APP promotion: building user levels from 0 to 1

A useful or interesting APP user rating system can promote a virtuous cycle of product activity or conversion.

The APP user rating system is an important part of user loyalty. Simply put, we need to design a set of beneficial or interesting rules to keep users using the product continuously, and daily operational activities and product optimization are all carried out on a "point-to-point" user operation.

An APP will definitely need a coordinated and long-term operation method to retain users and form its own user loyalty system to promote a virtuous cycle of both APP activity and conversion.

The rating system is also an effective means of guiding users and helping them recognize their own value.

For example, we often see these data presented to us: Alipay’s financial management income outperformed 98% of financial friends in Guangdong Province, and the computer running speed beat 99% of users...

My Ant membership is platinum, and I need xxx points to upgrade to diamond. I also have gold membership and mass membership...

These data are actually my value and positioning in the APP. Through ranking comparison, I can understand more intuitively that my computer is very fast, my financial investment is relatively large, and in Alipay there is a group of werewolves who are more ruthless than me and are diamond members.

So, how to build an APP user level system from scratch?

Before this, most of what we have seen are theories. Many articles will tell us the meaning, advantages, and elements of construction of user levels, but almost no article can tell us how to execute the construction process.

Therefore, I will briefly talk about the practical operation of building an APP platform with 170 million users.

1. Background of Building a User Level System

I believe that most of the problems encountered by operations are nothing more than these:

1. User Questions

No platform relationship established:

Low frequency of use, no two-way relationship with users;

User positioning is ambiguous:

Without a sticky foundation and growth system, it is difficult for users to find their identity and generate other incentives besides activity rewards.

1. Platform issues

Lack of sticky functionality:

The main features of the current platform are high volume and low frequency, lack of sticky functions, and decreasing retention;

Lack of user segmentation:

The platform has a large user base and no user segmentation, making it impossible to carry out refined operations.

So, how to solve the above problems?

1. Users - Increase sense of belonging and identity

Improve user stickiness, provide users with attractive identity positioning, and provide corresponding value-added services based on identity positioning, so that users can gain benefits and deepen the emotional connection with the platform.

1. Platform - Improve user loyalty

Conduct user stratification, promote refined operations, guide user growth and upgrades, increase the landing points of products and operations, accumulate user portrait big data, and enhance the platform's own value.

Therefore, we deduce that building a user rating system can solve the above problems and achieve a win-win situation for the platform and users: users gain benefits and emotions, and the platform achieves activity and conversion .

2. Purpose of the rating system

The purpose of the grading system remains the same: to promote activity and consumption.

• Promote users to upgrade actively and enhance consumption motivation;
• Realize user stratification and promote refined operations;
• Achieve win-win situation between platform and users: users gain benefits and emotions, and the platform achieves activity and conversion.

3. User rating system and user loyalty

User loyalty is a very broad concept, which includes levels, points, user behavior, user psychology, etc., and the level system is an important part of it, or the basis for its implementation.

Since I want to talk about the point system separately later, this time I will compare the level system with the point system, and analyze the role of both levels and points in promoting user loyalty.

ps: This is also the problem with this article. In practice, due to some practical limitations, the level system I made must be separated from the points.

1. Levels and Points

Many apps use points as the basic value of levels, and the number of points is equivalent to the level. This method is suitable for most level systems, but levels and points are two different systems. Simply put, points are tools and levels are the foundation .

Points: Provide operational tools for user loyalty.

The main paths of the points system are acquisition and consumption. Points are used to establish a real relationship between users and the platform, giving real meaning to user behavior. It is a tool for proactive operations.

The main functions of integration:

1. Promote vitality;
2. Retention;
3. Improve the use of basic functions.

Level: Provides a basis for user loyalty.

The main path of the user level system is user growth and rights utilization. Growth is a continuous action aimed at guiding users to be autonomous and active.

The main role of the level:

1. User positioning: The level clearly identifies and distinguishes between low-frequency active users and high-frequency active users, and how to move from low frequency to high frequency;
2. Promotion of activation and retention: The user's identity on the platform is a platform relationship. Through the upward channel and level rights, users are attracted to continue to upgrade to ensure the activation and retention effect;
3. User levels play a key role in user modeling.

1. Tier system and user loyalty

Divide users into levels and growth paths to encourage them to create value for the product, which generally includes direct value and indirect value:

• Direct value: revenue conversion, active stickiness;
• Indirect value: brand promotion, penetration of platform culture, and bringing other users into the growth system.

