Onboarding opportunities that most of us will miss

Onboarding is one of the most important aspects of your product. A good flow makes your product's value concrete in the user's mind. It makes them invested in the product. And most importantly, it sets them up for success. If you do it well, they'll stick around. If you don't…

** trails off ominously 😰 **

That said, it's important not to burn too much time perfecting your onboarding, particularly for early-stage products. So here's how to do onboarding right. 👇

Why onboarding matters

I doubt I need to do much convincing here, but let's briefly talk about why a good onboarding experience deserves your attention.

• It has a huge impact on churn.
• It increases conversions when you're using a freemium model or free trials.
• It increases user satisfaction and confidence with the product.
• It increases user success rates.
• It increases LTV.
• It increases word-of-mouth growth.
• It decreases support costs.

Enough said? Moving on.

Onboarding opportunities

So while you're onboarding your users, here are some opportunities that will have long-lasting effects on your business.

• Targeted copy: Know what your user wants, and lean toward it in your copy. Explain to them how each step brings them closer to their goals. Don't stop selling just because they've signed up!
• Effective typography: Your typography — fonts, sizes, colors, etc. — are one of the best ways to unobtrusively guide your users in the right direction.
• Compelling visuals: While the copy is important, visuals might be even more so, since users rarely read. Use imagery to point people (literally) to where you want them to go. This can include little hotspot animations or colors to show the next button in a flow.
• Social proof: How many people are using the product? What do they say about it? Any big brand names you can name-drop? Add this wherever you can in the onboarding (without cluttering up the flow).
• Progress meter: This is a big one. It's really important to show your users how far they've come and soon they'll be done. This can be done in the form of a progress bar or a step counter (x/y steps completed).
• Checklists: There's a dopamine hit that happens when a todo is checked off of a list, so this can be a good one. List every onboarding step and check them off as the user completes them. Make it exciting. And start with one item (like creating an account) already checked off the list so that they see immediate progress. I know of at least one company that saw 3x higher conversion rates by doing this. And here's a fellow indie hacker on the topic:

@laurent_malka: On our journey to reach "onboarding" perfection, we decided to use the "task style" onboarding. Essentially, as you signup, the platform main screen is a task list you need to complete.

Result: 14% improvement of activated users. Time to activation went down by 35%.

• Get meta with it: Where possible, get meta with your onboarding and use your tool to onboard your users. For example a todo list app could start the user with a todo list of onboarding tasks. Basecamp does this well.
• Gamification: Some folks like to gamify their onboarding flows and I think that's a pretty great idea. For example, for each task on an onboarding checklist that is completed, you can offer an extension to the free trial. Or a discount. That type of thing. Here's an indie hacker who did exactly that:

@royledoyle: When users sign up, I'm trying an onboarding checklist. It gives them more trial days for completing key tasks. They're tasks that lead to the 'Aha' moment.

• Commitment checkbox: This one is a little odd, but I know of case where it increased conversions by 11%. Consider adding a checkbox at the beginning of flow. It should say something like "I'm ready to [achieve my goal]." Apparently, clicking the box reinforces the user's commitment and reminds them of their goals. This is best used for long onboarding processes.
• Tool-tips: I'm a big fan of tool-tips. They keep things neat and minimalistic for those who don't need help, but provide answers to those who need them. You can make these pop up to guide people through a flow, making them sort of like a product tour, which I'll get to in a moment. But they can also just be discreet little help buttons.
• Product tours: Get the user to that Aha! moment as quickly as possible by guiding them right to it. Only include the key steps so that it isn't too long. And include the progress meter mentioned above. Product tours usually appear as modals with a skip or next button. And they point out each step as you go.
• Add sample data: Landing on an empty screen when you start using a product can be daunting. Increase the likelihood of them using the product and converting by showing them what it'll be like. As an added bonus, it also acts as sort of a tutorial. But be careful not to make it seem like there's nothing left for them to do — graying out the sample data could be a good idea.

@arjenschat: Pre-population the app can help, if this is actually constructed to help them learn to use your service. The pre-populated stuff must be a guide for them. If it's just here to fill the blanks, you will not achieve anything.

