User operation: How to increase user growth?

The topic of user growth has been the most discussed topic in the past year or so. Most of the content on professional skills in the Internet industry tends to provide Internet practitioners with a fast and replicable growth method. This is just like the exam-oriented education we are used to, where what is summarized are rules (generally choose the option with the longest content in multiple-choice questions, and choose C if there is no longest option, write down the formula first when answering questions regardless of whether you can do it or not, etc.), rather than a summary of ideas and methods.

We are too eager to get a universal method, a simple "formula" or "routine" to deal with growth. For example, we see that sending red envelopes and sharing fission can bring in new users, but without thinking about whether your product is suitable, we blindly follow this routine and spend a lot of money on user subsidies. Therefore, I would like to talk about the actual growth problems and effective methods and ideas based on the growth cases I have done in the past and am currently working on.

Let’s start with misunderstandings. Perhaps your understanding of user growth is not comprehensive, or you may have fallen into a misunderstanding that you haven’t realized yet.

Myth 1: CGO can replace CMO

As user growth becomes more and more popular and there are more and more fission methods, most practitioners in the Internet industry can't help but wonder whether user growth can replace the marketing director. After all, one actually brings instant growth to the product, while the other spends a large budget but may not see significant growth in the data. In fact, there is no doubt that CGO can never replace CMO.

Is it not necessary to consider the target audience of the product when designing fission gameplay? Is it not necessary to consider the internal unity of brand communication when pursuing data effects? Isn’t it necessary to understand the user’s mind when designing the growth of active users and paying users? Isn’t it necessary to combine market analysis to come up with a strategic growth strategy when dealing with users in the decline and churn stages?

I would rather describe the relationship between them using the gameplay of "Honor of Kings": there are 5 people in a team, each of whom plays a different role, with different abilities and functions. Archers are very powerful and lethal, but they die very easily in the early stages, while some supports have basically no lethality but have a lot of blood. The fragile shooter in the early stage needs the cooperation of an auxiliary to help him resist damage and give him time to develop, so that the team has a chance to defeat the opponent.

They are comrades who pushed the crystal together

"Growth Hacker" says that the composition of the growth team should be marketing, operations, data, development, vision, etc., each team should be composed of 2 or 3 members. It is a small team with strong agility, fast speed and result-oriented.

From an organizational perspective, the growth team, marketing team, and operations team should be three independent and highly coordinated teams.

From the perspective of goals, growth is not solely the responsibility of the growth team. In fact, marketing and operations have been responsible for growth for a long time, such as the growth of new users and active users.

Therefore, the relationship between these three teams should be that of comrades-in-arms who "push the crystal" together, rather than a relationship of favoritism, or replacement and being replaced.

So what are the core differences between these three teams?

There is always a difference between junglers, supports, and shooters

Growth is a practical science that requires rapid, efficient and continuous practice, adjustment, optimization, practice, adjustment and optimization again. The results of every action and every strategy can be seen quickly, and we can quickly see whether there is an effect and whether the effect is large or small.

The market is also responsible for growth, but this is a qualitative change caused by a quantitative change, which requires a process and time.

The goal of the market is to achieve mutual recognition between products and potential users.

From a long-term perspective, when competing products emerge, users will not switch because they identify with the brand, culture, identity, and even values.

At this point, there is a clear difference from growth, which also means that CEOs cannot use the same requirements to evaluate the work of the market, and cannot require that every action in the market can bring about a qualitative leap like the requirements for every growth strategy.

Myth 2: All budget should be used for user subsidies, and brand promotion can be replaced

This is a very extreme misunderstanding. There will always be people who say that we cannot use precise data to illustrate the effectiveness of brand promotion. Since it cannot be evaluated, it is better to invest the budget in user subsidies, the effects of which can at least be measured by data.

In fact, under the industrial system, what the market’s brand promotion strives for is: the user’s purchasing decision.

However, what Internet products are competing for now is the user's decision. How to make use of the decision during fragmented time so that users will choose to open your product when consuming fragmented time or solving a certain need.

The user's decision to use the product comes from the recognition of his or her identity role.

Whether a user chooses a new product to try, or chooses to log in to a product that has been used before, we can basically divide the decision path into the following three stages:

1. What product did I use to fulfill my last fragmented time? Is it interesting?
2. Have I heard about this product recently (have I seen friends around me use it)?
3. Should I trust and approve this product?

During this decision-making process, users repeatedly confirm and agree with the product in their minds. Find it from people in the same circle as you, from the product’s image, and from the user experience. All of these come from the positioning and packaging of the products in the market. They are not only reflected in external promotions. Brand positioning also guides operations, and is reflected in the product experience such as internal content presentation, interactive experience, and marketing methods.

Therefore, brand promotion cannot be ignored.

