The Onboarding Behind My $40K/Month App (Full Breakdown) — Transcript

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1. 0:00If you're building a mobile app right
2. 0:01now, there is one thing that will make
3. 0:04or break your revenue. And it's not your
4. 0:06idea, your design, or your marketing.
5. 0:08>> Your onboarding is the single most
6. 0:10important part of your app because an
7. 0:13app is nothing more than a sales funnel.
8. 0:15>> This is Mao. He built a mobile app that
9. 0:17makes over $40,000 a month, and he is a
10. 0:20genius when it comes to building
11. 0:23onboarding flows that convert.
12. 0:25>> Every screen before hitting the paywall
13. 0:27is just building a case of why the user
14. 0:30should pay you.
15. 0:30>> So, I asked him to come on to the
16. 0:32channel to do a full screen-by-screen
17. 0:34breakdown of his entire onboarding flow
18. 0:36that turned his app into a $40,000 per
19. 0:39month business. He's going to walk us
20. 0:41through the psychology, the design
21. 0:43choices, and why every single screen is
22. 0:46placed exactly where it is. By the end
23. 0:48of this video, you're going to learn why
24. 0:50making your onboarding longer can
25. 0:52actually triple your conversions, the
26. 0:54exact screen that gets one in eight
27. 0:57users to leave a review, and the
28. 0:59psychology tricks that convince users to
29. 1:01buy before they ever even hit the
30. 1:04paywall. If you're building anything in
31. 1:05mobile, this might be the most important
32. 1:07video you'll watch this year. All right,
33. 1:10let's get into it. Welcome to Starter
34. 1:11Story Build.
35. 1:14All right, guys. Before we dive in, we
36. 1:15talked to Mao for 40 to 50 minutes, and
37. 1:18we couldn't include everything in this
38. 1:20final video. So, after watching this
39. 1:22video, if you want to download the
40. 1:23extended version of Mao's onboarding
41. 1:25guide that has all of his screens, all
42. 1:27the tactics, and everything, just head
43. 1:29to the first link in the description to
44. 1:30grab it for free. All right, let's dive
45. 1:32in. Okay, Mao, welcome back to the
46. 1:34channel. You did an awesome video about
47. 1:37this awesome app that you built, and we
48. 1:39asked you to come back to talk about one
49. 1:40thing that a lot of people asked about
50. 1:41in the comments, which is onboarding.
51. 1:43But, if you could remind us real quick
52. 1:45about who you are, what you built, and
53. 1:47how your app is doing now.
54. 1:49>> Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me
55. 1:50on, Pat. So, my name is Mao Bern, and I
56. 1:53built a mobile app that makes over 40K a
57. 1:55month. And I don't have, you know, a
58. 1:57design background or a UX background at
59. 1:59all. I studied finance in college. I'm
60. 2:01just a guy who taught himself about AI.
61. 2:03But, what I do have is the experience of
62. 2:06building a few mobile apps from scratch,
63. 2:08just completely obsessing over what
64. 2:10actually makes them convert. Through
65. 2:12trial and error, I started iterating my
66. 2:14onboarding since studying what I
67. 2:16considered to be, you know, the best
68. 2:17onboardings in the market. And, you
69. 2:19know, everything changed, and that's
70. 2:20when my app started skyrocketing.
71. 2:22>> I hear a lot of people on the channel
72. 2:23talk about this onboarding and how
73. 2:25important it is with mobile apps, but
74. 2:27could you just explain what that means?
75. 2:28Like, what is onboarding and why is it
76. 2:31so important?
77. 2:32>> Yes, I'm going to sound like a broken
78. 2:33record, but your onboarding is the
79. 2:36single most important part of your app
80. 2:38because an app is nothing more than a
81. 2:40sales funnel. When a user first opens
82. 2:42your app, they have zero context about
83. 2:45what your app does. They don't know, you
84. 2:46know, if it's going to solve their
85. 2:48problem. And this is why the onboarding
86. 2:50matters even more right now. Every
87. 2:52screen before hitting the paywall is
88. 2:54just building a case of why the user
89. 2:56should pay you.
90. 2:57>> Okay, cool. I want you to give me the
91. 2:58high-level overview of how to set up an
92. 3:00onboarding. What are like the pillars of
93. 3:02onboarding that pretty much any app
94. 3:05should have?
95. 3:05>> So, onboardings are like a story. They
96. 3:09have an introduction, a climax, and a
97. 3:11conclusion. Every screen serves a
98. 3:14purpose, and most of them have nothing
99. 3:16to do with the product itself. They're
100. 3:18about making user feel heard, making
101. 3:20them reflect, and making them convince
102. 3:22themselves that they need your app. So,
103. 3:24just keep that in mind as we go through
104. 3:26this.
