In the digital world, a product tour is often the first interaction of new users with your solution. A good onboarding process with a product tour can really improve the user experience. It helps to show new users the key product features and functions of your product. In this guide, we will understand everything you need to know about product tours and how to master them with the right software.
What is a product tour?
Imagine introducing a friend to your favorite restaurant. You wouldn't just give them the menu and expect them to figure it out, right? A product tour is like being that helpful friend. It guides new users through the exciting features of your product. For SaaS products, effective product tours are essential. They help users quickly learn about the layout, main features, and benefits of the platform. This can reduce user drop-off and improve satisfaction.
A good product tour doesn’t just show what features are there; it also tells a story. It explains why each feature matters by showing how they can solve real user problems. This way, the tour is not just a simple guide but an interesting tale of value and possibility.
Also, a well-planned product tour respects the user's time and attention. It starts by showing the most important features and then slowly introduces more advanced options as users get comfortable. This gradual approach helps users feel at ease and learn at their own speed.
Key components of a product tour
An effective product tour breaks down complex features into digestible, actionable steps. Here are the essential components:
- Clear Objectives: Define what you want users to achieve by the end of the tour. Is it product activation, understanding a feature, or simply familiarizing themselves with the interface?
- Welcome Screen: This sets the tone of the tour. It briefly introduces the product or feature and sets expectations for what users will learn.
- Step-by-Step Instructions: The core of any product tour is a series of guided steps. Each step should be easy to understand and focus on a specific feature or function.
- Interactive Elements: Allow users to click, explore, and engage with features as they learn. Interactive elements make tours more engaging and hands-on.
- Progress Indicator: Users should know where they are in the process. A progress bar or similar visual cue helps keep them motivated to complete the tour.
- Contextual Guidance: Help users understand why a particular feature is important and how it can benefit them in real-life scenarios.
- Call to Action (CTA): After guiding users through the process, provide a clear next step. Whether it’s signing up, customizing settings, or trying out a new feature, the CTA should be compelling and direct.
What are the key benefits of a product tour?
Implementing a product tour can bring multiple advantages to both users and businesses:
- Accelerates user onboarding: A product tour simplifies the onboarding process, helping users quickly understand the value of your product without needing extensive support or tutorials.
- Boosts feature adoption: Product tours encourage users to explore new features they may not have noticed otherwise, driving engagement and maximizing the product’s value.
- Reduces churn: Users who understand how to navigate and use your product are more likely to stick around. Product tours can reduce frustration and improve user retention.
- Enhances user experience: A seamless, interactive walkthrough improves overall user satisfaction, leading to positive reviews and word-of-mouth referrals.
- Decreases support load: By guiding users through the interface and explaining key functions, product tours can lower the number of support queries, freeing up your customer service team.
Preparing for your first product tour
Before starting to create your product walkthrough, it is very important to have a good plan. First, know what you want to achieve with the tour. Second, identify who your target audience is. By merging these two key parts, you can adjust the tour's content, tone, and design to connect better with your users.
Identifying your objectives and target audience
Start by defining your main goal for the product tour. Do you want to help users get started by guiding them through the signup? Maybe you want to promote a new feature? Or perhaps you want to lower user drop-off by showing the key features that provide the most value. Once you know your goal, you can highlight the features that are connected to that aim.
Next, think about the group of people you are targeting. Different users have different needs and skills. Are you aiming at skilled experts, tech-savvy young adults, or new users? Knowing your audience's specific needs, wants, and challenges will help you adjust the language, tone, and difficulty level of the tour so it connects with them.
For example, a product tour for experienced users may focus on advanced features and shortcuts, while a tour for beginners should use simpler language with clear explanations and visual tips. Good communication is essential for a successful product tour.
Gathering essential tools and resources
Many important tools and resources can help you create fun and engaging product tours. For SaaS companies, using product tour software is often smarter and cheaper than making one from scratch. These tools usually have easy drag-and-drop designs, ready-made templates, and strong analytics. This makes it easier to create and track your tours.
When picking a tool, think about how easy it is to use, the options for customization, and the available UI patterns like tooltips, modal windows, and hotspots. Also, check out the analytics features and how well they can work with your current tech. Don’t be afraid to try out different platforms to see which one fits your specific needs and budget. SmartCue is the best product tour software, offering all the must-have features required to create an interactive product tour.
Besides the software, gather important resources like product screenshots, explainer videos, or help documents to include in your tour. These extra materials will be helpful for users who want to learn more about specific features. A good product tour should cater to all learning styles and offer various ways to get information.
