You're a new user, excited to dive into what seems like a fantastic product.
But as soon as you finish the sign-up process, you're bombarded with:
😥An onboarding checklist
😰A lengthy product tour
😵💫A barrage of tooltips
It's like somebody opened the fire hose on you!
Introducing user onboarding videos: the superhero solution for seamless onboarding.
Customer onboarding videos can deliver information quickly, sparing users from content overload. Plus, with an "onboarding playlist," users have personal guides at their convenience. No more feeling rushed or overwhelmed.
In this blog, we'll present a simplified approach to creating effective customer onboarding videos and discuss the best places to use them. Let's dive in!
Why use videos for customer onboarding?
If you’re still unsure about the idea of using videos for customer onboarding, here are six convincing reasons to help you make this move:
Add a personal touch and hand-hold new users: Videos allow you to put a friendly face in front of your users, adding a personal touch to the onboarding process. You can guide them step-by-step, making them feel supported and confident from the start.
Let users learn at their own pace: With an onboarding video playlist, users can explore your tool at their own speed. They can pause, rewind, and rewatch sections to grasp concepts fully. This flexibility empowers users to absorb information without feeling overwhelmed. Basecamp shows how it’s done with their Basecamp Basics playlist to onboard new users. One of their CS executives created these 2-3 minute videos for helping users work through the product.
Capture attention and enhance information retention: Videos are attention magnets. They stimulate multiple senses and create a memorable learning experience. Moreover, research shows that viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text. For instance, this onboarding video by Zoho combines animated visuals with in-app recordings and a voiceover to give new users a lay of the land.
Genuinely engage users with short, impactful videos: Rather than subjecting users to a long, tedious tour, short videos provide an engaging alternative. They grab attention, deliver information efficiently, and keep users excited about exploring your product. ClickUp created three onboarding videos—each under 3 minutes—to help users navigate the core aspects of the tool.
Make onboarding less cluttered and overwhelming: Instead of bombarding users with a laundry list of tasks, videos simplify the onboarding process. Users can follow along with concise video tutorials, reducing clutter and confusion. Here’s how Hotjar onboards new users with a combination of email and videos. Each of these three categories has its own landing page with a short onboarding video embedded in the hero section.
Showcase your product in action, highlighting pain points: Videos allow you to demonstrate your product in action, showcasing its unique features and solving pain points for users. By visually illustrating how your solution addresses their needs, you'll increase their understanding and enthusiasm. At Floik, we created this onboarding video to emphasize user pain points and give them a quick product walkthrough to set them up for success from the start.
Ready to create customer onboarding videos for your SaaS—the hassle-free way? Let’s get down to it.
How to create onboarding videos for your SaaS?
You can choose from a buffet of options when creating user onboarding videos—animated videos with visuals that pop, live-action videos for that personal touch, or screen recordings for crystal-clear product demos.
But let's face it, actually making these videos is tougher than assembling IKEA furniture.
Time-starved product and customer marketing teams struggle to script, record, and edit these videos. And juggling between 3-5 tools to create, edit, and publish your content only adds to the struggle.
So, you reluctantly settle for a single, generic product explainer video to cover all bases. 🤷♂️
But hey, what if I told you there's a magical way to effortlessly create tailored onboarding videos for every persona?
Brace yourself!
The hassle-free, automated way to create user onboarding videos
We built Floik to give the power back to product marketers, customer success reps, and essentially your entire revenue team for showcasing your product in action.
With Floik, you can create user onboarding videos in three steps 👇🏻
Record your screen → Edit your video → Embed it anywhere or download it
Instead of jumping through hoops and spending days creating a single video, Floik enables you to make as many product videos as you want within minutes.
Here’s a glimpse of all the features you can use to make polished product videos:
Crop your screen: Edit out unnecessary details from your screen recording—like the gazillion tabs on your browser—by cropping the top and bottom of your video. Keep it clean and let your customers focus on the most critical details.
Blur any details: Before you even start recording your screen, you can blur sensitive information on your screen. Unlike your standard screen recording tool, Floik helps you hide confidential details in a jiffy!
Add your talking head: Record your screen and webcam simultaneously to add a personable touch to your onboarding experience.
Highlight your clicks: Floik automatically adds click mark animations to help users understand exactly where you clicked in the entire product or feature walkthrough.
Include captions: Add and edit automated captions to enhance the watcher experience for your onboarding videos. Make your content more accessible with captions.
Add a custom CTA: Guide your users through the next steps once they’re done watching the onboarding video with a customized CTA banner. Add a main headline, subtext, and button with a link to tell them what to do next.
