How to Master Video Editing for User Onboarding

User onboarding is critical in ensuring your customers’ success with your product. The easier customers find using your products the more useful they’ll find your products. This is likely to lead to repeat purchases.

But how should you educate your customers?

Using user onboarding videos, as videos are among the most effective tools for customer onboarding.

People love watching videos as they’re engaging and informative. Recent statistics reveal that in 2023 people spend an average of 17 hours weekly watching videos.

Image via Statista

This clearly emphasizes the importance of videos in engaging your audience.

However, creating onboarding videos is not as simple as hitting the record button and hoping for the best. To make these videos truly effective, you need to thoughtfully craft and skillfully edit them.

But how can you master the art of video editing for user onboarding?

Don’t worry; we’ve done the research and compiled a set of invaluable techniques to help you achieve just that.

Keep reading!

Six Ways to Use Video Editing to Create Great User Onboarding Videos

Engaging, informative, and visually appealing user onboarding videos can effectively introduce new users to your product or service.

Here are some tips along with user onboarding video examples to help you streamline your customer onboarding process.

1. Add Voiceovers or Captions

Adding voiceovers or captions to your user onboarding videos is a valuable practice as it caters to diverse user preferences and accessibility needs.

Voiceovers involve narrating the content, which can be beneficial for users who prefer auditory learning or have limited reading abilities. A clear and engaging voice can guide users through the onboarding process, making it more intuitive.

Subtitles, on the other hand, cater to those who prefer to read or need the content to be accessible without sound. They are essential for individuals with hearing impairments or for situations where users can’t listen to the audio, such as in a noisy environment.

By offering both voiceovers and captions, you ensure that a wider range of users can easily comprehend and engage with your content.

Make sure you use a good free video editing software that makes it easy to add voiceovers and captions without much hassle. This will help you save time, while also creating highly engaging user onboarding videos.

Here’s a user onboarding video example with great captions by Jotform. It thoroughly guides users through the entire process of creating a form using Jotform, leaving no detail to chance.

Image via YouTube

2. Incorporate Transitions

Smooth transitions are essential for enhancing the overall flow and coherence of a user onboarding video. When transitioning between scenes and steps, it’s crucial to maintain a seamless and visually pleasing transition.

You can employ various transitions to connect different parts of your user onboarding video. These include:

• Fades: Fades create a smooth and gentle transition, reducing visual jarring and maintaining user focus on the content.
• Cuts: Cuts offer a quick and clear shift, ideal for straightforward and decisive transitions.
• Wipes: Wipes add dynamic movement and engagement, enhancing visual interest.
• Dissolves: These convey continuity and the passage of time, aiding in a seamless narrative.
• Sliding or pushing: These transitions can visually connect related content or signify movement.
• Zooms and pans: The transitions provide a closer look at details or a broader perspective, aiding user understanding.
• L-cuts and J-cuts: Such transitions maintain audio continuity, ensuring a smooth auditory transition.
• Crossfades: Crossfades create a pleasing overlap, ensuring a seamless shift between scenes and steps.

Here’s an onboarding video example from Grammarly with great transitions showcasing how you can edit essays faster using Grammarly.

Image via YouTube

3. Use Visual Effects and Graphics

Incorporating visual effects and graphics into your user onboarding videos can significantly enhance their visual appeal and overall effectiveness.

Visual elements add an extra layer of engagement, making the content more interesting and memorable.

You can utilize graphic design tools to create stunning visuals that complement your content and reinforce key points.

Here are the visual effects you can leverage.

• Animations: Animated elements can bring your onboarding video to life. Whether it’s animated characters, transitions, or dynamic infographics, animations make the content more dynamic and engaging.
• Graphics: Including graphics, such as icons, illustrations, and charts, helps simplify complex concepts and make the information easily digestible for viewers.
• Callouts: Using callouts can draw attention to specific elements on the screen, providing additional context or highlighting essential information.
• Overlays: Overlays, such as text overlays, can offer supplementary explanations or translations, making your video more accessible to a wider audience.
• Annotations: Annotations allow you to add explanatory notes or comments to clarify points or provide additional information.

Here’s a user onboarding video example that serves as an introductory course to Slack. It commences with a product tour and provides concise definitions for each feature. It uses visual effects to make the learning process fun.

Image via YouTube

4. Add Interactive Elements

Adding interactive elements to your onboarding videos can significantly enhance its effectiveness. Interactive videos engage viewers actively, turning passive viewers into active participants.

Consider including clickable elements, quizzes, polls, or decision points that allow users to interact with the content.

For example, you can create a quiz that tests their knowledge after presenting important information or offer clickable links for users to explore related topics or features. Such engagement not only reinforces learning but also keeps viewers immersed in the video.

To implement polls effectively, you can utilize a poll maker to design short and engaging polls. These tools provide a user-friendly way to boost user engagement during the onboarding process.

Here’s an example of an onboarding video that captivates viewers right from the start with a thought-provoking question.

Image via YouTube

5. Optimize your Videos for Mobile

Optimizing your onboarding videos for mobile devices is crucial. With a significant number of users accessing content via smartphones and tablets, ensuring mobile-friendliness is paramount.

Recent research shows that 68% of people in the US use smartphones to access digital videos.

Image via Statista

This highlights the importance of adapting your video to smaller screens, using appropriate aspect ratios, and ensuring that text remains legible even on smaller displays.

Prioritizing mobile optimization ensures your onboarding video is accessible and effective, regardless of the platform users choose to engage with, thus maximizing its reach and impact.

Here’s an example of Basecamp’s onboarding video that has been optimized for mobile. It shows how a company can use Basecamp to keep their projects organized.

Image via YouTube

6. Add Music and Sound Effects

The use of background music and sound effects in user onboarding videos can significantly enhance their overall impact and effectiveness.

Background music serves as a crucial element in creating a mood and atmosphere for the video. It can engage viewers emotionally and maintain their interest, making the onboarding experience more enjoyable.

Selecting music that complements your brand or the tone of the video is essential, as it can help convey the desired message and elicit the right emotions from your audience.

Sound effects, when used judiciously, can emphasize and draw attention to important actions or transitions within the video.

For instance, a subtle click sound when a user interacts with an interface element can provide auditory feedback, reinforcing the action and making it more intuitive for the viewer. 

Likewise, a Swoosh sound during a scene transition can smoothen the shift and maintain continuity.

Here’s a video on how to set up a Zoom webinar. This user onboarding video example has great sound effects that make it more captivating.

Image via YouTube

Final Thoughts

User onboarding videos are an indispensable tool for introducing users to your product effectively. They provide a means to connect, educate, and engage with your audience.

Hopefully, the above tips and examples will be valuable in refining your video editing skills for the customer onboarding process. And if you need any help with user onboarding, Inturact can help. Get in touch with us to understand how our agency can help you grow.