Optimizing Member Retention Through Structured Onboarding Systems

[00:00:40]into thriving sustainable communities and businesses. Um, honestly, uh, I don't think it gets much better than that. Apparently, neither does Heather.

[00:00:47]I'm really excited by that. And her passion lies in teaching others, which is what we are here to do today. So, I'm really excited that we get to talk about how onboarding isn't just a welcome post, it's a true system. And in this session um you're Heather's going to walk us through her onboarding playbook.

[00:01:03]So Heather, thank you. Thank you so much for being here uh for bringing uh your expertise and your passion to this audience. Please tell us what what's the main most exciting thing we can uh hope to uh leave with today.

[00:01:15]>> I probably the most exciting thing is onboarding does not have to be complicated. Keep it simple. So for all of you people that are you know worried about what this actually means, it's going to be super simple. Um, so there's just a few key things that you want to make sure you do and we're going to go over those. We're going to um talk about initially the first seven-day path and and what to kind of look for and then um the badges, automations, and things that go into that and then what to look for for um spotting drop off and and what that what that means. So >> really excited for that, guys. Um, by the way, if you're tuning in, no matter where you're at, if you're in the studio audience, you can drop a comments and thoughts in the chat. Uh, let's keep that vibrant. We can always bring your chats up on screen if you have questions. Um, if we get a little behind on answering the questions as they come in, we'll reserve some time at the end.

[00:02:09]And Heather has said that there is so much to cover here, so many fruitful conversations that can come about that we can find additional ways to carry on beyond the end of the session if we need to. Um, if you're tuning in on YouTube or LinkedIn, your chats will come in to us. Um really appreciate you guys for tuning in there and as that's also a note for everybody who want to know if we have this recorded you can always go and subscribe to us on YouTube or follow us on LinkedIn and you're going to see the recordings uh there for posterity.

[00:02:33]Um also in the hearth which is our customer community. So let's see let's get this kicked off here today. Um Heather I what let's see where where do we even begin when we start to breach this topic? How do you um how do you want to kick us off here? Yeah, I'm going to um start a presentation. I think that's probably the easiest way.

[00:02:54]I'm very visual, so I like um >> So am I. I love it. [laughter] >> I like these kind of kind of things. Um let me >> And while you're pulling that up, I'll make a note to everybody here that if you do have questions, you can put them in the chat. Uh, and if you do want to chat with chat directly with us, you can bring your voice to a question or come up on stage with your camera on if you felt like you wanted to, but you have to be in the studio audience to do those last two bits. So, just wanted to make that note for everybody watching. All right, Heather. Uh, we've got, uh, we got about 30 folks tuned in live right now. So, let's get right into it.

[00:03:27]>> Beautiful. And I see a few people from my community. Um, so I just want to give a special shout out to you. Thank you for coming. Appreciate you.

[00:03:35]>> Thanks for bringing your tribe with you, Heather. [laughter] >> Yes, my tribe is amazing.

[00:03:40]Um, okay. So, we already went over this, but we're going to learn about the onboarding system. Um, I do have a playbook that I'm going to share with everybody at the end. And so, that will hopefully um help to kind of solidify everything. So, don't feel like you need to uh take furious notes, although you're welcome to um or screenshots. We are going to share all of this out uh to you. So, we're going to talk about the simple 7-day path. It's welcome, your first action, and your first win. We're going to talk about badges and automations that build momentum and then elements that matter for spotting drop off. That is a big one.

[00:04:23]Okay. So, most members or I'm sorry, most communities lose their members in the first week. What I mean by that, it's not quite that literal, um, but what I mean by that is if you don't get somebody engaged within that first week, the chances of them dropping off are more likely. And so you want to make sure the whole purpose of onboarding is to get your members, your brand new members, welcome. um to make them feel like they belong to what it is that they've joined, to help them not feel like um they have buyer's remorse if that's the case, you know, and to just get them engaged. And so to do this, um we we want to set up a few a few things uh to make sure that happens. I've got some tips and tricks, you know, as as we go through this. Um, so what doesn't work is generic welcome posts. Just saying, "Hey, welcome. Glad you're here." You want to make it more personalized than that. Um, again, doesn't have to be complicated. Does not have to be long, but you do want to make sure you um customize that. Overwhelming information jumps. So, a lot of people will build their communities with tons and tons of content because they are worried about not having enough things for people to do when they come in. And the other side of that is giving them too much information when they join. Um, and so you want to be careful with that.

[00:06:00]Um, no clear next steps is another thing that you want to avoid. You want to give them kind of pretend like they are your best friend and you're hooking arms with them and you're bringing them on a journey and hoping members figure it out. We're all smart human beings, but we don't all have the same mindset as what the community manager does. And we can't just read um as a member, we can't just read the community manager, the community builder's mind. So we want to make sure that we're guiding them along the way. Um so we want to create a systematic approach that guides the members to their first win. Now when I say first win, that is a key. Um you want to when you have a member join, you want to give them a quick win. And we'll talk about that as as we go as well. So the 7-day onboarding system, we're going to first welcome them. We're going to create a first action and then we're going to create that first one that I just mentioned. So on day one, you want immediate connection, clear expectations, and to remove the friction. Um, I'm going to go into each of these days, this this full seven weeks in more detail. I'm just kind of overviewing it right now. The days two and three, you want that first action to happen. Um, I love it when that h action happens on day one, but you can't always expect that. So, day two and three, you want um that first action. And then days four and seven, you want within that first seven days for it to be a um first win for them to to you know get their first win to solidify that relationship that they're building with the community and give them kind of that dopamine hit.