The rating system promotes user loyalty in three ways:

1. Improve perceived value

The act of purchasing platform products ≠ the product;

The act of purchasing platform products = products + platform services + added value + accumulated incentives.

2. Improve user satisfaction

User satisfaction is the satisfaction of user expectations and value experience. The added value brought by the growth system helps to enhance user value experience, thereby improving satisfaction.

For example: most people go to Haidilao not because the food is delicious, but because the service improves customer satisfaction.

3. Improve attitude loyalty

Improve user habitual behavioral loyalty to user attitude loyalty, and enhance platform value and recognition.

For example: you often go to the supermarket downstairs just because it is convenient and habitual, and changing supermarkets has no effect on you; you are loyal to a certain brand of clothes, for the same sweater, you are willing to spend more time and even money to buy this brand rather than buying a similar sweater from another brand.

1. Relationship diagram between points, levels and user loyalty

The points and level system promotes user behavior, allowing scattered user behaviors to be managed in a systematic manner, ultimately achieving user conversion and loyalty enhancement.

4. Competitive Product Analysis

Before we talk about “how to do it”, let’s take a look at some of the more successful products on the market, taking financial products as an example:

1. Alipay - Ant Member

(Picture from the Internet)

• Level division: user accumulates points within one year
• Points value: redeemable, consumable
• Grade calculation cycle: one year
• User stratification: four layers
• Popular Member, Gold Member, Platinum Member, Diamond Member
• Features: Membership benefits are attractive, high-level benefits are significantly differentiated, and high-level members are given obvious benefits in operational activities: the red envelopes for diamond members in the Wufu event are more than 10 times that of other levels; comprehensive coverage of scenarios, from online to offline, from domestic to overseas; seize the user's desire to show off - level is equivalent to a symbol of wealth value
• Summary: Level rights are the biggest attraction, and universal wealth value is reflected
• Reference: Equity attraction, wealth manifestation

1. China Merchants Bank Credit Card - Player Plan

(Picture from the Internet)

• Level division: Each level has a fixed number of people, and users can only "maintain their level" by constantly upgrading.
• Points value: Level points can be exchanged for corresponding benefits
• Level calculation cycle: one month
• User stratification: five layers
• Level privileges: Currently, the attraction is mainly reflected in star privileges - birthday privileges, lottery privileges, preferential privileges, discount coupon privileges
• Features: The levels are divided according to the fixed level ranking, and there is no fixed level score
• Summary: The current benefits of the player plan are not outstanding, but most of them are combined with the platform's own unique services, and the points exchange will be the focus in the future.
• Reference: Platform features, value-added services

1. Differences

In summary, the differences between the two competing products are the time dimension and the score dimension , which is also the choice we will face when dividing the levels.

Ant membership is based on time, with the goal of promoting continuous activity and attracting new members. After reaching a certain level, users can enjoy the level benefits within a certain period of time.

​The player plan uses scores as dimensions, with the aim of promoting the activity of core users. Each level has a fixed number of people, and people with higher scores will squeeze out users with lower scores. It is almost like the lower-class people looking up at the fight between gods.

Considering the actual situation and needs of the APP, I chose to divide it into time dimensions.

5. How to classify

I divide the classification into three steps: defining the level - how to obtain it - the role of the level.

1. Data analysis of current platform user distribution

Since it is clear that the purpose of dividing levels is to promote consumption conversion and promote activity, the platform's paying users and active users are the basis and dimension of our division.

Let’s first look at the distribution and proportion of the two types of users on the platform. We can see that users who are truly valuable to the platform account for 42% of all users.

1. Hierarchy pyramid

According to the pyramid model, divide the existing users into groups and then plan how to optimize the hierarchical structure.

Generally speaking, the higher the user level in the pyramid, the less likely they are to be pulled in. Therefore, the number of people pulled in at each level should be differentiated . The following figure is only used as an example, and the goal set is relatively simple:

1. User behavior map

After determining the valuable user range, we need to know:

• What are these valuable users doing in the app?
• What do we want to guide them to do?

The above is the basis of user behavior map.

To determine the user behavior map, you need to start with the data, obtain the app’s historical data, and guide user behavior based on the data and product functions .

For example: What actions will a deep user take on the financial management path? What do we want users to do?

Browse products - open financial management - pay attention to market trends - receive income reminders - continue financial management.

