Converting your members from a free basic member to a full paying subscriber is at the heart of your dating business. More upgrades of course means more revenue. This is also a key objective for all of us at WLD and we are continually working to make the payment process as easy as possible to help drive these initial and re-initial payments.
So I’m pleased to announce the launch of our new upgrade page this weekend. The project combined research and analysis from the Marketing team with an elegant implementation by our Development team’s designers and developers. The new page simplifies the multi-step process into one step, removing clutter and focusing the member’s attention. We also re-ordered the payment period options so that a 6-month package was pre-selected and displayed first, instead of the 1-month to encourage members to sign up for longer subscription periods.
The new payment process illustrated using Singles365 as an example
So that we could first measure the difference in conversion with the previous method, we ran a pilot over the last month on Singles365, using A/B testing. Half of Singles365’s basic members received the previous version and half were shown the new one. The results showed a clear increase in revenue per upgrade, meaning more people were selecting the longer package, plus an increase in the total number of upgrades against the last process, indicating a decrease in payment abandonment.
Confident and pleased by the results of the analysis, on Friday afternoon we switched all sites to use the new process in favour of the previous method. Early indications have shown an immediate 10-20% increase in initials/re-initials across all partner sites.
Over the next few weeks we will continue to monitor upgrades and customer feedback to ensure take-up is as smooth as possible from these changes. We are also planning further incremental changes for the re-upgrade process and aim to detail these soon.
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All of our development, marketing, account management and customer care is located in our headquarters in Windsor so we’re able to co-ordinate and launch improvements like this quickly.
We’re now recruiting for a number of new positions, specifically in the development team. Take a look at our current vacancies if you’re interested in joining us.
That’s great news… well done! It seems an obvious thing to do, and illustrates that sometimes the smaller things make the biggest difference. You’ve also managed to execute the functionality really well into the existing templates. I’m sure that it’ll increase revenues across all sites, and I look forward to seeing some encouraging sales figures from my own sites over the coming weeks – many thanks WLD, it’s much appreciated.
Registrations may also increase if the person registering didnt have to fill in the drop down ‘where did you here about us?’ field
Fewer pages are definitely a good idea. Nothing surfers like better than to change their minds and click off.
I find it normal you want to measure up success, track conversion and so on. Because finally, online is a business for many of us. If you lose track of your business, then there is no ROI. Nice to see to are creating so deep analysis.
Measuring it’s the first step of monetisation, if you do not have numbers you cannot sell, improve. So well done, nice to hear this news.
I’ve noticed a big increase in full member conversions this week, partly due to increased marketing activity starting to pay off - but I would have expected the signup page change to have played a large part too!
One thing I think would be worth testing, for free signups conversion rates, is the landing page when clicking on member images from a website (using the JavaScript code). At the moment this sends members to the specific profile clicked on, which makes sense - but non-members are directed to a login/register page. If this was a search result page instead I think you may see an increase in signups, as it would sell the benefits of signing up better for the users who need a bit more convincing first.
Haven been to this blog for a while, its nice to see that the WLD are continually developing the platform to help partners offers more choices to customer thereby helping increase conversion and retention. Well done team WLD.