[00:08:01]And there's a lot of psychology I'm not going to get into behind that.

[00:08:06]Um so day one going into this a little bit deeper immediate connection and clear steps. Um we want to make sure that we're creating the the most important thing is to create that connection with the person that is joining your membership. they have taken the time to at this point fill out their profile information to um upload a picture to you know pay the money even before all of that or if it's free to just make that decision to join right and so we want to bring them to um the reason why they chose we want to make that very clear so one of the or some of the things that I recommend that you do in this first day is and a lot of this can be automated. Um I don't know if we're going to have enough time to get into how to automate all of the things.

[00:09:03]So that's what Mike was kind of hinting at. We I am I am more than happy to talk with anybody on on some of the how-tos if we don't get to them. Um so we're we're going to focus on on the what'ss [laughter] today. The personal welcome message. I re recommend a DM from you.

[00:09:24]Um, this can be very simple. It's automated.

[00:09:29]It's not as much personalized. It's just a, "Hey, welcome to the community." They get the DM. Then I also recommend a popup. Um, when they first sign in in Heartbeat, which is amazing, and they have an an a very automatic onboarding flow, you know. So, Heartbeat is is probably just a little plug, one of the best, if not the best, communities that um that touches on heart or on onboarding right away. And so, they set up a lot of that for you. Um so, there's a lot of pieces that I would be teaching that I don't need to teach, which which is amazing because it's already automatically done. So, these are kind of above and beyond. The reason I like the welcome message and one of the things that I was saying was awesome about it is you can add in confetti or fireworks and it just gives this extra like fun flare. Um, and so I like that message popping up as soon as they fill out their information. They may not see that DM right away. And so, uh, you know, they don't know the the platform yet. And so when you give this popup, it it generates um a fun like, oh, they're, you know, I I'm I'm special, [laughter] which they are. Um the welcome email.

[00:10:52]So, I'm going to touch on this a little bit and and again, this is one of those things that we can't get into a huge amount. However, in the onboarding playbook that I'm giving you, I do have in there templates for wording for all of these things. So, not necessarily wording, but um bullet points. I I guess I should say that more clearly. Um and then you would personalize it to your your voice and and all of that. But the welcome emails, I like to set up a minimum of three. One on the first day so that you know they can um make sure that you're you're welcoming them in email off the platform that they're joining. but with a button always to come back to the platform. So, at this point in the game, you're training people to come back to the platform that they may or may not have ever been on before. If they're not in any other communities and heartbeat, then we've got to train them to get used to it and and all of that. So, that's part of what the welcome emails do. So, I send out one on day one, I send out one on day three, and then I send out one on day six or seven. It, you know, something like that. Um, I will also send out emails after that as like a cadence and checking in and that kind of thing. But since we're specifically talking about onboarding, that's that's where we're kind of leaving it here. And then an extra bonus that I do, and this seems like a lot, but again, keep in mind that they're probably not used to coming to Heartbeat, right? So, we're training them. So, I do a 60-second personalized video welcome. And what that is is a quick loom. And it doesn't matter where I am. I do the um the um I don't know if I'm in the car driving, not literally driving, if I'm a passenger, don't drive and do this. Um if I am, you know, sitting outside, I'm a digital nomad, so I spend a lot of time outside. And so if I'm outside and you know working or um down by the water or whatever and I get a notification that somebody joined my community, I'm going to read quickly read their bio and then I'm going to pick up my phone and it doesn't matter what I look like. I don't care. Um and I'm going to send them a 60 up to 60sec less than 60 seconds. Usually mine are about 30 seconds personalized video. And all it is is, "Hey, super glad you're here."

[00:13:29]Hey, you know, person's name. Hey, Misty, super glad you're here. Um, can't wait to get to know you more.

[00:13:37]I saw in your profile you um are a digital nomad as well. I love that. I am I'm don't meet very many of us, so I can't wait to to talk more about it. Um, that kind of thing. And so you just kind of find something that you have in common with um with them with or you're interested in and you touch on that and then let it go. Send them that and it's an extra special perk to um them joining because they're getting let me kind of back up I guess a little bit. They're getting this message but where it's going is when they fill out their profile. So, this is one of the things I love about Heartbeat is when they when you fill out your profile, answer those questions that you have um put in there. Then those are going to go to a specific uh page. And the page that I always put it to and most people do is the like say hello or the welcome space or whatever it is that you've named it.

[00:14:42]And so that automatically gets put in there. So they don't have to just come in and um create a hey so glad to be here. Can't wait to meet everybody. And it's kind of awkward, you know, whatever. Heartbeat automatically does that for them. And so when they do that, I get the notification. I see that they've posted in there and then I add in my video with a quick welcome message. And so that's, you know, just kind of a little I've gotten a lot of really good feedback on that. That's just a little um extra tip. If you have the time to do it, obviously if you know hundreds of people are joining at one time, you may not be able to do that, but just kind of get creative with some of this um things that you do on day one. And um I create an onboarding course or an onboarding challenge and you can do this in either an on again all of this [laughter] is in the playbook. It's it's hard because I'm not able to like touch on everything and um I wish we had about three hours to do this but um I would not do that to Mike and Misty. So I um I create an onboarding.

