​Imagine walking into a gym for the first time, planning to start a membership. You take a look around, but nobody greets you. As you walk toward the equipment, every machine looks confusing. It's also not clear where you should start. The odds are pretty good that you'd leave and never come back.

But what if a friendly staff member introduced themselves, gave you a quick tour, and helped you set a few first-time goals? You'll probably stay and come back tomorrow.

User onboarding works the same way. It's your product's first impression and (if done right) shows users its value, keeps them engaged, and turns them into loyal customers. User onboarding helps avoid cart abandonment and churn. It also prevents failed conversions from free plans and more.

We found six proven user onboarding best practices. They will help you avoid common problems and improve client satisfaction. Our strategies will create a seamless user experience. It will boost sales and increase customer retention.

Let's dive in.

What is User Onboarding? 

User onboarding guides new users through the first steps of using your product or service. It aims to show customers the product's key features and set expectations. The entire process should help them see how your product meets their needs.

Effective onboarding helps users recognize your product's value in a short time. This boosts engagement and retention. A great onboarding experience can cut churn, raise conversions, and build user loyalty. Without it, users may feel lost or frustrated, which means high bounce rates, cart abandonment, and not recommending your product to others.

Ultimately, user onboarding shapes the entire user experience. A seamless, intuitive introduction to your product can turn first-time users into loyal customers who actively engage with and advocate for your brand.

Why Is User Onboarding Important?

 User onboarding is one of the most critical factors in product adoption, customer retention, and overall business success. Research shows that 55% of users abandon a product within the first week due to poor onboarding, while companies that invest in a structured onboarding process experience a higher retention rate of up to 50%. Without a practical onboarding experience, users struggle to understand a product's value, leading to frustration and eventual churn.

A well-designed user onboarding process helps bridge the gap between initial interest and long-term engagement. It ensures that new users quickly learn how to use the product, discover key features, and understand how it benefits them. The faster users find value in a product, the more likely they will stay engaged and integrate it into their workflow.

What Makes a Great User Onboarding Experience?

A good user onboarding experience is more than just a simple introduction—it's a structured, engaging process that helps users quickly understand, adopt, and succeed with a product. 

Research shows that 86% of users say they are more likely to stay loyal to a brand that offers a great onboarding experience, while 55% of users abandon an app within the first week due to poor onboarding. This highlights how crucial a well-designed onboarding process is for user retention and long-term engagement.

To create a successful onboarding experience, businesses must prioritize their users' needs and expectations. A user-centric approach ensures that onboarding is contextual, intuitive, and action-driven, guiding users through a product's key functionalities. Instead of overwhelming users with excessive information, the focus should be gradual learning, helping them experience value early on.

Here Are 6 User Onboarding Best Practices Your Should Follow.

Now that we've covered the basics of user onboarding and why it's important, let's get to our six practices.

1. Streamline the signup process ​

The first step of successful user onboarding is to make signing up as simple as possible. The biggest barrier to user engagement is a complicated, lengthy, or confusing signup process.

If the process is unclear or you ask for too much information they will abandon your sign-up process early.

To improve your sign-up process, minimize the number of fields in the form. At this stage, don't ask too many questions. Instead, ask the user to provide more information later on when the user is more engaged.

Otherwise, you'll overwhelm new users, and they won't get what they came for: quick access to your product.

More sites requiring sign-on are moving toward including options like Google or Facebook being available.

This is the easiest way to make sign-on simple. It's one fewer password they need to track and connects all their accounts to one primary account. Finally, remember to give the user prompts or instructions as they register their account.

Remember that streamlining signups applies to more than just the SaaS platform.

If you're welcoming new customers to a service-based business like selling insurance or providing interior design services, a seamless experience is key.

This would look different because your customer would not be signing up to create an account on a portal (as they would for a SaaS business). They would instead need to start a conversation with a member of your team.

For example, lawyers focusing on lead generation might focus on including multiple ways a potential client could content them.

