By Kerry Ok, SVP, Marketing & Chief of Staff, Customer Identity
“Hello, give me your name, address, shoe size, motorcycle and boots.”
Now, we can all agree that approaching a first date like you’re the Terminator is not going to go very well. No one likes to be bombarded with personal questions as soon as they sit down — let alone by a stranger they’ve just met.
Yet this is how most brands approach those first moments of engagement with potential customers online. Most marketers don’t even think of the login box being a tool to woo consumers — it’s a functional tool owned by security teams in their eyes.
I’ve spent 20+ years working in marketing, including a number of B2B SaaS companies, and many teams rarely saw the login box as something that we could use to their advantage.
But what if marketers started to see the login box for what it really is: the ideal opportunity to not only help acquire customers, but retain and continue to drive conversions? And not just at the first click but throughout the whole journey?
That’s where customer identity, or the login box, comes in.
First, you need to be honest about what’s causing friction
When it comes to building brand loyalty these days, it’s all about the digital experience being as frictionless as possible. That’s not news to you though. Every marketer has been chasing the elusive high of frictionless for years now, but it might be useful to outline a few examples of friction when it comes to customer identity.
An ugly registration box that asks the world of you. No customer wants to give you their phone number, state, and gender on the first sign-up.
Three pop-ups within a minute asking if you would be interested in a 10% discount in exchange for your email or mobile number.
Asking for customers to create an account just before a purchase.
Frustrated consumers can simply click the ‘x’ button on pop-ups in a split second, enter false data to get rid of the friction, or just abandon the whole process. It’s been shown, by Baymard Institute, 24% of customers abandon their cart at checkout when they’re required to create an account.
All of which leads to no conversions, brand love, or any real desire to repeat the process.
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