboarding steps are rubbish. Asking for too much information too early is a conversion killer, and I observe it in almost every SaaS company I work with. Your goal should be to get your user to value in the shortest time possible. To get there: First, write down every granular step your user has to take to realize value: everything from filling in their first name to email verification and getting to value for the first time. Then ask yourself: • Is this a must-have step? • Is it something you can introduce later? • Can we remove this step altogether? If it isn't really necessary, get rid of it ASAP. Then, move on to steps that are either optional or can be introduced later. Once you do this activity, you can typically SUBTRACT 30-40% of steps from your onboarding flow. This will help a ton more users experience the value of your product. Yet, there's one thing that you should be ADDING to your onboarding. I know what you're thinking - that's crazy Wes but hear me out... You must ADD profiling questions. These are the first few questions you typically see once you sign up for a new product. Most companies don't do this well. The best profiling questions do two things really well... 1) Identify Your Ideal Users Profiling questions allow you to understand who’s signing up. This can give you insight into what percentage of your total sign-ups are your ideal users—those most likely to convert or stick around. For instance, just asking "what best describes you?" and having options like Founder/CEO or Individual Contributor can help you understand if this is an ideal signup or not. 2) Fast Track Onboarding By knowing more about the user upfront, you can tailor their onboarding experience, making it faster and more relevant. For example, asking a user "what's their ideal starting point? Whether that be sending out an invoice or running payroll can shave off countless steps in an onboarding journey. However, it’s important not to overwhelm your users with many questions. Remember: users haven't experienced value in your product yet, so they will leave your setup process at any point if they feel like it's too much work. Aim for no more than 3-5 profiling questions for most products. Although adding profiling questions can be seen as adding more friction, in the long run, it should reduce friction because users can quickly access the part of the product that is most relevant to them. Do you use profiling questions in your product yet? Let me know in the comments. 

Here's my email/SMS signup optimization philosophy: Most brands treat email/SMS signup like a checkbox. Just slap on a popup, throw in a discount, and hope for the best. But your signup process is more than just a form, it's a funnel (okay, duh, but what does that actually mean in practice?). Here’s how I recommend our clients optimize their forms: 🧠 1. Signup is contextual Where someone comes from (ad, homepage, product page) should shape how and when the offer appears, especially on mobile. 🎯 2. Segmentation starts at signup Capture intent, interest, or preference right away. Zero-party data fuels better flows. You don’t need to ask everything at once, but just enough to personalize the next step. And here's the kicker: even in the absence of unique content in your flows, just ask a question. Collect data now, get higher form submission rates and leverage the info when you have the capacity to do so. 💬 3. Clarity beats cleverness “Get updates” won’t move the needle. Tell them exactly what they’re getting and why it’s worth handing over their info. Make the value obvious. ⚙️ 4. The welcome flow is part of the experience For some, the form is just the means for claiming a discount offer. A welcome flow hardly matters for the users that already have high intent to buy and convert right away. But the far majority of sign ups don't and the form is just the beginning of the process of selling. Tailor messaging based on what they signed up for. Prime them for that first conversion. 📊 5. Iterate like you mean it Test multi-step vs. single-step. SMS-first vs. email-first. 10% off vs. $10 off. Track by device. Measure dropoff. Then refine. Signup optimization isn’t just a growth hack, it’s foundational retention infrastructure. Bonus: When a brand is using Klaviyo for all of their messaging (and I am a strong believer in doing so), I almost always recommend using Klaviyo’s native forms. Too many third-party tools create unnecessary complexity, poor data syncs, and missed opportunities for segmentation. Klaviyo’s sign-up forms give you full control, faster testing, and direct data injection into flows. And based on some conversations I had this week with their product team responsible for improving forms, there are a bunch of exciting updates coming down the pipeline that will enable brands to do even more with them. If you’re only thinking about your list after someone joins, you’re already behind.