• Resources: Allow users to access resources like FAQ, documentation, and video demos with a single click. And offer these resources in your emails, chatbots, and so forth.
• Guides: Speaking of resources, create guides. A knowledge base, or hub of content can be really helpful. Publish them in multiple formats (video, articles, etc.) so that they're accessible to all learning types. BUT don't do this early on. It's time intensive, so wait until the product is growing before you invest in this.
• Introductory articles: If some of your users are newbies to the subject matter, it's helpful to give them basic guides. For example, if you've got an SEO tool, explain not only your tool, but SEO itself.
• Templates: Where applicable, provide templates that will get your users started with minimal work on their end. Of course, this depends on what type of product you're offering.
• Welcome survey: After signup, put users on a welcome screen where you ask them one or two easy questions. It shouldn't take them more than a couple of clicks. Segment them accordingly (more on segmenting in a moment). Note: This friction should not be added just to get data. Only do it if it will actually improve their onboarding experience for the user.
• Segment users: Even if you don't do the survey I mentioned above, it may be worthwhile to figure out some way to categorize each user, like user behavior. Then set up a different onboarding flow for each segment.
• Welcome email: Welcome emails will probably be your most opened emails, so use them to show value, share helpful resources, and generally inspire further onboarding. I know some indie hackers like to send personalized Loom videos to every new signup.
• Email sequences: Send emails based on specific actions. Use them to nurture your new users, but make sure you are actually providing value! Don't just remind them to use the product, show them the value and educate them on how to achieve their goals. Win-back emails are a great example.
• Set up a call: Automatically provide an option to jump on a call with you. I'd actually recommend including a Calendly link in your Welcome email. It shouldn't be mandatory, and most won't do it, but make it an option. It shows you're willing and available to help. And if they take you up on it, you can hugely impact their likelihood of sticking around.
• Killer customer service: I posted about good customer service a couple of weeks back so I won't get into this now. Let's just say that you should be proactively reaching out to help new users as they onboard. And keep track of what people are asking and where they get stuck in the flow, then improve those things.
• Chat widgets: Automate an early check-in and ask if they need any assistance.
• Offer free migrations: If users have to migrate a lot of data during the onboarding process, offer to do it for them. Once data is on your servers, they will be heavily invested in your product.

Onboarding best practices

So those are some things that can be leveraged to enhance your onboarding flows. Here are some tips to get the most out of them.

• Be ruthless about cutting back on what you ask from your users. Onboarding time is precious. Don't waste it. I had a client once who asked for the user's name in an onboarding flow, then said "Welcome [name]" and literally never used it again. I get what he was trying to do, but he either needed to remove that (which is what he eventually did) or use the name in ways that provided real value. Whatever is included must provide immediate value in the journey to that Aha! moment.
• Focus on core features first. If you need to onboard beyond the core features, consider delaying some of it and doing it through an email campaign or post-onboarding tool-tips. The onboarding flow should be as quick as possible while still nailing that Aha! moment.
• Allow users to skip anything that you throw at them.
• Communicate benefits over features.
• Break steps up into stages to make lengthy onboarding flows more manageable. Better yet, shorten the flow.
• Personalize the flow as much as possible. Everything you show them should fully apply to them.
• Test and optimize. If something isn't working, fix it.
• Do things that don't scale: You've heard this maxim a hundred times before, but that's because it's an indie hacker advantage that should be used. When you're starting out, and even when you're established, white-glove it!

Ultimately here's the main thing to remember: Reduce friction.

And here are some red flags to watch out for. If you've got these, you've got onboarding problems:

• High churn (obviously).
• Abandoned signup process. The faster people churn, the more damning it is.
• Low conversion from free tier/trial to paid.

The worst advice I saw about onboarding

A lot of folks will tell you to keep your goals in mind when building the onboarding flow. It's super common advice. But it'll lead you astray.

Sure it would be nice to get that piece of data from them during their onboarding flow, or to move them toward giving you money. But what you really need is a successful customer. So keep their goals in mind, not yours.

Their success is your only goal here. So if you're focusing on a goal, make sure that's it.

So what actually applies to early-stage indie hackers?

As you can see, there are a ton of ways to improve your onboarding. But when you're starting out, you really shouldn't invest a ton of time creating a sophisticated flow. It's important. But it's not as important as building the MVP and getting the word out when you're starting up.

And luckily, early-stage products and MVPs shouldn't need fancy onboarding anyway. Your early product should be no-frills, and that means that onboarding will be direct and easy, with far fewer onboarding steps than if your product was later-stage.

So make it good, yes. But don't break the time-bank on it. Optimize it later.

Here's a short list of the quickest, highest leverage options from the above list that I recommend starting with when you're in the early stages of building and growing your product.

• Targeted copy
• Effective typography
• Compelling visuals
• Progress meter
• Welcome email
• Email sequences
• Set up a call
• Killer customer service
• Offer free migrations

Need a little inspo?

You'll find some solid onboarding examples here and here.

What did I miss?

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