Imagine you arrive in a new city for just one day. How do you get to know the city in such a short time?
You could explore it on your own, but an organized tour will give you more value for your time. A good guide will walk you through the key sights in 3-4 hours, sharing their knowledge and entertaining you with anecdotes along the way.
An onboarding product tour plays a similar role. It guides users through the key product features and reduces the time to value.
But not all product tours are equally effective!
That’s why, in this article, I share 15 excellent product tour examples to inspire your own product tour. You will also learn product tour design best practices and see how to create interactive product tours in Userpilot.
Get The Insights!
The fastest way to learn about Product Growth, Management & Trends.
15 product tour examples that increased user adoption
Without wasting any time, let’s dive into 15 examples of excellent product tours from leading SaaS companies. Make sure to click on the right arrows on the carousels below to explore the different product tour screens.
1. Impala
Impala’s onboarding flow kicks off with a welcome modal. It gives the fundraisers an overview of what to expect and highlights the platform’s purpose: connecting them with foundations likely to support their cause.
Next, Impala uses tooltips to guide fundraisers through specific elements of the platform.
For example, the first tooltip explains the concept of a suggested funder, which helps users understand how the tool recommends potential donors. The next introduces Match Score, one of Imapala’s standout features, and explains how the user can learn more about the funder.
The walkthrough doesn’t just show users around but encourages them to take action, for example, by adding suggested funders to their prospect list.
This structured tour guides new users through Impala’s key features and helps them understand how to leverage the tool for funder prospecting and management.
How effective is it?
Impala has improved its user activation by 100% since implementing Userpilot.
2. Sked Social
Sked Social is a platform designed to streamline and automate managing social media content.
The product tour starts with a modal that provides two onboarding options: a one-on-one call (“Do it with me”) or a self-guided setup (“I’ll do it myself”). This choice ensures users feel supported regardless of their preferences.
The whole onboarding process is organized around a checklist. It guides users through essential tasks like connecting their Instagram accounts or uploading media.
A sequence of slideouts prompting users to complete simple tasks, like scheduling their first post, follows. By focusing on one task at a time, the flow keeps users on track and prevents information overload.
And when they complete the task, a congratulatory message appears to celebrate their progress. This gives users a sense of accomplishment and keeps them motivated to keep exploring the product.
This checklist structure is pretty effective: Sked Social reported a 3x conversion rate increase among users who complete it.
3. Grammarly
The Grammarly onboarding flow starts with a modal that introduces its web editor. It invites users to start a quick tour, during which they can discover Grammarly’s key functionalities.
Once inside, Grammarly uses tooltips to introduce key features, like shortcuts or setting goals.
But it’s not only about theory.
Grammarly provides users with demo content that contains all kinds of errors that the tool can fix. That’s how users experience the tool’s value and learn how to use it at the same time.
4. Canva
Canva’s onboarding tour begins with a simple, friendly login screen offering single sign-in options (SSO) with Google and Facebook. This reduces the time needed to set up the account.
Next, a welcome survey asks users what they’ll use Canva for. The categories include Teacher, Student, Small Business, Large Company, Non-profit, and Personal use. This helps Canva personalize the user experience for different user personas.
How?
By populating their dashboard with the most relevant templates.
Before they get to the dashboard and start creating, users get the option to try Canva Pro for free for a month. The reverse trial showcases Canva’s premium features. Once users experience their value, they’re more likely to renew the subscription.
5. Attention Insight
Just like Impala and Sked Social, Attention Insight organizes its product tour around a checklist with essential onboarding tasks. Breaking down the process like this allows users to focus on one task at a time.
To activate the key features—creating an analysis and defining the Areas of Interest (AOIs)—Attention Insights uses tooltips and modals with videos. These explain how to complete each task.
When the user creates their first analysis, a congratulatory slideout appears to recognize their achievement and motivate them to carry on.