[00:15:59]>> Don't be tempting us to book you for three hours, Heather. [laughter] I could talk about community all day long. It's it's >> we could too. [laughter] >> And onboarding is so critical. Um so the onboarding challenge I set it up either in a course format. I like course because I I think it's fun in my community. I I don't want it to be um just lists, you know. I want it to be um very I'm just visual. So I like the onboarding challenge. It also gives them a quick dopamine hit when they are going through when they're um going through this course that is an onboarding challenge and it's telling them to do very specific things um like join an event, say hello to the, you know, three people before you that came into the community. Find a post that resonates with you and and post about it. Um change your notification settings, you know, or verify that they're what you want, those kinds of things. So, you set up this challenge and then um or a checklist and then they get that's like the first win and they've done that within that first week typically. So, we're going to get into that a little bit more um a little bit further down, but that's what I meant by that little the little tip at the bottom.

[00:17:20]Okay, initial touch points. We've already gone through a lot of these. Um, but these are just some ideas. You don't have to do all of these. Again, keep it simple. Um, one of the big things that I recommend besides keeping it simple is you set something up, you test it, you reiterate, you figure out what works and what doesn't, you um, change it up, and then you test again. So, take the pressure off yourself. You You don't have to [laughter] do all of the things I'm mentioning here. These are all just ideas and ways to come up with a good onboarding flow. So, um, initial touch points, the intro video, which is, um, just kind of like a welcome video, the onboarding challenge, which is what I had just mentioned. I like to set that up as a course, uh, start here space that is full of that's heartbeat also sets that up automatically for us. So, we can, um, then expand on that space.

[00:18:20]So, I've got like FAQs in there and how the all the how-tos of um changing changing notification settings, billing, etc. The welcome email, a tour video, so giving a quick um tour video. PS, intro video should be less than 2 minutes long. The tour video should be less than 5 minutes long. Even 5 minutes is too long. Um, so I would recommend keeping that as hard, but keep it at about three minutes. Um, badges, group onboarding calls.

[00:18:56]This is if you have a lot of people coming in at one time, you want to you want to um get them on a call as soon as possible, uh, onboarding checklist, and then the one-on-one onboarding call.

[00:19:09]So, these are just kind of some some examples of things you can do. The one-on-one onboarding is if you don't have a lot of people coming in at one time, why not jump on a call with them to, you know, 15 minutes just to to introduce yourself if they don't know you already and to figure out what it is that they want to get out of the community and what they can contribute.

[00:19:32]Okay, day two to three, first action.

[00:19:35]Um, so you want them to participate in one meaningful activity.

[00:19:42]The trigger options are complete the onboarding challenge, join a specific discussion. Again, you don't have to use all of these. Um, just kind of options for you to put in. So, join a specific discussion, welcome the three members above or below your profile, comment on a recent post, share your first resource or win. Um, in my community, we recommend or we we really value people sharing resources because that's how we all, you know, learn and and um can can kind of see what other people are doing and and see if that works for us. Uh, sign up for an event.

[00:20:23]I want to touch on the event for just a minute. Um, signing up for an or or getting people into an event is really critical. So onboarding in general, one of the most important things the event I would venture to say that first event that they join is probably the next most critical piece. And the reason is if you can get somebody to connect with somebody else, even if it's just that even if they don't say anything, but they're like, "Oh, I resonate with that person because they said this or that person is really smart and I could use some smart in my life." So, I'm going to, you know, make sure to connect with them or whatever the case is. You would be really surprised at them, you know, people coming in. Think about you going into a um like a room uh networking when we used to do networking in person back in the day. Um if they come into you come into a room, I'm I'm an extreme extrovert. However, you get me in a room full of people I don't know and I immediately like close up and I get nervous and I'm like, "Oh," you know, it it's just uncomfortable. So, imagine that that person, that new member is coming into a room and they don't know what to do. They don't know where to go or or exactly what um they're supposed to do. And if you can get them into an event where they're connecting with a person and then they see that person, even if that person is you, um, but they then they see that person posting, right? They're more likely to, oh, I remember this this name. I remember this face, so let me comment on them. And so that is kind of um one of many reasons why events are so critical. But you want to make sure um even if your community is not event heavy that that is something that you um that you incorporate into that first uh few weeks at least of of them coming in. Um you'd be surprised how much that helps in retention.

[00:22:44]All right, day four through seven, you want to make sure that they've gotten their first win by then. One of those things could be the onboarding challenge. So, if like I said before, um if you set it up as a course or as a checklist, either way, then as they're going through and completing that onboarding challenge, they're getting a win. And when I say challenge, it is the like the whole thing probably takes 10 minutes if that. So, it's very quick.