105. 3:26>> Okay, cool. So, let's go through the
106. 3:28three pillars. So, it's introduction,
107. 3:30climax, and conclusion. Let's dive into
108. 3:33the introduction side of things right
109. 3:35now. Can you walk me through all the
110. 3:37concepts in here and all the screens of
111. 3:39your app?
112. 3:40>> So, I actually have four principles in
113. 3:42the introduction section of the
114. 3:43onboarding. The first one being that you
115. 3:45need to frame the problem and solution
116. 3:47in the first three screens of your app.
117. 3:49The sooner the better, cuz confusion
118. 3:51honestly just kills conversions. And
119. 3:53users need to know exactly what they're
120. 3:55getting themselves into. In Prayer
121. 3:56Lock's case, the way we do it is we
122. 3:58welcome you, and then in the second
123. 4:00screen, right there, we tell you, "Hey,
124. 4:01like, did you ever feel like your phone
125. 4:02gets more attention than God?" We're
126. 4:04already framing the problem of phone
127. 4:06addiction, social media addiction. And
128. 4:08then in the third screen, we give you a
129. 4:10solution in very simple terms. Prayer
130. 4:13Lock helps you put God first. So, right
131. 4:15there, we're framing the exact problem
132. 4:17the user has. And the user knows exactly
133. 4:19what they're going to get from the app.
134. 4:21The second principle of the introduction
135. 4:23is to give the users an aha moment in
136. 4:26under a minute. Hit them with a stat or
137. 4:29realization that is very personal to
138. 4:32them. The way we do that in Prayer
139. 4:34Lock's case is actually very unhinged
140. 4:36cuz we ask you first for your name, then
141. 4:39we ask their age and how long they are
142. 4:41on their phone each day. And whatever
143. 4:44they answer, in the next screen, they
144. 4:46always get a stat that kind of just
145. 4:48blows them away. Which is on average,
146. 4:50they're going to use their phone 16
147. 4:52years over their lifetime. But then we
148. 4:54tell them, "Hey, don't worry. We are the
149. 4:56solution." Again, do you have just 5
150. 4:58minutes for God each day? Let's build a
151. 5:00plan for you. And then the next
152. 5:01principle of the onboarding is to ask
153. 5:03questions. Now, most people think that
154. 5:06the questions are so that you as the app
155. 5:08maker get to know more about your users,
156. 5:12but that's not the case at all. What you
157. 5:13actually want to do is to make the users
158. 5:16convince themselves that this is an app
159. 5:19that they need. In Prayer Lock's case,
160. 5:21again, we just ask very personal
161. 5:22questions that we already know the user
162. 5:24struggle with, like thinking bigger,
163. 5:26what does a thriving faith look like to
164. 5:28you? And each answer choice is very
165. 5:29deliberate. The fourth principle of the
166. 5:31introduction is that you need to reflect
167. 5:35the user's answers back at them. So, if
168. 5:37in your onboarding, you ask a question
169. 5:39about social media addiction, and they
170. 5:40tell you, "Yes, I have social media
171. 5:41addiction."
172. 5:43In the next screen, you would say, "Hey,
173. 5:45we feel that you have social media
174. 5:46addiction." So, in PrayerLock's case, we
175. 5:48ask him, "What do you want to achieve
176. 5:50with PrayerLock?" They say, "I want to
177. 5:51put God first before my phone, build
178. 5:53consistent prayer habits, etc." We just
179. 5:55spit those same answers right back at
180. 5:56them in the next screen. And this sounds
181. 5:58silly, but what this does is makes the
182. 6:00user feel heard, makes the user feel
183. 6:02like this is going to be a personalized
184. 6:04experience for them. And then something
185. 6:05to keep in mind, longer onboardings will
186. 6:07do better. In PrayerLock's old
187. 6:09onboarding, we had only around 20
188. 6:11screens, and our conversion rate with
189. 6:13free trial was around 3%. When we
190. 6:16updated the onboarding to be more than
191. 6:1910 to 15 minutes long depending on the
192. 6:20user, our conversion rate 5x'd to 15%.
193. 6:24The reason this happens is because of
194. 6:26something called loss aversion. And
195. 6:28people in general would rather not lose
196. 6:31than win something. So, by the time they
197. 6:33get to the paywall, they're thinking,
198. 6:35"Hey, I already invested 10 minutes, so
199. 6:37I might as well just give it a shot and
200. 6:38start the trial. Why not?"