In addition, AI users have access to the resource center with in-depth support materials, which reduces the need for help from support agents and reduces friction.
Since implementing the product tour and support resources using Userpilot, Attention Insight increased activation rates for creating analyses by 47%, while user engagement with AOI tagging increased by 83%.
6. HubSpot
HubSpot onboards new users through a demo account where they can learn how to use the CRM’s key features without worrying about making mistakes.
The product tour starts with an invitation to take a quick demo of the CRM, which is the fastest way to get to know HubSpot’s tools. It promises it will only take 3 minutes, which is more than acceptable for such a tool.
The next step introduces users to a typical marketing campaign scenario and explains that before launching a campaign, they need to organize customer lists centrally, which is what the CRM does.
As users start the tour, tooltips guide them through the contact management process, starting with importing the contacts. The messages don’t just prompt users to act. They also highlight the product benefits.
The 7-step tour continues to walk users through each step, teaching them how to customize the CRM and segment their lists.
Like these Product Tour Examples? Create Yours with Userpilot Today!
7. Loom
Loom begins the onboarding journey by encouraging users to take a 1-minute tour.
The tooltips in the tour focus on features like pausing, restarting, or resuming, which are vital for creating videos, adding background effects for a professional and unique look, or editing out mistakes once they finish recording.
The tour wraps up by introducing Loom’s knowledge base, which is packed with support resources, like tutorials or use cases, which Loom encourages its users to explore to get the most out of its functionalities.
8. Kommunicate
Kommunicate uses a notification banner at the bottom of the screen to remind new users to install the tool – that’s how the product tour begins.
Next, a user onboarding checklist guides new users through the remaining setup steps, focusing on 5-7 key features, for example, integrating the bot platform and customizing the chat widget.
The latter is a particularly important feature for product adoption. That’s why Kommunicate uses an interactive walkthrough to guide users through the process.
The interactive walkthrough (created using Userpilot) increased the feature usage by 3%, while the product adoption rate increased by 4% after the checklist implementation.
9. Groupize
The first modal in the product tour introduces G.G., or the “Groupize Guide,” and explains her purpose and the benefits of engaging with her. Basically, G.G. is like a personal assistant that helps users learn the platform’s functionalities.
G.G. uses modals to guide users through the product features they need to experience its value, like publishing an event. It explains the importance of each step in the event scheduling process and prompts the user to act.
Users can launch these task-specific tours from the resource hub. That’s where they get access to other resources like the learning center, chat, or email support that help them master the product and overcome their issues.
10. Kontentino
Kontentino begins the product tour with a welcome survey that allows them to segment users based on their roles and workflow preferences. Thanks to the information, Kontentino can tailor the onboarding experience to make it relevant.
The second step consists of a welcome modal that introduces Hana, Kontentino’s Head of Customer Success. Such a personal welcome helps build trust and assures new users that help is available, which can reduce anxiety about navigating a new tool.
Kontentino uses tooltips to introduce specific features, like linking their social media accounts. They include engaging language, for example, “Let’s connect your social media profiles!” to drive user action.
After successfully connecting a social media account, users receive a congratulatory message with a GIF, which encourages them to carry on to the next task.
Kontentino observed a 10% increase in activation in the first month after implementing the flow (created using Userpilot).
11. Callbell
Callbell is a multi-channel communication platform that used Userpilot to improve its onboarding process.
Their product tour consists of a checklist that guides new users through essential tasks, like connecting a channel or inviting a team.
To drive feature discovery and adoption, Callbell uses modals and tooltips. For example, one of them allows users to experience the chatbot feature in the browser, or they can scan the QR code to test it on a mobile device.
Some in-app messages include video tutorials, which help users learn how to use the key features.
12. RecruitNow
RecruitNow is a candidate tracking system that helps recruiters streamline the screening process.
Its product tour uses video tutorials and interactive walkthroughs to guide users through the key features. They also get access to a resource center with a range of self-service support materials.
The best part?
