Use case

Customer onboarding videos that get watched

The first week decides whether a new customer stays. Most onboarding content is a forty-page help centre nobody opens and a kickoff call that covers too much. Short onboarding videos work because they show the one thing the customer needs right now, in the product they just signed up for.

The trick is making them fast enough that you keep them current. That is where Recordio fits.

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Onboarding videos are product walkthroughs with a stricter brief: the viewer is new, in a hurry and probably on mute. Recordio's auto zoom reads the page rather than following the cursor, so each form field is framed whole, which is the difference between a customer copying your setup and squinting at it. The Loom comparison covers why that matters, and the Chrome page explains how the extension records from any browser tab.

What good looks like

What a good onboarding video looks like

  1. 01

    One video per setup step, each under three minutes

    Connect your data, invite your team, set up the first report. Each is its own video with its own link. Nobody wants a twenty-minute tour on day one.

  2. 02

    Starts where the customer starts

    Record from the empty state, not from a fully configured account. The customer needs to recognise their own screen in the first five seconds.

  3. 03

    Framed on the field being filled

    Setup means forms. The video should zoom to the field, dropdown or toggle in play so the customer can read the label and copy what you did.

  4. 04

    Captions, because they will be embedded

    Onboarding videos live in welcome emails, help-centre articles and in-app panels. Captions make them work when the sound is off.

  5. 05

    Kept in one library so they stay current

    When a setup screen changes, you should know exactly which video to re-record. A shared library with one video per step makes that a five-minute job instead of an audit.

How it works

How to record one in Recordio

Four steps. Most of the work happens while you record, not after.

  1. 1 Auto zoom and spotlight

    Record the step from a fresh account

    Open a new workspace, start recording from the extension and complete the step as a customer would. Recordio zooms to each field you fill and spotlights the control you interact with, so the customer can follow along without pausing.

  2. 2 AutoCut and captions

    Trim it and caption it

    AutoCut removes the pauses while keeping the moments where you were typing. On Pro, generate AI captions with word-level timing, fix any product names the model got wrong, and delete a caption line to cut that segment.

  3. 3 Blur and backgrounds

    Make it safe and make it fit

    Blur anything specific to the account you recorded from. Add a background that matches your help centre or email template so the video does not look like a stray screen capture.

  4. 4 Share link and team library

    Put the link where the customer will see it

    On Pro, publish a share link and use it in the welcome email, the help article and the in-app checklist. Watch time shows you where customers stop, which is usually the step that needs a better video. The team library keeps customer success working from the same set.

Example

What it looks like

Word-level captions on an onboarding step, editable in place before the link goes into the welcome email.
Copy and reuse

Onboarding video series plan

Five videos cover most products. Replace the brackets with your own setup steps and record them in order.

1. Welcome (60s): what the product does and the first thing to do
2. Setup step 1: [connect your data / import / install]
3. Setup step 2: [invite your team / set permissions]
4. First win: the first useful result they can get today
5. Where to get help: docs, support hours, who replies

For each video: one step, under 3 minutes, captions on, shared as a link.
Review the set every release: re-record any step whose screen changed.
Who this is for

Teams that record these every week

  • Customer success managers

    Replace the standard kickoff call with a series the customer can watch before you meet.

  • Support leads

    Answer 'how do I set up X' with a link instead of a paragraph, and see whether it was watched.

  • Product-led growth teams

    Put a two-minute video on every empty state and measure which ones move activation.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Can't find what you're looking for? Email us and a human will reply.

Under three minutes each, with one setup step per video. A series of five short videos gets watched; a single fifteen-minute tour gets bookmarked and forgotten. Short videos are also much cheaper to re-record when the product changes.

In the welcome email, the matching help-centre article and the in-app empty state or checklist. On Recordio Pro, each video has a share link you can use in all three places. On the free plan you can download the video at 1080p and host it yourself.

Pro share links report view counts and watch time for each video. If a step is opened often but watched for twenty seconds, the video is not answering the question and is worth re-recording.

Only the video for the step that changed. Because each step is its own short recording and the team library shows them all in one place, updating onboarding after a release takes minutes rather than a full content audit.

Related

Your next product video, done in minutes.

Install the extension, hit record, and let Recordio handle the zooms, spotlights and captions.

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