How Onboarding Videos Help to Optimize User Retention
Your marketing efforts have worked out, and you’ve converted leads into actual clients. Congrats! But don’t rush to relax. It’s just the beginning of the user journey. And to make it comfortable, you should create onboarding videos.
A recent study from Hubspot shows a constantly rising demand for video content. Users are more likely to watch a video than read an article, report, or even post. Moreover, they want to see more video content in the future. So, it will be best to welcome potential customers with a short and helpful onboarding video. You can show the essential features of your product/service and highlight your expertise.
But how to make it catchy? How to make sure that users understand your message and follow your call to action? We, at Explain Ninja, have prepared a comprehensive guide on making an outstanding onboarding video that optimizes user retention and converts them to a client.
What is an onboarding video?
It’s a short video you show to prospect or new clients, explaining to them how your product or service can help them solve the problem. Usually, those videos are up to five minutes long.
Such videos typically include an overview of the product and the company. Use them to greet your customers and introduce crucial features of your proposition.
Why make an onboarding video?
They are a great addition to the orientation experience. It educates your clients and raises awareness about your goals as a business. It motivates them to become more open to you.
Fine welcome videos speed up the onboarding process. Moreover, potential clients can come back to the video to rewatch it. They can’t do this in real life because it may be awkward to check back with the expert anytime they want some minor advice.
Onboarding videos are easily accessible. A user can learn in a user-friendly manner, rewinding the same tape now and then. They can save videos on the watchlist and share them with others. It’s a free promotion for your business.
Welcoming new clients
First impressions are critical in any relationship. According to Harvard Business School, getting the first impression takes only seven seconds. It implies the business/client dynamic as well.
97% of people think video is a useful tool to greet and educate clients. Sending an onboard video to the new client creates an invisible but strong bond between the company and the consumer.
Take a closer look at the Grubhub delivery service. They created a welcome video for new delivery men that will work great even with customers. In this video, they give instructions to drivers on how to start their workday, pick up and deliver the order. This adds transparency to their relationship with clients.
To ensure you give the best onboarding experience for potential clients, involve the team leaders and experts. A new client should see that they can rely on you. Сheck this Starbucks corporate video. They humanize their business, showing experts “behind the scenes” like coffee farmer Kevin.
So, when potential customer sees their coffee, they will think about Kevin and how their purchase will help his farm.
Explaining the details of your product or service
Once your potential client is comfy, show them product details. People are more likely to watch a video rather than read text descriptions. 74% of marketers say videos have better ROI than simple static images.
Give simple yet expanded step-by-step guidelines. Show the alternative ways to use your product. For example, check this Samsung Freestyle projector video instruction:
A mix of trendy explainers and client onboarding videos is excellent for additional customer-friendly promotion. The potential client is already interested in your product. Your main goal is to show them how you can help them in the short and long run.
Answering FAQs
Another way to simplify the user experience is to create a video that answers the most frequently asked questions. It shows that you know your product’s strengths and weaknesses and want to help.
It also shows that you understand the main pain points of your clients. It will solidify your relationship even more. Here is a great example from British broadcaster BritBox where they show how to install and use their TV app.
Sharing testimonials and reviews
You can also show video reviews from existing clients or employees, where they say how your product changed their life and shut down the pain points.
Video testimonials also can add extra authenticity. Make sure that you share real stories and reviews. Just look at the Zappos case. Instead of creating a complex video, they just let their employees speak about their experience in Zappos.
Showing valuable offers
The market is oversaturated, so you have rivals. Give your prospect clients an exclusive offer. It lowers the risk of losing them. But remember, you should make just one offer in the video. In another case, you may disperse their attention.
Take a closer look at the Indeed YouTube channel. They create short videos with tips that will ease the work search on their website.
Stick to a similar structure in your videos. Firstly, mark the pain of your client. Later, give the solution and show how your product/service can be a key part of it. In the end, provide a valuable offer.
Cross-selling
Once your clients are satisfied with the main product, promote extra goods. In cross-selling company onboarding videos, you can give short explainers, tips, and other information that convince people that they need this product/service.
Make videos dynamic, even if you are talking about things considered “boring” by society. People today have a short attention span, so encourage them to watch videos. The latter, in turn, should motivate people to use your new product/service.
Give a sample or free trial if it’s possible. It would be harder to say “No” to your new cross-selling offer if users already try some for free. Product sampling marketing is famous as one of the most famous and efficient ways to attract new clients.
