Signing up does not mean anything for your product. I know this is a bit harsh, but it’s the reality.
You’d think that once someone signs up for your product or service, you’ve won their business. Unfortunately, converting more visitors into real ones is hardly straightforward.
Look at it from your perspective. For example, have you ever decided to exercise more and get fit? You’ve downloaded an app and started following all the greatest instructors. Neat, right?
It did work for a week. Then, all of a sudden, you got stuck at work with this new project, so you had to stay up late and get the job done. Later, you were tired and just wanted to binge-watch your favorite TV show.
An entire season. In one weekend. After a while, the motivation for getting fit vanished into thin air. If you’ve ever been in this situation or related to any similar scenario, congratulations – you are a human.
Incorporating any product into your workflow is like trying to stick to any other type of new habit (hitting the gym, learning a new language, eating healthy, etc.). When we sign up for a particular product, we are faced with building the habit of using it constantly.
Building a new habit is hard to sustain. You should support the people who want to use your product, at least in those initial weeks. This is where customer onboarding comes into play. Let’s have a look!
What is a Customer Onboarding?
Remember the last time you downloaded an app and launched it? You probably received a welcoming message that showed you around the app, explained the main features, set up your account, etc. When you signed in, you also probably received an email with guidelines and FAQs. This whole process is called customer onboarding.
A good customer onboarding will keep your users engaged, helping them understand the value they get from the product so that they can start using it successfully and log back in to use it again and again.
Besides, if you offer them a free trial, the customer onboarding will help the users experience the product's value right at the start of their trial. Hopefully, you’ll turn them into paying customers.
The process is usually backed up by email sequences that work together to help the user get the most out of the product they’ll be using.
Benefits of Email Onboarding
Many would think that email marketing is a bit outdated. However, email marketing is one of those tools that keeps on giving. According to research, the open rates of welcoming emails are 50 percent, 86 percent more effective than a standard newsletter.
The emails are expected. The users have added their email addresses to your product and anticipate a welcoming email. Their interest at this point is very high and they are ready to start exploring.
It’s also an external channel. New users won’t take the initiative to start using your product, so sending emails is an effective way to engage them and make them build new usage habits. This helps create lifetime customers. You need those for your business to succeed.
Best Practices
Emailing can get tricky. There is a fine line between interesting and spammy. So, how do we fit into the former category?
- Personalize. Humans relate to other humans, not companies. Mass emails blasted to subscribers are not that effective. Make it sound like you are having a one-on-one conversation. However, I’m not just talking about using their first name when I say personalize. You also need to address where your user currently is regarding their onboarding process. This will ensure your emails are relevant and timely.
- Use your time wisely. Speaking of timely, never delay sending your welcoming messages. You should try to reward your subscribers' interest as soon as possible. The users are waiting on their welcomes, so it’s only natural that they get them when their attention span is at its peak. If you delay the process, you’ll notice lower engagement.
- Don’t focus on features. The idea is not to make your onboarding emails a manual. The end goal should be to teach the user how to navigate the product interface and show the product's benefits. Tell them what they will gain by using your product and provide them with some tips and tricks.
- Send trigger-based emails. These emails are sent based on your user’s behavior. For example, if your user is not active, you can send them a re-engagement email to win them back. Also, you could congratulate them if they completed a certain action and walk them through the next steps they need to take.
- Ask for feedback. The greatest enemy of all is churn. Most companies don’t even know why it’s happening, and it’s important to find out why. You can send the why email 14 to 30 days after the trial period. This could help you understand the targeted audience, their onboarding problems, and how to improve it. I’d also like to suggest asking for feedback whenever you onboard a new customer. They should know best and could help you improve your product.
Essential Onboarding Emails
So, where do we implement the above-mentioned list? Here are the must-have onboarding emails to help you connect with your users and create a bond between them and your business.
Welcome Emails
Try to make your users feel welcomed. Keep welcome emails short and simple. Use this email to try and introduce yourself personally and explain how your product could help them. Explain what they should do next. The email can also include a single and focused call-to-action that links to a getting-started page. Here is the welcome email that every new Chanty user gets:
Short, sweet, and simple.
Educational Emails
Once people start using your product, they might have questions about it, become overwhelmed by it, or need help setting it up.
As a company that offers a tech product, we get many of those questions. This is where the educational emails can be set in motion. They are the best way to engage with your users and give them tips on making the most out of the product. Here is how Remote’s educational emails give tips on using their services:
Re-engagement Emails
Sometimes, you might feel that your user has forgotten all about you. If they haven’t visited in a while, it’s time for you to send another email - a re-engagement one. There are many reasons this could happen. Maybe they didn’t get the value from the product, they lost interest, or they didn’t understand something.
Whatever the reason, customize the email sequence based on their behavior. Make them tailored and personalized based on the customer's journey. For example, when a Chanty user created the account but didn’t invite colleagues to the chat, we sent them the following email to take the next step:
Evaluation Emails
When the users have enough time to test things out, you can email them and encourage them to take the next step. This might be upgrading their plan or purchasing additional services. You can even ask them to invite friends to sign up or visit your site.
For example, Medium’s evaluation emails describe the benefits that users will gain once they upgrade. This will encourage them to keep on using the product and upgrade it to its premium version:
Successful Onboarding Campaign
A good onboarding campaign helps with user activation and retention. The process starts at the beginning of the customer's journey and lays out the foundations for the entire relationship.
A great onboarding process helps the clients receive maximum benefits from your services. The goal is to set your customers up for the long-term usage of your product right from the start.
We can claim that we had a successful onboarding process if our customers log back into the product days, weeks, or months after the first use. However, remember that the onboarding campaign is a work in progress, and you should always try to improve it.
So, tell us what you think about the onboarding process. Do you have any tips you’d like to share?
Continue the conversation: We're giving away this free resource that includes 47 email sequences, pre-formatted for your CRM.
