User operation practice: skills in building a user growth system!

Building a user growth incentive system can help motivate users to be active. This article analyzes the value and specific components of the user growth system for your reference and learning.

In the previous two articles, we talked about the importance of user label stratification and the "tools" in the hands of operators; today, let's continue to talk about the content of the user growth incentive system and how to build it from 0 to 1 from an operational perspective. I will break it down into multiple articles.

1. What is the value and significance of the user growth system?

Speaking of helping products improve activity, retention, and monetization; why don’t we first think about what the value of operations is?

If we say that the ultimate goal of operation is to make money for the boss. (Of course, you can delete or modify it according to the company's great mission and personal vision.) Then conversely, if you want to make money from users, the prerequisite is that users stay on the product long enough for you to have a chance to make a move.

Going further, if you want users to stay long enough, in addition to constantly iterating the product itself and actively adapting to/meeting the diverse needs of users, the role of operations is to stand on the other side of the product - "human touch", speak for the product and make users active.

The question is, how can we keep users active daily/weekly/monthly? What are the tools that operators can use to meet their needs?

"Tools" refer to the various operation modules to be discussed below. Different modules play different roles, such as helping users get started as quickly as possible, improving daily activity, reducing the risk of churn, tapping into payment capabilities, and meeting users' self-improvement needs, etc. Operations are extracted, innovated, rooted and grown according to the different stages of the product and the different operating rhythms.

So what is the “system”?

In layman's terms, the system connects various operating modules in series to build a "smooth and upward" ladder for users to step on continuously; it maximizes the retention of different users and ultimately enables them to pay.

Okay, now that we have talked about the plain language, let’s move to a more spiritual level so that we can learn more professional vocabulary.

The user growth system is the best combination of "operational means" and "product functions". It can make a product fuller and more interesting. If the user growth system is well done:

• For products: it cultivates user usage habits and improves user life cycle. At the same time, it will be accompanied by the user's "usage frequency" and "loyalty"; it will also help the product to continuously obtain timely needs and grow iteratively.
• For operations: different users are in different life cycles with different purposes. Through a complete user system, they can all find their corresponding positions and have something to do, which can better realize refined operations.
• For business: a complete and mature user system can maximize the commercial value of users. Through the operation of the user system, users can be reached through appropriate activities, discounts, push and other means at different stages of their life.
• For users: The user growth system is the embodiment of product gamification, through which users can increase their understanding and affection for the product and gain self-improvement and satisfaction.

2. What does the user growth system include?

First of all, we need to realize that there are many modules used to build the user system, and they are very diverse; just like Lego, at different stages of the product, the system can be unified or diversified, and the trade-off lies in the operation of combining applications according to the current situation and rhythm.

Well, relatively complete and mature user growth systems are mostly found in well-known TOPAPPs in the market; for example, the TOP3 in the social, film and television, shopping and other category lists, their membership & medals, tasks & activities, points & points mall and other systems will be touched upon. After all, the number of users to be served is large, and the multi-level user needs must be met; therefore, it is also an object of reference for many small and medium-sized project teams, including me.

What exactly does the user growth system include? I will give you a brief explanation based on some APP cases.

First is the "task system"

Based on the usage of product functions and marketing needs, a clear and repeatable channel for users to obtain rewards is built. It is generally divided into five types: sign-in, novice tasks, daily tasks, growth tasks, and marketing tasks.

(1) Daily check-in

If the content modules of your own products are not attractive enough, but you want to maintain user activity, the most basic point is to combine sign-in + daily tasks; sign-in rewards attract users to open the APP, and after users open the APP, there are clear tasks given to users to complete. This structure is very common in various APPs.

(2) Growth tasks

Growth task systems were previously more common in community products, combined with medals/titles/levels and other gameplay; of course, whether or not to consider operating can be weighed based on the type of product. If it is a tool or reading product, I think it can be tried.

For example, reading apps can issue different levels of rewards based on the amount of books users have read. Of course, the rewards given by operators should preferably be more commercial, such as coupons and cards, so as to eventually form a closed loop.

Here is a point that I would like to raise for everyone to think about:

If NetEase Wugu Reading is doing growth tasks, the design purpose is to issue membership coupons of different levels based on the user's cumulative reading volume, thereby driving ordinary/low-paying willingness users to complete the final payment.

The point of controversy is: if the user does not buy at first, will he buy by completing tasks and receiving coupons? How would you judge whether to meet this requirement?

Another example is Himalaya. What do you think of the growth system they have launched? What would the purpose be?

What I can think of is that in addition to building a clear upward ladder for low-paying users, the task can also be used to make it perceptible and comparable to users; whether it is fast or slow, the purpose and function will be different at this time. Because I don't think this task model can drive large payments.

What if these users remain unmoved? Do they still have value?

some. Remember that any user who downloads the app can be asked by the operator to find their location and use it for their own purposes.

(3) Marketing tasks

Among the users of every product, I think there is a group of people who don’t like to spend money but like to get bargains (non-professional wool-gathering parties). Then you can try to do some marketing tasks on the APP, including sharing, commenting, forwarding, using, browsing, attracting new users, etc.

