This is the second post in our best-in-class onboarding series where we’re exploring the top SaaS companies that deliver personalized, in-product content that drives activation via a product-led growth model. (Check out our first post featuring Monday.com’s onboarding experience.) Each blog includes a DIY no-code onboarding experience template—such as a dashboard—based on the product featured. Get your free freemium onboarding flow components below.
Welcome flows and onboarding checklists are a key part of a product-led strategy for freemium software companies. Not only do they drive user activation and adoption—when they help users feel at home and understand to do, they convert.
In this installment of our best-in-class onboarding series, we’re taking a critical look at Vidyard’s product onboarding experience that’s helped them transition from a sales- to product-led strategy. Find out how embedding the right in-product content at the right place and time can increase engagement at scale.
When it comes to onboarding new users, Vidyard combines two powerful product-led onboarding strategies to activate and engage new users: an onboarding flow that welcomes new users and an in-product checklist that activates them. In the following sections, we’ll take a look at Vidyard's user experience (UX) for new freemium accounts as well as suggestions for improving it.
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Build a freemium new user onboarding flow like Vidyard
Vidyard uses a simple two-step sign-up survey to identify who a new user is (i.e., by team) and what they’re here to do (i.e., by use case). In the example below, we’ve selected “Marketing.”
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Narrowing the number of sign-up questions to 3 or fewer is key. Vidyard keeps it simple—knowing an onboarding survey is only as useful as its ability to bring users into the product. Each question feels like a bridge, not a moat. If you choose to add more questions to your onboarding survey, get ready to see drop-off rates increase with each additional question.
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In step 1.1, Vidyard not only collects valuable use case data here but also suggests to new users what use cases they can do with the tool.
Pro tip: Onboarding and welcome flows are the perfect places to experiment and test new product messaging. You can even pair features and benefits with testimonials or proof points.
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Rather than dropping users directly into the product, Vidyard includes a call to action (CTA) related to a key activation point: downloading the extension. The CTA “I want to record a video” is directly tied to this action. This is a great copy choice as it transforms Vidyard’s activation goal (downloading the extension) into a benefit for the user. Genius!
For a more targeted, personalized experience, we’d recommend adding contextual value to the download prompt—one that directly links ease-of-use and value to the extension.
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Step 2 would be a great opportunity for Vidyard to promote its newly released video templates feature by suggesting a template based on a customer segment. This helps new users connect a specific outcome to this product action.
Get your Vidyard-style onboarding flow template
Build a freemium onboarding experience like Vidyard’s. Check out our Candu-built version. Explore the interactive onboarding template below.
How Vidyard activates new users with a getting started checklist
On the first login, Vidyard users see the Video Library (homepage dashboard), including a “getting started checklist” overlay. The checklist is just one component of the larger onboarding experience—from the onboarding welcome flow to the dashboard—that helps activate new users.
Again, it reinforces the value of the extension in an actionable way, by asking the user to “Install a recorder” rather than an “extension.” This may be an example of a messaging test.
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However, the UX gets complicated when you try to hide it. The pop-up dialogue goes as far as to tell users which settings will trigger the checklist again if they choose to dismiss it. It’s unlikely that users will remember the path or even copy it. We might suggest a simplified user diagram or image to show where the user should go to reopen it.
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An alternative solution would be to embed the checklist steps below within this empty state (see the illustration area highlighted below). Event-driven checklists auto-complete items as well as dynamically refresh content based on user activities and related segments.
Related: Elevating UX with (embedded) Event-Driven Checklists
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Embedded components—such as checklists, resource cards, and announcements—appear inline, which means they don’t hide the primary user interface (UI).
Vidyard could build a more integrated product onboarding experience by embedding customer onboarding checklists that match their UI and branding. Nothing is covered, so nothing needs to be dismissed; it enhances the user journey without disrupting it.
Looking for a customer onboarding checklist? We recommend our Customer Onboarding and User Onboarding Checklist templates.
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