App Onboarding Mistakes to Avoid
Encouraging people to use your new app can be tough. The process needs lots of time, energy, dedication, and money, but a lot of app developers tend to focus more on winning new users than onboarding them correctly.
So what is onboarding? Onboarding developed from an HR model where new recruits get introduced to the basics of the business through things like induction days. It was later appropriated by the UX industry as a way to give new users the information they need when opening a particular app for the first time.
An alarmingly large amount of app creators are losing their hard-won users almost as soon as they have experienced their first go at using the app. According to a news report in Fierce Wireless, more than 75 percent of new app users fail to return the day after first use.
Making sure you onboard your new users correctly is just as critical as persuading them to download your app in the first place.
Let’s take a deeper look at why app developers are making onboarding mistakes and four common mistakes to avoid that could be very damaging to your business.
1: Missing the aha moment
A lot of app developers will rely on the interface to explain the value of their product. They fail to value the ‘aha moment’ of their app, which is that pivotal moment of discovery that influences a person to take action, from changing their career path or moving home, to buying a new pair of shoes or purchasing an app.
The ‘aha moment’ is when the user realizes the value of your app, but this moment often comes too late or not at all when users need to spend too much time digging around to understand your app and how it will help them.
You can liken getting your app users to appreciate the value of your software by following a recipe, but if your users have no idea what they are baking, then they won’t understand the value of your app and will disengage from it before they have given it a real chance.
For a user to value your app you need to give it some context. You need to easily explain how much better their lives will be with your app in it. You need to deliver their ‘aha!’ moment before signing up for your app. This will give them a glimpse of the prize awaiting them at the end of their actions and will motivate them to download your app.
Clearly explaining what value your app offers to your users is much better than relying on curiosity alone to drive their actions. Delivering them their light bulb moment before signing up for your app will enable more people to understand your app and what it offers, which results in more positive first user experiences.
2: Not understanding the importance of the wow-factor
Once you have figured out what ‘aha’ moment to deliver to your users, you need to allow them to experience the wow-factor of your app first-hand. The ‘aha moment’ helps your users to understand what value they will get from your app, but the wow-factor moment is actually what you do to deliver on your promise.
Your wow-factor moment is when your user has actually experienced an improvement delivered by your app. You will only know that your users are getting their ‘wow-factor moment’ if you are tracking your success rates.
It is not uncommon for app companies to lose about half of the users that download their app, use it once, and then never return. That’s quite an eye-opening realization and what it shows is that app developers are putting too much time into attracting new users rather than delivering an outstanding user experience that keeps users engaged and keen to return.
The main aim of your user experience shouldn’t be on clicking around your app to become familiar with it, but rather to help them complete a meaningful task that delivers a result.
Your onboarding process will be a success when you can see your users completing tasks, getting results, and returning. You should monitor how many of your users are successfully completing each step to get a result AND how long it takes them to arrive there.
People have short attention spans these days. Capturing and holding a user’s attention in the first few minutes of using your app is critical. If their journey takes too long, isn’t engaging, or doesn’t deliver what it promised quickly, you are going to be hemorrhaging users too rapidly.
3: Lack of user follow up after their first experience
So, you have shown your user the value of your app, you have streamlined their user journey to deliver the results they want quickly, so now what? Onboarding your users is more than attracting and getting them to use your app. You also want them to come back for more!
How exactly do you encourage a customer that has already engaged with and used your app to come back again? You need to reach out to them and show them your human side. Remind them that there are actual people behind your app, that you care about your users, and that you want to continue to deliver them with great value.
Nothing beats an old-fashioned follow-up email to their inbox that is packed with extra value and engaging content that will act to tempt them back to use your app over again.
One area that app developers tend to overlook is the value of lifecycle emails. Personalized emails sent out in a timely manner can help to keep your app in your user’s consciousness. You can keep the awareness and value of your app high by gently nudging your users to take the further steps they need to complete their journey, improve their progress, or get better results.
Tread carefully here because you don’t want to tell people to take action, but instead, encourage them to take further steps to improve their results and achieve more value from your app.
For example, if a user has left your app before fully completing their user profile, don’t tell them that they need to complete this. Instead, encourage them to do so because they will get more rewarding, targeted results by doing so.
4: Not celebrating success with your users
We all know how good it feels to complete a work project or cross off an item on our to-do list, so why shouldn’t you celebrate your user’s success when they complete a task using your app? Your users will get a kick out of being congratulated or given a high-five when they complete their first task using your app.
Celebrating a little victory goes a long way to making your user experience more fun and engaging for your customer. Just think about how successfully MailChimp have utilized their user ‘high-five’ system where they give their users a virtual high-five when they have finished a task.
There can be nothing more deflating for a user when a company isn’t there to celebrate everything they do right, but will instantly throw up negative error messages when they take a wrong step somewhere along the way.
Celebrating little victories with your users is a great way for you to build a positive emotional bond with your users and will help to create a better public image for your brand, and raise a more positive profile for your app. What’s not to like?
Conclusion
You have invested so much time, effort, and money into developing your app that it would be a shame to lose your users through improper onboarding and poor first-fun user experience.
Be mindful of your customer’s needs and desires and do everything you can to get your app onboarding process right to not only get your users engaged but to also get them coming back time