[00:23:14]It's very um when you do it as a course, you can check it off that, you know, yes, I've completed this. And so, again, it helps with them feeling like they've accomplished something without it having to be something that they put a lot of energy and effort into. And that's really important. Um, some other triggers that you could uh that you could do, recognition triggers or shout out for first meaningful contribution. We um I think tend not to and I'm I fail at this in my community giving shoutouts. I will talk about my members all day long, but to actually type in the community and give a shout out, it's not something I do all the time. And um it's something that is really really good. is a good practice to get into because again we're human.

[00:24:04]We want to be recognized. We want to feel important. Um and so that's just something simple that as a au community owner you can do. And then access to exclusive content. Um or a an exclusive channel. That's another way that you can recognize that first win. Um, hey, you've completed whatever it is your challenge or your first thing that you want them to complete. The onboarding challenge is just an example, but you've completed this one thing. You now get access to this additional channel.

[00:24:39]You've unlocked this new feature. Um, and then personal followup from the community manager. So, this is huge. I think a lot of people forget that checking in with your members is like it's simple. It can be automated.

[00:25:00]It doesn't always have to be um depending on what your goals are, but it's really really important because if somebody kind of starts to drop off and nobody notices, why would they stay, right? And so you just are helping to um again reiterate the relationship and you're helping to um solidify that.

[00:25:24]So some badge ideas. We haven't gotten into badges a huge amount um up to this point. Badges are super fun and Heartbeat makes them like chef's kiss.

[00:25:39]they have done such a good job with being able to create and automate badges.

[00:25:46]So, um, some of the ideas are here. You can you can read them. There's a lot of different ones. Heartbeat also has set up a an automated kind of badge. Um, so you can go in and there's templates and you can just set it up from there. So, some examples of ones that I use personally, uh, and I recommend, you know, using these, [snorts] we have a good amount of engagement in my community, but I hadn't played with badges. This was, you know, a while ago when when they were um kind of first being reiterated here in Heartbeat, right? And so, I was like, you know, I need to set the example. So, let me let me play with this. So, I did. that I set up helpful, which is one of the templated ones that Heartbeat has. And I set up um Oh, there's another one and I just lost the name of it.

[00:26:45]>> Power user.

[00:26:46]>> I'm trying to think which one. Was it a power user? I'm trying to think of the templated ones we have. Yeah.

[00:26:51]>> Yep. Thank you. Yeah. So, that one I set up and what happens is there's certain things that they have to do to get those badges. And within a week of me setting them up, I had people starting to compete with, hey, I'm going to get this, you know, this badge. One of my brand new users got it for like right off. And it helped with engagement in a way that I wasn't expecting or planning, but it was really fun. And I even had one of my members stop commenting so that they could lose the power user and then comment again so that they could get it back so that they could watch the confetti. Um, [laughter] >> I love that story. Oh my gosh. Okay.

[00:27:41]>> Yeah, [gasps] I love that. So, it's um it's a lot of it's just a lot of fun.

[00:27:46]You can do a lot of things with it.

[00:27:47]There's another one that you can do um that is a basically when somebody becomes um inactive, you can so if they don't if they don't interact in the community within 30 days, I think that's the way I have it set up. it sends them a DM and it's a trigger because I get the notification that there's a DM sent, right? So besides me checking analytics, it's also a visual trigger for me that oh this DM went out to this person and it's because they haven't been active and it's just hey checking in on you. Is everything okay? Um, and that one, you know, is is another one that no, I'm not going to put the badge on their profile that they're inactive, of course, but I am going to behind the scenes use it for my management, my community management.

[00:28:40]So, just some ideas of things that you can do. You can get really creative with these and it's a lot of fun. Um, okay. And then problems. The thing we don't ever want to talk about, uh, red flags. So, if you have, if the new member has zero engagement after a week, that's a huge red flag. Quick fixes for that. Um, there's several things you can do, but personal outreach, DM or email, that's the simplest one, right? No response.

[00:29:16]And you can set up a um a notification for this for you know the the one week as well. Um I recommend just kind of keeping an eye on it because you can get a little overboard with some of the badges and notifications. Um on on behind the scenes um but that's just depends on what you need. If that didn't make any sense at all what I just said, ignore it. It will make sense to the people that need it. [laughter] Um, no response to a welcome DM. So, if somebody doesn't respond to a welcome DM, then it might be that one, they haven't come into the community. So, you need to kind of check that out. Two, they may not understand where DMs are.

[00:30:01]Um, because they're again learning a new community, a new platform, right? So, one of the things that you can do is lower the friction for their first action. maybe they're overwhelmed by things that are going that you've got, you know, going on. Um, and they just don't know where to start. So, how many of us are they we kind of get that paralyzing um like just stop like we're overwhelmed. I can't do anything. And so, you know, it's a real thing. So, look at your your onboarding and maybe lower the friction for that first action.

[00:30:39]not signing up for an event.

[00:30:41]Again, one of the most important things in my opinion is to get people into an event so that they can meet people and um it it helps with that retention. So maybe just send them your your next office hours invitation personally send them something. So you want to really have those touch points um that we had talked about earlier. You really want to make sure that you're doing personal touch points in that first seven days.

[00:31:11]Yes, a lot of it can be automated. Um, but you also want to want to keep an eye on it. So, this is the automation stack.