Showcasing company culture
Onboarding videos have several purposes. And one of them is to create a “brand advocate” from an ordinary client. Brand advocates promote and defend your business for free because they like your company.
And one of the easiest ways to do this is by showcasing the company culture. These videos give clients a behind-the-scenes glimpse. Google’s video is an excellent example of showcasing the company culture.
Best onboarding video placements
Now that you understand how to create onboarding videos, it’s time to decide where to put them. Choose a placement that is common for your users. In most cases, businesses put them in the welcome email, on the homepage, or within the platform. You can even create different company onboarding videos for different placements.
Welcome email
It’s the most common platform for customer onboarding. You can share valuable information with potential clients, give them an offer, and place the informative video as the cherry on top.
Make sure that it has an engaging thumbnail. You can create a YouTube video and add the link to it to the email. It will be much easier to track all crucial metrics like CTR, average view time, engagement, etc.
Homepage
It’s another common placement that can grab attention. Many marketers claim that the onboarding process starts when potential clients visit your site, so you should show your advantages right from the beginning.
Slack is an example of homepage onboarding videos. As of early 2023, they share with users stories of how they successfully dealt with the challenges of 2020-2021.
They can skip the introduction part because they are widely famous now. But just in 2019, they were just a young start-up. So, they created a great onboarding video and kept it on their homepage for a few years.
Within the platform
We’ve already told you about Indeed onboarding videos. They like to post them on the website, so potential job seekers can get hiring advice. That helps Indeed service to build a friendly expert image, who gladly help their potential clients in the hiring process.
After watching a video, they can scroll down to see other advice. Those free videos act like bait, so employees are more likely to stay here and browse more.
Once they scroll down the page, they will see why Indeed created those video series. That’s how Indeed wants to promote its hiring services for employees. They give statistics on how their website can quickly and efficiently help employees find a great applicant.
At the bottom of the page, Indeed gives a CTA, where they convince users to post the job on Indeed. You can use the same tactics to promote your product or service.
Н2 Нow to create onboarding videos
As you see, onboarding videos are a great instrument to gain customer attention and optimize client retention. But how to create a video that will work for you? Make sure that you follow these instructions:
- Come up with an idea. What should it introduce to the world? Maybe you just want to describe your product/service? Or do you wish to create a video that will keep people inspired? Think about it.
- Express your core values. Showcase your company culture even when you made some explainer. If it’s a product for a younger generation, use memes and TikTok trends. If you run a business for an older generation, keep it more practical, etc.
- End the video on an optimistic note and add the CTA. Call to action is a vital component of any promotion. It gives users additional motivation to become your client. It could be something simple like “Join us on socials” or “Download the app”. It will lead a user even closer to becoming your client.
- Create a few options and test them. It can be some focus groups or A/B tests with your existing clients.
Н2 Best onboarding videos
Check out those great onboarding videos! They are time-honored clips that bring a lot of attention to the brands that they are promoting. Use some tricks from those clips in your future works. It could help you gain even more positive attention and create an expert image!
Xero: accounting for everyone
The finance industry is complex even for those who have wide experience there. So, a frustration level in small and medium-sized businesses when they start to keep accounts. Xero creates a user-friendly accounting tool and showcases it in a short explainer.
Uber: friendly tips for drivers
Animated explainers are highly popular today. So, Uber caught a trend with a user-friendly explainer for drivers. It gives them many handy tips, which would ease future drivers’ workflow.
But why is it one of the best onboarding videos? Uber tries to make a narrative and animation as smooth as possible, so a 3-minute video feels like 15-second instruction. Try to keep it simple and useful to get the same results.
Grammarly: easy check-up
We bet that you see at least one Grammarly ad in the last couple of years. They all share a great formula that you can implement into onboarding videos: show the client’s problems and show how your product/service can solve them. Don’t be afraid to set some jokes here and there: users like businesses with a friendly sense of humor.
Conclusion
A fine video onboarding can create a friendly and expert atmosphere between you and the potential client. Use them to gain users’ attention, explain product details, showcase your culture and give a valuable offer that makes users your regular customer. It will help to gain user retention, so you can focus on other marketing aspects.
Want highly engaging videos that will work well with your potential clients and turn them into loyal ones? An animated onboarding video will help you maximize prospect engagement and drive ROI. We, at Explain Ninja, create onboarding videos from scratch and are ready to help you in your journey.
Our video production company has proudly partnered with game-changers, such as Google, Pipedrive, Codio, Bolt, and others. Contact us to join a company of superheroes! Feel free to ask anything!