A Step-by-step guide to creating your first product tour
Now that you have set everything up, let’s get into the fun part – creating your first product tour! This guide will show you a simple way to make an interesting and helpful tour that grabs the attention of users and gives them value. Take a breath; you can do this!
Keep in mind that this is a process where you improve as you go. Your first version of the tour doesn’t need to be flawless. The main thing is to launch it, get user feedback, and keep making changes to enhance the experience as time goes on.
Step 1: Mapping out the user journey
Picture yourself using your product for the first time. What steps do you need to take to see its value? The first step is to plan the user journey. You must find the important points that lead to that "aha" moment.
Make sure to show the most important features early in the user journey. Don’t give them too much detail at once. Instead, focus on the features that help them understand the core value of your product. Remember, it's better to be clear than to give too much information.
After you know the key actions you want users to take, break these actions into smaller steps in the tour. Each step should be short, clearly labeled, and look good to keep users interested. Make the transitions between steps smooth, and include clear calls to action to guide users to the next stage in the process.
Step 2: Designing engaging and informative steps
Now that you have a clear user journey map, it's time to add engaging and helpful content for each step. Understanding your target audience is important here. Use words they connect with, a tone that fits your brand, and visuals that grab their attention.
A clear structure is key to keeping users engaged and not feeling lost. Mix text, images, videos, and interactive elements to create a fun and memorable learning experience.
Here are some tips for making engaging steps:
- Keep it short: Use a friendly tone and stay away from tricky words.
- Highlight benefits: Show how each feature can improve their work or life.
- Add visuals: Images, GIFs, and videos can make learning better.
- Use interactive elements: Hotspots, tooltips, and modal windows can make the tour more fun.
- End with a clear call to action: Let users know what to do next.
Step 3: Integrating interactive elements for user engagement
Gone are the days when product tours were the same for everyone. Now, users want experiences that are fun and fit their personal needs. The good news is that adding interactive features to your product tour is quite simple.
You can use interactive tools like tooltips, modal windows, hotspots, and progress bars. These can really improve how users engage and remember what they learn. Tooltips give information without interrupting the user, while modal windows show important instructions or ask for input. Hotspots help guide users to special features or areas they might like.
By carefully adding these tools to your product tour, you can turn a basic walkthrough into something more exciting and engaging. Encourage users to explore and try new things by giving them clear instructions and quick feedback. The more fun the tour is, the more likely users will finish it and become active with your product.
Step 4: Testing and gathering feedback
You've worked hard to create the perfect product tour, but your task isn’t over yet. Before you launch it to everyone, it's very important to test the tour with real users and gather their opinions. This step is key for finding any parts that might be difficult, confusing, or unengaging.
Bring together a small group of people who are like your target audience. Watch how they use the tour. Note their questions, hesitations, and overall feelings. It's important to see if the tour helps them have that "aha" moment where they understand the value your product brings.
User feedback is full of valuable insights that can really improve your product tour. Check the feedback, find common issues, and adjust your tour's design, content, and flow. Even small changes based on what users say can make a big difference in how effective and enjoyable the tour is.
Step 5: Launching and monitoring your product tour
After you get user feedback and improve your work, it's time to show it off – launching your product tours! But don’t just launch it and walk away. It’s important to keep an eye on how things are going and collect data on how users interact. This helps you make things better over time.
You should track important numbers like how many users finish the tour, how they engage with features, and where they drop off. These details will show you which parts of your tour connect with users and where they face issues. Check this data regularly and make changes as needed to keep the tour working well.
Remember, launching product tours is not a one-time thing; it’s a process that you should keep improving. As your product changes and user needs shift, your tour should change, too. Look at your tour often, update the content, add new features, and try different ways to make sure it helps more people and adds the most value.
What is a product tour software?
Product tour software is a specialized tool designed to create interactive, step-by-step guides within your digital product or website. This software allows businesses to design and implement tours that highlight key features, functionalities, and processes, enhancing the user onboarding experience and buyer enablement.
Rather than relying on static text-based documentation or video tutorials, product tour software offers an in-app, real-time walkthrough that leads users through each step, ensuring a more personalized and efficient learning experience.
When selecting product tour software, these are the core features to look out for:
- Customization: The ability to tailor tours to your product’s unique design, branding, and functionality is crucial. Look for software that lets you modify the look, tone, and flow of the tour.
