app onboarding

The journey of end-users from “Let’s see what this app is.” to “Oh yes, I want this.” to “You have to try this app, it’s so cool.” sound like a sweet dream that every marketer wishes to be true. However, 25% of apps end up with “This is rubbish.” after just one use. This means the app onboarding can make or break an app’s total success. 

Given that app onboarding only has 60 seconds to catch the attention of users, optimizing it becomes a difficult part of app marketing strategy. In this article, I will show you the 3 common mistakes that marketers make and how to get away from them. 

Fail to show the “Aha!” moment 

The “Aha!” moment is a crucial touchpoint in customer journey where people are convinced that they need your product. This happens when you see a perfect matching pair of shoes for your outfit at home, when you taste the new favorite drink from Starbucks, or when you find a “wow” management tool that can replace an Excel sheet. Incorporating the “Aha!” factor into your app onboarding is crucial to keep users staying with you. 

However, one of the most common mistakes of app onboarding is failing to deliver the “Aha!” moment. This happens because many onboardings are designed solely as tutorials without any promotional factors. 

70% of people from 18 to 34 download an app because they need something fun and interesting. This doesn’t mean most of these people are looking for games or entertainment. Actually, this means people are looking for something new and refreshing that helps them solve a problem. 

So, instead of aiming to guide users how to solve their problems, you only need to introduce the fundamental steps. Use the rest time to emphasize the benefits, the values you bring to customers. Ask yourself what factor will create the light-bulb moment for users that they must say “Wow!”. Don’t forget to let them know they’re in good hands and start making a bond with your users. 

Being too pushy

User experience is a tricky thing. Sometimes, it is difficult to know how a customer will feel about a certain app feature. Asking for users to do something is completely understandable. But different ways of asking will result in different emotions that users feel about your brand. Without a thorough content strategy, apps can appear pushy and drive users away in less than a minute. Unfortunately, many marketers don’t realize this until it’s too late. 

Let’s take a look at some common scenarios when the app is being too pushy: 

  • An app daily bombards your iPhone with its “friendly reminders” to the point that you become so angry and decide to turn off push notifications from it.
  • An app insists you manually complete tons of personal information with a credit card, name, passwords, email confirmation, survey, … the first time you open it. So you give up.
  • An app gives you a series of onboarding tutorials but doesn’t allow you to skip or move to the next slides. You feel like having no choice but to follow its tedious steps. Meanwhile, you don’t even know how many steps are there to complete. Eventually, you become angry and move on to another app. 

All of the examples above happen more often than we may think. 

How to avoid this? By giving more options for users. Let them have more flexible choices. 

Stop bombarding customers with push notifications. Instead, send them interesting facts, motivate them to complete a new goal, educate them about the new updates. For example, after the user downloads your app but has not yet opened it, instead of asking them to “Try now”, “Open now”, simply let them know the app is here and ready to help them solve a problem. Let customers know that you genuinely care so that they’re not afraid every single time your push notifications pop up on their phone screen.

Another good way of avoiding being pushy is to allow users to skip, or move on to the next steps during onboarding. Also, only ask for the most important information and allow them to complete their profile later when necessary. 

Adding a call-to-action after the onboarding is a good way to keep engaging with customers but nothing near pushy. FitBit did a great job in adding the call-to-action to the end scene of their fitness app onboarding. 

Sound like a machine

The last thing you want to do is to sound like a machine when interacting with end-users. In this digital era, when the human attention span is shorter than ever before, poor content will ultimately lead to poor performance. You may have made this mistake without releasing it. Sounding like a machine means one-way communication, and not being proactive in getting user’s feedback. 

Imagine your app is a human. You want users to always have a good time with it. So your app must be friendly, mindful, professional, and consistent throughout the customer journey. 

Don’t wait for users to come to your apps. Step up and ask them about their day. Talk about the weather. Ask them to take care of themself. Remind them that they’re beautiful. Treat them with respect.

In recent years, chatbots have become a hot technology that marketers use to leverage the communication with their users. 40% of millenials users are communicating with chatbots everyday and this number is likely to increase in the next few years. 

Final words

Above are 3 repeated mistakes of app onboarding that sink your retention rate. There is no one-size-fit-all solution for all industries. So the most important strategy is A/B testing until you find the ultimate solution that works. 

Just like an entrepreneur only has 30 seconds for an elevator pitch before the investor says yes or no, you have only 60 seconds to introduce your app to the users before they make the next decision. Use it wisely!

Do you like this post? Check out InAppStory blog for more App Marketing tips, tricks, and case studies. 

About The Author

Natalie Karakina is CMO at InAppStory which Mobile App Stories Development Tool, helping global businesses to grow by boosting mobile app engagement and user retention. I would love to share thoughts on mobile marketing, customer engagement in apps and the Stories feature.

By Anurag Rathod

Anurag Rathod is an Editor of Appclonescript.com, who is passionate for app-based startup solutions and on-demand business ideas. He believes in spreading tech trends. He is an avid reader and loves thinking out of the box to promote new technologies.