What would an in-app onboarding tool say to its therapist? 😬

"I'm not enough!"  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ..."I'm not enough!" I know I know, the dad jokes here are escalating quickly...but it's true. We typically talk about in-app user onboarding, because this is what we do best at Userpilot. But it finally dawned on me - that to build a holistic, complete and *effective* onboarding process, you also need other types of onboarding (and - you guessed it - [tools](). The few of you that have worked in sales before are probably familiar with the term "multi-threading". Why do salespeople do that? Well, because it's effective. Guess what - onboarding is also sales. You're essentially selling your new users on your product. Here's how to do multi-threading in onboarding: [Thumbnail for video]( TL;DR? [Watch the video rant]( Here are the other onboarding channels you should invest in in 2023? 📹 [Video onboarding]( [Image] Using video tutorials and microvideos in tooltips during your onboarding flow can significantly reduce your time to value. Sometimes, performing a certain action in your product is like tying your shoelaces: it's simply easier to show how to do it than to explain it. Videos also add a "human touch" to your onboarding process and help personalize it. Well, Userpilot can do a lot of things for you, but it can't record videos. Neither can any of the in-app engagement tools on the market, as far as I know, so you'll need to find a video recording tool for this. Ideally - it should have a native integration with your in-app engagement tool, so you can easily embed the video/screen recording you've created into your interactive walkthroughs. If you're a bit camera shy, you can also try AI-tools like Synthesia or Pictory, which can generate the video for you based on a script, using an AI-generated avatar. 👉 Read more about [video onboarding strategy here]( [💌​ Email onboarding]( [Image] Needless to say - if your new users are MIA and you haven't seen them inside your app for days - it's a big red (churn) flag. You obviously won't be able to communicate with them in-app if they are not there. A well-crafted, personalized email can help bring them back - and do a lot of other things... - confirm their email to make sure it's a legit user, not part of someone's revenge plan... - send additional educational resources, that don't quite fit into a tiny tooltip... - send transitional messages about their account Now, as of today - very few onboarding tools offer a 3-in-1 solution combining product tours, email onboarding and in-app chat - e.g. Intercom. Crux of the issue? None of the tools is actually really great (especially the Product Tours one...) and it's really really expensive. Apart from that, to make your onboarding process effective, you also need: - analytics tools - to understand what your users are doing, and where they are getting stuck - feedback tools - to understand how your users feel about their onboarding experience so far - knowledge base tools - to provide your users with self-serve support outside of your product - live chat tools - to communicate and support your new users in real time - webinar tools - to educate your users at scale - session recording tools - to see what exactly your users are struggling with...  How to [pick from all the different onboarding tools?!]( I'm not going to tell you which ones you should choose for each use case (there are well over [50 tools grouped by use case in this post](, if you're interested), but there are a few rules of thumb you should consider when "stacking" your onboarding tech for different use cases: - Can I get this done with one tool instead of three? If so, the implementation time and subscription costs will be significantly lower. E.g. you can replace your standalone in-app survey tool or NPS tool with the built-in survey module in Userpilot, and you will be fine. - On the other hand, you should consider if the “3-in-1” tool is actually going to get each job done well enough (it’s not a shampoo!) - if not, then it may make sense to invest in separate solutions. Here, for example, you can see an automated chatbot from an all-in-one-tool that is clearly not doing the job: [Image] - Do the tools I've chosen integrate natively? Unless you're a rabid Zapier fan - having tools that "talk to each other" will save you a) dozens of hours on creating makeshift integrations; b) embarrassing onboarding bloopers, e.g. when you accidentally emailed the wrong user segment because you didn't manage to pass that in-app event to your email tool quite well... - Your tech stack will obviously depend on your budget - but you need to think of onboarding tools in terms of tool stack, not individual tools. Examples of the complete SaaS user onboarding tool stack:  The “complete” user onboarding tool stack for growth SaaS companies: OAuth (signup) + Userpilot (in-app onboarding, NPS) + Intercom (email onboarding, in-app chat) + Wistia (video onboarding) + Sequel (webinars) + Typeform (feedback) + Mixpanel/Amplitude/Heap (user behavior analytics) + Zendesk (Knowledge base) + Fullstory (session recording). The “MVP” user onboarding tool stack for startups on a budget: Auth0 (signup – freemium) + Intro.js (in-app, free) + MailChimp (email, freemium) + Loom (video, freemium) + Ewebinar (webinars) + Typeform (surveys, freemium) + Pendo (analytics, freemium) + Helpdesk (Knowledge Base) + LogRocket (session recording). Hope this helped - now [check out this post for more on the specific tools + tool combinations recommendations]( 😉 And that's it for today. See you all next week! [Image] Emilia Korczynska, Head of Marketing at Userpilot I'm a marketing manager obsessed with product growth. Wanna talk? Simply respond to this email!  To make sure you keep getting these emails, please add emilia@userpilot.co to your address book or whitelist us. Want out of the loop? Don't remember you subscribed at all? We get it. We sometimes don't remember how we got to our office today let alone how we subscribed to this or that email. Sometimes people also get offended by our strong opinions on all matters product, SaaS and UX, but you know what? We won't stop sharing them - and what we believe is the best product practices and the future of SaaS. Anyway, if you ever want to come back you'll know where to find us. Until then! [Unsubscribe](. Our postal address: 1887 Whitney Mesa Dr #9995 Henderson, Nevada 89014 United States