How to use video in onboarding processes

Summary

In this post, we’ll define onboarding processes and focus specifically on how to use video for the onboarding process. Including videos in the initial stages of engagement, both on the marketing and recruiting sides, is always an excellent strategic move with which to make your onboarding process fully operational.

The power of video

Compared to other more static types of content, especially written text, videos continue to be one of the most used tools to attract and maintain the attention of users – not only for short periods of time and not only at certain stages of the journey: theirs is a decisive contribution to the creation and development of a valuable and long-lasting brand-consumer relationship.

The integration of videos in business strategies is a trend that has been consolidated in recent years and that is confirmed by statistics from leading studies. In this post, we will look at some of the results of the 2021 edition of the Wyzowl Video Survey, which reports the opinions of marketing professionals and online consumers.

According to Wyzowl (2021) 69% of respondents prefer to watch a video rather than enjoy other types of digital objects.

And if just 18% choose to read an article (website, blog post, or social post), the percentages referring to other content plummet further: 4% prefer an infographic, 3% an ebook, or whitepaper, 3% prefer a webinar or presentation, and 2% prefer a sales call or demo.

Precisely because of its ability to gain the interest of users, combined with the ability to implement a more transparent and comprehensive communication, video is therefore confirmed as a tool that can improve a wide variety of processes and as a resource that can be used successfully by different business functions, primarily but not exclusively, marketing, sales, and HR.

When welcoming new employees to the company or to a different department; when new users need to be familiarized with the functioning of a platform; when it is necessary to inform quickly and directly about the uses of a product and the introduction of new components, in all these cases companies are increasingly choosing to use videos – often personalized and with interactivity – integrating them into their onboarding strategies.

But let’s proceed in order: what are onboarding processes and how have they evolved as digital technologies have spread?

Employee and customer onboarding processes: why managing them is becoming increasingly important

First of all, let’s say that onboarding has always existed: a true nurturing activity, it allows customers and employees of a company to get to know and become familiar with products and procedures.

In order to be successful, an onboarding program – yesterday as well as today, in the “distant” past and in the post-digital era we are living – must provide gradual tutorial content, designed to guide and support users step by step and to familiarize them with a reality they do not yet know, be it the offer of a given product or service or the main aspects of a job position.

It is, if we can say so, a kind of educational service, which allows new users to avoid obstacles or overcome them easily, minimizing friction that could push them to abandon the path designed by the company.

Onboarding is therefore a process of great value and strategic importance. Let’s elaborate.

The value of onboarding: greater loyalty, higher productivity

Whether it’s a training course lasting several weeks, a nimble instruction manual, a tour (physical or virtual) of the organization, or a 15-minute chat with the designated HR mentor, any organization will almost certainly offer some kind of formula for onboarding new hires and welcoming new (or potential) customers.

We know: converting leads into customers is tricky. According to Invesp, acquiring new customers is dramatically more expensive than retaining existing ones. It’s burdensome and time-consuming work that can’t go to waste because new users can’t figure out how to make your product work. So onboarding programs are critical in this regard: they guide customers through the basics of using your product and explain the distinctive features and services that make your company unique.

In the same way, to be able to retain talent that has been painstakingly identified, perhaps after a long selection process, it becomes essential to involve them from the moment they arrive in the company. A solid induction process can create the conditions for new hires to grow faster, so that they can be productive right away. This was highlighted back in 2018 by research from urbanbound, which found that organizations that had implemented a structured onboarding process could count on 50% more productivity for new hires.

The truth is, a solid onboarding process results in increased loyalty and productivity for both customers and employees.

Onboarding accelerates the growth of your business

How you greet your new customers and employees defines the tone, intensity, and degree of engagement of your relationship with them. Optimizing your onboarding processes therefore means:

• Increasing the life cycle value of the relationship (Life Time Value),
• Reducing the abandonment rate,
• Turning new users into fans.

In other words, user onboarding is fundamental for accelerating the growth of your business: by retaining users you can reduce acquisition costs and increase revenues.

Digitization and onboarding: Babelee for innovative company communication

Even in the case of onboarding initiatives, as has happened for all other business processes, digital transformation has enabled and, at the same time, necessitated an advanced type of communication that is capable of supporting companies in their technological modernization.

