Ultimate UX Design Guide to SaaS On-Boarding, Part 2: Welcome Email

SaaS customer onboarding is the process that users have to experience while initiating their journey as a customer on a company’s software application. Customer onboarding comes from the experience that employees previously had to undergo while joining a firm.

The onboarding process sets the tone for a good user experience. Long story short, special emphasis should be given to make the on-boarding process as flawless as possible.

The SaaS customer on-boarding process is based on 6 comprehensive aspects:

1. Sign up form
2. Welcome email
3. Drip campaigns
4. First login & product tutorial
5. Data import & notifications
6. Check up calls & swag

All the aspects of the process play an equally important part in forming a desirable reputation of the brand in the eyes of the customers during the on-boarding process. Last time we discussed the first step to the on-boarding process, the sign up forms. Today we will be focusing on the welcome email.

A welcome email is a critical component of the signup process. It is the first time you are getting directly in touch with your customer and, therefore, is key to creating and building up momentum of the signup process to the point of using your product. ReturnPath conducted a research study, which revealed that:

There was a strong correlation between good welcome messages / emails and user engagement. Moreover, good welcome messages are an important predictor of user behaviour and potential revenue in the long run.

A welcome email is the point where you can quickly communicate the value of your product and can make or break a conversion. The email can contain a lot of things you would want your customer to know, and therein lies the risk. Bombarding the customer with too much information can be a conversion killer.

SUMMING UP: THE POINT OF THE WELCOME EMAIL

1. Build signup momentum
2. Get users to take the next step (not reach the end goal)
3. Give them an idea of what the experience of your product is going to be like

Any welcome email needs to be drafted with a specific purpose in mind (apart from just a greeting). The following are examples of specific goals that you could keep in mind:

1. Getting the user to complete their profile
2. Getting them to “create their first <whatever your product offers>”
3. Getting them to “import data”
4. Getting them to “download your app”

Keep in mind that the rate at which your welcome email is opened and the CTA is clicked on, is not a measure of how successful it is in achieving its purpose. Adjusting the subject of the email and optimising the body can be helpful measures, but the true objective over here is to ensure that your customers are moving through the steps of your on-boarding flow. So the real measure of success is the rate of conversion.

How many customers responded to your CTA?

DRAFTING THE EMAIL: THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

1. Simplicity: Like we said, you probably want to let your user know about a bunch of things. But don’t let them know it all at once! Let them spend some time using your product so that they can get acquainted.
2. Resources: Give your users some additional links or resources that help them engage better with your product.
3. Thanking them: You can choose any way to express your gratitude. It could be simply thanking them or telling them that you’re excited that they’ve signed up for you.
4. Actionable: As mentioned above, there should be clarity in the content of the email; it should have relevant information and, above all, it should be actionable. It should be clear to the user what you want them to do, now that they’ve received and opened the email.

Check out the following welcome emails by well-known SaaS companies:

ZAPIER

Zapier’s welcome email is an excellent example. It’s simple; users are being told what the application does, along with a link to user examples. Conditions of the trial period are clearly mentioned. Additional resources, such as the help documentation are mentioned clearly. The email starts with a thank you of sorts, because Zapier is excited to have the user on board. The next step Zapier wants the user to take is developing a profile, which makes the email actionable.

Zapier welcome email screenshot

INVISION

Users who are signing up for InVision’s prototyping application receive a welcome email that is crystal clear in terms of what it wants to achieve: Get the user to start using the app. Hence the email is clearly actionable.

In order to help with that, users don’t get a list of things they need to do to start using the app. Users get to see some quick videos in succession to understand what they need to do. Considering that the app is highly interactive and visually appealing, the nature of the email coincides well with the nature of the product.

The email is simple in its content, it links users to videos which are excellent resources to quickly understand and engage with the product. There’s admittedly no thank you, but that is more than compensated by the simplicity of the email.

