Lessons from Netflix' onboarding - More is More? 🤔🧠

This onboarding breakdown was first featured on Growth Insider, ⚡👉 Subscribe to Growth Insider

How do you get more people to sign up for your free trials (and giving you their credit card)?

Hold their personal information for ransom.

Joking...

Let's take a look at a practical way to accomplish this by studying Netflix 👇

1/ Payment screens are high friction steps. People hesitate to pull out their credit cards.

-Maybe they fear commitment.
-Maybe they fear being charged before canceling.
-Maybe they don't have the time to fill out long forms.

Netflix uses a myriad of ways to ease these concerns

2/ They start off by capturing your email. You know... followup sequence and all in case you drop.

3/ Depending on what country you're in, you see a different title and background image (presumably with content relevant to your country's availability, OR top shows). Anime is popular in Japan, hence this title:

4/ Copy matters

Netflix uses words like "finish setting up your account" when we are only getting started. This makes it feel as though the process won't take long

5/ Their onboarding flow pacifies some concerns of whether signing up on X device will work on other platforms.

Instead of letting people guess if it'll work across their devices, they spell it out:

6/ Netflix doesn't just drop people into a single form with passwords... no no. They break the steps out and the password is its own step.

Hey, you've already given them your email, might as well set the password.

Despite double the screens, you'll see just 3 steps 🧠

7/ They take the opportunity to build some rapport with their would-be customers and make it clear they hate paperwork ;)

You'll also notice that the point of the free first month is reiterated a few more times... I wonder why 🤔😁

8/ Trials are scary, you never know if you're going to forget to cancel...

Netflix knows this. They are humans too. Who would have guessed? ;)

So... they put in an extra screen to make sure you feel a bit more at ease

9/ Still, on step 2... the pricing table is something else.

Who wants a non-HD plan? Nobody.

What's Ultra HD? Who knows... but this is vague on purpose. Yeah, we know it's 4k but to the general public that may take them out of the signup flow to do research.

10/ Oh, and did they mention the first month is free?

Just a few more times, in case you didn't know

11/ 🎁⏫ Who doesn't love a free upgrade?

Startups, use this.

Makes it easier to ask for the credit card, ya know.

12/ 🙌 Reassurances, trust-building. Goes a long way!

• Specifies exact date they'll be charged
• Reassures they will send out an email 3 days before
• No commitments. Oh, and as I found out, they auto refund you if you cancel right away.

13/ It's great to offer payment options. PayPal makes it easy to pay, but also easy to cancel.

If possible, offer payment options, or if you're like 99% of startups using Stripe, explain how the user can cancel EASILY without jumping through hoops.

14/ More reassurances to let us know that there are no payments upfront.

I wonder if it has anything to do with PayPal's copy of "Pay with {bank, balance}".

PayPal doesn't make it obvious that no payments are coming out right away, so Netflix makes sure you know

15/ With payments set up, Netflix doesn't just drop people into their accounts. No no.

They personalize your experience so you can get set up quickly and start enjoying shows you like.

Good UX and good for retention.

16/ Pay attention to this copy regarding kids... unless you have them, you may not understand. But once kids are hooked, you're done. You'll be paying for that service forever.

When relevant, get people to invite others or empower them to give gifts (Give friend X, get Y)

17/ Why start with a blank slate when you can recommend something relevant? That's the power of personalization and the secret behind Netflix' retention -- the recommendation engine.

Yeah, sometimes it sucks, but often it works 😂🤣

18/ Real or fake, loading delays make us feel as though some serious work is happening behind the scenes. Gears grinding and all!

Use this if you need to.

A ton more details in the full breakdown.

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