[00:31:22]I'm a huge huge huge advocate for automation whenever possible. Um, I also do a lot of personal touch points, but my community is not massive, so I'm able to do that at this point, right? Um, but automation is it's it's just critical.

[00:31:39]It it's it's helps you with not um getting burnt out and it's really important to to uh do this to utilize it wherever possible. So within Heartbeat and many of the other platforms, but since we're specifically talking about Heartbeat, um automation is amazing in here. and you want to um set it up, keep an eye on it, readjust it as needed, and keep going. So, for day one, the automation stack for what I talked about is a welcome DM, a popup welcome, which is just that that popup that they get with the confetti or the um fireworks, and then a welcome and thank you for joining email. So, all of this is um is automated. Days 2 through three, they're going to get that second email that I mentioned. That's going to happen on day three. Days 4 through 7, they're going to get that third email. And then progress celebration for whatever they've accomplished in the community.

[00:32:50]And you want to make sure that your badges are set up and working for um for whatever you want to set it up for. This is this part cuz a lot of these badges aren't going to necessarily come into play until later. But let me go back a couple. Um founder. So, if you're just launching, founder is a great badge because you literally can only get it for either a specific amount of time or a specific amount of people depending on how you do this. And so, this is a great badge for them to get when they first join so that they um they're forever known as the founder.

[00:33:35]It's it's a great a great retention tool. um just kind of a little sided.

[00:33:42]Okay, so action items. You want to choose your onboarding questions. I want to touch on this very briefly because I did not before. Um onboarding questions, like I said, in Heartbeat, you create questions that you want to ask your member when they first join. So I I do a few things in my questions. Um, I think I have five or six questions. I don't recommend it being something they have to fill out that takes a lot amount, you know, a long time because they're going to get distracted and not finish it and then the onboarding isn't complete and and everything that goes on with that.

[00:34:22]But some of the things and you can really have fun with this. Um, the first question that I ask is what is your favorite karaoke or shower song? And I added in shower because some people were like, I don't do karaoke. Well, I don't either, but we all sing our hum at some point. So, what's your favorite car song? Your favorite whatever. And [snorts] the answers that I get not only like share a little bit of insight into that person. Um, because you'd be surprised how much music [laughter] shares about about the person. But the other thing it does or the other thing we do with it is we create a Spotify playlist. So every member that joins I add their favorite song to our Spotify playlist. It is only within the OC, the community that you can see this this playlist and it brings the biggest smile to my face every time I listen to it and I do listen to it often because it's such an eclectic crazy mix of songs. Um, but it is special to my community. So whether they've come or gone and and how you know people come and go over the time, right?

[00:35:39]um those songs stay in there and so the list just keeps growing and it's just kind of a fun way to do that. So get creative with um with that. The other thing that I do with my questions is I ask what they want to get out of the community because we need to know that.

[00:35:56]But I also ask them what they want to give to the community. And the reason I do this is because I don't want them to come in thinking that they're just here to get. They're just here to receive all of the things and then peace out. I want them to also expect that this is a community where we expect them to give back as well. So that is kind of the reason that I add in that question. So again, get creative with your questions.

[00:36:26]Um, setting up your first automation workflow. You can do this right on Heartbeat. You can also do it through an external email. um platform if you want to either way. Uh but you can just set up those those emails to go out automatically um as soon as somebody joins and then creating your badge system. So deciding which badges you want to put in there and then um and then creating that.

[00:36:54]That's very easy and I'm going to give you a little tip with that. Use Pulse.

[00:36:59][laughter] Pulse will create that in seconds for you. So, you can ask for suggestions.

[00:37:06]You can, you know, whatever. Um, if you've got the the badges decided already, just ask it to create them for you, and it will create the the workflows all the way through.

[00:37:17]>> And you don't even need to be clean with how you ask for it. Like, Heather, I I used I my I do my newsletter videos weekly, guys, and I've been doing like pulse exploration now as a theme. I just ramble at it through my voiceto text dictation and it gets this giant paragraph of like tangents and plot twists and all sorts of distractions and it's like yeah no no here's here's your five badges that you need. They could just click here make them if you if they make sense and that's all it takes. It's immediately helpful. So uh if you can ramble it >> it can be made. That's all you need. You don't even have to be like analytically specific with the way you're describing what you're doing.

[00:37:53]>> Right. Right. And it'll it'll ask you it's the coolest thing. It'll ask you, is this what you're looking for? Can I create this? And you say yes, and then it creates it. And then it shows you what it did to create it. So, it's it's um >> it also teaches you like if you wanted to go in and do it manually, you'll you'll know how afterwards.

[00:38:11]>> Exactly. Exactly. Which is really critical. Don't get lazy with with Pulse. Look at what it's teaching you because it is an amazing teacher. Kelly said she just asked Pulse what would be good for her community and it just created her badges for her. [laughter] >> Badges were the best thing >> we did when we built it guys. When we built Pulse we tr we like me from a marketing perspective and the product team who knows how the tool work how heartbeat works like we trained it on what best practices are from a special database that we made. So it's not like it's not learning from people who don't know what they're doing. It's not copying anything you do in your community to learn from. It's just got the best practices that we pre-programmed it with. So, if you're like, "Am I priced too low? Should I have five badges or six?" It'll give you honest answers, right? It'll tell you that based on what we've what we've taught it. So, yeah. Really cool.

