Rishabh leads the content strategy at Content Beta, a creative video and design agency for Tech & SaaS companies.
Effective SaaS onboarding videos are the key to product adoption for a customer. A study by Forbes shows that the average viewer retains 95% of a message when they watch it on video, as opposed to just 10% when they read it on the page.
And according to Wyzowl, 91% of people said they have watched a video to understand how to use a product better.
Onboarding videos are essential in bridging the gap between acquisition and the first success experienced by a customer.
These videos, therefore, play a pivotal role in reducing churn for a SaaS company and onboarding the customer for the long run. Onboarding videos also help in decomplexifying the UI, reducing customer support tickets, and therefore increasing the retention of customers.
Hear what Chris Prather [Director of Customer Success at SkuVault] has to say about what the hardest part of onboarding new customers is –
The term “customer onboarding” refers to the process that companies use to welcome new clients. This is particularly important in the SaaS industry where products can be complex. It typically includes interactive tutorials, usage guides, and support systems.
The SaaS customer onboarding process can involve guided tours of the product, tutorials, and checklists. Successful SaaS onboarding best practices include setting clear goals, offering continual support, and tracking customer progress.
Customer onboarding videos, also known as client onboarding videos, are short, instructional videos that guide customers through the process of using a product or service. They typically cover topics such as setting up an account, navigating the product interface, and accessing key features.
These videos can be delivered through a variety of channels, including email, social media, and the company’s website. They are often used as part of a larger onboarding process, which may also include tutorials, demos, and user guides.
Onboarding videos are powerful as they can improve customer allegiance and eliminate the potential frustration caused by difficulties that occur when a person uses a product for the first time.
Videos made specifically for product adoption on different devices, showcasing the working of the UI as seen on these devices, are onboarding videos.
The purpose of using an onboarding video for your SaaS is to evoke loyalty by focusing on your customers and their specific needs, not on yourself. The success of such videos is measured by the engaging potential of the video which directly affects the behavior of the user after sign-up.
Let’s have a look at the step by step breakdown of the SaaS onboarding process –
Get a clear picture of who your users are and what they need to understand about your product.
What should users take away from the video? This might be how to get started with your product, best practices, or an overview of key features. Decide on the key points accordingly.
Outline the information you’ll present and how you’ll present it.
This could involve screen recording your product in use, using animations, or filming people demonstrating your product.
Make sure your video is clear, engaging, and provides the information you want to convey.
Distribute the video through relevant channels like your website, social media, or within the product itself.
While customer onboarding videos can be a powerful tool for businesses, it’s important to create videos that are engaging, informative, and easy to follow. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:
Most customers don’t have the patience or attention span for long, complex videos. Keep your onboarding videos short and focused, ideally under three minutes.
Avoid technical jargon and industry buzzwords. Use clear, easy-to-understand language that your customers can relate to.
Use visuals and animations to illustrate key concepts and actions. This can help customers understand the material more quickly and easily.
Your onboarding videos should be approachable and friendly. Use a conversational tone that makes customers feel like they are talking to a real person, rather than a corporate entity.
Don’t be afraid to test different formats and approaches to see what works best for your customers. Collect feedback and iterate on your videos over time to continually improve their effectiveness.
Customer onboarding videos are a powerful tool for businesses looking to improve the customer experience, reduce support costs, and increase adoption and retention rates. By following these best practices, businesses can create effective, engaging onboarding videos that help customers get up and running quickly and with confidence.
Here we have compiled some of the best Saas customer onboarding examples. Have a look:
Why it works: The video presents a short insight into using Asana. The logo, color scheme, and style of Asana are prominent elements, as the speaker talks about giving a status update without using spreadsheets.
The video showcases the UI of Asana to efficiently explain how to see completed, incomplete, overdue, and total tasks.
The video underlines how the progress tab provides a direct and easy method to update status, by dragging them from the highlights section on the right and then posting and sending a notification to every teammate.
The video ends with the logo animation calling out for action to try out Asana while linking the website in the end slide.
Why it works: The onboarding video begins with Zooms colors in the background as we watch a bright, engaging woman start to talk about video webinars.
The 2-minute video focuses on showcasing how Zoom Video Webinars can help in connecting with large audiences from anywhere around the world with customizable setup, live streaming, and registration.
