When you’re new to a certain place, maybe at school, at work, or at a national park, there’s someone who guides you around to let you know what’s important and where everything is. It can be overwhelming trying to figure out where to go next or how something works, but this person can help show the way.
Creating a website walkthrough for your website is just like having someone guide visitors around your website. It will give them all the necessary information they need to get started and navigate the website easily. If you also want your product to be successful, then a product walkthrough is the way to go.
What is a Product Walkthrough?
Also known as a product tour, a product walkthrough is a visual guide that takes users through each page of your website. It’s a set of step-by-step instructions that explain various features, functions, and tasks users can complete on the site. By providing an interactive tour, it helps visitors quickly learn how to use the product or service you are offering.
A product tour helps with certain features, such as increasing feature and product adoption, enhancing user experience, and easing the initial onboarding. Customer engagement and user satisfaction increase when users feel supported by your product walkthrough.
Are Product Tours Cost-Effective?
Any online product needs a product tour, if not multiple. Creating a product tour takes time and effort, but if done right, it will be worth the investment. Product tours are cost-effective because they provide an efficient way of onboarding users and increasing user engagement in the long run.
Features of the product tour that makes it cost-effective include:
The Product Tour Must be Definitive
It should provide a complete overview of your product or service. The main aim of a product tour is to introduce the product to the new customer, but that doesn’t mean it should just be a brief summary. The product tour must explain all the features in detail, allowing customers to understand how the product works and why it’s worth their time.
There Must be Clear Instructions
The product tour must be clear, concise, and easy to follow. There should be clarity when the customer is trying to learn how to use your product. Instructions should be broken down into simple steps with visual cues that are consistent throughout the entire tour.
Make it Fun
Another tip for creating a successful software walkthrough is to make it fun. Add some humor, animations, and sound effects to the walkthrough to keep the customer engaged. Show off your brand personality and make it enjoyable to go through the tour. This will give them something interesting to look at while they are learning about your product or service.
Make Sure You Have a Sequence
Guesswork shouldn’t come in between your customer onboarding tours. Make it known by your customers which step comes first and which one follows the other. A complete website walkthru should have a specific sequence, so customers don’t get lost.
Constantly Test and Improve the Product Tour
Don’t forget to test your product tour and look for ways to improve it. Keep an eye on customer feedback, track user behavior, and test different versions of the product tour to see what works best.
Provide Value
The product tour should add value to the user experience. It should provide insight into how they can use your product or service more effectively, as well showing them all the features and functionality available.
Get them to Experience the First Strike.
Knowing your product’s inside and out is paramount as it helps to create a great product tour. Focus on the important features that will help users get started quickly and make sure they have access to all the required information needed.
For Canva, the first strike is allowing users to select options for creating their desired design. The product tour quickly explains how to do this and even provides an example. For Zoom, the first strike is connecting users and quickly setting up conference calls.
Your Product Walkthrough should be Accessible
Make sure your software walkthru is accessible from any device, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or computer. A responsive product tour will ensure that customers can benefit from your product on any device.
Try to Keep it Simple
Lastly, the product tour should be as simple as possible. It should not be overwhelming or complicated for the customer. Try to keep the design minimalistic and only include essential features so that customers can quickly understand how it works and get started.
What are the Benefits of Creating a Multi-Page Walkthrough?
Need for a Great and Clear Design
People need a great and clear design in order to get the best experience when they use your product. The multi-page design can break up a lot of information into understandable and digestible chunks.
Product Walkthrough Saves a Lot of Time
Multi-page product walkthroughs can help save a lot of time and effort when it comes to getting users onboarded. By breaking the content into multiple pages, customers can quickly get up to speed on the product’s features without having to read through long paragraphs of text.
Most of the customers also prefer self-exploring instead of spending too much time with a representative. Your customer support must be ready to answer questions, but it’s best for them if the customers can use self-service tools.