InVisionApp welcome email screenshot

BASECAMP

Basecamp’s welcome email is simple and not long at all, with a clear welcome message along with a thank you for signing up. There’s proof given in the form of mentioning how many organisations use the product. There’s a clear link for downloading the app for Android or iPhone, which serves as a resource for users to better engage with the product. The purpose behind the email is clear, i.e. logging in to your account. Hence the email is actionable.

Basecamp’s welcome email screenshot

CONVERTIZE

After signing up with Convertize you will receive a straight-forward, simple welcome email from the CEO, in which he will thank you for signing up in the first sentence. Then, throughout the email, there are actionable questions prompting you to reply directly to the CEO, and respond with the reason why you signed up. This highlights their appreciation for every single user. Convertize thus shows that they care about your feedback. At the very end, they also give you a link to their promotional video as a resource, it makes the platform come alive, creating a more human emotional connection. In the long run, this helps build a strong engagement with the product.

Convertize’s welcome email screenshot

CONCLUSION

As the saying goes, the first impression is the last impression over here. In customer on-boarding, the success of the signup flow heavily hinges on the initial points of interaction between you and your customer. The level of customer engagement can be imagined in terms of an exponential curve.

Successfully designing each point of the customer on-boarding flow ensures that the customer’s engagement with your company increases exponentially after each point. The customers that your business will get will be happier ones. There is a higher probability of them being able to understand, value and like what you have to offer. And if the first impression is thoughtfully and skilfully designed, it has the potential to develop customers that will be long term.

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Dropbox Unveils Brave New Brand Identity

Dropbox has launched a controversial redesign of its brand identity, intended to help the SaaS standout in a market increasingly packed with pretenders to its throne.

What they’ve unveiled seems certain to split opinion. On the one hand, the previous identity was business-like and sat comfortably alongside other tools in your GUI; on the other hand, that identity is tied to a business model that Dropbox, it seems, no longer aspires to:

As our mission has evolved from keeping files in sync to helping teams in sync, we realized our brand needs to change, too. Our new brand system shows that Dropbox isn’t just a place to store your files—it’s a living workspace that brings teams and ideas together.

This isn’t a brand design, so much as a brand repurposing.

REDEFINING THE LOGOMARK

The “open box” logo mark was the most recognizable of Dropbox’s brand assets, and fortunately they’ve had the good sense to retain it.

In fact, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they haven’t changed the logomark at all—other than the fact that someone’s run it through a Warhol-inspired Snapchat filter. However, what has changed is the rationale: Dropbox no longer see this as a box—which would imply storage—but rather as a series of surfaces—which implies open collaboration and creativity, apparently.

For those who still see the box, there’s a helpful animated logomark that tries to undermine the original’s 3D qualities. For most people, the original icon, with the original meaning, will still shine through.

 

SHARP GROTESK

The revised branding includes a custom typeface, loosely derived from the old logotype, named “Sharp Grotesk”.

As a display type, Sharp Grotesk is full of contradictions. A large x-height and counters on some characters enhance readability, whilst very tight counters on others limit it. In weightier fonts the typeface feels distorted to the point that it could almost be monospaced, but in regular weights, especially when sized around 16pt, it’s perfectly readable and still retains enough quirks to keep its character.

You have to take your hat off to Dropbox for rejecting the obvious geometric sans direction that seemingly every corporation has adopted in the last couple of years. They’ve gone for broke, and even if Sharp Grotesk isn’t a triumph, it’s undeniably theirs.

DISPOSABLE COLOR PAIRS

Dropbox made the new brand direction public on their dropbox.design site. There are dozens of color pairings on show, with the implication that hundreds more are possible. In this context they are plain ugly but in isolation, with just two colors at a time, the pairings illustrate Dropbox’s central theme, of two different, but equal forces collaborating.

You get the impression the color options were put together with real joy, and that no one at Dropbox is married to any individual pairing; they’re just having fun with highly disposable options.

It’s also important to note that Dropbox Blue isn’t going anywhere. In the app the same blue you’re used to won’t be replaced by neon purple anytime soon. The new combinations are strictly for marketing.

