Case Study: How a Two-Person Marketplace Cut Churn 28% by Rewriting Onboarding Copy

Design · 4 min read

A niche marketplace connecting freelance therapists with clinics saw strong sign-up numbers but a recurring issue: new therapists rarely completed their profiles and disappeared within two weeks. With no capacity for a full UI overhaul, the product lead ran a two-week experiment centered on content and microcopy.

The team mapped the onboarding funnel, rewrote field labels to be action-oriented (e.g., “Add 3 specialties clients search for” instead of “Specialties”), replaced ambiguous error messages, and introduced a simple checklist that showed tangible benefits of each completed item. They also added brief social proofs inline — “60 clinics viewed profiles with full availability” — to communicate value early.

A/B testing showed a 28% decrease in 14-day churn for the revised onboarding cohort and a 14% increase in profile completion rates. The case demonstrates that for early-stage products, clarity and motivation often outperform visual redesigns when it comes to behavior change.