Users have unique preferences and goals, and it’s your job to meet them where they’re at with relevant content. We’ll talk about what types of data you’ll need and how to gather it to inform your onboarding.
These days, users expect personalized product experiences. Everywhere you turn, businesses are better catering to unique preferences and needs and delivering delightful, relevant content.
Take your Netflix account, for example. Netflix has learned what kind of content you watch, and they try their best to serve up content you’ll like. While I see a row of “British Movies & TV,” you might be looking at “Mother-Daughter TV Shows.” Are these suggestions foolproof? Of course not. But do they generally improve the user’s experience? You bet.
When done well, personalization keeps users engaged and helps you create more meaningful relationships with your customers. And when it comes to user onboarding specifically, personalization helps users discover relevant features faster. Hello, increased activation rate!
At this point, you might be wondering… but how do I make my onboarding experience personalized? Great question. Read on, grasshopper.
Personalization requires data. And while it might seem creepy, we’re all leaving behind trails of information everywhere we go. To make an onboarding experience that’s more personalized for your new users, you’ll need to use either “declared data” (e.g. information that your users explicitly volunteer to you) or “inferred data” (e.g. information that’s systematically generated). Or both!
We know what you’re thinking. Won’t I be creating friction in my onboarding process if I stop to ask users questions? The answer: yes. But not all friction is bad!
Declared data is the cat’s meow for marketers, because it can capture things like preferences, motivations, and intentions. Once you have this kind of information at your fingertips, you can create meaningful segments and show your users messaging, features, and offers that are relevant to them. Let’s look at some real examples, shall we?
With some simple questions during onboarding, meditation app Headspace allows new users to self-select their motivations and preferences. Not only does this give Headspace valuable insights for future development, it also increases the chances that their users will find value in their product. If I’m in desperate need of sleep, and Headspace delivers the perfect guided meditations in seconds, there’s next to no chance I’ll be headed elsewhere.
Psst… notice that progress indicator across the top? It’s always a nice touch to keep users oriented and moving forward.
Video hosting platform Wistia takes a similar approach with a different design: 4 simple dropdowns.
By asking these quick questions (including the user’s goal with the product), Wistia is able to personalize the onboarding experience—both in-app and via email. Since users can simply select their choices from each dropdown, the mental load is relatively small and the process feels straightforward and simple.
With modern marketing tools like Appcues, Clearbit, Customer.io, and Mutiny, companies are collecting user data (like company size, industry, title and role, tools in their tech stack, etc.) and automatically personalizing in-app user experiences. With more data at your disposal, you can also shorten those signup forms (thank goodness), create segments for relevant email campaigns, and trigger helpful notifications and emails.
Now, just because you can glean lots of information from users doesn’t mean you need to hit them over the head with it. No one wants to be reminded that you’re tracking them behind the scenes. Messaging like “looks like you just completed this step” or “we know where you live” might push users away rather than enhance their experience. We were kidding with that second one, but you get the point. It’s much better to think of data as a tool for creating helpful experiences. Here’s some food for thought:
Maybe a user completes an important action in your onboarding checklist, and it triggers an email with a relevant use case to inspire them.
Maybe you tell a segment of users about a key integration via a slideout, because you’ve learned that they have a certain tool in their tech stack.
Maybe based on a user’s company size, you offer an opportunity to change plans and benefit from more collaboration.
Maybe if a user hasn’t taken an action that’s part of activation, you can target them with a reminder. Quick tip: With Appcues’ Click-to-track, you can easily track your users’ key behaviors and create meaningful targeted experiences.
First off, welcome! We’re so glad that you’re excited about user onboarding, cause we sure are.
In Lesson 1, we’ll talk about the importance of user onboarding. Why is it such a big deal, anyway?
Well, for starters, SaaS has a massive short-term retention problem. New users expect intuitive, self-serve products that show and deliver value almost immediately. If you miss the mark, they're gone... just like that. Poof. Here’s Eric Keating—VP of Marketing at Appcues—to explain this phenomenon.
In short, your new user onboarding experience can make or break your business. No pressure. 😉
If you’re already completely sold on the idea of onboarding, you can think of this lesson as a summary of talking points to champion the project internally. And if you’ve got no higher-ups or teammates to convince, then congrats—you’ve already cleared the first hurdle. Look at you go.
Way back in 2007 (the year the iPhone was born 😮), Dave McClure coined the term “Pirate Metrics” to explain 5 metrics that contribute to a product’s success. The Pirate Metrics include acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue—or, as a pirate would say—AARRR. Over time, the order of these metrics has been disputed and shuffled around, but let’s go with the following for now.
Out of all the Pirate Metrics, activation is the most important for both retention and revenue. Because it turns out that even a small increase in your activation rate can lead to an outsized return. And who doesn’t want to increase their revenue (in a scalable, measurable way)?
It also turns out that improving (or creating!) user onboarding is your best bet at increasing your activation rate.
Just listen to Wes Bush, founder and CEO of ProductLed. He could go on and on about the link between user onboarding and retention (we told him not to go past 2 minutes).
The bottom line is: If done well, onboarding is not just a parade of tooltips inside your product—it’s an impactful tool that delivers real business value.
And if you really need some concise and convincing talking points, just tuck these data-backed findings in your back pocket:
Ever heard someone say that products with great user experiences shouldn’t need user onboarding? “Just make your product more intuitive,” they say, “simplify it.” Ahh… if only it were that easy.
If you’re finding yourself in conversations like these, we’ve got your back.
Here are 3 compelling reasons why even the most intuitive products need user onboarding.
Your users have different needs
One fixed user interface might not cut it for users with different roles, domain knowledge, and goals. Adapting to users’ specific needs with personalized onboarding flows will help both of you succeed.
Learning is different than using
When you add an experience layer with tooltips, modals, etc. to your product, it forces a context switch out of the mode of using, into the mode of learning. This helps new users bridge knowledge gaps faster and more effectively.
Onboarding needs to adapt to frequent change
If you’re a growing software company, you’ll be pushing updates regularly (hopefully). But you also need to consider the impact these changes will have on new and long-term users alike (yikes). Adaptable onboarding to the rescue.
Say it with us: User onboarding is a powerful lever for increasing your activation rate and revenue. So with that in mind, let’s dive into what the heck it is!