UGLY BUT BRAVE

The inspiration behind Dropbox’s new brand identity is that we work better together. Dropbox is no longer for storing photos, or even sharing files, it’s a place to be collaborative and creative. To embody that, they’ve given their design team the freedom to be brave.

We want to [build] a brand that help[s] people focus on meaningful work, instead of busywork. And we want to inspire creative energy, instead of taking it away.

We have to give the Dropbox design team credit. They had every opportunity to play it safe, churn out something derived from Flat Design, and cash their paychecks. Instead they chose to strike out in a direction most designers would not have opted for. We can’t complain about the homogenization of design, and then act horrified when someone takes a creative risk.

By  Jake  Ben Moss - Orginal Post: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2017/10/dropbox-unveils-brave-new-brand-identity/

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Why Should Use A Landing Page Instead Of Your Homepage

 

Landing page example- webtady landing page

Why Should Use A Landing Page Instead Of Your Homepage

What is a Landing Page?

First of all in the purest sense, a landing page is any single web page that a visitor can arrive at or “land” on. It’s more common to refer to a landing page as being a standalone web page distinct from your main website that has been designed for a single focused objective to promote.

This means that your landing page should have no global navigation to tie it to your primary website. The main reason for this is to limit the options available to your visitors, helping to guide them toward your aimed conversion goal.

Types of Landing Pages

There are two basic types of landing page, Click Through and Lead Generation (also referred to as Lead Gen or Lead Capture pages).

Click Through Landing Pages:

Click through landing pages have the goal of reassure the visitor to click through to another page. Typically used in ecommerce funnels, they can be used to describe a product or offer in sufficient detail so as to “warm up” a visitor to the point where they are closer to making a purchasing decision.

Lead Generation Landing Pages:

Lead generation landing pages are used to capture user data, such as a name and email address. The sole purpose of the page is to collect information that will allow you to market to and connect with the prospect at a subsequent time. As such, a lead capture page will contain a form along with a description of what you’ll get in return for submitting your personal data.

If you’re wondering why use a Landing Page instead of your website, read on. We've got the answer for you.

If you are:

1. Running a PPC ad campaign
2. Promoting a product, eBook, email subscription through social media and SEO
3. Advertising on radio, television and print
4. Writing guest posts on 3rd party blogs or magazines

You need to use a page instead of junk people to your website.

What you’ll notice about this list is that each item has a specific goal, to get people to take specific actions: to buy your product, subscribe to your in-house mailing list, download an eBook, case study or white paper, or view a video and many more.

Design a cheap landing page for your website. If you’re doing any of the above, the worst thing you can do is send people to your home page. You need a focused landing page dedicated to the particular action you want people to take. In fact, you need several.

Let me explain.

Focus on Conversion

Are you looking to turn more website visits into conversions? Why it's important to first map out each process an internet user goes through on your site, and then use analytics to find out if it's meeting its goals. You can analyze the landing page by analyzing tools to focus conversions.  So your landing page can derive visitor to your site and convert into leads.

You Can Test a Landing Page

You can test a landing page for your website instead of home page. The landing page will be safe your home page or website from junk peoples. So design a cheap landing page and promote for the purpose of  PPC campaign or SEO.

Remove scattering

Remove the scattering from your website. A fresh and cheap landing page will help you to distraction from main website and that will be safe from dumping peoples.  Over packing your schedule may make you more popular, but it will not get you to your goals every times. So be careful about this matter.

Create Different Versions for Different Ads

Sometimes you may need different types of landing pages due to operate different versions for different ads. In addition you can get more visitors to your site from different links of landing pages. Also create different sales packages for each of the landing a page it may help you to sells more.

Create Different Versions for Organic Search

Nowadays has different types of search engine and they have different types of search strategy. When you campaign your website with the different search engine you have to track those data and analysis the search result. Therefore you need landing pages for each version for organic search engines.

As a result of having a landing page will make more visitors to your website and generate sells.

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