How to Increase User Engagement With a Salesforce Digital Adoption Platform

The Importance of Salesforce User Engagement and Adoption. If your team isn’t using Salesforce to its full extent, then you’re not maximizing your investment in the platform. The flexibility and versatility of Salesforce makes it an indispensable tool for businesses, but it’s also what makes it a challenging place to navigate for users. Finding information and carrying out key actions can be difficult when the platform is constantly being updated and upgraded to meet company needs.

Many companies invest in Salesforce to support and fuel their business, but for it to be a successful move, employees must embrace the platform fully. Traditional training alone often isn’t enough to propel this. Studies show that 70-90% of the information that is learned during training sessions is forgotten shortly afterward. This “forgetting curve” means that without strengthening and practicing, most users will revert to old habits even after completing Salesforce training.

Digital adoption platforms and strategies aim to bridge this gap by providing ongoing, in-context support that encourages users to change their behavior and fully leverage available tools. Think embedded help and support content in Salesforce, right at the user’s point of need. It’s no surprise that interest in digital adoption solutions is growing quickly to boost user engagement and on-platform success.

Salesforce Standard Tools for User Engagement

Salesforce provides some standard tools out of the box that can help drive user adoption and engagement. These features are built into the platform and can be used at no extra cost:

Tool #1. In-App Guidance

Salesforce Lightning includes an In-App Guidance feature, which lets administrators create pop-up prompts, walk-throughs, and tips for users directly within the interface. For example, you can configure a welcome message for new users or a prompt pointing out a new feature on a page. This guides users through using Salesforce without requiring them to read a manual. However, the customization of these prompts is fairly basic – text and simple graphics – and while you can target them by profile or app, advanced targeting by user role or data context is limited. Additionally, prompts can only be placed in certain blocks on the page layout, which may restrict where and how guidance appears. These prompts also do not function on the Salesforce mobile app, and if you want to use In-App Guidance in Experience Cloud deployments, it requires purchasing additional expensive licenses.

Example of In-App Guidance in Salesforce Org

Tool #2. Standard Help Menu 

The Salesforce interface has the Help Menu, the question mark icon, which can be populated with selected links to knowledge articles, Trailhead modules, or Walkthroughs. Admins can add custom help menu sections with company-specific resources. 

While this is useful for providing static reference material, it relies on users proactively seeking help and may not be context-sensitive enough for complex processes.

Tool #3. Lightning Adoption Metrics

Salesforce’s built-in metrics, available in the Lightning Usage App or through reports, allow you to track simple adoption indicators such as login rates, records created, and active users over time. For instance, you can see the number of users logging in weekly and identify who has never logged in. These metrics provide a starting point to measure engagement. Salesforce recommends monitoring these and correlating them with expected usage patterns: if logins or record updates are lower than anticipated, it may indicate that users need additional training or support.

Lightning Usage App in Salesforce Org

Overall, Salesforce’s standard tools are a useful starting point. They cover basic needs like simple guidance and usage tracking. The downside is that their depth of analytics and level of tailored guidance may not meet the needs of a large or complex rollout. For many organizations, these standard features need to be supplemented with more robust solutions to drive behavior change.

Free Resources to Boost Digital Adoption for Salesforce

In addition to built-in features, there are free resources and apps that Salesforce administrators can leverage to increase adoption and training without breaking the budget:

1. Trailhead in Salesforce

Salesforce Trailhead is a free online learning platform with modules and projects covering all aspects of Salesforce. To support user adoption, admins often compile recommended Trailhead Trailmixes (learning paths) for their teams, for example, a set of modules on Salesforce basics for new sales reps. 

Trailhead content is high quality and up-to-date, which makes it a valuable free training resource. The challenge is making it part of the users’ routine. Some companies hold “Trailhead Tuesday” sessions or friendly competitions to encourage completion. 
To further engage users in Trailhead, Salesforce offers a free app called Trail Tracker that integrates Trailhead learning with your Salesforce org. It allows you to assign Trailhead modules to users and track their completion. This isn’t an in-app guidance tool, but it helps incorporate Salesforce’s free online training into your user adoption program.