This is what J. Cogburn Car Accident and Personal Injury Lawyers does on their website by adding CTAs, chatbots, and contact forms along with other information that might interest a potential client. 

Just as an intuitive signup process keeps users engaged, a frictionless client intake process builds trust and improves conversion rates. Businesses that simplify the first interaction (a clear online form, automated follow-ups, chatbots, etc.) set themselves up for long-term success.

2. Personalize the onboarding experience ​ 

​A one-size-fits-all onboarding method usually fails. Each customer has a unique need, perspective, and background when they come to your product or service.

That's why when you personalize, it will help users feel like you're treating them as one-of-a-kind. In turn, this will boost engagement and help them achieve their goals faster.

Personalization doesn't have to be complicated and time-consuming. Here's a shortcut to get some feedback: ask users their goals during signup, then, adjust their onboarding. For instance, a project management tool could ask if they're starting a team or working solo.

That will produce a customized dashboard. Personalized greetings and suggestions improve the experience, and so do tailored onboarding paths.

You probably already do this in email marketing, right? Generic emails typically see pretty low engagement. Tailored emails, on the other hand, are based on user behavior and tend to perform better. Why wouldn't you use the same approach in your product onboarding?

3. Use interactive in-app guides 

Wouldn't it be nice if first-time customers knew everything about your product when they first signed up? Spoiler: they don't! Your customers need guidance to understand your product's core features and functionality.

If you think a static tutorial or a lengthy help document is enough to keep users engaged, think again. Instead, interactive walkthroughs, tooltips, and other guides allow users to navigate your product effortlessly.

Interactive walkthroughs

An interactive walkthrough acts as a step-by-step guide, leading users through essential actions within the product. By highlighting key features in the right sequence, walkthroughs ensure users experience the most valuable aspects of your product without feeling overwhelmed.

Tooltips

Tooltips, on the other hand, offer contextual hints.

They're small pop-ups that explain a feature when a user hovers over or clicks on it. These helpful micro-learning moments help users absorb information naturally without interrupting their workflow or causing frustration.

A great example of this is in SaaS products that introduce new features dynamically. Instead of bombarding users with a full tutorial upfront, they can gradually unlock tooltips as they explore different sections of the platform.

Product tours

If you add an interactive product tour, it shouldn't feel mandatory.

Instead, they should be naturally motivated to complete it. Some product tours may be a step-by-step written list. Even better, a tutorial video that explains how your product works.

Checklists and progress bars

Because we care so much about completing tasks, checklists and progress bars are psychologically compelling for users. It's scientifically proven that we're more likely to remember something once it's completed.

If a user knows what's expected of them in an onboarding workflow (and how close they are to completion), there's a really good chance they'll finish.

Use onboarding software to automate guidance

Want to optimize the onboarding experience even more for your customers?

User onboarding software can help automate interactive walkthroughs and in-app guidance. These tools allow you to personalize the journey based on user behavior, ensuring that each user receives the right level of assistance at the time they need it.

By integrating interactive walkthroughs and tooltips, you make onboarding intuitive and frustration-free.

4. Deliver quick wins

People sign up for your product for a reason.

They may need to solve a problem, improve efficiency, or gain access to a specific feature. If they don't see immediate value, they're likely to lose interest before fully exploring what your product has to offer.

If this happens repeatedly, you'll notice your churn rate skyrocket. That's why delivering what we call a "quick win" during onboarding is crucial for new users.

A great way to provide immediate value is by helping users achieve something tangible right away.

Not all "immediate value" has to be tangible. Reducing time-to-value is also essential and a big win for users. If your onboarding process is too long or complex, you may lose potential customers who give up before realizing your product's benefits.

Tribeca Lawsuit Loans uses a simple form that new visitors can fill out, which then delivers personalized loan information to your inbox.

People sign up for your product for a reason.

They may need to solve a problem, improve efficiency, or gain access to a specific feature. If they don't see immediate value, they're likely to lose interest before fully exploring what your product has to offer.