The localization feature allows RecruitNow, a Dutch company, to onboard German-speaking customers in Germany and Austria, two of their key target markets.
The implementation of the product tour and self-service support has allowed RecruitNow to expand its customer base while reducing the number of face-to-face training hours from hundreds to four a month.
13. Rocketbots
Rocketbots, like many other companies, uses an onboarding checklist to organize the onboarding tour and guide its users to the Aha! moment.
It includes tasks like ‘Create a space’ or ‘Finish a tutorial.’
To help users complete each of the tasks, the company has created interactive walkthroughs. The sequence of tooltips guides users through key features, their use, and benefits.
After implementing this checklist and walkthroughs, Rocketbots saw a significant boost in user engagement and conversion metrics. Activation rates doubled from 15% to 30%, and conversion rates increased from 3% to 5%. This improvement in onboarding led to a remarkable 300% increase in MRR.
14. Brevo
Brevo’s onboarding tour begins with a modal welcoming new users to the dashboard and highlighting the key benefit of its tools: connecting with customers.
As users proceed, the tour tooltips encourage them to discover Brevo’s array of features, like contact management and multichannel support. The tooltips also explain their value one at a time, asnot to overwhelm them with too much information.
The tour finishes with a pop-up that invites users to visit the Help Center for further help and resources.
15. Google Analytics 4
When Google launched GA4, marketers had been using its previous version, Universal Analytics, for 15 years. That’s a lot of habits to change.
To flatten the learning curve and smoothen the transition to a very different UI, the company created a customer onboarding walkthrough.
The GA4 tour consists of 8 steps. It starts on the Home page with an introductory message highlighting the page’s quick-access metrics.
Subsequent tooltips guide users through the key sections like Reports, Explorations, or Admin in the navigation panel and explain their application and benefits.
Let’s face it: the tour isn’t enough for users to master such a complex tool. However, it helps them find their way around once they start exploring it on their own.
Create Similar Product Tour Examples Code-Free with Userpilot
Tips for creating effective product tours
Having gone over the 15 examples, let’s look at a few best practices that you can learn from them.
Create personalized interactive product tours
If you have more than one user persona, personalize the onboarding tour.
It’s a no-brainer:
As each user persona has different objectives, they also need different features—or use the same features in a different way. A one-size-fits-all approach won’t work because you will distract and overwhelm them with irrelevant guidance.
Start personalization by segmenting your users. Use welcome surveys to gather data about their roles and use cases.
Next, map the user journey for each persona, focusing on the most optimal path to their goals. Path analysis can help find the most common routes users take. Finally, design a flow that guides users along the happy path.
Gamify the product tour to boost engagement
Gamifying product tours can make onboarding more engaging and enjoyable, encourage users to complete the tour faster, and help them retain the information.
Here’s a simple example: a celebratory modal congratulating the user on completing their first onboarding task. By rewarding them, it motivates the user to carry on.
How else can you gamify product tours?
- Add progress bars to show users how far they’ve gone.
- Incorporate challenges, like completing a task within a limited time.
- Embed a story that ties together each tour step.
Enable users to view the product tour on demand
It’s good practice to trigger the product tour as soon as the user logs in.
But here’s the catch:
Many users skip the product tour when they first log in. Or they complete it but don’t pay enough attention and miss important details.
In either case, give your users a chance to view the product tour again whenever they need. For example, by adding it to your resource center.
Include progress indicators to encourage users to complete the tour
I’ve already mentioned progress bars when talking about gamification, but let’s take a closer look at them.
In a nutshell, they’re brilliant!
They motivate users to complete the tour. That’s because they reinforce the Zagairnik effect, a psychological process that makes people carry on until they complete whatever they’ve started. And the closer they are to the end, the stronger the drive.
Progress bars also set clear expectations as to how long the tour is going to take. When users know what they sign up for, they’re less likely to drop out.
