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- 👤 Make Your Onboarding Process A Converting Machine & Boost Users
👤 Make Your Onboarding Process A Converting Machine & Boost Users
Make a lasting positive impression on new users & convert them to paying customers. Optimise your onboarding process with the best free guide.
💡 Overview
The first few days/weeks after a customer signs up are crucial. This ‘onboarding’ phase is a critical time to make a positive impression on your new customer.
If you fail to deliver a smooth onboarding experience, your customer may quickly lose interest and seek alternative solutions. This results in a high churn rate.
You need to guide new users through the onboarding process. Make sure they achieve their ‘Aha’ moment fast (before signing up if possible).
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⭐️ How to Optimise the Onboarding Process
Create an Onboarding Checklist
An onboarding checklist is a roadmap that guides your new customers through the onboarding process. It's a comprehensive list of tasks that need to be completed to ensure a smooth and successful onboarding experience for your customers.
Step 1: Identify the Goals of Your Onboarding Checklist
Before creating an onboarding checklist, you need to identify the goals you want to achieve during the onboarding phase. Some common goals include:
Introducing new customers to your product/service
Guiding customers through the setup process
Providing training and support to customers
Encouraging customers to engage with your product/service
Step 2: Map Out the Onboarding Process
Once you've identified your goals, the next step is to map out the onboarding process. This involves identifying all the necessary steps that need to be completed during the onboarding phase. You can do this by:
Breaking down the onboarding process into smaller, manageable tasks
Identifying the order in which tasks should be completed
Assigning tasks to relevant team members or departments
Setting realistic timelines for each task
Step 3: Create the Onboarding Checklist
Once you've mapped out the onboarding process, it's time to create the onboarding checklist. Here are some things to keep in mind when creating your checklist:
Use clear and concise language
Use bullet points or numbered lists to make the checklist easy to read and follow
Include relevant links or resources to help customers complete tasks
Ensure that the checklist is relevant to your customer's needs and goals
Test the checklist with a small group of customers before rolling it out to all new customers
Personalise Onboarding
Create an onboarding experience that tailors the app/software to the user's needs. Find out:
The goals of the user
Their experience level
Their knowledge of your application
Take Airtable for example:
Airtable has a number of use cases and for the majority of customers, they aren’t going to use them all. So they’ve created an onboarding flow that personalises your experience and what guides they offer based on how you plan on using the app.
The options above remain the same no matter what you select but they change order - for example if you say you;re new to databases they prompt you to speak to a specialist as the first option.
Next, they ask about how many people you’ll work with - someone using Airtable for themselves vs for a company will have vastly different needs.
Not only can Airtable now personalise your onboarding process but they also have valuable data about their users that they can use for optimising their acquisition and activation processes.
Notion is also really good at personalising onboarding. Take a closer look at how they do it.
Gamify Onboarding
Gamification is the application of game design principles and mechanics to non-game contexts, aiming to engage users and motivate them to achieve specific goals. By using elements such as points, badges, leaderboards, and challenges, gamification taps into the natural human desire for competition, achievement, and social recognition.
Gamify onboarding by giving rewards for completing setup steps and completing certain tasks (sending 5 invites, sending their first invoice, completing their first payment, etc.).
Rewards you can give:
Points
Badges
Leaderboards
Discounts
Encourage users to get to a certain end-point and to use your SaaS more. Even just simply adding a progress tracking bar can help.
⚡️ Advanced Tactics
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The Endowed Progress Effect
People are more likely to complete tasks if part of it is already done. This is called the Endowed Progress Effect or Artificial Advancement. The likelihood of completing a goal increases to our proximity to the goal.
The endowed progress effect is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when people are given a sense of progress towards a goal, even if that progress is illusory. The effect was first studied by researchers Joseph C. Nunes and Xavier Dreze in a series of experiments involving a loyalty card program at a car wash.
How You Can Utilise the Endowed Progress Effect
Create a sense of progress by breaking down larger goals into smaller milestones. For example, a project management tool might encourage users to complete a series of small tasks that add up to a larger project. Each completed task creates a sense of progress towards the overall goal, which can motivate users to continue using the tool.
Reframe tasks to seem incomplete rather than not started, such as profile completion progress, and visualize the progress as this can help motivate the user.
Use incentives to encourage users to make progress towards a goal. For example, a fitness app might offer users a discount on a gym membership if they log their workouts for a certain number of days in a row. This creates a sense of progress towards the goal of getting fit, while also providing an additional reward for reaching the milestone.
Highlight the progress that users have already made. For example, a budgeting app might show users how much money they've saved over the course of a month. This creates a sense of momentum towards the goal of saving money, while also reminding users of the progress they've already made.
Competitor Data Migration
Providing a smooth transition for customers moving from competitor products to your own can be a valuable asset. By offering data migrations, you make it easier for potential customers to switch to your product, as they won't have to worry about losing important information in the process.
You're trying to make it as stress-free as possible for someone to start using your product. By offering to handle the migration of their data from a previous service, you're taking one big step out of the equation for them. This can make the process feel less overwhelming, and increase the likelihood of them making the switch.
Additionally, by handling the data migration process for your customers, you show that you're committed to their success and making their experience with your product as seamless as possible. It's a sign of good customer service and can build trust in your brand.
Accounting software like Xero makes it easy to transfer a user's data over to them from their competitors.
Likewise, Beehiiv (the email platform I use) makes it super easy to migrate data from their competitors into their platform in a matter of minutes
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