For example: Xianyu’s cooperation with the fourth season of “The Rap of China” was a market brand promotion campaign. The product data did not change much during the broadcast period, at least there was not the surge in daily active users that the CEO expected.

Many people would say that it would be better to use the sponsorship fee to generate fission and user subsidies, which would actually bring about an increase in the number of users.

But, in fact, what everyone didn’t see is that users who watched “Qi Pa Shuo” later got to know Xianyu deeply, and they all thought that Xianyu is a dynamic, youthful, imaginative idle trading community where everything can be sold. Of course, not all sponsorships can play such a role. The user group of QiPaShuo is the potential users positioned by the market brand created by Xianyu, which means that the user group has been accurately identified.

In this way, a beautiful girl born in the 1990s who wants to sell a gift from her ex-boyfriend will definitely not choose Zhuan Zhuan; a white-collar youth who is into handmade leather goods will definitely not choose Zhuan Zhuan when she wants to sell the leather bag she made during the New Year's Day holiday; even a college student who loves curiosity and likes "Qi Pa Shuo" will choose Xianyu first when he wants to buy a second-hand kettle.

This is how the product creates a role or persona through marketing techniques, and reaches mutual recognition with potential users.

Of course, we all want to have both growth and recognition without spending too much money. The key to realizing this idea is: high coordination and cooperation among the growth team, marketing team, and operations team. Putting the focus on any one side will not achieve the effect of having both.

Misunderstanding 3: Growth depends on fission, and fission depends on user subsidies

"Fission and new customer acquisition" is the hottest word in 2018. Speaking of fission, people will think of Pinduoduo, Luckin Coffee, Lian Coffee, Qutoutiao, etc. These products have indeed achieved the effect of increasing their size by using user subsidies to spread and attract new customers. However, if we understand growth as relying solely on fission or user subsidies, then we really do not understand growth.

Focusing only on new additions is irresponsible growth

Growth is reflected in the user's life cycle. Its core is not only to allow more new users to use the product, but also to allow users to use the product more times.

The composition of daily active users is divided into two parts: one part is the number of new users, and the other part is the repeat visits of old users, so growth should be responsible for daily active users, not just limited to new users. (If the APP's goal is GMV, then growth is for new users, new down payment users, and users who make multiple purchases.)

This is an effective growth move made by Xianyu in terms of product:

[Polish] appears on the list page of products posted by users. This function is available under each product. Users can polish it once a day. Each polishing will earn more exposure for the product. This simple design has increased Xianyu’s daily active users several times, giving old users ample motivation to come back again.

This is different from the practice of "signing in daily to receive benefits". The user image of "signing in daily to receive benefits" is very clear. They are the wool-grabbing party and the wool-grabbing users, while the "polish" users are the core users of Xianyu products and the users who are experiencing the value of the product.

The idea behind this growth design is:

1) Find the AHA moments that the product brings to users at different stages

For example, for users who put their products for sale on Xianyu (seller users), their AHA moment is that someone comes to buy them. For users who come to Xianyu specifically to buy second-hand products (buyer users), their AHA moment is that they find the second-hand products they like.

2) Understand user psychology and optimize the design based on this moment

In the product form of most APPs on the market today, there is no longer just one AHA moment. Users with different identities at different stages will have different AHA moments, and these AHA moments are the levers for user growth.

For example, users who post second-hand items on Xianyu are different from users at other stages. Their AHA moment is the moment when the item posted on Xianyu is bought by someone.

For these users, they understand that anything needs to be browsed and consulted before it is sold. Once the product gives them feedback that the product is viewed by xx people, or consulted by someone, they can give them recognition and trust in the product, because these recognition and trust will make them more sticky to the product and become more loyal users.

For growth designers, they need to grasp the user psychology and let the product continuously give users positive feedback. For example, by designing the [Polish] function, users can [polish] the product every day to get product feedback, which means they have the opportunity to be seen by xx people, which also means there is a chance to sell it faster. This successful design brings a stable number of daily active users to the product.

Stop believing in fission. The number of users brought by subsidies is just “vanity data”.

Most apps now believe that using user subsidies such as red envelopes is the fastest way to achieve user growth. In fact, the users brought by this method are the most unreliable users, who may be attracted by subsidies from other competing products at any time, commonly known as "cash-back party".

I have conducted dozens of red envelope activities for different purposes, with total budgets ranging from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions. The average red envelope budget for a single user is around 10 yuan.

After each activity is completed, the user data of the product will show a clear "steep drop". After a month, most of these red envelope users will no longer have daily contact with the product and will become obvious lost users. The user base of the product has indeed increased, but there will still be no breakthrough in daily and monthly active users. The introduction of this group of "freeloaders" may even affect the activity of loyal users of the product, so use subsidy fission with caution.

However, in the following situations or for the following purposes, using subsidies to attract traffic will be effective to a certain extent.

The first type is e-commerce platforms that target GMV, which are suitable for red envelope subsidies.