Trail Tracker App on AppExchange

2. Salesforce Adoption Dashboards by Salesforce Labs

A popular free option is the Adoption Dashboards App available on the AppExchange. This is a collection of pre-built dashboard components and reports created by Salesforce Labs that visualize key adoption metrics such as active users, logins, records created, and opportunities created. 

Once installed, it provides management with a quick view of how Salesforce usage is trending in the last 30 days or 120 days. For example, one dashboard chart might show the number of active users vs. inactive users this week, and another might break down record creation by user role. 

These dashboards can be customized further to track the metrics that matter for your business processes.

Salesforce Adoption Dashboards on AppExchange

3. Community and User Groups 

Communicating with the Salesforce community can also help drive adoption at no cost. Salesforce user groups and the Trailblazer Community forums contain a wealth of shared tips on increasing user engagement. For instance, admins often share dashboard configurations, onboarding checklists, and communication templates that have worked for them. Taking advantage of these community-created solutions can be a free way to enhance your adoption strategy.

List of Trailblazer communities filtered by Sales Cloud product

4. Salesforce Guides

The Salesforce Resource Center provides a lot of guides that are free to access and contain best practices in various areas of Salesforce use. While these resources offer great advice, they still rely on your organization to execute and don’t provide a technical solution for in-app help.

Salesforce Guides on Salesforce Resource Centre website

Using these free resources can significantly help in understanding and facilitating adoption. They are generally easy to set up: installing an AppExchange dashboard pack or sharing a Trailhead link is straightforward. The main limitation is that these tools are somewhat fragmented – one provides analytics, another provides content on an external site, another provides a bit of tracking – and they may not cover everything you need for a solid Salesforce digital adoption strategy. 

At this point, we move on to consider specialized solutions – a dedicated digital adoption platform for Salesforce that allows for a more integrated approach.

Leveraging a Salesforce Digital Adoption Platform (DAP)

Digital adoption platforms for Salesforce are often purchased via the AppExchange or from an ISV partner. They are specifically designed to provide in-app training, guidance, and analytics on user engagement. These platforms typically overlay on top of Salesforce, and sometimes other applications, to deliver timely help and capture detailed usage data. 

The goal of a digital adoption platform is to ensure users not only learn Salesforce initially but continue to use it correctly and efficiently over time, with less need for classroom training or external reference.

Key capabilities of digital adoption platforms for Salesforce usually include:

Feature #1. Guided Tours and Pop-Ups in Salesforce

Salesforce digital adoption platforms can create multi-step guided walkthroughs for processes. For example, when onboarding a new sales rep, a guided tour might highlight how to create a new Opportunity record step-by-step, with tooltips or dialog boxes pointing to each field, e.g., “Enter the deal name here, then click Next”.

This guidance happens in real time as the user performs the actions, which strengthens learning through practice. Unlike Salesforce’s basic prompts, a digital adoption platform’s guidance can often branch based on user input and be much more interactive.

Feature #2. Contextual Knowledge Delivery

A robust platform will display relevant help content based on where the user is and what they’re doing. This might mean that if a user is on the Contacts page and seems to pause, a small help tab can suggest “View a 2-minute video on how to qualify a lead” or show an FAQ related to Contacts. 

The content can be rich (videos, step-by-step text, images) and is usually maintained by your content authors or trainers. This addresses the “point of need” requirement – giving users help in the flow of work, rather than expecting them to search an external manual.

Feature #3. User Segmentation and Content Targeting: 

Advanced digital adoption platforms for Salesforces allow you to target guidance to specific user segments, for instance, only show a particular tip to sales users in Region A, or to new users who joined this quarter, or to users who have a certain permission set. 

This ensures people see the right help at the right time. Content targeting can be driven by Salesforce data. For example, if a user’s profile is “Customer Support”, they may automatically get different help content than a “Sales” profile. Some platforms even let you target based on real-time data context: e.g., an opportunity’s stage triggers a prompt about next steps.

Feature #4. Deep Analytics and Feedback: 

A digital adoption platform will track detailed usage analytics beyond logins, such as which guides were launched, where users struggled or dropped off in a process, and what help content was viewed most. It can often collect user feedback, like prompting – “Was this helpful?”, or allowing users to rate content. 

