If your B2B client onboarding process feels like herding cats—emails flying, docs lost, and everyone confused—you’re not alone. Most teams cobble together slide decks, PDFs, and spreadsheets and hope for the best. But if you want to look professional and save time, there’s a better way. This guide is for anyone running onboarding for B2B clients who wants to ditch the chaos and actually impress clients (without adding more work for yourself).
Let’s walk through how to use Venngage—an online visual design tool—to make your onboarding cleaner, faster, and honestly just less painful.
1. Map Out What Actually Matters in Your Onboarding
Before you dive into templates and tools, get clear on what you really need in your onboarding process. More isn’t better—most clients just want to know what’s happening, when, and who to talk to if things get weird.
Here’s what’s actually useful to most B2B clients: - A clear welcome overview (what’s next, who’s who) - A timeline or checklist (deadlines, deliverables) - Key contact info (real names, not just “support@”) - A quick FAQ or “what to expect” guide
What to skip: Fancy mission statements and endless org charts. Nobody reads those. Focus on what moves the client forward.
Pro Tip: Ask your last few clients what confused them during onboarding. Fix those points first.
2. Choose the Right Venngage Templates (Don’t Reinvent the Wheel)
Venngage has a ton of templates—timelines, checklists, roadmaps, even onboarding “one-pagers.” Don’t waste time starting from scratch.
How to pick a template: - Go to the template gallery and search for “onboarding,” “timeline,” or “process.” - Look for something that’s simple—less is more. Your client cares about the info, not the clipart. - Pick one main template for your welcome packet and another for your timeline/checklist, if needed.
What works:
- Timeline infographics for showing key dates and milestones
- Checklists for step-by-step tasks (especially good if clients have to do stuff on their end)
- Team intros for making your company less faceless (photos > logos)
What doesn’t:
- Templates overloaded with icons, colors, or jargon. If it looks busy, move on.
3. Customize the Content—But Don’t Overcomplicate It
This part is easy to mess up. Yes, Venngage lets you make things look sharp, but you don’t need to turn onboarding into a design contest.
Stick to these basics: - Update text with your real process and client details - Add your logo and brand colors (but don’t go wild—readability matters more) - Swap in real team photos instead of stock images, if possible - Double-check that every section answers a client question or moves them forward
What to ignore:
Animation, background patterns, and most of the “fun” fonts. They’re distracting and can make your documents look less professional.
Pro Tip: Ask a coworker who’s not in the sales or onboarding team to review your draft. If they’re confused, your client will be too.
4. Make It Interactive (But Only Where It Helps)
Venngage lets you add links, buttons, and even video embeds. Use these features where they actually help, not just to show off.
Where interactivity helps: - Link directly to a kickoff call calendar - Add clickable email addresses for key contacts - Embed a short “Welcome!” video from your team (keep it under 90 seconds)
Where it doesn’t:
- Don’t make everything pop or move. Overdoing it just slows people down.
- Skip auto-playing videos or anything that might break in email attachments.
Pro Tip: Always test your interactive elements in the format you’ll actually send (PDF, web link, etc.). What works in the editor doesn’t always work in the wild.
5. Share Your Onboarding Packet the Smart Way
Venngage lets you download your designs as PDFs or share them as web links. Each has its place:
- PDFs: Good for clients who want to print or file things. Just know interactive features may not work.
- Web links: Best if you want to update info later (like project timelines) or track views. Interactivity works here.
How to choose: - If your client’s IT or security team blocks most outside links, stick with PDFs. - If your process changes often or you want to see if the client actually opens the guide, use a web link.
Pro Tip: Always send a test version to yourself (and a non-company email) before shipping to clients. Check for formatting, broken links, and permission errors.
6. Keep Things Up to Date (Don’t Let Docs Go Stale)
This is where most onboarding systems fall apart. You make a shiny new packet, but six months later, half the info is wrong.
Avoid this by: - Setting a calendar reminder to review templates every quarter - Keeping a simple doc listing every place your onboarding info lives (Venngage, Google Drive, etc.) - Assigning someone to own updates—not “everyone” (which means no one)
What to ignore:
Don’t try to make every onboarding packet 100% custom unless your clients are paying big bucks for white-glove service. Standardize everything you can, then personalize only what matters.
7. Collect Feedback and Actually Use It
After a client goes through onboarding, ask for blunt feedback. Most will ignore you, but a few will give gold.
How to do it: - Add a 1-minute survey link at the end of your onboarding packet (Venngage can handle this with a button) - Ask: “What was confusing?” and “What should we skip next time?” - Resist the urge to ask a dozen questions—keep it simple.
Pro Tip: If you keep hearing about the same confusion or frustration, fix your template before the next client.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Watch Out For
Venngage is great for: - Making onboarding docs look sharp, fast - Keeping info clear and visual (timelines, checklists) - Sharing updates via web links
Venngage isn’t magic: - It won’t fix a bad process—if your onboarding is confusing, design won’t save you. - Collaboration is limited compared to Google Docs or Notion. If you need live editing with clients, this isn’t the tool. - Interactive features can break if you export to PDF—test before you send.
Skip: - Over-designing. Clients just want clarity. - Using Venngage for stuff it’s not built for (like running the whole onboarding workflow).
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Client onboarding doesn’t need to be a mess. Using Venngage lets you clean up your docs, present a professional face, and speed things up for everyone. But don’t get stuck perfecting your first packet. Start simple, ship it, and keep tweaking as you learn. Clients care far more about clarity and follow-through than clever graphics.
The more you reuse and improve your templates, the faster onboarding gets—and the less you’ll dread that next “welcome” email.