3 User Onboarding Hacks You Aren’t Using
Email, push notification, and text message tricks to onboard web and mobile app users (examples & pics)
Great user onboarding can turn a mediocre app into a cash cow. So it’s important to help users get value from your app as soon as possible.
Even with a subpar UI, smart onboarding can help users understand your app quickly. With just a bit of A/B testing, creativity, and well-timed app notifications you can increase user engagement, user retention, and most importantly app revenue.
To get your juices flowing, here’s a few ways you can use event-triggered email, SMS, and push messages to onboard your mobile and web app users in minutes.
Email…it’s the go-to for startups and savvy app marketers for good reason. It’s ubiquitous, trustworthy, and converts extremely well.
So how can email help you onboard users?
#1 — The “Helping Hand” email
A “helping hand” email sends the exact information a user needs, when they need it. It’s the email that makes you and your company look like mind readers.
I’ll use an example. Let’s say you notice a new user spent three times longer on the Twitter integration setup page in your app then the average user. You also notice they left without successfully integrating Twitter.
If you want to keep that user, you’ve got to do something to bring them back. Try emailing them while they still care.
Remember, this can’t be any ‘ole email. Your email has to help them get through this step.
Maybe you can send a video walkthrough or simple directions on exactly how to integrate Twitter.
The point is, you sent a helpful email with the information they need to use your app right now. And you did it all automatically. Consider this user ONBOARDED!
Push notifications
#1 — What’s next
You’ve finally convinced someone to sign up, but they try to use your app and have no clue where to begin. Even the best app walkthroughs get skipped or ignored. So you have to find another way to guide your users to the next action, at the right time.
This is where push notifications come in.
Let’s say someone just signed up for your note taking app. And you know the first thing most users want to do is to create an audio note. If you notice a user leaves before doing it, schedule a push notification to go out a few seconds later with a quick tip telling them how to create an audio note.
SMS
SMS isn’t used by many web and mobile apps and there’s a reason why. If you don’t do it right, you’ll lose your users’ trust and be blocked. It’s just best to reserve this for users that want to talk with you by text or for special occasions.
#1 — The Follow Up
A follow-up text is much better than reaching out to a user initially by text. It’s less spammy and it’s how people actually deal with each other in the real world, go figure.
Try a follow-up text to onboard a user after they email you for support, chat with you online, or run into another issue using your app.
You almost have “permission” to send a text message since this is your second time talking. Again, the trick is making this text short, personal, and to the point.
As you’ve probably noticed, these ideas are interchangeable. You could easily send an automated a trigger-based welcome push notification instead of a welcome email.
What matters is doing whatever it takes to get your app users happily using your app as soon as possible.