201. 6:40>> Mal's onboarding principles are
202. 6:42incredible. If you're building anything
203. 6:44in mobile, this is gold. We actually
204. 6:46ended up recording a lot longer than
205. 6:48what we could include here in this
206. 6:50Starter Story Build YouTube video. So,
207. 6:52we actually asked Mal to write up a
208. 6:53detailed guide on how to create an epic
209. 6:56onboarding flow that converts. And
210. 6:58inside we go on an even deeper dive into
211. 7:00each screen he sets up and why. He'll
212. 7:02break down every single screen, why it
213. 7:04works, and how you can implement it
214. 7:06inside your app. Just head to the link
215. 7:08in the description and download it for
216. 7:10free. All right, let's get back into the
217. 7:11video. Okay, let's move to the second
218. 7:14pillar of onboarding. What did you call
219. 7:16this section? Let's dive in.
220. 7:18>> So, the second part of your onboarding
221. 7:20is the climax. And again, I have two
222. 7:23principles for the climax part of the
223. 7:24story. As in any story, the climax
224. 7:27should be the most exhilarating, fuse
225. 7:29with the most fun, the most entertaining
226. 7:30part. The easiest way to get that done
227. 7:33is through the first principle. Let the
228. 7:35user actually try your main feature
229. 7:38during the onboarding. In PrayerLock's
230. 7:40case, the way we do it is we ask you two
231. 7:42questions and then we generate a prayer
232. 7:44for you. Then the second principle of
233. 7:46the climax on your onboarding is getting
234. 7:48them to leave a review. And the screen
235. 7:50that actually gets them to convert on a
236. 7:52review is showing some type of
237. 7:54gamification aspect, some type of
238. 7:56streak.
239. 7:57In our case, we show their first day
240. 7:58streak of their prayer journey with a
241. 8:00little fire animation. But after showing
242. 8:03that, we then hit them with the review
243. 8:05model. And one of the reasons why
244. 8:06reviews are so important is because most
245. 8:09users will actually never pay,
246. 8:11especially if it's a hard paywall app.
247. 8:14So a review is the next best thing they
248. 8:16can give you. So don't waste that moment
249. 8:18by showing the review model either too
250. 8:20early where the user still getting
251. 8:22familiar with your app or too late where
252. 8:25the emotional peak has already died
253. 8:28down.
254. 8:29>> Wow, this is super cool. I'm actually on
255. 8:31the App Store listing right now and you
256. 8:33have like thousands and thousands of
257. 8:34reviews. Why get so many reviews? What's
258. 8:37the purpose of having a lot of reviews?
259. 8:38Does it bring you more revenue or why do
260. 8:40that?
261. 8:41>> So actually reviews do two things for
262. 8:42you.
263. 8:43The first one and the most important one
264. 8:45is social proof. When you're about to
265. 8:47download the app and you know, in the
266. 8:48App Store and you see 13,000 reviews,
267. 8:51like that gives you much more confidence
268. 8:53that this is you know, something that
269. 8:54you might want to download cuz a lot of
270. 8:56people have done it too. And then the
271. 8:57other reason is for ASO. You know, it's
272. 8:59just how well you rank on the App Store.
273. 9:02So you want to make sure that you're at
274. 9:03least ranking at number one in your
275. 9:06app's name keyword. So my app is called
276. 9:08Prayer Lock. I want to make sure I'm
277. 9:10number one for Prayer Lock.
278. 9:12>> Okay, so let's move to the next pillar.
279. 9:14What's the final pillar of a great
280. 9:16onboarding? Can you walk us through
281. 9:17that?
282. 9:18>> Yeah, so the last pillar of your
283. 9:19onboarding is of course the conclusion.
284. 9:21And for the conclusion, I have three
285. 9:23principles. The first one is to show
286. 9:24them a summary of their journey. You
287. 9:26know, where they are, where they want to
288. 9:28go and how your app gets them there. And
289. 9:30a lot of this stuff sounds very
290. 9:32repetitive because in the introduction
291. 9:34of the onboarding, we were actually
292. 9:36reflecting back the answers. But you
293. 9:37want to keep doing that. Remember,
294. 9:39people, especially young people, have
295. 9:41short attention spans. So, it's a good
296. 9:43thing to be repeating yourself
297. 9:44constantly. In our app's case, we
298. 9:47actually first show them a little
299. 9:48summary here, tell them, "Hey, you're
300. 9:50going to have a prayer habit in 30
301. 9:52days." Try to always connect your app to
302. 9:54a certain habit that they can achieve in
303. 9:56an X amount of days. And then the second
304. 9:58and actually controversial principle is
305. 10:00to tell your users up front that your
306. 10:03app is paid, only if you have a free
307. 10:05trial. If you don't, I would say skip
308. 10:07this cuz you might lose a lot of people
309. 10:09there. And then compare your app against
310. 10:11something they already pay for in real
311. 10:13life. In Prayer Lock's case, we have
312. 10:15this screen where we compare the cost of
313. 10:18one coffee a month to spiritual peace.
