If you’re in charge of product marketing, you know that it’s not just about your website. To generate more customers or even keep them around and make them happy, you have to think about everything they might see on their journey to become a customer—including the very first steps (aka onboarding).
Even though product tours have been around for a while, and have primarily been used by product teams, they are starting to fade out and be replaced by product flows. The latter is something that’s best used for all the business channels, focusing on not only the goals of the product team but also your customer success and support teams as well.
What is the Difference Between Flows and Tours?
Product flows and product tours are two different ways to guide users through a product. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks, so it’s important to choose the right one for your needs.
Product tours are great for giving users an overview of a product, and simple, step-by-step guides that can be easily followed. However, they can be repetitive and may not offer enough flexibility for users who want to explore a product on their own.
Product flows, on the other hand, are more flexible and can be customized to fit the user’s needs – based on user behavior inside your app or platform. They’re also more engaging since they often include interactive elements like videos and screenshots.
What is a Product Flow?
A product flow is a series of screens or pages that guide a user through a task or series of tasks in an app or website. Each step in the flow is typically represented by a single screen. Flows can also be linear, meaning the user progresses from one screen to the next in a predefined order.
Flows are usually designed to accomplish a specific goal, such as completing a purchase, signing up for a service, or submitting information. They often start with a high-level overview of the steps involved and then get more specific as the user progresses.
They can also be helpful when you want to give users a clear sense of what they need to do in order to complete a task. Product flows are particularly important when onboarding new users since they can provide a gentle introduction to how your app or website works.
Other product flow use cases include omnichannel retargeting and communicating product updates. The beauty is product flows are based on user behavior and event tracking.
How to Design a Good Product Flow
When deciding whether to use a product flow or not, there are a few things to consider. First, think about your audience and what type of tour would be most helpful. After that, you need to analyze your current user’s behavior in order to understand which features and processes within your product your users actually need help with.
Product flows and product tours take two different approaches to designing the user experience of a product. Determining which one is better truly depends on your product and customer experience goals. If you aren’t sure what approach is best for you – remember product flows are good for products that have a specific goal, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service.
What is a Product Tour?
A product tour is more like a guided tour of the product. It highlights different features and shows the user how to use them. Product tours are good for products that are complex or have many features. A product tour can be an effective way to introduce users to your product and help them get the most out of it.
There are a few different types of product tours, but they all have one common goal: to help users learn about and use your product at a first glance.
The most common type of product tour is a walkthrough, which takes the user through the key features of your product one at a time. Other types of product tours include video tours, interactive tours, and live demos.
Product tours are typically created using a tool like WalkMe, which allows you to easily create and customize tour content. Once created, product tours can be embedded on your website or added to your app.
Product Flows Offer More Versatility and Better Customer Experience than Tours
While tours are a great at-a-glance introduction to key features, the ultimate goal is to empower your customers. Since a product flow is a series of screens or pages that guide the user through a task or series of tasks this allows the user to learn at their own pace. Flows are not restricted to onboarding or educating users, but can also be used in retargeting inactive or non-converting users – both inside and out of your platform. They can link various sources and tools within your business to create an omnichannel user experience.
So, which is better? It really depends on what you’re trying to achieve. If you want to help guide users around your product, then a product tour is probably your best bet. If you want to showcase your product’s features and get users excited about using it, and incorporate it into your customer success strategy, then a product flow is probably a better option.
Product Flows vs Product Tours
Which approach is best for your product depends on your goals for the user experience. If you want to focus on user onboarding, continuous enrichment of the user experience, helping the user complete specific tasks, and keeping users engaged whilst preventing churn, then a product flow is a good choice.
If you just want to highlight the different features of your product, then a product tour is for you.