These analytics form a feedback loop for continuous improvement. For example, if you notice many users are triggering a help article about creating leads, it might indicate that part of the process is unintuitive and needs simplification or more prominent guidance. With analytics dashboards, admins and trainers get real-time insight into adoption pain points, not just raw usage counts.

Feature #5. Integration with LMS and Knowledge: 

Many platforms can integrate with existing learning management systems (LMS) or knowledge bases (e.g. based on SharePoint or Google Drive) to pull in content. They may also integrate with Salesforce Chatter or email for communications. For instance, if you have formal training documents in SharePoint, a digital adoption platform can link to or embed those inside Salesforce so the user doesn’t have to leave the app to find them. 

Integration with an LMS means you could potentially trigger assignments or check completion of certain courses from within Salesforce. Some adoption platforms, especially those built for Salesforce, are 100% native to Salesforce, which means they reside inside your Salesforce org and can seamlessly leverage your data and user settings without requiring external connectors.

Choosing a Digital Adoption Platform for Salesforce

If we turn to the AppExchange in search of a digital adoption platform, we will find a number of solutions that may be relevant to our needs.

Digital adoption solutions on AppExchange.

The choice of a specific solution should be made individually, weighing all aspects of use, conducting test use, and familiarizing yourself with the terms of the developers’ offers. The key is to assess those offers against your requirements for user engagement.

Some of the existing Salesforce digital adoption platforms solutions have Salesforce connectors or support, often requiring you to install a browser extension. But there are also native Salesforce solutions that work within your organization without the need to integrate third-party services outside of Salesforce while maintaining Salesforce’s status as the “single source of truth”.

As an example of a native Salesforce digital adoption platform, let’s take a quick look at the capabilities of the first relevant solution offered by AppExchange – Digital Adoption Platform for Salesforce from Improved Apps, a UNARIC company.

Digital Adoption Platform for Salesforce from Improved Apps on AppExchange

As a native Salesforce platform, Improved Apps provides solutions that deliver in-app guidance, contextual help, user journey tracking, and critical alert capabilities – all within Salesforce, without relying on browser extensions or web scripts, which also means fewer breakages when layouts or fields change. 

This set of features makes this solution a popular example of a comprehensive Salesforce native digital adoption platform. Because it’s native, it works across Salesforce Lightning, Experience Cloud, the Salesforce mobile app, and even custom Visualforce or Lightning Web Components. The App successfully passed Salesforce’s rigorous security review, confirming high standards in coding, data security, and scalability. 

While we mention Improved Apps as a useful option, especially for those seeking a Salesforce-specialized solution, there are several vendors in the digital adoption space, each with varying strengths. 

To summarize the differences between using Salesforce’s standard tools, relying on free resources, and implementing a dedicated digital adoption platform for Salesforce, see the comparison below.

Comparison of Approaches for How to Increase Salesforce Adoption

Below is a comparison table evaluating two approaches to boosting adoption: 

• Salesforce’s standard tools and free resources offer a solid foundation for basic adoption efforts at no additional cost.
  
• Dedicated digital adoption platforms, which offer deep personalization, proactive guidance, advanced analytics, and scalable adoption strategies. Provide significantly greater value, especially for organizations aiming for large-scale or complex Salesforce rollouts.

For greater clarity, we compare them across dimensions such as cost, setup effort, analytics, customization, integration, and targeting of content.

Approaches for How to Increase Salesforce Adoption
Dimension	Salesforce Standard Tools + Free Resources	Dedicated Digital Adoption Platform
Cost	Free (included with Salesforce or AppExchange)	Paid subscription
Ease of Setup	Easy to moderate setup; basic customization	Moderate setup; tailored to specific workflows
Analytics Depth	Basic (logins, record creation, adoption dashboards)	Advanced analytics (user journeys, content engagement, bottlenecks, geo-location tracking, time-tracking)
Content Customization	Limited customization; mostly static content	Full customization (guides, tooltips, videos, branching flows)
Content Targeting	Basic targeting (profile-based or manual links)	Advanced targeting (role, data context, user behavior)
Integration with LMS/DMS	Minimal or manual linking to external content	Seamless integration with LMS, SharePoint, DMS, and more
User Experience	Requires users to seek help manually; less contextual	Proactive, in-context support embedded into user workflows

Note: The “Free Resources” category can include various support items, so its capabilities vary. We’ve summarized generally, but there may be overlaps.

