Retain more users through well-designed onboarding

Have you launched an app, product or new service and are struggling to engage users in the long term, beyond an initial sign up or trial period?

Be aware that a badly designed onboarding flow and lack of information about how a product works only results in one outcome: poor user retention. Making sure your onboarding process for new users is well-designed, clear and informative will make all the difference. 

Too many times we have heard about falling numbers and poor conversion of users from free to paid plans, all because a product was found to be difficult to use. This is something that can be rectified by providing an easier path for users to learn a product and therefore start gaining value from day one.

We have listed 4 key things you should consider doing to battle falling numbers:

Simplify registration and sign-up

Keep the registration process simple and frictionless. Minimise the number of steps required to sign up and consider offering social media or single sign-on options for a smoother onboarding experience. Avoid asking for unnecessary information upfront and only request essential details.

Once the users are in, encourage them to complete their profile in detail for a more personalised experience.

Streamline the onboarding process

Make sure the onboarding process is intuitive, quick, and engaging. Guide users through the key features of your app, showcasing its value. Keep it simple and avoid overwhelming users with too much information at once. 

When you are taking a new user through the value of the product, coincide this with a way to entwine it into completing a task with the app. If that isn’t possible, keep the introduction to the product short and sweet without delaying their exploration. 

Encourage progression

Encourage users to complete specific actions or tasks during onboarding to familiarise themselves with the app. If the number of options of where to start are overwhelming then consider highlighting a single path to get them started. Equally if there is a particular action they need to do first to make the rest of the product valuable, guide them through that single action and turn off everything else until it’s completed.

Offer personalisation options

Allow users to personalise their onboarding experience based on their preferences and interests. Provide options to customise settings, choose preferences, or select relevant content categories. Personalisation is something we hear bandied around constantly when talking about digital products or exclusive membership dashboards, but it can really make the onboarding process (and eventually the product) more engaging and relevant to individual users, increasing the likelihood of retention.

Conclusion

To enhance retention of your newly acquired users, prioritise a streamlined onboarding process that simplifies registration, highlights key features, encourages progression, offers personalisation options and provides incentives or rewards. By focusing on these aspects, you can create an initial positive experience and increase user engagement for the long-term retention of users in your app.

Want to see a real life example of how we reduced the onboarding process from 3 weeks to 20 minutes? View our case study here.

Want to increase user retention?

Book in a FREE 30 minute session with our UX Director, Jason Hancock.