Behind-The-Scenes of an Onboarding Revamp That Generated 2X Revenue

We recently interviewed Aiza Coronado, founder of CaaSocio and an expert product marketing strategist specializing in messaging, copywriting, and customer onboarding. This interview was part of Mailmodo's expert interview series The Lifecyclist, which features the top lifecycle marketing experts.

During this episode, Aiza discussed how she boosted brand revenue by 2X with an onboarding revamp for a PLG, B2B SaaS brand.

Here are the key insights from her 50-minute interview for The Lifecyclist, in which she discusses steps to design and optimize onboarding for better conversions.

Step 1: Map the entire customer journey

First, you want to have a clear overview of the full experience. You should have a vision of how users interact with your product and understand their sign-up, engagement, and conversion steps.

What actions are they taking? What features are they using? How do they move on from onboarding to adoption?

This mapping lets you identify areas where users may face obstacles or drop off. It also helps you identify communication gaps.

Step 2: Talk to the right stakeholders

In early-stage companies, valuable insights often reside within team members' minds. So talk to them! Make a list of key stakeholders such as customer success, sales, or even cofounders, and invite them for quick chats.

Gathering points of view from these departments will help you refine the onboarding flow. Here are 3 main points you’ll want to address in those conversations:

• Have them review the customer journey you mapped and determine if anything is missing or needs to be adjusted. There might be hidden steps you are not aware of. This is the time to get into more depth.
• Ask them what they consider the most lacking part of the experience. What would they prioritize to fix, and why?
• Ask for the opportunities they see for every step of the journey. What do they consider that could be done to make it better?

Take notes of all those insights in a spreadsheet to compare ideas. Another great way to do this is to bring everyone into a workshop and have people discuss it together.

Step 3: Plan flows for different user segments

A common but underused strategy is to create tailored onboarding flows for different user segments. Aiza currently uses the segments below, which you can get inspired by and create ones that make sense for your products or services.

• Low-intent leads: Show interest in knowledge. E.g., they’ve downloaded an ebook or signed up for a blog
• High-intent MQLs: More product-aware. They may have scheduled a demo or asked for pricing. They have a clear signal to buy.
  Sign-ups (active and inactive): Active users use the app/software often. Inactive users have signed up but don't take significant action.
• Paying users: Self-explanatory
• Expired trials: people who signed up for a trial but didn’t convert. Sometimes a message or two may help them convert like if they got busy or went on a vacation.

Each segment will benefit from a different flow type, with different content adapted to its context. Each flow will also be triggered by specific actions. So get on your spreadsheet again and start planning the logic for each segment.

Step 4: Craft the content and design the flows

Now, it’s time to get hands-on and create the flows. Every flow may have multiple emails; how many make sense depends on your context.

Keep in mind that every email should have one clear goal. What action do you want the user to take after opening that email? Make it engaging and easy for them to do so, and they will.

Step 5: Review and optimize the flow annually

So far, we covered steps to set up onboarding. But it requires continuous improvement. Aiza tests and optimizes her onboarding flow each year. She tests various elements, such as:

• Features: Select the features that paying users engage with most and promote them to Sign-ups to encourage upgrades.
• Messaging: Analyze your email heat map and engagement rates to find users' favorite topics. Then, refine your messaging.
• Email formats: Test different formats, such as plain text, visuals, GIFs, and interactive emails, to find what works best for your audience.

These tests keep your onboarding process fresh and relevant. They ensure you meet your users' needs.

Step 6: Use Interactive Emails to boost conversions

The norm has always been to send emails that redirect users to click on a link and go to a second webpage. This adds friction to the user journey and keeps people from converting.

Interactive emails solve that by letting users complete actions inside the email. Mailmodo lets you add widgets to emails so that users can fill out forms, give feedback, or schedule calls without having to go anywhere else.

Fewer steps mean lower drop-offs––and higher conversions.

Step 7: Track everything to make data-driven decisions

Finally, track all relevant data to guide your onboarding strategies. Much of Aiza’s success in doubling revenue relied on insights from:

• Engagement rates
• Conversions
• In-app actions

Tracking these metrics lets you analyze user behavior—and behavior changes. So remember to avoid assuming things and check your data instead.

Conclusion

Lifecycle marketing is vast. It may start with onboarding but can branch out to dozens of flows. A great onboarding strategy could be a game changer. It helps users find value in your product and return for it, leading to upsells, cross-sells, and referrals.

I hope you can use these insights from Aiza's success story. You can watch Aiza's full interview on The Lifecyclist here.

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