What is the number 1 reason why most customers quit your SaaS service? It’s the lack of communication, topped off with confusing questions from the customers. Like a persistent assistant, you must stay in touch with your customers, guide them through your product, and show them the next step. As your brand grows, you would like them to grow with you, stay informed of all the updates, and how they can leverage on it. But for that, good customer SaaS onboarding videos are absolutely vital. If you don’t know what that is, keep reading.
This article will look at what SaaS customer onboarding means and how you can use video to make your process more impactful. So without any ado, let’s jump in!
What is SaaS customer onboarding?
SaaS onboarding is the step in your sales funnel in which you introduce new users to your product and assist them in using it. This is essential if you want to turn them into loyal customers.
When you get a customer through effective marketing, the next big challenge is how to retain him. In fact, that’s the step where you either win a customer or lose him forever. To ensure a positive outcome, you want to give him a welcoming experience right from the moment he signs up.
This experience begins with effective onboarding. Your goal here is to provide him all the encouragement you can to make him like your product. It can be a short onboarding video, written content, or even a simple infographic explaining how things work.
At this stage, the success of your product will depend upon how good your SaaS onboarding strategy is and how effectively you implement it. Whatever you choose, your goal should always be to provide users a personalized, welcoming, and simple experience.
What is a SaaS onboarding video? What makes a great video?
A SaaS onboarding video, as you might already know, is a video used to familiarize your new users with your product, its main features, and how they can use them. It is usually available on the company’s website’s landing page or homepage. It can be a training video, a help video, a demo video, or any other type that effectively explains the whole mechanism.
However, one thing you would like to keep in mind is to keep the video as short as possible. While humans are better visual learners and love to watch videos, an unnecessarily long video can make the process overwhelming. Your main goal should be to give a kickstart to the users and make them comfortable.
That being said, the following are some key parts of a video you would like to give special attention to:
1. The introduction
The introduction is the part where you tell the users what to expect in the particular video. However, as we look closely, the introduction of a SaaS onboarding video is pretty different from your typical marketing video. Here, the user already knows what to expect. You need to welcome him and get straight to the main points.
If you want to be more elaborate in your approach, you can also make more than one video for the purpose, each explaining a different feature of your product. This is especially useful when your product is more complex.
As a rule of thumb, if you are making a 3 minutes onboarding video, your introduction should be between 5-10 seconds. Anything more will be just a stretch, which could negatively impact your overall engagement and make the user leave before you know it.
2. The script
While a proper script might not seem as important in an onboarding video compared to a proper explainer, it still has a huge role in leaving an impression on the user. The script is the outline upon which you will be basing your video, even if it’s a tutorial.
So, as you make preparations for your onboarding video, dedicate a good amount of time and effort to your script. Make it as concise as possible without missing out on any of the video’s main points. Keep the tone light and fun. You can also throw in banter to make it more engaging.
Make sure to avoid beating around the bushes, and provide the user’s value from the very first second. Keep the help factor as the center of your video, and break down everything in a step-by-step, chronological order for easy comprehension. Remember, no matter what type of video you make, a poor script will bomb it!
3. Storytelling
Storytelling is not just about making an emotional rant. It’s all about connecting the dots between several related things and arranging them in an order that makes sense. This philosophy also applies to SaaS onboarding videos.
For example, if your goal is to provide a complete roadmap to your user, start right from the signup steps, and end it with the use of the product, with everything broken down into steps. If the video could surpass the average length with such an approach, no problem.
You can break it down into several different videos, each dedicated to a separate step or feature of the product. The arrangement of the video should be such that the next part is connected to the previous one. It carries the user through an exciting journey without being bombarded with too much information that could confuse him.
4. The length of SaaS onboarding videos
The ideal length of a single onboarding video is 2-3 minutes. Anything longer than that will daunt the user, compromising the whole purpose of the video. If you think your product or a specific mechanism is too complicated to explain within the prescribed limit, you can also break it down into several different parts. This will promote more engagement and make the information easily digestible.
Final thoughts
In the past three years, the use of video in businesses has skyrocketed at a tremendous pace. And given the statistics, it will reach new heights in 2023. This is why now is the time you start thinking about incorporating videos in your customer onboarding strategy.
If you are already interested in harnessing videos for branding, you should contact an expert right now. Many highly experienced and reputed animation and video production houses specialize in making SaaS onboarding videos (including us).
They know what works and what doesn’t, making a Taylor-Made that resonates with your audience and overall brand image, ensuring good conversions.
We hope this piece has helped highlight the importance of customer onboarding and how you can use video to improve it. For more helpful articles, stay tuned. We need to share a lot with you to help you achieve your business goals in the upcoming year and beyond. Good luck!