If this happens repeatedly, you'll notice your churn rate skyrocket. That's why delivering what we call a "quick win" during onboarding is crucial for new users.

A great way to provide immediate value is by helping users achieve something tangible right away.

Not all "immediate value" has to be tangible. Reducing time-to-value is also essential and a big win for users. If your onboarding process is too long or complex, you may lose potential customers who give up before realizing your product's benefits.

Tribeca Lawsuit Loans uses a simple form that new visitors can fill out, which then delivers personalized loan information to your inbox.

5. Offer ongoing support and education 

Effective user onboarding doesn't end after the initial setup.

It's crucial to continue supporting users as they grow familiar with your product. Offering ongoing support and educational resources inspires confidence in users and empowers them long after their first experience.

One way to provide this support is by providing easily accessible help materials such as tutorials, FAQs, or knowledge bases. These resources should be easy to find within your product so users can quickly resolve issues independently.

A lot of companies focus on recruiting customer service specialists that can create specialized products guides and information.

Regular email newsletters, in-app messages, or even proactive customer support through live chat are other ways to help keep users informed about new features or best practices.

Another excellent strategy is offering on-demand webinars, video guides, or interactive courses. A full library of these resources allows users to learn at their own pace. When they're ready, customers can dive deeper into your product's features and discover new, powerful ways to use them.

Pro tip: after each video, ask for feedback. This communication will help your business address concerns and refine the user onboarding experience. User needs and expectations evolve, so continuously refining your onboarding strategy ensures lasting engagement and satisfaction.

If you want to build trust, reduce churn, and boost user satisfaction and engagement, don't neglect to provide ongoing support and education.

6. Measure, test, and optimize your onboarding process 

Even the best user onboarding processes need continuous improvement. Just when you think you've got it down, it's time to refine it again. To keep your onboarding flow effective, measure, test, and optimize it.

Before you measure, of course, you must define key performance indicators (KPIs) for your onboarding process. These might include metrics like completion rates, time-to-first-value, user engagement, and drop-off points (i.e. where users abandon the process).

By consistently tracking these KPIs, you can identify where users struggle or lose interest, giving you valuable insight into areas that need improvement and optimization.

A/B testing is not just for marketing to get clients.

It's also a powerful way to optimize your user onboarding process. Try different messages, steps, or visuals and see which versions get better results. For example, you might test different welcome messages, progress bars, or button placements to see which combination leads to higher user retention.

User feedback is crucial for ongoing support, as we mentioned above. But it's also vital for optimization. Collect input from users about their onboarding experience regularly to understand pain points, confusion, or missed opportunities.

Optimization is an ongoing process that relies on the data and feedback you gather. By measuring and testing, you can make data-driven decisions that enhance the user experience and increase the likelihood of long-term success. This keeps your onboarding fresh, effective, and aligned with user expectations.

Wrapping up

Even the best user onboarding processes need continuous improvement. Just when you think you've got it down, it's time to refine it again. To keep your onboarding flow effective, measure, test, and optimize it.

Before you measure, of course, you must define key performance indicators (KPIs) for your onboarding process. These might include metrics like completion rates, time-to-first-value, user engagement, and drop-off points (i.e. where users abandon the process).

By consistently tracking these KPIs, you can identify where users struggle or lose interest, giving you valuable insight into areas that need improvement and optimization.

A/B testing is not just for marketing to get clients.

It's also a powerful way to optimize your user onboarding process. Try different messages, steps, or visuals and see which versions get better results. For example, you might test different welcome messages, progress bars, or button placements to see which combination leads to higher user retention.

User feedback is crucial for ongoing support, as we mentioned above. But it's also vital for optimization. Collect input from users about their onboarding experience regularly to understand pain points, confusion, or missed opportunities.

Optimization is an ongoing process that relies on the data and feedback you gather. By measuring and testing, you can make data-driven decisions that enhance the user experience and increase the likelihood of long-term success. This keeps your onboarding fresh, effective, and aligned with user expectations.