Onboard
Building Block 7: Onboarding Email
Challenge
Usually, making a sale marks the pinnacle of the entire process. In the world of selling cloud services, however, onboarding can be just as critical to boosting a provider’s bottom line.
That’s because SaaS products are unique. Customers won’t get the full value from their software purchase unless they activate and actually use all of the features and functionalities.
Here are the elements that go into an effective onboarding program:
- Initial application setup
- Application deployment across multiple employees
- Data migration from legacy systems
- User and/or administrator training
Onboarding can generate 80%+ adoption of SaaS applications, and up to 50% more upsells and/or cross sells
Optimizing the Onboarding Journey
With this in mind, what does the ideal onboarding journey look like? Every SaaS application is different, but most will usually require three onboarding options:
- Onboarding email
- Online onboarding center
- Expert onboarding support (the human element)
Combining these options will increase adoption rates while maximizing your investment. You can't rely on all of your customers to self-serve and find the resources they need on their own. On the other hand, providing only live expert support would be too expensive and unnecessary for tech-savvy customers. Giving your customers the choice to jump from one onboarding option to another at any point of time in their journey will help you meet their expectations while balancing your investment.