[00:39:03]>> I love that. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's a fun fun tool. A fun sidekick.

[00:39:11]>> Sidekick. I love that. Yeah. Sidekick.

[00:39:13]That's the way you guys got to keep dreaming. It's got to come from you. But we'll help. You know, the pulse is good to help you make it happen.

[00:39:18]>> Yes. Absolutely. Um, test it with the next five members. So, this is part of the action. Back to the action items.

[00:39:27]Test it with the next five members. Test it with the next 15 members, whatever.

[00:39:31]Then monitor, adjust, and optimize. Just remember when you're building your community, um, it's going to change in, you know, 3 months, six months. It just is inevitable. Community is ever changing. And so your onboarding needs to keep being resurfaced as well. And um so yeah, just make sure that you are um understanding that you don't what you create doesn't have to be the forever thing. Just start just start creating and then build from there. Um so my final tips are keep it simple, monitor, adjust, optimize. We just talked about that. Um and and just keep keep building on it. Um, so I really appreciate everyone and I see that there was questions coming in. I couldn't keep up with it, so I'm glad that we have Misty and Mike here to do that. Um, so yeah, Mike, I turn it back over to you.

[00:40:28]There's >> I could keep talking, so I'm going to stop.

[00:40:30]>> No, let's let's bring in the questions.

[00:40:32]Thank you guys for all that have forwarded up your questions here. We've got them all logged and timestamped. I'm going to go back to the beginning of the list. Uh, work my way down, and if Misty's got them, uh, able to get up on screen, we'll go from there. But um Alicia >> Alicia asked uh what are the what is the content for emails uh on day three and day seven? What do you normally like to communicate during that time? Is it is it personalized? Is it to your community or is there some templated recommendations that you have?

[00:41:00]>> Yeah. So I do have um a kind of bullet points in the onboarding playbook um that [clears throat] I recommend. It obviously depends on your um what your goals are for the community. I guess that's the easiest way to say it.

[00:41:16]Um what what it is that you want to include in there. Um but yes, I always include these things on each of the emails is a button back to the community. So make sure that you include that. Um, and then I break up the onboarding challenge and I include a couple of things in the first email, a couple of things in the second email, and then a couple of things in that third email. And that way they're getting it from the onboarding challenge. But if they haven't completed everything, then they also are seeing it in the email. It's just a couple different ways.

[00:41:51]>> And Anita, your question about the playbook is that's a resource that Heather is so graciously sharing with everybody. Misty, we're going to get that link over in the chat here. Um, we've got that for everyone. Um, awesome. Uh, another question here, uh, uh, Alicia and Crystal both piled in on this one. Um, and when you come to when it comes to the welcome video, what's your delivery method? Are we thinking DM? Are we thinking email? Uh, is what what how in a welcome thread, what do you recommend?

[00:42:17]>> Yeah, that's a great question. Um, so I put it a couple different places. I put it at the top of the welcome email. So that first email that they get. I also put it in um something we didn't go over. I have well we kind of touched on it but um very briefly in the resources section or the doc section I have a getting started section getting started block and in that um and heartbeat starts that for you. So I just kind of keep adding on to it. Um, and in there I also put the welcome video on that very first um thing. So that that's the first thing they see when they go into the getting started and all of those docs.

[00:42:57]>> Wonderful. All right. Uh, let's see what else we got from Seth. Uh, what are you using for events? Zoom, the native call feature. Uh, just curious preferences on that. Riverside, [laughter] you know.

[00:43:10]>> Hey Seth, good to see you. Um, I use Zoom primarily. Um, I it just works for me. I'm a digital nomad and I need to have that like consistent tool that works. It also filters out old very well. So, [laughter] or when I'm not feeling like getting, you know, fully ready, I can I can filter it. It also um it's very consistent like for for me and that's really important. I'm on satellite. I have to um I have to have the consistent. So that's that's typically what I use. I'm not opposed to other platforms. I also like the fact that um I do have a smaller community.

[00:43:57]It's a very tight-knit community and we like that very close interaction >> and so I like to >> be able to do that. So just >> get everybody in a room. Yeah.

[00:44:07]>> Yeah.

[00:44:08]>> And and Zoom is an integrated um we do have an integration with Zoom. So if you guys make connect your Zoom account to Heartbeat and you make events, you can select the Zoom, it'll automatically make the link. And then the links are authentication checked. So if you have certain parts of your community that can do the meeting and certain parts that can't, whether it's free or paid or two different paid tiers, that's already double checked. When somebody clicks through the link, it redirects to their uh it kind of does an authentication re redirect. So on the back end, it double checks. make sure they still got permission to be there. And that's a great way for you to, you know, make sure that the value is protected in what you make.

[00:44:40]>> Um, >> hey, going back to the last question.

[00:44:43]Um, so Crystal had asked about the welcome video, which you answered. I think Alicia was wanting to know, and Alicia, let me know if you're wrong, if I'm wrong, but um, like where are you sending the personalized video message that you're making? Is that in the DMs or in the email?

