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@patrickcurl
Created January 30, 2020 22:46
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Product Onboarding

Source: 2020 State of SaaS Product Onboarding | HN onboardinginfographic.png [toc]

Free Trial vs Freemium

  • B2C
    • 73% Freemium
    • 23% Free Trial
  • B2B
    • 86% Free Trial Know customer, freemium/free-trial helps them use/get addicted to the convenience of your software. Probably a good idea.

Media & Interaction

Welcome Screen

  • 40% have no welcome screen "Greeting your new users with a welcome message is a simple way of easing them into your product. Not only is it a way of making them feel at home, it's also a great opportunity to provide important information.

You might, for example, want to suggest a first step they can take to get started with your product. You could also remind them of the key benefits that your product provides."

Video Messaging

Only 16% use, article recommends increasing that adoption because users report learning better via video. Takeaway: have a video tutorial, onboarding, etc to get users acquainted if you can.

Interactive Walkthrough

Only 24% have this, but it definitely aids in adoption. Seems article is selling their product userPilot as a way to do just this.

Product Tour

Under 30% of SaaS products have a tour to show around product. Probably a good idea. Takeways: If you have one make it quick/painless. On decline as they may not work as good as a Walkthrough.


Frictionless signup

  • 63% add friction to signup form
  • Many products ask additional ?? after signup.
  • Reduce friction and decrease Time-to-Value

Confirm Email ?


Milestones and Personalization

Checklist

  • only 56% of SaaS had checklist

The best approach is to identify the steps required to reach your product's Aha! moment. You then add these steps to the checklist. This means your users will work their way through and start seeing value as quickly as possible.

Personalized Onboarding

  • 48% of tools reference user name, designation, company or industry during onboarding.

We've said this a lot, and we'll say it again: Personalizing your onboarding flows is the most effective way of retaining users.*

Goals

  • 35% asked for goals and used in personalization

A simple way of personalizing a user's onboarding flow is to ask them what their goal is. You can then direct them to the most relevant features. This adds more personalization to your product, and decreases the time to value.

Milestone Celebration

  • 17% celebrate user milestones and achievements.

Users like to know when they've achieved something as it shows them they're on the right track. More importantly, it gives them a little boost and improves their mood. It motivates them and ensures they carry on using your product.

Celebrating milestones and achievements is a great way to make using your product an even more positive experience. It's also a good opportunity to inject some personality into your product. This helps you to stand out from your competition.

You can use a fun gif or video, have confetti rain down the screen, or even just a simple "Well Done!". The point is that your product acknowledges a user's success.


Data and Analytics

Segments

  • 45% of the products we tested used some sort of segmentation to split users into groups. Those products could then tailor onboarding to each group.

Triggered Emails

  • 12% of SaaS products sent emails based on in-app triggers within the first 60 minutes since signing up

Trigger-based emails are a great way of boosting product engagement. They address the user outside of the app, and so users are more likely to notice and pay attention. It's also a good way of providing contextual onboarding, as the emails can relate to what the user is trying to achieve.

Analytics

  • 95% use analytics.
  • Tools such as Hotjar and FullStory show you how your users engage with your product. You can use them to identify any gaps in your onboarding.

Contextual Onboarding

  • 28% of SaaS products used custom events to trigger onboarding

Custom events occur when a user does something in your product. It might be they press a certain button, or it might be they activate a specific feature. By passing these custom events, you can trigger contextual onboarding. The onboarding will remain entirely relevant to each user. For example, If you're new Gmail user, Gmail personalizes the next step based on if you have already composed and sent your first message or not.


Support Docs

  • 92% had docs

Other Resources

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