# Signup — Marketing Skill for AI Agents

Signup conversion rises when you strip the form to the fewest fields needed before someone can use the product — usually just email and password, or a single social auth button. Every extra field costs completions, so defer company, role, team size, and phone number to progressive profiling or onboarding rather than the signup screen. Reduce perceived effort with visible progress on multi-step flows, keep labels visible (not placeholder-only), validate inline, and add trust cues like 'No credit card required' near the button. For anything beyond three or four fields, split into a multi-step flow that leads with the easy questions and saves the harder ones for after psychological commitment.

> Maintained by Corey Haines · v2.0.0 · Updated 2026-05-13

Install: `npx skills add coreyhaines31/marketingskills`
Source: https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/tree/main/skills/signup

## When to use it

- "signup conversions,"
- "registration friction,"
- "signup form optimization,"
- "free trial signup,"
- "reduce signup dropoff,"
- "account creation flow,"
- "people aren't signing up,"
- "signup abandonment,"

## What's inside

**The playbook covers:** Initial Assessment, Core Principles, Field-by-Field Optimization, Single-Step vs. Multi-Step, Trust and Friction Reduction, Mobile Signup Optimization, Post-Submit Experience, Measurement, Output Format, Common Signup Flow Patterns, Experiment Ideas, Task-Specific Questions

## Example

**Prompt:** Audit our signup flow. We have a 3-step process: Step 1 asks for email, password, and full name. Step 2 asks for company name, company size, role, and industry. Step 3 asks for use case and how they heard about us. Current completion rate is 45%.

**Signup audit finding**

Issue: 3-step signup asks 9 fields before product access (email, password, name, company, company size, role, industry, use case, referral source). Completion is 45%.

Impact: High — Steps 2 and 3 collect data you don't need before activation, and each field bleeds completions.

Fix: Cut to Step 1 only (email + password, or Google/Microsoft SSO). Move company and role to progressive profiling in onboarding; drop 'how did you hear about us' entirely or make it a one-click optional post-signup.

Priority: High

## FAQ

### How many fields should a signup form have?

As few as the product genuinely requires before someone can start using it — often just email and password. For each field ask: do we need this before they can use the product, can we collect it later through progressive profiling, or can we infer it (for example, company from the email domain)? Company, role, team size, and phone are usually deferrable to onboarding.

### Should we require email verification before users can access the product?

Usually no — requiring verification before access adds friction and lowers activation. Let users explore the product while verification is pending, or use a magic link instead of a password. Reserve mandatory upfront verification for cases where compliance or abuse-prevention genuinely demands it, and if you keep it, make the resend obvious and offer a way to correct a mistyped email.

### Does adding Google and Microsoft SSO improve signup conversion?

Often yes, because SSO removes friction and delivers a pre-verified email and faster onboarding. For B2B, Google and Microsoft are the right defaults (add SSO/Okta for enterprise); for B2C, Google, Apple, and Facebook. Place the SSO buttons prominently with clear labels like 'Sign up with Google,' visually separated from the email form.

## Related skills

- **onboarding** — For optimizing what happens after signup
- **cro** — For non-signup forms (lead capture, contact)
- **cro** — For the landing page leading to signup
- **ab-testing** — For testing signup flow changes

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Canonical: https://marketing-skills.com/skills/signup