- Multi-Step Tours: Good software allows for complex tours with multiple steps, showing users how to navigate through different parts of your product.
- User Segmentation: Personalize tours for different user groups, such as new users, advanced users, or specific customer types.
- Analytics and Reporting: Tracking how users engage with your product tour helps identify areas where they might get stuck or lose interest, allowing for continuous optimization.
- Interactive Elements: Look for software that offers interactive hotspots, tooltips, and other elements that let users actively participate in the tour.
- Multi-Platform Support: If your product is available across web and mobile platforms, choose software that supports consistent tours across both mediums.
- Integration Capabilities: Choose software that easily integrates with your existing tech stack, including CRM systems, marketing tools, or other customer engagement platforms.
What are common pitfalls in product tour design and how can they be avoided?
Even with good plans, product tours can fail if not made carefully. If you know about common mistakes, you can skip issues and make tours that really improve the user experience. Here are the top mistakes you can avoid -
Overloading users with information
One of the biggest mistakes when creating product tours is giving users too much information right away. New users are already trying to learn something new. If you overwhelm them with info, it can cause confusion and frustration. This makes their user experience bad.
Instead of putting everything into one tour, focus on being clear and brief. Highlight the key features that offer the most value. These features are essential for new users. As they get used to the product, you can slowly show them more advanced features.
Keep in mind that the goal of a product tour is to guide users, not to overload them. If you use a “less is more” approach, users will find the experience easier and more enjoyable. This can lead to better completion rates and a more positive user experience.
Neglecting user feedback in iterations
User feedback is very important for creating good products, including product tours. If you don't ask for feedback and make changes based on it, your tours might not connect well with the people you want to reach.
Make it a regular practice to ask users about their experience with the tour. You can use in-app surveys, feedback forms, or user testing sessions. Look closely at the feedback you get. Find common issues and use that information to improve your tour’s design, content, and flow.
Keep in mind that improving your product is an ongoing process. Your product tour should grow and change as well. When you actively ask for and use user feedback, you show that you care about customer satisfaction. This way, your tour will stay effective in helping users and in boosting product adoption.
Lack of personalization
Another pitfall is designing a one-size-fits-all tour that doesn’t cater to the different needs of your users. Not all users are the same; some may be complete beginners, while others may be experienced and only need a quick refresher on new features. A generic product tour risks alienating users by either oversimplifying the product for experienced users or being too complex for beginners. This lack of personalization can lead to disengagement and frustration.
To avoid this, segment your users and create multiple product tours tailored to different personas. For example, new users might benefit from a full walkthrough, while experienced users could opt for a tour that only highlights recent updates. Additionally, allowing users to skip or customize their tour experience ensures they engage with content that’s relevant to them. Providing these options not only improves user satisfaction but also increases the likelihood of long-term engagement with your product.
Forcing users through the entire tour
While it’s tempting to make users complete the entire product tour, forcing them to do so can be counterproductive. Some users prefer to explore products on their own or may only need help with specific features. A rigid tour that lacks flexibility can feel intrusive and frustrating, leading users to abandon not only the tour but the product itself.
To avoid this pitfall, design your product tour to be non-intrusive and optional. Allow users to skip steps or exit the tour at any time, and offer a "help" button that lets them revisit the tour if needed. Additionally, providing contextual tips throughout the product, such as tooltips or optional pop-ups, gives users the freedom to explore while still offering guidance when they seek it. This flexibility empowers users, making them feel in control of their learning experience rather than feeling forced into a predefined path.
Failing to include interactivity
A static, non-interactive product tour that merely shows a series of instructions or screenshots is another common pitfall. These types of tours often feel like reading a manual, which can disengage users quickly. Users learn best by doing, and without the opportunity to interact with the product during the tour, they may not fully grasp the functionality you’re trying to showcase.
The solution to this issue is to incorporate interactive elements within your product tour. Allow users to actively engage with the interface—whether it’s by clicking buttons, completing tasks, or filling out forms. For instance, if you’re explaining a complex feature like a report generation tool, let users try generating a sample report within the tour. Interactivity transforms the tour from a passive learning experience into a hands-on exercise, making it more engaging and helping users retain information more effectively.
Ignoring mobile and multi-platform users
In today’s multi-device world, many product tours are designed with a desktop-first approach, neglecting the growing number of users accessing products via mobile devices or tablets. A tour that works perfectly on a desktop but is clunky or unreadable on a mobile device can alienate a significant portion of your user base. Failing to optimize the product tour for various platforms results in a poor user experience, especially for mobile users who rely on streamlined interfaces.
