What is Onboarding Tutorial?

Onboarding tutorial, a vital marketing growth tactic, has gained much prominence with the proliferation of digital applications and platforms.

Its origin is deeply rooted in software development, started when the digital world observed the need for a smooth and guided introductory journey for users of a new platform or application. Essentially, an onboarding tutorial is like your digital tour guide, guiding you through the initiation process of an app, describing each feature interactively, and making it easy for you to navigate and understand how it works.

This deliberate educative process drastically helps in maintaining user retention as it clarifies the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) complexities. It reduces frets due to limited guidance or obscurity and increases confidence with the app functionalities. Also, it allows the app owners to gather additional information about their users that might not be explicitly collected during registration, enriching the company's user database further. Hence, the onboarding tutorial plays a pivotal role in the 'Retention' category of growth tactics.

Examples of Onboarding Tutorial

1. Social Media Apps: When a user joins Instagram or Twitter for the first time, they are taken through an onboarding tutorial. The tutorial explains how to post, like, comment, follow other users, and more.

2. Fitness Apps: Apps like MyFitnessPal or Fitbit guide users through setting up a personal profile, inputting data like age, weight, and fitness goals to deliver customized workout and diet plans.

3. E-commerce Platforms: Websites like Amazon use an onboarding tutorial to guide users through the process of searching for products, adding them to their cart, and making a purchase.

4. Project Management Tools: Trello, for instance, has an onboarding tutorial that shows new users how to create boards, add tasks, assign tasks, and track progress.

5. Educational Apps: Apps like Duolingo use a tutorial to guide users on how to select the language they want to learn, take placement tests, and navigate through the lessons.

Marketing Tactics Similar to Onboarding Tutorial

• User Interface Design: This involves designing an app’s layout and visual elements to enhance usability and the user experience.
• User Experience Design (UX Design): This includes improving the end-to-end user journey on an application for providing a seamless and pleasant experience.
• In-app Messaging: This strategy uses pop-up messages or banners within the app to enhance engagement and educate users.
• Transactional Emails: These are automated emails triggered by a user’s actions or inactions within an app, reminding or guiding them on what to do next.

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