As the table shows, Salesforce’s built-in tools and free add-ons cover the fundamentals at low cost, but they have limitations in analytics depth, flexibility, and proactive guidance. A complete digital adoption platform Salesforce, like Improved Apps’ solution, offers a far more comprehensive and customizable approach, at the expense of licensing cost and the effort to implement it. 

Many organizations start with the basics and only move to a digital adoption platform when they reach a certain scale or complexity of needs. Others, especially larger enterprises, realize early that a digital adoption platform will save money in the long run by significantly improving user proficiency and reducing support/training costs.

It’s worth mentioning that whichever approach you choose, success also depends on having a solid change management strategy around it. Tools alone don’t guarantee adoption – they need to be part of a broader plan involving leadership support, user feedback loops, and continuous improvement. 

Next, we’ll share some actionable tips that you can apply, regardless of which tools you use, to increase Salesforce adoption and make your training more effective.

Actionable Tips to Increase Salesforce Adoption and Training Effectiveness

Implementing technology like a digital adoption platform for Salesforce can provide the framework for better user engagement, but it should go hand-in-hand with smart practices. Here are some actionable tips to boost Salesforce adoption and user engagement in your organization:

• Start with Executive Buy-In and Champions: Adoption is not just a technology issue, but a people issue. Secure leadership support to emphasize the importance of Salesforce in everyone’s job. Identify power users or respected team members to act as champions in each department. Champions can provide peer-to-peer help and keep momentum going.
  
• Leverage In-App, Contextual Learning: Minimize reliance on lengthy classroom trainings, which people tend to forget, and instead deliver learning at the point of need. Strive for a “zero classroom training” mindset by using in-app guidance, tooltips, and on-demand help content.
  
• Use Analytics to Identify Gaps: Continuously monitor adoption metrics and user behavior to spot where engagement is lagging. Are certain teams or regions not logging in? Is a specific Salesforce feature underutilized? Use this data to take action – maybe a refresher prompt via the DAP, or reach out to low-use individuals for feedback.
  
• Iterate and Adapt Content: Treat user enablement as an ongoing process. Regularly update your in-app help content and training materials based on user feedback and changes in your business processes. When Salesforce is updated or new features are rolled out, make sure guidance is updated simultaneously so users are informed within the app.
  
• Integrate Adoption into Your Change Management Plan: Any Salesforce digital engagement implementation should be part of the broader change management strategy. By embedding adoption efforts into the company culture, through leadership messaging, training, and ongoing support, users are more likely to actively use the platform.
  

By applying these tips with the right mix of tools, you can significantly increase Salesforce adoption and build a culture where Salesforce is an integral part of everyone’s day-to-day work. 

Whether you stick with the basics or invest in a powerful digital adoption platform, the end goal is the same: to make Salesforce so user-friendly and valuable that your people want to use it, thereby unlocking the full potential of your CRM investment.

Final Thoughts on Driving Salesforce User Engagement

An effective user engagement Salesforce strategy starts with the users. How are they most likely to learn, and how can they effectively put their learnings into productive action?

We started by understanding why adoption matters, from ROI impacts to the reality that without engagement, even the best system will sit underutilized. We compared native Salesforce tools and free resources versus a dedicated Salesforce digital adoption platform, examining how each can contribute to better adoption. The comparison shows that while Salesforce’s in-built capabilities offer a good starting point, larger or more complex organizations require a more scalable, built-in adoption solution to sustain long-term user engagement. 

Equipping teams with contextual training and support material, when they need it, and then having the analytical capability to measure, iterate, and perfect your messaging and placement will lead to improved engagement and efficiency long-term.

With this approach, you’ll turn Salesforce from just another system into a productivity engine that users rely on every day, and that is the true mark of a successful Salesforce digital adoption journey.