To avoid this pitfall, always ensure that your product tour is responsive and functions well on all platforms, including desktop, mobile, and tablet. Test the tour extensively on different devices and screen sizes to ensure that the layout, text, and interactive elements remain clear and easy to use. Consider offering separate versions of the tour tailored to the unique design constraints of mobile interfaces, focusing on gestures like swiping or tapping, which may differ from the desktop experience. This way, you can provide a consistent, high-quality experience regardless of the device your users are on.
Building product tours for different platforms
In our world with many devices, you can't just make one product tour for your desktop app and leave it at that. Users now use your product on several platforms like mobile apps, different operating systems, and many screen sizes. To give a smooth experience, you need to set up your tours for each platform.
Changing your method for each platform makes sure that your tours are easy to access. It also helps to make the tours work well with the special features and habits of users on each type of device or operating system.
Adapting your approach for mobile vs. desktop
Designing good product tours for mobile apps is different from desktop platforms. Mobile devices have smaller screens and rely on touch, and users use them differently. This means you need to keep things simple and clear.
When creating your mobile design, focus on being brief and clear. Use larger text and simple icons; don’t fill the screen with too much stuff. Break long tours into small steps. These smaller steps make it easier for users to take in the information on a tiny screen.
Make sure your product tour looks good on different screen sizes and shapes. Test your tours on various mobile devices. This ensures it works well and provides a good user experience. Remember, mobile users are often busy. So, it is very important to make your tours simple, easy to use, and straight to the point for them to be effective.
Considerations for web-based applications
Building product tours for web-based applications requires careful consideration of UI patterns, browser compatibility, and responsive design. This way, users can have a smooth experience on all devices and browsers.
Use different UI patterns such as tooltips, modal windows, hotspots, and slideouts. These will help keep users engaged without interrupting their workflow. Try various patterns to see which ones work best for your target audience and show off the key features of your web application.
Check that your product tour works well on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge browsers. Make sure all interactive elements, animations, and transitions work correctly across different systems. Also, focus on responsive design. This means the tour should fit well and remain visible on different screen sizes.
Why is SmartCue the best product tour software?
SmartCue stands out as one of the best tools for creating product tours due to its intuitive design and robust customization options. It empowers businesses to deliver tailored, interactive onboarding experiences that engage users from the start. SmartCue allows you to create personalized product tours and ensure that users receive relevant guidance. Its built-in analytics provide invaluable insights into how users engage with tours, enabling continuous optimization.
Here are the steps to create a product tour using SmartCue:
Step 1: Install the SmartCue Chrome extension and log into SmartCue.
Step 2: Create a new Showcase.
Step 3: On the dashboard, click on ‘Capture New’. This will start the screen recording.
Step 4: Record your screen. Complete all the walkthrough steps.
Pro Tip: As you click on each step, the tool will record it as a different step.
To experience the power of SmartCue firsthand, try our 14-day free trial now.
Conclusion
Creating engaging product tours is important for better user experience and boosting user adoption. You can achieve this by knowing your goals, designing fun and interactive steps, and paying attention to feedback. Make sure to personalize the experience, use data to improve, and avoid issues like giving too much information at once.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the ideal length for a product tour?
The best length for a product tour should keep the user's attention in mind. Make it engaging and effective. Try to keep it short. Focus on being clear rather than saying too much. Usually, three to five short steps that highlight different features are enough to get started.
How can I measure the success of my product tour?
Check how well your product tour is doing by using analytics. This will help you track important numbers like how many people finish it, how they engage with features, and where they drop off. Also, get user feedback through surveys and in-app questions. This will help you find ways to make it better.
Can product tours help reduce the churn rate?
Yes, besides attracting new customers, good product tours can help reduce the number of customers who leave. They can make the onboarding process better and deliver a personalized experience. This can increase customer satisfaction and show the value of the product. When people see the product's value, they are more likely to stay.
Are there any tools to assist in creating product tours?
Yes, many product tour tools and SaaS platforms like SmartCue exist that help you create a guided product tour and interactive guides for enjoying better conversion rates. These platforms usually have features like easy builders, templates, and Chrome extensions. They make the product tour experience simple and user-friendly.
How often should I update my product tour?
The update frequency for your guided tour relies on things like user feedback and how the product changes. It’s important to check your tour often. Fix any issues users face, add new features, and update the content. This will keep your tour useful and up-to-date.