[00:44:58]>> Oh. Oh. Oh, okay. Yeah. No, I send that.

[00:45:01]Um, so in Heartbeat, when you fill out those questions, when somebody first joins, it gets put into a channel of your choice. Um, I have it put into the say hello space. And so, um, once I see that somebody has joined, I'll get the notification. I go into that say hello space and I post it right underneath all their information that was just posted.

[00:45:24]So, all the answers to their questions and >> and all of that. Um, and I just post it because it's a Loom link. You can embed it right in there and um, yeah. Yeah.

[00:45:36]Loom link. You can embed it in there and I just write a quick little, you know, message and um, >> and that's it.

[00:45:44]>> Awesome.

[00:45:45]>> Awesome. Uh, >> I just wanted to add real quick. I know like Loom is the down and dirty quick and simple way to do it. So, everybody just do something like that. But like when you're like if you're wanting to automate it later, um I know Bonuro is a good tool for that and I think there's some other tools you can use too where it's like when somebody joins your email list for example, it'll it'll like hook you up in Bonjourro and be like, "Hey, you need to send a message to this person and it'll just be automatic and it'll send it to their email." But I kind of love the idea of having it visible in your community right there on their intro post. That's awesome.

[00:46:18]>> Yeah, some people don't prefer that, so they want to put it send it through DMs.

[00:46:22]And I do have clients that I work with that they prefer that and so I do. I said it makes sense. [laughter] >> Yeah. But I like it being there. I don't know. I just do.

[00:46:32]>> I I like that idea, too.

[00:46:34]>> Awesome. Um, cool. I'm I'm checking on time. We got about eight minutes left. I do want to make sure we have a chance to uh share the u Heather's links and our link. Misty, I know we we normally have a little uh thank you for the folks who are hanging in here through the Q&A. So, if you're staying if you're sticking around, continue sticking around. Just a few more minutes. Um, want to bump through a few more questions if we can here. Um, Kelly had asked regarding the first week win. Is that when I think that was about the timing you were talking about the win during the first week, is this when matchups would be a good idea? Uh, that was about the point in the presentation you were talking, but and by the way, if I missed the the reference there, Kelly, feel free to correct us in the chat.

[00:47:12]>> Um, yes, and it depends on your goal. So, it also depends on how big your community is. It depends on what you want your um community outcomes and experience to be.

[00:47:29]So, I personally don't use matchups in my community because we're small enough right now where that's not a feature.

[00:47:37]We're also I'm a community for community builders. So, it's not something that I necessarily it like if it was a networking um so one of my members in in the OC has a networking community and so yes, I would 100% recommend that and I would recommend it soon. So, yes, within that first seven days. Um, but it's going to depend on on several things and one of those is the size and then the other is uh you know what your what your goals and outcome are for for the community. Sorry, I know that's very vague.

[00:48:17]>> No, I think I think uh I think we got it. Yeah, honestly everybody here is like, "Wow, we have so many options. My bra Lara is not alone here. My brain is on overload." Just it's about picking one thing. thing and as we as we wind through the questions here guys think about the one takeaway you're thinking from this just start with the one takeaway and hold on to that idea for a sec because we're going to share that at the end before we sign off. Um Patrick did ask and I've got like seven more questions so I'm going to see if we can get them guys if we can't we'll spill them over into the hearth Heather can carry on the conversation there. Patrick asks how often do you suggest onboarding events and do you encourage seasoned members to join so they can meet new members?

[00:48:53]>> So um This is another it depends, right? So, if your community is opened, which means that people can join any time. I recommend having if you're having consistent signups, I recommend having an onboarding a welcome um you know, kind of party um at least once a month.

[00:49:17]But if you've got a slow group of people coming in, like you're you're open.

[00:49:22]You're still open. Your community is join at any time, but you're only getting a few. Um because maybe that's not your goal is to get a massive amount of people, which is also fine, right? So then you would want to have it maybe once a quarter. Um and so it just kind of depends. The ways around that are making sure that your onboarding video is uh or your tour video is included in the onboarding challenge and and that kind of thing. Um if it's closed, sorry, I'm going to be really quick. If it's closed, a clo a closed community where people join at a certain time and then you close the doors. So, they have, you know, a week or two to join and then you close the doors. You want to have one or two welcome um events during during that time. I would say one the first week and one the second week if it's a two-eek open just as an example.

[00:50:15]>> I hope that >> wonderful. I think that's a great it's like that's a great uh point to make about the nature of the model it itself of the community and pairing it to that.

[00:50:23]>> Yeah.

[00:50:24]>> Um Misty, did you sneak your own question in the queue here? I see there's a question from Misty in this.

[00:50:29]All right. Do you recommend doing office hours for only paid communities? How frequently and how long do you recommend them to be?

[00:50:38]That's a good question, Misty. Um, [laughter] [gasps] I there's a lot of reasons why I don't Oh, I can't get into that. Okay, we have four minutes. Um, how do [laughter] I I can't hear you.