Test different flows to choose the best-performing one
A/B testing is one of the most popular kinds of marketing experimentation. You create two versions of the flow, trigger one for 50% of the test sample, while the other 50% gets to see the other version. And watch which performs better.
However, this can be time-consuming when you have lots of versions to test.
Solution? Multivariate tests. They’re just like A/B tests, but you can test multiple variables at the same time.
Userpilot: The best product tour software in the market
Userpilot is a product growth platform with powerful onboarding, feedback, and analytics features. So, it has everything that you need to create product tours.
Build product tours without coding
Creating product tours in Userpilot requires no coding.
First, you choose what UI pattern you want to create (tooltip, modal, slideout, hotspot, banner, or driven action) and pick a template from the library.
Next, you customize it in the visual editor – tweak the layout, change the color patterns, and all that jazz. Repeat this for all the UI patterns in the tour.
Localize the interactive product tour for different user segments
As a SaaS company, you probably have customers from all over the place. If so, why not localize the tour so they can see it in their languages? This makes it more engaging.
Once you enable the localization feature in Userpilot, it translates the in-app pattern copy or survey questions automatically based on the language you choose.
Trigger product walkthroughs contextually
Userpilot allows you to trigger your interactive walkthroughs contextually. This means users see it exactly when they should. For example, when they click or hover over a related feature.
Such triggering makes the guidance more relevant and increases the user’s chances of adopting the feature.
How does it work?
Userpilot offers event-based triggering. You choose an action that the user needs to complete for the tour to start.
Monitor the performance of product tours
Thanks to Userpilot analytics, you can measure the product tour’s performance.
First, you can use Flow analytics to gauge user engagement with your in-app experiences and identify opportunities to improve them. For example, low completion rates may indicate that the tour is irrelevant or confusing.
On a higher level, you can measure the impact of the tours on your key metrics, like user activation, product adoption, or account expansion.
And let’s not forget about the in-app surveys you can use to gather user feedback. For example, you could run them in the middle of the onboarding process to assess how well it meets user needs.
Conclusion
Product tours help users experience the product value and learn how to use it to solve their problems. Could users figure this out on their own? Possibly, but not all of them. Many would simply give up. And even if not, this would take them way more time.
Our product tour examples illustrate the best practices for designing effective onboarding tours. If you’d like to learn more about Userpilot and how to use it to build interactive walkthroughs, book the demo!
FAQs about product tours
Before I let you go, here are answers to some frequently asked questions about product tours.
What is a product tour?
A product tour is an interactive guide that helps new users explore and understand a SaaS product’s key features. Designed to simplify onboarding, it introduces users to the product’s essential functions and helps them to experience its value quickly.
Why use product tours in your user onboarding process?
Product tours are crucial for user onboarding as they remove friction and highlight essential features right from the start. By guiding users through the initial steps, product tours reduce the time to value. This improves user engagement, activation, and retention rates.
What are the different types of product tour UI patterns?
Product tours can take various forms, with each UI pattern serving a unique purpose:
- Tooltips: Box-shaped patterns that provide contextual information and highlight specific elements without requiring user action.
- Modals: Pop-up windows used to showcase new features, capture feedback with surveys, or provide guidance on how to complete a task.
- Slideouts: Similar to modals but usually smaller, they slide in from the side or bottom of the screen instead of popping up.
- Driven actions: Users must complete actions before proceeding, which is perfect for task-based guidance.
- Hotspots: Nonintrusive icons used to draw user attention to specific UI features. When clicked, they offer additional information.
How to build a product walkthrough?
Building a product walkthrough involves several key steps.
First, set your goals, for example, increasing product adoption or improving feature discovery.
Next, analyze user behavior in-app to find the most optimal path to conversion. Use the insights to design the UI pattern sequence.
Finally, conduct A/B tests to choose the best-performing tour and track how well it drives your goals.
Like these Product Tour Examples? Create Yours with Userpilot Today!
About the author
