According to AdWeek, people 55 years of age and older are using social logins more to access websites that require logins. This is pretty significant news, for a number of reasons.
First, let’s look at the two reasons cited for this new development:
- They don’t want to spend time filling out registration forms
- They don’t want to remember another password
Both of these are understandable, but what do they mean for marketers?
Why Registration Forms are a Big Pain
Registration forms take time to fill out. Also, many companies ask for too much information. If you are asking for too much information on your registration form, it is likely that you will see a decline in registrations. That’s especially true for seniors. And if you don’t provide social logins as an option, there’s a good chance that your membership site can potentially lose members (or drive potential members away).
This is also significant for e-mail marketers. If you ask only for the information you need (name and e-mail address), you’ll significantly increase the chances of you getting people to sign up. But you also have to offer something of value. Passwords are not an issue in that case.
It’s interesting to also note 45% of people who sign up for a newsletter or e-mail list also ignore future messages from the company. Even if you get people to sign up using your registration form, almost half will never read another message from you. That’s just an apt reminder to keep your content interesting and engaging.
When are Passwords an Issue?
Passwords are an issue for membership sites. Who wants to remember a gazillion passwords? It’s easier (and simpler) to just login using your Facebook, Google+, or Twitter account (if you have one). The good news, for consumers, is that most people these days have at least one of those.
The drawback to social logins is that you can’t capture contact information. And most consumers probably feel like that’s another good reason to use the social logins. They want to receive e-mail from you every week. Why? You haven’t earned their trust yet.
So what’s the answer?
Build trust. Get people to login using their social accounts and then earn their trust. Then you can figure out another way to capture their contact information. But it has to start to with building trust.
