Last month, we shared about a new feature we’ve been working on called Primary Login. Primary Login lets forum users securely register and/or log in to a forum without a password.
We’ve been beta testing Primary Login on The Admin Zone and several partner sites, and are excited to share the initial results. In summary, Primary Login has reactivated lapsed forum users and encouraged users to post more often to the forum.
Experiment setup
In our test, we added call-to-action (CTA) buttons to each forum’s email newsletters. The CTA buttons directed users to enter their email address and click on a link in a confirmation email. If the email address was already associated with a forum account, Primary automatically logged the user in; otherwise, it directed the user to the forum account registration page.
Results
Over two weeks, we sent email newsletters with Primary Login CTA buttons to over 100,000 recipients. The conversion rate (i.e., of users who clicked on the CTA button, the percent that actually logged in) was 55%.
We also saw increased behavior on the forum. Comparing the two-week periods immediately before and after launching the experiment, posts by Primary Login users increased 33%. After excluding a handful of frequent posters, the figure increased to 39%.
Of these users, one-third had not created a post in the prior two weeks, and half of those users had not created a post within the prior six months. In other words, a significant number of users were being activated or re-activated as content creators.
Finally, we compared post rates of Primary Login users vs. regular (i.e., non-Primary Login) forum users. Sixteen percent of Primary Login users posted in the two-week period after launch, compared to 6% for regular forum users. Primary Login posters averaged 1.59 posts per user vs. 0.44 posts per regular forum user.
What’s next
We’re looking forward to sharing where Primary Login is going next, and how this will work with where we are going with Product Stories. In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more about Primary Login, feel free to drop us a line.
The internet has always been a place where I’ve gone to explore my interests. Often I found myself most engaged with perspectives founded in personal experience and backed by data. This led me to study data analytics at Washington State University. As a recent graduate, I’m excited for the opportunity to begin a career where I can help people make informed choices and explore the things that they are passionate about. Outside of the office I enjoy spending my time golfing, on the water and skiing. In fact, I got my first introduction to forums on Newschoolers, a free-skiing forum.
