Mobile app promotion №28. App tutorial
Alexander Sergeevwrote this on Июн 9, 2015
Statistics shows that one of the main tasks for a marketing specialist is to keep users right after app install. This is the very stage (first acquaintance with a product) when most of users leave and never come back to an app. That’s why tutorial plays the most important role in keeping users. Today we’ll discuss tutorials as a part of marketing.
What’s a tutorial?
Tutorial is an important part of many types of mobile apps. The main goal is to introduce interface and product functionality to a user. Also tutorial plays a significant role in keeping users on the first stage of interaction with an app.
If your product has a complex or unusual interface and wide functionality, you should firstly get users acquainted with it by means of a small tutorial. You can see tutorials in games when a gamer is offered to complete a simple trial level with hints. Users are more fastidious and they delete it at once or forget it without going into details.
Principles of creating a tutorial
There are several strategies of creating a tutorial in an app but still you should keep to the following rules:
- brevity is an important quality for tutorials. Don’t overload users with unnecessary information. Give them only what they need to know about basic functions. This way you will save a user’s time and minimize the risk of his/her leaving an app as after an installation users want to use your product straightaway.
- minimum of text. Try not to make users read but show them everything. Use simple animation and even videos.
- progress indicator. It’s a significant part of tutorials. It helps users to understand that it’s a little bit left to do, as you have followed the first rule already.
- possibility to skip a tutorial. This function will be useful for advanced users who will find it easy to grasp all the app functionality or have already used similar products.
Useful tips and methods
- it’s better to see something one time rather than hear about something hundreds of times. Don’t try to create books on your app, teach your users by practice. It’s more efficient and pushes away users less.
- communicate with users on their language, don’t use dry technical phrases. Thus you’ll be able to attach your users and make a tutorial more comprehensible.
- what should you do, if an app is rather complex and its tutorial is too complex or not informative? Dont’s search for golden mean, just divide the tutorial in several parts: a basic one (main functions) and several special ones (on more difficult app possibilities).
- don’t forget about feedback. After completing the tutorial, ask users whether everything is clear. If not, offer them to go to a help section or support.
Tutorial in games
You can often encounter tutorials in games, as they need them most of all. 2 different approaches are usually used there and each one is good:
- a separate easy trial level.
You can interest users in this case showing them various game possibilities which aren’t available on the first levels of the game. This way, they will have an incentive to play till they get a powerful weapon or a fast car. This approach is used for demonstration of game potential.
- tutorial in a game process
An app doesn’t contain a special tutorial level in this case, it’s integrated jointless into a game process. The main advantage of the method is that a user starts to play from the very first moment without spending time on tutorial. But you should show hints any moment if needed.
Conclusion
Tutorial plays an important role as it’s the first thing a user sees when launching an app. You should take into consideration a factor of keeping users while creating a tutorial. If you use simple approaches, you can significantly increase per cent of keeping users on the first stages of interaction with an app.