Then we need to write the core function of this path into the user behavior map to prepare for the definition of the growth score. We need to figure out why users are given growth values ​​when they perform certain behaviors, and why some behaviors have high growth values ​​while others have low growth values?

The determining factors include: first, the user's regular behavior; second, what behaviors the operating product wants to guide users to do .

1. Give meaning to behavior - growth value

The levels have been divided, and the levels are mainly reflected through growth values. The higher the user's growth value, the higher the level .

Then, the division of growth value is related to the cost of the level and its attractiveness to users.

The growth value should be divided into three categories:

• Single reward: for the first opening and activation, the focus is on guiding users to experience product functions. The first experience is the basis for establishing a user system;
• Daily rewards: daily login, browsing, participation in activities, etc., focusing on forming user stickiness and guiding users to understand the rules;
• Consumption rewards: rewards are given based on consumption amount and frequency to encourage conversion and promote payment.

5. User upgrade path

Once the levels are online, they become closely related to user behavior.

• The level is tied to the user. When the user is associated with the platform, the level is generated.
• User level, user behavior, and points redemption form a closed loop, which promotes continuous user level retention while users upgrade.
• The growth value is valid for one year. After reaching the level, the level will be maintained for one year and recalculated after one year.

1. Level Benefits

Many APPs use level benefits as the focus of attracting users. Of course, users’ needs for APPs are profit and value , so making level benefits attractive is indeed a key step in winning at the level level.

So how do you set up attractive tiered benefits?

​In social psychology research, understanding the factors that influence other people's behavior helps users achieve our expectations.

In the setting of hierarchical benefits, paying attention to consistency, authority, reciprocity, user preferences, a certain degree of social recognition and scarcity are the keys to gaining user recognition. Therefore, hierarchical benefits should start from four directions:

• Platform value: What are the users’ needs for the platform and what is the platform’s own value?
• Social recognition: The rating system of Alipay and credit cards is almost equivalent to the value of personal property
• Actual incentives: actual benefits
• Identity differentiation: Differentiate between high-level and low-level users, whether it is visual differences (nickname display, personal homepage) or rights and interests differences, using 80% of resources to serve 20% of the people

1. Simulate the growth time of users with different tags

The user's growth time determines the attractiveness and cost of the level. Generally speaking, the growth value of the highest level is almost out of reach, but the growth value beyond the highest level should give users a feeling that "you can get it immediately with a little effort."

Therefore, only by simulating the growth value that users with different behaviors and characteristics may obtain on the platform can we reasonably formulate the upgrade threshold and time.

Generally speaking, we take the average number of active days on the platform as an example, and select four user samples with an average of 6 days of activity:

• High-frequency paying and high-frequency active users;
• High-frequency paying but low-frequency active users;
• High frequency active non-paying users;
• Low-frequency active non-paying users.

Based on the above user groups and the basic framework of the user behavior map , we simulated the range of points that the user might get each month and calculated the average time required for each user to upgrade.

It should be noted here that payment is a shortcut to upgrade, and RMB players are higher than diligent free users , so the highest level LV4 should widen the gap between paying and non-paying.

1. Upgrade cycle

According to the level hierarchy and behavior values ​​divided above, and taking into account factors such as platform user behavior characteristics, daily active days, level cost investment, etc., the growth value required for each level upgrade is set.

1. What changes does the level bring to user tags?

Corresponding to the pyramid model and various rights and interests, the definition of users should change after the levels are divided.

Taking a financial app that has both purchase and service functions as an example, the following changes occurred in the four levels of users:

6. Operational Guidance

Level is something that users already have, and they are almost unaware of it. So after building a user system, how do we guide users?

• User guidance: Build a novice guide and task format to plan a clear upgrade path for users, so that users can have a sense of level
• Benefit trial: Provide seed users with scarce benefit trials to enhance user experience and increase user willingness to upgrade
• Identity display and KOL: The identity display of high-level users helps stimulate low-level users to upgrade. At the same time, let high-level users gain satisfaction, cultivate KOLs, increase loyalty, and lead low-activity users to upgrade their activity
• Build a rights brand: Create privilege days, high-level user welfare activities, etc., to give brand meaning to level rights and enhance user participation

The above is the process of building an APP user level system. Of course, in actual operation, project goals and project budgets will also be involved. This will vary depending on the platform's customer acquisition cost and active cost, so I will not go into details.

The system I have developed by myself is not mature. Some of the content is also refined and integrated through the experience of some articles. Welcome to communicate with me~

Source: Suki