Product Tours

Ever wondered how to guide your customers through your product effortlessly? Product tours might be the answer you're looking for. These interactive walkthroughs are designed to help users navigate your product, highlighting key features and functionalities along the way. By creating a step-by-step guide, you can ensure that your customers or free trial users quickly grasp the value of your offering.

Product tours are a powerful tool in the marketer's arsenal, especially when it comes to user onboarding and activation. They can significantly impact how quickly and effectively new users adopt your product, leading to higher conversion rates and improved customer satisfaction. By showcasing the most important aspects of your product, you can help users reach their "aha moment" – that crucial point where they truly understand and appreciate your product's value.

For businesses, implementing product tours can be a game-changer. They not only reduce the learning curve for new users but also help highlight unique selling points that might otherwise go unnoticed. This can lead to increased user engagement, lower churn rates, and ultimately, better retention. Moreover, product tours can provide valuable insights into user behavior, helping you refine your product and marketing strategies over time.

While creating effective product tours requires effort and careful planning, the potential benefits make it a worthwhile investment. By mapping out user flows, leveraging data analytics, and continuously iterating based on user feedback, you can craft tours that truly resonate with your audience. The key is to focus on delivering value at each step, ensuring that users not only understand your product but also see how it can make their lives better.

Why this works

Product tours work effectively for several reasons, particularly for digital businesses:

1. Reduced friction during onboarding. By guiding users through key features, product tours minimize confusion and frustration, leading to smoother adoption. This is especially crucial for SaaS companies with complex offerings.

2. Accelerated time-to-value. Tours help users quickly understand how the product can solve their problems, speeding up the path to the "Aha!" moment. This is vital for subscription-based services looking to convert free trials to paid subscriptions.

3. Increased feature discovery. Many users might overlook powerful features without guidance. Tours ensure that users are aware of all the value-adding aspects of your product.

4. Personalized user experience. Advanced tour tools allow for customization based on user behavior, role, or preferences, creating a more tailored onboarding experience.

5. Data-driven insights. By tracking user interaction with the tour, businesses can gather valuable data on user behavior, preferences, and pain points. This information can inform product development and marketing strategies.

6. Reduced support burden. Effective tours can answer common questions and demonstrate basic functionalities, potentially decreasing the volume of support tickets.

7. Improved user activation and retention. When users understand a product's full potential, they're more likely to become active, engaged users, reducing churn rates.

To maximize the effectiveness of product tours:

• Keep it concise. Focus on the most critical features to avoid overwhelming users.

• Make it interactive. Allow users to try features as they learn about them.

• Offer skip options. Some users may prefer to explore on their own.

• Use progress indicators. Show users how far along they are in the tour to maintain engagement.

• Incorporate visuals. Use screenshots, GIFs, or short videos to illustrate complex concepts.

• Segment your audience. Create different tours for various user types or use cases.

• Test and iterate. Continuously refine your tours based on user feedback and behavioral data.

By leveraging tools like Hotjar and Amplitude, businesses can gather insights to inform and improve their product tours. Regular analysis and iteration are key to ensuring that tours remain effective as products evolve and user needs change.

How you can steal this

Here's how you can implement effective product tours for your digital business:

1. Map the user journey. Use tools like Hotjar and Amplitude to track how users interact with your product. Identify key touchpoints and potential roadblocks in the user experience.

2. Set clear goals. Determine what you want to achieve with your product tour. For example, aim to increase free trial conversions from 5% to 7% in the next quarter.

3. Choose the right tool. Select a product tour builder that fits your needs. Popular options include Appcues and FROGED.

4. Design your tour. Create a step-by-step guide that highlights your product's core features and value propositions. Keep it concise and focused on the user's needs.

5. Personalize the experience. Segment your audience and create tailored tours for different user types or use cases. For example, a SaaS company might have separate tours for managers and individual contributors.

6. Make it interactive. Allow users to try features as they learn about them. This hands-on approach can significantly improve feature adoption and retention.

7. Include progress indicators. Show users how far along they are in the tour to maintain engagement and provide a sense of accomplishment.

8. Offer skip options. Some users may prefer to explore on their own. Always provide an easy way to exit or skip the tour.

9. Use visual aids. Incorporate screenshots, GIFs, or short videos to illustrate complex features or processes.

10. Test and optimize. Continuously gather user feedback and analyze tour performance data. Use these insights to refine and improve your product tours over time.

11. Consider multi-channel tours. Don't limit your tours to just in-app experiences. Extend them to email onboarding sequences or video tutorials for a comprehensive approach.

12. Measure impact. Track key metrics like feature adoption rates, time-to-value, and user activation to gauge the effectiveness of your product tours.

13. Iterate and expand. As your product evolves, update your tours accordingly. Consider creating additional tours for new features or advanced functionalities.

Remember, the goal is to guide users to their "aha moment" as quickly and efficiently as possible. By implementing well-designed product tours, you can significantly improve user onboarding, activation, and ultimately, customer retention.

Examples of product tours

Here are some effective examples of product tours implemented by various digital businesses:

• SaaS project management tool. Asana's onboarding tour guides new users through creating their first project, adding tasks, and inviting team members. The tour uses tooltips to highlight key features and includes interactive elements that allow users to immediately apply what they've learned.

• E-commerce platform. Shopify's product tour for new store owners focuses on essential steps like adding products, customizing store design, and setting up payment methods. The tour adapts based on the user's goals, providing a personalized experience for different types of sellers.

• Email marketing software. Mailchimp's interactive tour walks users through creating their first email campaign. It uses a combination of tooltips, short videos, and guided actions to demonstrate how to design an email, manage subscriber lists, and analyze campaign performance.

• Cloud storage service. Dropbox's product tour for new users emphasizes file organization and sharing features. The tour uses a minimalist design with simple animations to demonstrate how to upload, organize, and share files without overwhelming users.

• Graphic design tool. Canva's onboarding experience includes a series of small, task-based tutorials that guide users through creating their first design. The tour adapts based on the user's skill level and design needs, providing relevant templates and features.

• Customer relationship management (CRM) software. HubSpot's product tour for its CRM platform uses a combination of guided walkthroughs and short video tutorials. The tour focuses on key features like contact management, deal tracking, and reporting, adapting to different user roles within an organization.

• Video conferencing app. Zoom's product tour for new users focuses on setting up their first meeting. The tour guides users through adjusting audio and video settings, scheduling a meeting, and inviting participants, using a combination of tooltips and guided actions.

• Online learning platform. Coursera's onboarding experience for new learners includes a personalized tour based on the user's interests and goals. The tour highlights course recommendations, explains how to enroll in classes, and demonstrates how to track progress.

• Subscription box service. Birchbox's product tour for new subscribers guides them through the process of creating their beauty profile, explaining how this information is used to personalize their monthly boxes. The tour uses engaging visuals and interactive elements to make the process enjoyable.

• Productivity app. Notion's product tour adapts based on the user's role and intended use case. For example, a tour for personal use might focus on note-taking and task management, while a tour for team use emphasizes collaboration features and project management tools.

Remember, the key to an effective product tour is to focus on the features that deliver immediate value to the user, guiding them towards their "aha moment" as quickly as possible. Continuously analyze user engagement with your tours and iterate based on feedback and usage data to improve their effectiveness over time.