Lead Generation
Sales
The Importance of User Onboarding in Product-Led Growth
Elevate your product-led growth with expert onboarding tactics. Learn best practices to guide users to value and drive adoption.
Elevate your product-led growth with expert onboarding tactics. Learn best practices to guide users to value and drive adoption.
First impressions matter, and that's just as true for products. When users try out a new app for the first time, their initial experience can make or break their decision to keep using it. That’s why you should perfect your onboarding if you want your product to succeed.
In product-led growth, the product sells itself. Effective onboarding ensures new users quickly experience your product’s value so they stick around and recommend it to others.
Let’s discuss why user onboarding is a big deal for product-led growth. We'll share tips and help you understand how to make your users love your product from day one.
Have you ever started using an app because a friend couldn't stop raving about it? Or signed up for a free tool version and then decided to pay for more features because you found it useful? That's product-led growth in action.
Product-led growth (PLG) is a business strategy that relies on the product to attract, engage, and retain customers. Instead of depending heavily on traditional sales and marketing tactics, companies create a product so good and easy to use that it practically sells itself.
For example, Dropbox offers free storage space and makes it super easy to invite friends. As users share folders with others, more people naturally start using Dropbox.
During the pandemic, Zoom's easy-to-use video conferencing became popular for personal and professional use. Its simplicity and free tier helped it spread quickly.
In these cases, the product's ease of use, clear value, and often a free or trial version bring in new users and keep them engaged. The product does most of the "selling" work traditionally done by sales teams.
Product-led growth isn't just about having a great product, though. It's about designing the entire user experience, from first contact to long-term use, in a way that continuously demonstrates the product's value.
And that's where effective user onboarding becomes important—it's the bridge that helps new users find that value quickly and easily.
User onboarding guides new users through your product, helping them understand its features and benefits and showing them how to get the most value from it.
Think of onboarding as the welcome mat for your product. It's your chance to make a great first impression and set users up for success. Here are four reasons why effective onboarding is essential in product-led growth:
User activation occurs when new users experience your product's core value for the first time. Effective onboarding accelerates this process, helping users reach their "aha moment" more quickly.
Instead of leaving users to figure things out independently, onboarding shows them exactly what to do next. This reduces confusion and the time spent exploring aimlessly.
For example, Dropbox might consider a user "activated" when they place at least one file in their Dropbox folder. Their onboarding process is designed to guide users to this action as smoothly as possible.
Statistics support the importance of quick activation. 55% of people have returned a product because they didn't understand how to use it. Focusing on fast activation through smart onboarding can significantly reduce this risk.
Once users are activated, the next challenge is keeping them engaged. Good onboarding helps users build habits around your product, setting the foundation for long-term retention.
Take the example of Duolingo, the language learning app. Their onboarding process includes setting daily goals and reminders, which encourages regular use of the app.
The numbers back this up. Users who receive onboarding content are 86% more likely to stay loyal to a brand. When you invest in onboarding, you help keep your users around for the long haul.
Onboarding isn't just about teaching the basics; it's also about showcasing your product's full potential. This can lead users to adopt more features and potentially upgrade to paid plans.
Slack does this well by gradually introducing advanced features as users become more comfortable with the basic ones. They might start with simple messaging, but learn about integrations, threads, and other powerful tools over time.
Highlighting your product's capabilities during onboarding encourages deeper product adoption and higher value for both the user and your business.
In product-led growth, your existing users can become your best marketers. A smooth onboarding experience that quickly demonstrates value makes users more likely to recommend your product to others.
Consider how Zoom became a household name during the pandemic. Its easy setup and intuitive interface made it simple for people to use and invite others to join calls.
The power of this word-of-mouth effect is significant. 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over any other type of advertising. Creating an onboarding experience that wows users lets you retain them and potentially acquire their entire network.
Quality onboarding can make the difference between a user who quickly grasps your product's value and becomes a loyal customer and one who gets frustrated and leaves.
Here are best practices to create an onboarding experience that introduces your product and sets your users up for success:
An intuitive user experience is the foundation of effective onboarding. It's about making your product so easy to understand that users can almost predict what to do next.
Keep your interface clean and uncluttered, use familiar icons and design patterns, and provide clear, concise labels for buttons and menus.
Instagram's interface is a great example of this—the camera icon for posting, the heart for likes, and the paper airplane for sharing are instantly recognizable, allowing new users to figure out basic functions without explanation.
Users come to your product with different needs, skill levels, and goals. That’s why businesses should always personalize. 64% of marketers agree that a better customer experience is a top benefit of personalization.
Ask users about their objectives during sign-up and tailor the experience accordingly. Adjust the complexity of tutorials based on user expertise and allow users to skip steps they're already familiar with.
Canva does this well by asking new users if they're using the platform for work, personal projects, or education and then customizing the templates and tutorials shown based on this choice.
Showing is often more effective than telling. Use tooltips to explain individual features, create interactive process walkthroughs, and offer video tutorials for more complex features. Progress bars can show users how far along they are in onboarding.
Duolingo excels at this, using a mix of tooltips and guided actions to teach new users how to use the app. It also requires them to complete a sample lesson introducing core concepts within the app interface.
To improve your onboarding, you must understand how well it works. Define clear activation metrics, such as completing a profile or making a first purchase. Track time-to-activation for new users and monitor drop-off points in the onboarding flow.
Use A/B testing to compare different approaches. LinkedIn, for instance, might track how many new users complete their profiles within the first week, investigating and improving any steps where users tend to abandon the process.
User onboarding turns curious new users into loyal, engaged customers. With the best practices in this blog, you can craft an onboarding process that introduces your product and showcases its value.
It’s not just about teaching features—it's about guiding users to their "aha moment" as quickly as possible. It's about turning first-time users into advocates who can't wait to share your product with others.
In product-led growth, your onboarding experience can be your most powerful marketing tool and strongest retention strategy.
Keep the user at the center of every decision. Listen to their feedback, analyze their behavior, and never stop iterating. With patience and persistence, you can create an onboarding experience that drives sustainable growth.
Ready to revolutionize your user onboarding? Dive deeper into expert strategies and cutting-edge techniques with Lunas.
Our comprehensive resources and tools are designed to help you create onboarding experiences that drive activation, boost retention, and fuel product-led growth. Get access to in-depth guides, case studies, and practical tips from industry leaders.
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