Once you’re happy with a draft, you can hit publish and embed the video anywhere or download it and upload on any channel. The best part? Your customers can ask follow-up questions or leave feedback for your videos with a simple annotation.
Here’s a user onboarding video created using Floik 👇🏻
4 tips to multiply user excitement with your onboarding videos
Put these best practices to work for engaging new users with a stellar onboarding video:
Create a narrative: Engage your users by weaving a narrative into your onboarding videos. Tell a compelling story that showcases the journey and benefits of using your product.
Show your face: Seeing a real person builds trust and creates a human connection. Speak directly to your users, providing guidance, insights, and a friendly face to accompany their onboarding experience.
Add interactive elements: Make your videos interactive by incorporating quizzes, polls, or clickable annotations. Encourage users to actively participate and engage with the content.
Create bite-sized delights: Shorter videos with clear objectives are more likely to hold attention and deliver information effectively. Break down complex concepts into bite-sized videos of <2 minutes to avoid overwhelming users.
Use customer onboarding videos in these 4 places
Here are some ways you can use customer onboarding videos more effectively:
1. Welcome email sequence
Adding a customer onboarding video into your welcome email sequence is a powerful way to kickstart a new user's journey. This video offers a glimpse of your product’s basics, sets clear expectations, and shares the next steps.
A brief product walkthrough in an email also gives users the convenience of viewing it whenever they want and getting started at their own pace.
Besides, think of it as an opportunity to build trust and foster a personal connection with new users. Create this onboarding video + email to assure them that your product or service will deliver on its promises.
Here’s a welcome email Frase sent me with flexible options to give the product a try or watch a 2-minute onboarding video.
💡Pro tip: Don’t focus on teaching users how to use different features, but rather on explaining what they can achieve now that they have your product.
2. Video learning center
A video learning center serves as a comprehensive hub of educational content with in-depth guidance on using your product. This dedicated space allows users to explore a range of tutorial videos, feature demos, and advanced tips and tricks.
Adding your customer onboarding video(s) in a centralized location like this will enable users to learn more about your product interface at their own pace. They can also dive deeper into specific topics of interest and enhance their overall proficiency any time.
3. Knowledge base embed
You can also embed a user onboarding video in your knowledge base as a valuable resource for getting started with your product. Create a set of short videos and make an entire playlist that serves a dual purpose for onboarding and self-serve support.
Aim to address the most common questions new users have after signing up and prevent roadblocks in their initial experience.
💡Pro tip: You can strategically place such explainer videos on your homepage, features page, or pricing page to help potential customers make informed decisions.
4. Tooltip videos
Tooltips are small bursts of contextual information that guide users through specific features or tasks within your product. Think of tooltips as microlearning avenues to navigate the interface quickly.
A tooltip onboarding video is great for just-in-time support. These interactive videos are triggered within text-based tooltips, offering additional clarity and assistance for users who may require extra support to understand a feature or complete a task.
Avoid these 5 common pitfalls when creating user onboarding videos
A lot goes into creating user onboarding videos. Your efforts might fall flat without a strong strategy to go from an idea to an output.
Here are the most common errors you should plan to avoid in your video creation process:
Overloading information: Avoid overwhelming users by trying to cram too much information into a single video. Instead, focus on the most critical aspects and break your onboarding flow into digestible, bite-sized videos—clubbed into a playlist.
Lack of personalization: Generic videos may fail to connect with users from different segments. Create multiple videos to highlight the most promising features of your product for every user persona. Address specific pain points and needs of each persona to get them started quickly.
Gather user feedback: Proactively collect user feedback to make your content more laser-focused. Identify gaps where users feel stuck and iterate your videos to avoid confusion and friction.
Neglecting accessibility: Ensure that your videos are accessible to all users, including those with hearing impairments or language barriers. Provide closed captions, transcripts, and translations to make your content inclusive and user-friendly.
Lack of ongoing support: Onboarding videos shouldn't be a one-time thing. Provide additional customer self-service resources and support materials, such as step-by-step guides, knowledge bases, or interactive tutorials, to reinforce the information presented in the videos and guide users throughout their journey.
Set up new users for success with customer onboarding videos
Customer onboarding videos are a game-changer for seamlessly guiding new users from 0 to 1 with your product. The good news is, these versatile videos double as educational resources in tooltips, knowledge bases, and more.
With an all-in-one solution like Floik, you don’t have to worry about the time, effort, and money required to make slick product videos. And you can create as many videos as you want without any compromises.
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