314. 10:20So, you want to make the user be
315. 10:22thinking of your app as something that
316. 10:24is very worth it compared to, you know,
317. 10:26some other usual thing that they do with
318. 10:27their day. And then the third and last
319. 10:29principle is to try to get the user to
320. 10:32say that they are committed to using
321. 10:34your app. In our app's case, we
322. 10:36literally just asked them, "Hey, how
323. 10:37committed are you to making this feature
324. 10:39happen?" And usually, we have found that
325. 10:4195% of them will either answer extremely
326. 10:43committed or very committed. If they
327. 10:46were to answer any other thing, we have
328. 10:47custom copy for that situation. And then
329. 10:50as your last screen, I would recommend a
330. 10:53social proof screen, like the one we
331. 10:54have here. And yeah, that's it for the
332. 10:56onboarding. After of course, you have
333. 10:58your paywall, but don't overthink this
334. 11:00part too much. You know, the paywall is
335. 11:02actually not as important as people
336. 11:04might think, at least in the beginning.
337. 11:06The only thing I would say you should
338. 11:08add in your paywall is a notification
339. 11:10reminder 1 day before their trial ends.
340. 11:13That's like the only thing I would say
341. 11:15to focus on for your paywall.
342. 11:17>> Okay, cool. I think a lot of people
343. 11:18watching this might be wondering, "Okay,
344. 11:20this is cool. You showed me your
345. 11:21onboarding. This works great for you.
346. 11:23But what about everyone else that's
347. 11:24building apps? Will this work for them?
348. 11:26What changes would you make?" Uh
349. 11:30what would you have to say about this?
350. 11:31>> So, actually, I wasn't the first one
351. 11:33that did this. I took inspiration from
352. 11:35other apps like Twitter, like CalA I.
353. 11:38You know, a lot of these apps already
354. 11:40have very long onboardings and already
355. 11:42have the principles that I just
356. 11:44described. And if you're thinking it
357. 11:46might not work for your app, just keep
358. 11:48in mind that CalA I was just acquired
359. 11:50for probably multiple nine figures and
360. 11:52they have one of the longest onboardings
361. 11:54in the mobile app space. So, it
362. 11:55definitely works for your app. Just make
363. 11:57sure you follow the principles that I
364. 11:59laid out.
365. 12:00>> Okay, so last question I have, but
366. 12:01before I want to touch on it. You might
367. 12:02be watching this and thinking, "Okay,
368. 12:04this is cool, but how do I get users?"
369. 12:05Well, I'll put a link in the description
370. 12:06down there. Go watch our previous
371. 12:08starter story interview with Mao where
372. 12:10he talks all about that, uh, social
373. 12:12media and how he drives a lot of people
374. 12:14to actually check out the app and then
375. 12:16go check out the onboarding. So,
376. 12:17definitely check that out. Last question
377. 12:19that I have for you, Mao, is for anyone
378. 12:21that is building an app, but they're
379. 12:23want to figure out how I could do
380. 12:25onboarding uh, and do what you've done,
381. 12:28which is built an app from basically
382. 12:29zero to $40,000 a month. What would be
383. 12:31your main piece of advice?
384. 12:32>> So, I would say before you touch your
385. 12:34product, before you add useless
386. 12:36features,
387. 12:37obsess over two things. Obsess over
388. 12:40marketing first and then over your
389. 12:43onboarding. Do that until you hit at
390. 12:46least a 10% download to trial rate. Then
391. 12:48everything else comes after that.
392. 12:51>> Thanks for coming on, Mao, sharing all
393. 12:53this. I think people are going to really
394. 12:54enjoy it and uh, put a note in the
395. 12:56comments what you want to see Mao talk
396. 12:58about next. We can talk about
397. 12:59distribution, we can talk about
398. 13:01anything. So, put a comment in there.
399. 13:02Thanks, Mao, for coming on and sharing.
400. 13:04>> Of course. Thank you, Pat.