First of all, promotions and discounts meet the psychological needs of shopping users and are attractive to them.

Secondly, the red envelope budget of the e-commerce platform can be covered by the operating business model, which is the key to the healthy development of a platform.

I have seen many entertainment products that have their own business models and can provide budgets to support one or two user subsidies, but these subsidies can no longer flow into the platform's own operations. Compared with e-commerce platforms, after users receive subsidies, they will consume on the platform, which will promote the circulation of goods on the platform. This subsidy will flow into the platform operation, forming a closed loop. However, subsidies for recreational products are often like an expensive shot of stimulant, which is not always possible even if you have the money.

Second, it is better to use red envelope subsidies for retention rather than new additions.

For non-e-commerce products, when user subsidies cannot ultimately become a closed loop of product operations, you can still try to use red envelope activities, but the distribution method of the activities must be designed for the purpose of retention.

For example, Xianyu will use red envelopes to encourage users to post second-hand items; short video products will also use red envelopes to encourage users to post short videos...

These actions that users are encouraged to take with red envelopes are the core actions of the product and are a necessary prerequisite for users to appreciate the value of the product. Once a user inquires about a second-hand product, or once a user likes a short video, the publisher will be recalled. This is an important tool for product retention. If these users do not actively contact the product, the red envelopes are basically equivalent to wasted hair.

Therefore, after clearly defining retention as the purpose and red envelopes as the means, the gameplay design of the activity can be creative around this.

Continuing with the example of Xianyu, this is a red envelope activity designed for the purpose of DAU.

The two indicators related to DAU are user activity and MAU, while the two indicators related to MAU are the number of new users and the number of recalled users.

The number of new users can be basically calculated through channel distribution and resource conversion, and the number of recalled users can also be understood from the previous churn rate and the effectiveness of recall measures. Basically, during the operation process, we will find that the recall rate will not change much. Therefore, when the new additions can be counted and the recall rate will not change much, the sprint endpoint for DAU is placed on activity.

DAU = user activity x MAU = user activity x (total number of new users per month + number of recalled users)

Xianyu is a c2c second-hand trading community. Users can be divided into individual sellers and buyers. Some users are both buyers and sellers. However, the activity rate of users who have posted second-hand items (regardless of whether they have been purchased or not) is several times that of the overall user activity rate.

Therefore, the key to increasing user activity rate is to increase the volume of sellers, allowing more users to publish second-hand items and become sellers, thereby improving overall user activity and achieving the DAU data target.

So, how to get more users to post second-hand items?

1) Lower the threshold for users to publish

This is not just about lowering the product process and using technology and algorithms to simplify the product information filling on behalf of users, but also about telling users "what can you sell?". Analyze what can be sold from the items that the user has purchased in the past, and set up [One-click Resale] for the user. With one trigger, users can publish structured information and become online treasures.

2) Tell users what to sell

Users often don’t know what they should sell or what they can sell, and they even worry whether selling things is a very troublesome thing. Therefore, tell users what is selling best now and which products have the highest transaction price.

3) Reduce the amount of content you publish

Don’t give up on converting every user. If the first two strategies fail to motivate him to publish effectively, then you need to try to lower the content requirements. For example: guiding users to post purchase information, or guiding users to post "skills" (such as: I can help you photoshop photos).

Some people may worry that such low-quality content will affect the tone of the platform or community, or even think that such content is invalid and cannot help the platform demonstrate its core value.

In fact, lowering the threshold for content to acquire publishing users will not have much impact on the content tone of a community, because the platform can balance it through traffic regulation. On the contrary, this method of lowering content quality to acquire publishing users is very helpful for retention and is a tool for growth.

4) Red envelope activity: the final touch

Profits that motivate users to publish are the finishing touch to all strategies.

The design of red envelopes is not specifically to stimulate users to post. There will definitely be users who post their products because of red envelopes, and there will also be users who need to post products themselves. But no matter which one, they can get red envelopes as long as they post. The red envelopes will continue to grow as time accumulates, and users cannot withdraw cash during this period. Users will not be notified that the total amount of red envelopes can be withdrawn until the sprint DAU period.

This red envelope activity is designed to increase MAU online rate and release UV. The withdrawn red envelopes can only be used on Xianyu, which is a closed loop.

Related reading:

1. User operation: new funnel model for conversion analysis!

2. User operation: How to use B-side operation thinking to increase user growth?

3. Product operation: How to use data analysis to drive product user growth?

4. APP user growth: One model solves 90% of growth problems!

5.How to increase users? Take Pinduoduo and Xiaohongshu as examples

6. Triggering user growth: Is user operation just about attracting new users?

7. User operation: What else can you do to attract new users without fission users?

8. User operation: how can financial products awaken dormant users?

9. User Operation | How to perform user behavior path analysis?

Author: Ruining Rita

Source: Miss Chatterbox