I'm going to cut onboarding time by 80%. Faster process, happier clients, stronger team. Here’ how i’m going to do it… I scaled my company to 70 team members in 18 months. Every new hire meant the same process. Contracts, NDAs, payroll docs. The same info got typed into many different places. I didn't have a system for it. I had 4 disconnected tools. Google Docs handled templates. DocuSign handled signatures. Email handled chasing. A spreadsheet handled tracking. Every new hire took 3+ hours of paperwork. And that's before they did a single task. The worst part? Errors followed me everywhere. Wrong names showed up on contracts. Missing signatures got caught weeks later. Data re-entered incorrectly b/c humans are only 95% accurate on manual entry. That's 1 in 20 fields filled wrong. So I started looking for a fix. That's when I found Anvil. Anvil is a document automation platform that turns PDFs into digital workflows. You send one link and everything runs from there. Here's how I plan to roll it out: 1/ Audit every onboarding document ↳ List every form, signature, and data field I collect from new hires and clients. 2/ Build one workflow in Anvil ↳ Convert all of those PDFs into a single guided digital form that collects data once and fills it across every document. 3/ Add e-signatures inside the flow ↳ No more sending separate DocuSign links. The new hire signs everything in one pass. 4/ Connect my existing tools ↳ Anvil integrates with many tools so completed data goes straight to my CRM and project tools. 5/ Send one link and walk away ↳ New hire gets a single link. They fill, sign, and submit. I get completed docs without touching a form. This isn't about keeping things running. It's about building capacity. New team members launch faster. I get more time for revenue work. Every document has fewer errors. If your onboarding still runs on email chains and scattered PDFs, it's probably not your team. It's the process. What does your onboarding process look like right now? 💬👇 👊 --- ♻️ Repost to help a founder fix their onboarding. ✚ Follow Cory Blumenfeld for more entrepreneurial insights and motivation. I'm on a mission to inspire 1M everyday people to start their own business and find their voice.

We thought our new signups knew exactly what they were doing. We were dead wrong. Last month, we ran an experiment at Supademo that completely reworked our assumptions on user intent and product education. The setup: We decided to segment new signups into two buckets: → Educated + "Ready to create" (clear immediate need) → "Still exploring" (tire kickers at varying familiarity levels) Instead of throwing everyone into the same onboarding flow, we added a simple routing step: users either went straight to Supademo creation OR got sent to our example gallery / embedded tutorial. The results: - 50% wanted to record right away and were well-educated on the product - 30% of users (2k+) decided to start with a tutorial (which garnered 70% engagement, 50% completion - which is extremely high) - 20% increase in users creating >5 Supademos across the cohort - 10% boost in free-to-paid conversion across the cohort This is a reminder that even for a simple/intuitive product like ours, most users weren't as educated about our product as we assumed. They're likely diving in and electing to learn by doing VS reaching marketing copy on the website. Key takeaways: - Onboarding shouldn't JUST be segmented by role/use case. It's just as important to filter by intent. - Onboarding isn't a "set it and forget it" process. It's an evolving practice that requires constant iteration, not our assumptions about what users already know. Sometimes the best growth hacks are simply meeting users where they actually are, not where we think they should be. PS - I was able to build this end-to-end workflow and ship to prod using Claude Code. If you're not shifting to maker-mode regardless of your role, you're falling behind.

If you’re still manually onboarding clients, you’re doing it wrong Be honest. How much time are you wasting signing them up, sending emails, creating accounts, chasing paperwork, and answering the same questions over and over? By the time they start, you’ve already sunk hours into a process that should be on autopilot. If you’re handling every step yourself, you’re the bottleneck. And you don’t have to be. Here’s how it should work: - Client signs up → They’re instantly added to your database. - Welcome packet, login details, and next steps? Sent automatically. - Forms completed, resources accessed, setup done—without you lifting a finger. - Only then do they book their onboarding call, where you step in, fully prepped, no back-and-forth. Smooth. Seamless. No wasted time. This isn’t just about saving time. It’s about delivering an experience that feels effortless for your clients while you focus on what actually matters. So, are you going to keep drowning in admin tasks, or finally automate what should’ve been automated months ago? What’s one part of your onboarding that still depends on you, and shouldn’t? Let’s fix it.