Tasks can be accumulated by number of times and repeated on a daily or weekly basis (user fatigue must be taken into account); finally, the cost paid by users and the operating expenditure cost can be properly proportioned. This type of task is also common in APP.

(4) Newbie tasks

This type of task module is very simple and is also weighed based on product needs. If your product needs to focus on obtaining the user's birthday, age, region, preferences, avatar, nickname, etc., then do it, and then add following public accounts, mini programs, etc.; mainly one-time tasks.

The second part is the "membership system"

There are two types of membership systems: free membership and paid membership. In my operational experience, I have managed two paid systems (installment finance, tools) and one free system (tools). Therefore, I can share some thoughts and experiences on building a membership system from scratch. However, building a membership system from scratch involves a wide range of aspects and is relatively complex. We will talk about it separately in the next article.

Simply put, the basic point of building a free membership system is to sort out all the rights and interests that the product currently has and can have, and give them to users in a graded manner; most of the rights and interests in the product are free and have low development costs.

Building a paid membership system is to package and sell core benefits to users; some operating BD benefits can also be added to increase value. For example, a common way of playing now is to have a double membership for only 199!

The third part is the "achievement system"

Generally, titles and medals are awarded to users based on the number of times or richness of their use of the product. For example, the medal achievement system of the APP is independent. In community products, medals/titles will be combined with growth tasks. I have also combined them with memberships in tool products before. The focus is still on operational thinking.

Secondly, the achievement system is a spiritual encouragement, which can be combined with points and coupons to reward users (with a closed-loop business mindset), and can trigger user sharing in terms of operations; therefore, design-level operations should also be taken seriously.

The fourth part is the "points system"

The points system can also be divided into two types: with a budget and without a budget. With a budget, you can operate on a large scale and play rich games. Without a budget, you can start with product functions and rights and do it in a refined and detailed manner.

Of course, the best prerequisite for building a points system is that when the company's project is profitable, it can take out 1-3% of the profit to support the points mall; in this way, the operation can focus on "points rewards" and give full play to more innovations and gameplay.

Secondly, operators must be clear that if there is a point reward as the entrance, then the exit is the point mall, but the point mall is an expenditure, which is money spent to subsidize users.

Therefore, if there is no clear budget plan or the budget is not properly controlled, and you give out points by completing tasks and activities, but the points are exported in large quantities and redeemed quickly, your boss will think that you are wasting money without creating value. If there are few channels for obtaining points or few products in the points mall, it is better not to do it, because it will be quite embarrassing to put it up there.

Even if a project has no budget, it can also stimulate users to participate in tasks by exchanging points for product functions and benefits. For example, for reading products, points can be exchanged for books, for knowledge products, points can be exchanged for experience courses, and for tool products, points can be exchanged for membership experience cards. There are also many, and the focus is on operational thinking.

The construction of the points system is mostly tied to the task system, and can also be linked to the membership system. It involves a wide range of aspects, and there are many things to consider and weigh, so I will talk about it separately after the membership system.

The fifth part is: "Activity System"

Operations cannot be done without organizing activities. There are many types of activities, but generally speaking, there are three common activities in operations: marketing activities, activation activities, and new customer acquisition activities.

Marketing activities are sales-oriented activities that combine product festivals, national holidays, joint transport cooperation and other forms.

Activation promotion activities are centered around existing users within the APP, with daily/weekly/monthly time units, such as competitions, rankings, team draws, etc., which drive user periodic activity while enriching the fun of the product.

For example, the WeChat Reading APP’s team-building activity to draw unlimited cards is itself an activity to increase user activity, but by fixing it on the APP and pushing this activity to all users, it becomes systematized.

For example, I did an activation activity for my previous tool product: if you use the product for a certain number of hours per week, you can get a membership experience card and participate in a lucky draw on Saturday; the effect was very good.

The new customer acquisition activities can be broken down into smaller parts, and different new customer acquisition rewards can be set according to the different needs/purposes of users at different levels. This type of activity is basically regarded as a product function and has been systematized. 99% of the products on the market are doing this, so there is no need for me to introduce it in detail.

Secondly, the various types of activities mentioned above can be customized. Prepare one or two activities according to different groups of users, and conduct more targeted marketing outreach at their different stages; form an automatic system, which I will talk about separately after the points.

For new customer acquisition activities, please refer to my previous article: "Growth Practice Case: Using Gamified Invitation Fission to Increase New Customers"

The sixth part is the "push system"

There are two types of user message push: on-site push (activity, announcement, system notification), off-site push: APP push, SMS notification;

I have talked about the construction of the recall system in my previous article: " User Operation Practice: Build a User Recall System in Three Steps to Achieve a 10% Recall Rate"; there are also many articles about user recall on the Internet. If you are interested, you can read more of them.

But in fact, as the operation becomes more refined, we often do things like new user guidance push, activity push (layered and group customized marketing activities), anti-silent push, etc., because these copywriting contents can be made into automatic systematization. It reaches users based on their current status, so it is also part of the user system. Of course, as I said before, operations should be determined based on product type evaluation to determine whether to do it and how to do it.

The above are some systematic contents that I have experienced or operated during the operation process. Next, I will break them down one by one and bring in my cases and thoughts in the actual operation process. Stay tuned.

Author: Mao Li

Source: Operational Growth