We are talking about communication capable of satisfying the specific needs of companies dealing with users who are increasingly aware of and comfortable with the use of new technologies, a type of communication that can only be developed through the creation and distribution of advanced content, such as, for example, the onboarding videos generated by Babelee.

Starting from the selection of the most relevant information contained in company databases, the Babelee platform enables the automatic production of dynamic, customizable, and interactive videos. In this way, it is the companies themselves that generate professional videos in the easiest, fastest, and most convenient way, thanks to a new one-to-one campaign approach: creating contextual storytelling.

Let’s pause now for a moment to investigate the characteristics of onboarding videos: what are they for? Why do they prove particularly useful in such a delicate initial phase?

Videos to manage and enliven onboarding processes

Onboarding videos showcase the core features and value proposition of your product or company. They are extremely useful and versatile components that can be used effectively to set up, manage, address, and revitalize customer or employee onboarding flows.

In light of what we’ve already written, the answer to the question “what are onboarding videos for?” should be pretty obvious at this point: onboarding videos are used to introduce your product or brand to potential customers and to welcome new customers and employees and educate them on the features and use of your product or service. These videos have a strong educational and informational focus, but they are also structured to function as welcome devices, that is, to give a friendly “welcome on board” message to newcomers.

Regarding the usefulness, relevance, and functionality of onboarding videos, we can highlight the concrete objectives they help to achieve:

• Demonstrate and explain a product, service, brand or message;
• Train new users and contribute to conversions;
• Support the creation of a better user experience;
• Attract new customers;
• Increase customer and employee retention.

The points made so far about onboarding videos apply to both marketing and HR processes, but there are, of course, differences. Let’s try to provide some clarity.

For Marketing: Customer onboarding videos

A positive onboarding experience confirms to your customers that they made the right choice, and ultimately helps you keep your relationship with them vital after the purchase. Video content is effective in welcoming and educating new users: it has the technical qualities and narrative dimension needed to explain even the most complex ideas quickly and easily. This is why video content is a powerful and flexible solution.

Customer onboarding can solve two age-old problems that plague marketers and salespeople: abandonment and underutilization. Your customers already believe in your product, they just bought it, and yet it can happen that:

• They abandon you because they don’t understand your product or service,
• They misuse your product or service and fail to extract as much value from it as possible.

Here, in order to fully appreciate the features of their purchase, customers need to be taken by the hand. You can do this by making sure their experience using your product is as good as your sales process has been, and lives up to the expectations created by marketing in the decision and conversion stages. If your goal is to create a positive, smooth, engaging customer experience that unfolds seamlessly from the first touchpoint to post-purchase, then relying on video for onboarding is the one that is most likely to capture and hold the attention of your newly acquired customer.

For HR: talent onboarding videos

Let’s now focus on employee onboarding, a central yet greatly overlooked process.

Videos can be useful for encouraging and helping new hires get their bearings with respect to the company’s values, corporate goals, and how workflows operate across departments. Videos welcome employees, educate them on the platforms and tools they use, and align them on process management and information sharing procedures.

Investing in employee onboarding efforts is essential for a number of reasons:

• To familiarize the new employee with the work environment as quickly as possible so that he/she is in a position to start working effectively;
• To show the new employee that you appreciate them. Introducing elements of personalization and interactivity means giving the new employee a voice, recognizing their uniqueness, and offering opportunities for insight and engagement;
• To retain the employee over time (we repeat: replacing an employee is costly, both economically and in terms of the development of knowledge and skills).

Videos: the best solutions to create and manage onboarding processes

Video is the best way to create and manage onboarding processes. They are so for one essential reason that encompasses all the other equally valid reasons listed so far: onboarding video, more than other content, lays a solid foundation for long-term relationships with customers and employees.

Simple and accurate language, the design of pathways with clear and self-explanatory “signage,” the design of navigation without redundancy or friction, the incorporation of contact points for sending and receiving feedback, the suggestion of informational places to expand for further exploration, the inclusion of rewards and encouragement: these are elements that a digital object developed for onboarding must include.

Videos – and in particular Babelee’s videos – encompass all these elements, and are thus able to quickly update customers and employees, to tell the story of the brand’s world, and to transmit its value system at the same time.

Integrating good quality videos into your onboarding strategy can provide a higher ROI, i.e. the return on investment of the individual client and the individual business and increase the loyalty of the individual employee, with a positive impact on their productivity levels.