36% of SaaS companies still have nothing at all 😱

SOSO 2023 just dropped 💥 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Hey folks!  It's our 4th year in a row where we're putting our cyberstalking skills to a good cause, and investigate the onboarding flows of 100+ SaaS companies to bring the freshest insights, inspiration and food for thought to you, in this one-of-a-kind report... And just like that - it's this time of the year again. [State of SaaS Onboarding 2023]( just dropped!💥 To make things even more valuable for you - this year, apart from the report and video summaries, we asked 15+ product and SaaS experts to comment on the findings ([Leah Tharin](, [Yaakov Carno](, [Krzysztof Szyszkiewicz](, [Emilie Lindström]( - to name a few!) and what trends they have noticed in SaaS onboarding this year. Check out the report to see what they said! Meanwhile, as usual, a TL;DR for you: This year is clearly the year of giving away free samples... [Image] In 2023, 74% of SaaS companies offered a free trial, a jump from 43% in 2022 (although to be fair, we did focus on Martech tools then, so I can't really compare those apples to oranges 🍏 🍊🤷‍♀️). Freemium plans were offered by 41% of companies, while only 4% of companies relied only on demos for customer acquisition. Well, it seems PLG is here to stay! What about the [Signup Flow?Â]( Frictionless signup flows are crucial for reducing Time-To-Value. However, 79% of SaaS products still had friction-based signup processes - more than the MarTech tools we looked at in 2022 (66%) Welcoming Your Users [Image] [Fewer companies use welcome screens]( - with only 66% of SaaS products using them in 2023 compared to 90% in 2022. (But again - it might be just that MarTech tools are generally more "aware" of the importance of onboarding than the "general SaaS population".) Microsurveys were used by 45% of companies to segment users and increase trial-to-paid conversion rates. Videos in the Onboarding Flow Speaking of which...here's the video summary of the whole report for you: [Thumbnail for video]( [Watch the video summary]( I'm sad to say that only 29% of SaaS companies we checked in with used in-app videos during the onboarding process in 2023. Which is a shame, because they can really enhance interactive walkthroughs, make complex processes a lot easier for your users to digest. And with all those AI tools making it so easy to produce videos - you really have no excuses. What about Product Tours vs. Interactive Walkthroughs? [I've ranted about Product Tours]( for so long now it's b-o-r-i-n-g. And yet - in 2023, 35% of SaaS tools used product tours, while 29% used interactive walkthroughs. And perhaps most surprisingly of all (it's 2023!), 36% of the tools tested had no in-app guidance at all! This means a big opportunity for you. Last but not least - let's talk Onboarding Optimizations such as checklists and progress bars: [Image]  [Checklists]( and progress bars increase the completion rate of your onboarding flows by employing the so-called Zeigarnik effect - our innate urge to...complete the things we started. Hence, they help push more users to activate - which is critical with those free trials... Again, if you have an onboarding checklist or a progress bar, you're in a minority. 44% of SaaS tools used onboarding checklists in 2023, though 4% of these checklists contained common mistakes. Progress bars were used by only 30% of companies, showing room for growth in this area as well. To sum up - while things are getting better with SaaS onboarding over time, there's still a ton to do to stand out - so grab our report and learn more about the[trends & expert predictions for the upcoming year!Â]( Also a shoutout to our media partners who helped us put this report together 💪 Big thanks to [Airfocus](, [Cord](, [GrowthMentor](, [Lendio](, [Path2Product](, [Sonderouse](, [Value Rebels](, and [Valueships]( ❤️ And that's all for today. Tell me if you liked the new report and see you next week! P.S. Wanna contribute to a similar report? Usersnap is creating one on [User-centric product growth]( -  to benchmark and shed light on the product-user relationship in product management today. Please share your thoughts in this short suvery above to help our and get the juicy data! [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