Trial User Onboarding methods are of great importance, as they ensure that your users get all the required information at the earliest, this is especially important for SaaS Businesses. Users who sign up for a trial need to be given an adequate amount of information about the product so that the experience can be improved and they do not end up leaving.
Many SaaS businesses make fantastic products and websites that attract visitors and leads. Their content, video presentations, and advertising messaging raise the bar. The companies invest much in development, research, and marketing to get there. However, when a trial user finally creates an account, some fail to invest in building a memorable and easy UX, and all of the new customer’s expectations vanish.
Providing a fantastic user experience when onboarding trial customers implies genuinely selling your solution.
If the experience is bad, it is quite unlikely that trial users can convert, and all of the efforts you put into developing that connection will be gone forever. At that time, there is no way to recover. When a user churns, you rarely get a second opportunity.
Let’s take a look at some common onboarding methods and how they rank in terms of user experience.
But, before we get there, let’s take a brief look at what successful user onboarding entails.
Successful User Onboarding
Onboarding trial customers entails far more than merely building a user-friendly environment in which they can sign up and begin experimenting with your product.
Successful onboarding entails several steps that lead to certain objectives.
That is what should occur during the onboarding process:
- The user can sign up fast and go to the real interface without any delays or extra processes.
- The user must thoroughly comprehend what the product is for, what they can really do with it, and what the advantages are.
- Users must understand what distinguishes that specific solution and why it is worthwhile to invest time in trying it.
- Users must be able to complete real tasks, see results, and learn how the interface works right away.
- Your users must complete a specific task list and be informed of where they are in the onboarding process.
- Users must be encouraged and rewarded for making progress and completing tasks.
- Users must be able to determine what to do and quickly find a solution to achieve their objectives.
- Your users must understand the essential features, the workflow structure, and how to connect other solutions.
- You must eliminate any uncertainty and insecurity.
- You have to demonstrate that you can meet and exceed your customers’ expectations.
- Eventually, you must sell your solution as if you were offering it directly to the user.
This, and much more, must happen quickly. Very quick! People’s attention spans are limited, therefore you must constantly provide uniqueness and new features while drawing trial users’ attention to the next goal.
You must begin in small increments, introducing big features while fast allowing customers to achieve full expertise with your product. You must remove any friction and make users feel good about their decision.
Onboarding Methods
Finally, let’s look at specific Onboarding Methods and evaluate them based on what we have mentioned in our onboarding checklist.
Not Providing Any Support When You Onboard Trial Users
When you onboard trial users, be sure that you are providing the best experience possible. Don’t assume that just because someone is in trial mode that they are not having any problems with your product. You need to make sure that you provide the necessary support to ensure their success throughout the trial period.
Do not make users feel abandoned. This is not good for branding.
Using Slides and Documentation to Introduce and Explain Software
Introducing software can be challenging and sometimes the best way to do it is by using a presentation to show people what you’ve built. Now let’s be honest: not everyone has the same talent for presenting information in a fun manner. The human brain processes visual information 60k times faster than text. Slides make it easier for your audience to understand concepts and prevent your audience from zoning out.
Keep in mind some users may feel a little bored to read documentation or go through a slide presentation.
Using Videos to Onboard New Users
People love watching video tutorials. Watching a video is the easiest way for them to learn and it builds trust. If you want to optimize your onboarding process use short and informative videos to guide your users through the signup process. You don’t have to hire a professional team to create them. There are plenty of applications where you can add a personal touch to the videos that you create.
Implementing Live Chat to Interact with Users
An excellent software onboarding process ensures that your users don’t experience any problems when signing up or using your software. You should provide all the information and support necessary for them to become successful users of your product. One way to do this is to offer live chat customer service
The bad thing about live chats: it is a reactive solution. If a new user needs assistance, it is already too late. A successful onboarding experience should actively discourage users from seeking support.
Presenting the User Interface with Hotspots and Speech Bubbles
Hotspots can quickly point out the UI areas, and speech bubbles will give the users a sense of confidence and functionality.
When presenting the UI onboarding new users, it’s important to know when and how to use hotspots and speech bubbles. They complement each other by allowing you to show more parts of your interface, with a focus on giving directions to your user.
This will eliminate the difficulty of new users understanding how to use your software since you can directly inform them on what buttons are available without adding additional text or audio logs that slow down their onboarding experience.
Using Sandbox Environments to Implement Onboarding Walkthroughs
Before you implement a Sandbox Onboarding Walkthrough, you should make sure your entire product is streamlined and organized. The most important thing to remember when implementing an Onboarding Walkthrough, is that the experience should be seamless and less challenging than real life engagement would be.
Onboarding Trial Users Using Interactive Onscreen Guides
One of the finest onboarding approaches is to provide interactive on-screen floating guides that lead customers through the platform in real-time and assist them in completing tasks while becoming familiar with the product, its characteristics, unique selling points, and processes.
Interactive onboarding walkthroughs enable SaaS businesses to segment and engage with users in real time, ensuring that all tasks are completed in the proper order and the user is instantly efficient with the software.
Interactive guides genuinely satisfy every single need of an effective onboarding process, as outlined at the introduction of this post, and have a direct influence on key KPIs such as conversion, engagement, activation, and retention.
Conclusion
When you do Onboarding in the right way, you Free Trial Conversion Rate could increase a lot! You’ll have to identify your problem areas and make smart changes to see results, but with a good strategy and a bit of hard work, you should see some positive movement in no time. Good luck!
You can try Radix and check out our Onboarding process.
We can help you boost your free trial conversion rate by 25% by connecting your Stripe and PayPal to our AI tool called Trial Pulser.
Sign Up Here!
Read More:
How to Win Back Your Lost Trial Leads
Best Practices to Improve SaaS Onboarding
Churn Prevention: How to Identify & Prevent Churn with Radix