[00:50:58]Um >> Oh, sorry. It's okay. [laughter] I I would recommend um if it's free, if it's a free community, um having it having a I would not recommend once a week just because you want to be careful of your time, you know, as far as office hours goes. Um I would recommend at least once a month because you still want to have some kind of an event. So, my recommendation, what I typically say is once a month for that and then once a month for some kind of teaching. So, an office hours and then a teaching. Um, if it's paid, I recommend once a week for office hours. Again, it depends. Um, you know, do you have a community manager? Are you the solo soloreneur? And and all of those things.

[00:51:54]You want to protect your your time, your space, your energy, and all of that.

[00:51:59]That's a whole other thing we can get into. Um, but yeah, I have two a week. Um, it's a lot, but it's literally my community is my favorite place to be. So, I I do have two people.

[00:52:14]>> We have we have people from all over the world, so I'm trying to, you know, accommodate different time zones and that kind of thing. So, yeah.

[00:52:21]>> Wonderful. Uh, we have a great question.

[00:52:23]I have a feeling it's going to be just as long of an answer. So guys, I think we're going to spill this question over into the hearth, but I will voice it here. Uh Seth and Kelly were both asking specifically, does your onboarding strategy change if you're using a launch model uh that is time bound and how does what does it look like for a cohort model and testing? I think that's a that's a pretty deep answer, I would think, to that type of question. So guys, what we're going to do is our the hearth, if you're not in there, is our free to join community for community builders. There are I think last I checked 5,000 folks in there. It's big.

[00:52:55]It's well attended. Uh Heather's a member. Heather's awesome and she's in there and we can carry that question >> forward into the hearth. We will also post a link to the recording for this show for this uh session there. Um if you guys are curious, I'll put a link in the chat right now. We do happen to have a town hall tomorrow. We do those monthly where you can come and talk directly to the Heartbeat team and help us co-create the future of what this platform becomes and get teasers about the new stuff that's coming out. Um you can also follow that link. Yeah, >> highly recommend. Yeah, >> wonderful. It sounds like Heather's gonna be there. I'm gonna be there. It's a great time. It's a vibe. Uh really worth sewing up. Uh let's get the playbook link in the chat. And while we do that, oh, look at this. Misty's like reading my mind. Fantastic, guys. That's the playbook link from Heather.

[00:53:38]>> Um and I do also want to call out one thank you from Heartbeat as well. So Heather is giving this playbook to you guys. Grab the link and download it there. Um but if you follow the link below my name in this lower third, right, it's heartbeat. /heather. That is a chance for you if you're on the fence and you thought about maybe I want to start a free trial of Heartbeat. This is a chance for you to get started. All new free trials started between now and midnight uh Eastern time on Friday. Um if you start a trial and then you go through the trial and you decide I want to upgrade, you have the chance to get 50% off for your first three months. And that is true if you start with the starter tier or the growth tier. And this is all the features we just talked about. all the onboarding workflows, pulse is included, events, automations, badges, um, and everything that you need to build a community. Um, the growth tier has some awesome like uh uh like attribution stuff for like if you have paid attri like paid acquisition strategies, if you need more than a thousand members at one point. We have like a lot of things at that tier that are useful, too. Um, we're going to put that link um in the chat. Oh, we got it in there. Thank you, Misty, for doing that. Appreciate you there. Um, and I did mention we have the town hall tomorrow. But as we wrap up, guys, remember I said I want you to think about one thing. Sessions like this, we have so much that we've shared. What is the one thing you guys would take away from this lesson? Let's put that in the chat and just waterfall that out. Send them through because I want Heather to leave feeling good that she left one major takeaway with everybody. Please send that back into the chat if you guys tuned in here. Um, would love to hear what you guys uh took most away from this before we adjourn. And Heather, while they're bringing the lessons in there, any final thoughts you wanted to share while they're sharing those ideas back with us?

[00:55:14]>> Um, no, just I mean, reach out if you have any questions. Um, join the community. If if you are not part of the hearth, join that. It's amazing. If you are not um part of my community, join that. It's amazing. Um, and just keep it simple. Really don't over complicate it.

[00:55:32]Um, but yeah, >> that's what it is. That's what it's guys. And I appreciate those who are sharing the ideas here with that confetti badges. Uh, no need to be perfect, just start. The benefits of a proper onboarding and why it's so important. Badges seem to be popular.

[00:55:46]Uh, personalized welcome video. Okay, there you go. Uh, love the attention you give to new members. Making your community feel appreciated and showing you care always shines through, guys.

[00:55:56]That's exactly what it's about, right?

[00:55:57]We're building a connection of people, not just a transactional product experience. That's the difference between a community and any other e-commerce thing out there. It's about humanto human connection. So wonderful and I second what Seth says here. Great job Heather. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining us for teaching us this topic about onboarding. Guys, again follow us on uh uh uh YouTube, subscribe on YouTube for the replay. Uh follow us on LinkedIn. Uh we have the live stream there. And if you're not in the hearth, please consider joining to get 5,000 peers who are doing the same thing you guys are doing on at your back. And check out tomorrow. We have our town hall uh where we go every month and we talk about what's coming next. So thank you. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Appreciate everybody who is here live. Heather, you hang on one sec.

[00:56:40]We'll be in the green room once we turn off the live stream. But thank you guys so much. It was a pleasure to see you all here and we'll see you at the next tutorial. Have a great time.

[00:56:47]>> Thank you. Thank you.