The woman goes on to show the entire process of scheduling a call that can be scaled up to 50,000 people including more than 100 interactive video panelists, without affecting the audio or video quality on the UI of the platform.
The best part of the video is how you get to watch the actual workings of the platform on a laptop device while the woman explains how to use all the settings, conduct polls, and get an analysis on the meeting later on.
By the end of the video, which focuses on the logo animation, all the doubts in the user’s mind regarding Zoom Video Webinars are cleared.
Why it works: The video starts with upbeat music playing in the background, as the man in the video tries to explain how to create a form seamlessly and effortlessly on JotForm.
An animated opening sequence shows that this video is one in the series of JotForm’s quick tips videos that help with user onboarding.
The viewer is immediately taken to the website, where the man explains how to sign in, check the ‘My Forms’ dashboard, and use the templates, themes, features, support, and pricing tabs and submenus.
The video is detailed and since the whole creation of the form is depicted on the UI, there isn’t much scope for doubt left.
The video ends with a callout to viewers for trying JotForm’s free starter plan.
Why it works: The branding and colors of Newsela are prominent from the get-go. An engaging woman expresses the problem of giving students assignments with the right level of difficulties and how the filtering process can be time-consuming and, if done wrong, can demotivate students.
The video then explains, using motion graphics, what Lexile level is and how by using Newsela’s UI, the article can be converted into an easier version for students of any grade level.
The video is crisp, has engaging animations, and explains the working of the SaaS clearly.
Why it works: This onboarding video is by the senior product marketing manager of Pipedrive, James Campbell.
Using the UI, James clearly demonstrates how to set up your Pipeline, ways to organize your custom fields and data, ways to set up reporting and dashboards, the difference between Deals and Leads, how to manage user permissions and goals, the difference between the LeadBooster and Web Visitors add-ons, and how to automate mundane tasks.
The logo and UI are visible throughout as the viewer gets clarity on multiple usage and benefits of this SaaS.
Why it works: This onboarding video starts with a view of Basecamp’s UI and explains how the app helps teams to work together.
It goes on to explain 6 different tools in every basecamp, namely Campfire, Message board, Todos, Schedule, Automatic check-in, and Docs & files.
The speaker then goes to each tool and gives a background about the tool, information about the features, and a demo on how to use it. The branding is clear through the continuous use of the UI.
As the video ends, it uses the important strategy of enlisting the platforms that the user can approach for further questions about the SaaS.
Why it works: Mailchimp is known for the immaculate set of video series they produce to help customers in better product adoption of their SaaS.
This particular onboarding video primarily focuses on how to edit an email in Mailchimp’s Customer Journey builder as narrated and explained by a Mailchimp employee, Mariana. The entire process is performed on the UI of Mailchimp which offers a great deal of insight to a newly onboarding customer.
The best part of the video is their clever use of Mariana’s screen which is included in the bottom right corner. This helps in keeping the viewers engaged in watching step-by-step of the process on the UI and away from getting bored and dropping out.
Also, the Mailchimp sticker on her laptop keeps the viewer connected with the branding and increases the recall value of the video.
Why it works: This hybrid video quickly dives into the problem-solving benefits of Raken, and how it helps in setting up projects, speedy reporting, and field management. The use of animated motion graphics and icons makes the video engaging.
The branding and style of the company are clear from the starting, as even the Kinetic typography appears in the company’s color scheme.
We see the footage of a woman explaining exactly how to go about using the app. She takes the viewer on a journey through the UI, explaining how to bridge communication gaps, build projects and customize checklists using Raken, thus making it the perfect onboarding video for beginners.
Why it works: This onboarding video starts with an alluring sequence of animated characters, not just highlighting the brand but also celebrating the SaaS and its UI, with optimistic music playing in the background.
A soothing voiceover starts with introducing what all the video tutorials will address. The man explains how to work with the project management dashboard and with various lists, cards, and project members, and how to optimize its to-do, doing, and done workflows.
The video effectively helps in covering the basics of how to use Trello and ends with interesting logo animation.
Why it works: The onboarding video starts with introducing Grammarly’s logo and branding to establish high recall value. The viewer sees a woman using Grammarly and immediately connects with the video on a more personal level.