Multi-Page Walkthroughs Can be Easily Updateable
Once a multi-page product tour is created, it can easily be updated and changed as needed. This allows you to keep it up to date with the latest features, product changes, and more.
By creating a multi-page walkthrough, you can make onboarding customers much easier and more efficient for your business. The tour should be clear, concise, and easy to follow in order to give customers the best experience possible when they use your product or service.
Software Walkthru Saves You a Lot of Money
By creating a great product tour, you can also save your business a lot of money. By allowing customers to quickly understand and use your product or service, it can reduce customer support costs and help you acquire more customers in the long run.
You don’t have to hire developers or computing engineers to create a product tour. You can easily create and customize one with the help of user onboarding software or through simple HTML or CSS code. Your workload on customer service and support will highly reduce when you create a great product tour.
Product Walkthru Makes You Seem More Reliable
Creating a great product tour can also make you seem more reliable and trustworthy. Customers will be able to understand how your product works and get started quickly without having to face any difficulty or confusion. This will help build trust in your brand, which is essential for long-term success.
What are the Steps for Creating for Creating a Perfect Product Tour?
Whether it’s a simple product tour onboarding page or a complex multi-page walkthrough, there are certain steps you should take to ensure that it is effective and adds value to the customer experience. Here are the steps on how to create a perfect product tour:
Know Your Audience
The first step in creating an effective product tour is understanding who your audience is and what they need. Knowing who you’re targeting and what their needs and goals are will help you create a more tailored product tour.
Move with the Key Features
When creating your software walthru, make sure to focus on the key features first. Start by introducing the main features and then move on to more complex ones. This will help customers get up to speed quickly without getting overwhelmed.
Note that One Size Doesn’t Fit All
No two customers are the same, so make sure not to treat them as such. Creating a product walkthrough that is personalized and tailored to each customer’s needs can help them get up and running quickly without frustration.
Make Sure You Provide Further Help
Your product walkthru should also include resources and links to further help. This will make sure that customers don’t get stuck when they need assistance and can easily find the help they need.
What are Some of the Product Tour Software Tools?
UserGuiding
UserGuiding is a code free user onboarding and software walkthrough tool. It allows you to create interactive walkthroughs for your users that are simple and easy to follow.
Usetiful
Usetiful is a one of the best UserGuiding alternatives and does the same thing, only quicker and better.
Usetiful’s Product Tours turns the process of creating walkthroughs into a breeze. This nifty tool allows you to easily generate visually stunning and interactive product tours to promote your newest software or your features with just a few mouse clicks. Software users will get the handle of your software program from the on-screen guidance provided by Product Tours. Your tutorials will flow naturally into your app with the help of Product Tours' extensive range of triggers and delayers, ultimately leading them to a delightful product experience.
UserPilot
UserPilot is packed with a lot of features that help with user onboarding, product adoption, customer retention, account expansion, in-app marketing, and scaling your SaaS business. If you’re working on a tight budget and looking for a wide range of tools, UserPilot may be the right fit.
Hopscotch
Hopscotch Product Tours is an interactive way to showcase products, services, and more. It provides users with a variety of tools to create engaging and informative tours and slideshows that can be embedded on their website or uploaded as a video. They offer both free and paid plans, with the latter offering more features such as custom branding and video uploads.
Intercom Product Tours
Intercom product tours enable companies to quickly onboard and educate their users on how to use the product. You can easily create interactive walkthroughs with its powerful custom editor.
Conclusion
Creating an effective product tour is essential for onboarding customers and ensuring they understand and use your product or service. By following the right steps, you can make sure your product tour is clear and helpful. There are also many software tools that you can use to create a great product tour without needing any coding experience.
It’s important to remember that a good product tour is essential for customer satisfaction, so make sure you take the time to create one that caters to your customers’ needs. With an effective and engaging product tour, you can make sure to successfully onboard your customers and help them along their journey.