What successful SaaS companies do to speed up engagement
Launching a SaaS product? Buckle up, because it’s a wild ride.
Getting folks to your website is just the start. Then you’ve got to nail explaining what your magic potion does, and — here’s the kicker — convince them to hit that sign-up button.
And once they sign up the real hard work begins: nothing of what you did previously matters if people sign up and then leave.
This is why onboarding is so important for SaaS companies and why more and more companies are understanding the importance of guiding users in the right way.
And among all the things you can do when you onboard new users, there’s one strategy that you may want to try.
It’s used by companies like Tally, Mirò, Trello and many others.
Speed Up Engagement
We call it the “template” strategy.
One of the challenges of building a great, easy-to-use product, is that you are obviously biased and you will never have the same first-time experience your users have.
You have built the product, you know where’s what; it’s obviously not the same for your users.
A great way to help people navigate your product and make them understand how to use it is just to provide a number of pre-built, ready-to-use templates.
This will increase engagement in a number of ways:
- Immediate Value Demonstration: By offering pre-built templates, companies like Miro, Pitch, Trello, and Tally enable users to quickly see the potential uses of their products. This isn’t just about showing off features; it’s about providing a tangible starting point that users can immediately benefit from.
- Showcase of Possibilities: Templates do more than just get users started. They open up a vista of possibilities, showing various use cases that might not have been immediately apparent. This aspect of discovery is crucial for sparking creativity and encouraging deeper exploration of the product.
- Reduction of Time to Value: Perhaps the most critical impact of the template strategy is the drastic reduction in the time it takes for a user to achieve their first “win” with the product. This is often referred to as reducing the “time to value,” and it’s a key metric for user retention. By providing templates, companies essentially fast-track users to this critical milestone.
- Community Building: Initially, templates may be created by the company’s own team, but over time, the most successful platforms invite their user community to contribute. This not only enriches the variety of templates available but also fosters a sense of ownership and community among users.
Let’s take a look at some case studies.
Case Studies
Tally
With a lean team and a clear focus, Tally has become a powerhouse in the no-code form building space, achieving $1M ARR.
Their Notion-like minimalist design belies a powerful functionality akin to a hybrid of Google Spreadsheets and Typeform. Offering over 72 templates at the time of writing, Tally ensures that users can quickly find a form template that meets their needs, thereby reducing the time to value and encouraging deeper product engagement.
Mirò
As a visual collaboration tool, Miro’s challenge is to immediately convey the breadth of its capabilities to first-time users. Their solution? A comprehensive template gallery that greets users as soon as they start their first project.
This not only demonstrates Miro’s versatility but also inspires users to dive in and start collaborating without the paralysis that often comes with a blank slate.
In fact as soon as you create your first project, the template window opens up and you are proactively shown a long list of templates.
Trello
Known for its intuitive kanban boards, Trello uses templates to show users how versatile a simple board can be.
From project management and team collaboration to personal productivity, Trello’s templates serve as both a guide for new users and an inspiration for seasoned users looking for new ways to organize their work.
This whole template strategy it’s not just a neat trick to make life easier; it’s actually a pretty clever way to get users hooked.
Think about it: you jump in, and boom, you instantly see how you can use the product. It’s like getting a sneak peek of all the cool stuff you can do, which is super inviting.
Plus, it’s about feeling part of something bigger, like joining a club where everyone shares their coolest tricks. As more companies catch on and start playing around with templates, we’re gonna see all sorts of creative ways to welcome new users and keep them coming back for more in this super competitive world of SaaS.