The video shows how Grammarly can provide a full-sentence rewriting service, how its instant suggestions can help in polishing any written matter, and how this SaaS provides multiple correction options, all at once.
The video demonstrates Grammarly Premium’s advanced tone suggestion feature through footage of happy and satisfied-looking customers using it efficiently.
The video manages to strike a good balance between background music, voiceover, real-life footage, and UI animations to help new users with easy product adoption.
Why it works: Airtable’s onboarding video is based from start to end on UI screen recordings and voiceover instructions, which in turn makes the style, color scheme, and branding obvious to the viewers.
This short tutorial video teaches how to start building anything with Airtable in 5 simple steps. The narrator explains how to create a foundation with Airtable, add information and organize it, visualize the information, and share tools.
The video offers great insight and solves its purpose effectively. It ends with further instructions on where to find more such videos for better product adoption.
Why it works: Square uses a very innovative way to explain the SaaS and its various use cases in this onboarding video, focusing primarily on their Point of Sale app.
The video is an amalgamation of using 3D animation, kinetic typography, 2D animation, screengrabs, UI screen recordings, pop-ups, live footage, pictures, etc. which keep the video entertaining and the user engaged till the end.
Using the UI this video explains how you can name and organize your products, can take pictures of them for faster checkout and less employee training, give employees secure permissions to keep control of what they can see and do, create and manage your customer directory and see how your business is performing overall on the Dashboard.
By the end of the video, the user can understand how the Square app works on laptop and mobile devices, and then the traffic is directed towards the official website of the SaaS.
Why it works: The start of this onboarding video underlines the main purpose of this SaaS. This product tool video uses a combination of techniques to grab the attention of the user and explain it as a platform for financial forecasting, headcount planning, and KPI dashboards.
Animations incorporated with screen recordings of the UI help in understanding Pry better while pop-ups engage and explain the features. Beacons highlight crucial elements by casting the spotlight on small elements.
The color scheme and styles are soothing and the voiceover is steady and easy to follow. This onboarding video provides ample clarity and ends with a powerful CTA.
Why it works: The entire video has been created using the UI on a desktop device, re-enforcing the branding and color schemes of the SaaS. This onboarding video shows how Monday.com helps in managing teams and projects.
The viewers get to see how to use customizable boards, how to make integrations with outside services, how column permissions and privacy works, how automation can be used to speed up manual processes, how to create forms, and manage views to track workloads.
The instructional parts of the video are altered with relevant statistics and engaging footage of users, with real humans stating real problems and managing them efficiently with the use of Monday.com because of which the viewers can empathize with the fellow customers’ problems and resonate on a personal level.
Why it works: This under 90-second onboarding video provides a quick tour on how to get started in Slack, which is a channel-based messaging platform, and how work can come together in dedicated spaces for every project, topic, or team.
The viewers get an insight on how to use the sidebar, channels, how to compose messages, the variety of messaging options, addressing unread messages, etc. all on the platform’s UI.
The video then points to where the new user can get more information on how to use the platform, and ends with logo animation.
Customer onboarding videos help users visualize and understand the process of getting started with a product or service. They help explain the software’s features, functionalities and provide a visual demonstration of how to use the product.
This is a part of SaaS user onboarding that is often considered a best practice. Videos are engaging and easy to understand. They can be easily shared and rewatched as needed.
A few essential benefits of creating an optimized customer onboarding video include:
Video content helps in engaging more customers for a longer period than written text does. Onboarding videos help in demonstrating the workings and UI of a product and in explaining the goal and message of a brand.
According to a study by Wyzowl, 97% of people think that video is an effective tool to welcome and educate new customers.
The most effective practices are: the onboarding process needs to be simple, the product value should be offered upfront, communication and customer support need to be available, sign-up process should be effortless and frictionless, and onboarding videos need to be available for every step of the process.
SaaS companies who have used videos to educate and train customers have seen great response to adoption of the product. Most surveys have shown that people watch a video to understand how to use a product or to solve any UI-related doubts
Customer onboarding for SaaS is the process of helping a customer immediately after the sign up to understand and adopt the product and stay engaged with it in the long run.
A customer onboarding video should ideally be under three minutes in length.
