Explain the correct use of the AARRR model in WeChat mini-programs

Building a mini program product from 0-1 is not just about considering the issue of users coming back after using it, but requires operations throughout the user life cycle, that is, the AARRR model is often mentioned in " growth hacking ". So how to correctly use the AARRR model in mini programs?

The “use it and go” feature of mini programs makes the offline experience very pleasant, so that the retention rate of mini programs is very low. However, for purely online mini programs, we hope that users will come back after using them.

Building a mini program product from 0-1 is not just about considering the issue of users coming back after using it, but also requires operations for the entire life cycle of the user, with advance planning and strategy setting. This is the AARRR model often mentioned in "Growth Hackers", so how do you correctly use the AARRR model in mini programs?

In the first half of this year, our team also developed several small programs. Based on some practical experience, we would like to share our views.

The AARRR model consists of five modules

A lot of content can be written about each of these five stages, so here I will give you a basic thinking structure.

Acquisition: Acquiring users ( new users )

Everyone is saying that traffic is very expensive now, but with the emergence of mini programs, it seems that traffic is easy to obtain.

WeChat traffic is decentralized, and in a decentralized traffic pool, viral marketing is particularly effective. Therefore, in addition to conventional methods, "fission" is the core of "attracting new users" in mini programs.

When you start promoting your mini program, the released version must achieve a complete fission experience. If you fail to do this, you will lose a lot of opportunities.

There are several common types of fission:

(1) Red Envelope Fission – Cash Incentives

The root of all evil and the most blatant aspect of human nature is money.

For example, red envelope fission for cash withdrawal: when a new user comes in, he can get a red envelope of 0.6 yuan. The withdrawal requirement is that you can only withdraw 1 yuan. Now you can fission three friends, so that the amount reaches 1 yuan, and then you can withdraw.

(2) Lottery fission – item rewards

This requires analyzing the cost of users' efforts and maximizing the cost-effectiveness of item rewards. The threshold should not be set too many times, and the lottery algorithm must be open and "visibly fair." The fairness here requires fairness that users can perceive and that they can feel that the platform cannot commit fraud.

For example: A lottery fission we originally did was very good at the beginning, but the data dropped later. The main problem was that we set two thresholds: one had to forward the message to three groups and pay 1 cent to participate in the lottery (there were too many thresholds), and the lottery algorithm did not achieve open and visible fairness.

(3) Assisting and fueling fission

Users are qualified unconditionally (the threshold is extremely low), but to get the reward they must get a very high value with the help of their friends to have a chance to get the reward (the threshold is set later, and the acceptance is higher).

For example: some ticket-grabbing mini-apps make it difficult to grab tickets, and you need the help of friends to increase your priority and make it easier for you to grab tickets.

(4) Unlock by character collection/unlock by fragments

Using a gamified approach, you can get corresponding rewards for successfully unlocking the activity, which makes the fission more interesting.

If the topic is well chosen and the hot spots are grasped, the effect of fan fission will be very good and the conversion rate will be the highest. For example: King of Glory skin fragments are unlocked, and skins will be given away if unlocked successfully. People who like to play King of Glory will definitely be willing to spread it. The theme (creativity), interactive experience (technology), and rewards (returns) all need to be well designed.

(5) Resurrection unlock – Applicable to game mini-programs

It is generally used in game applets, such as Tencent's Table Tennis, which offers three free opportunities to play table tennis every day. If the user finishes, he needs to share it with friends to get another chance to play table tennis. Now many of them have been changed to watching ads after resurrection.

As for what kind of fission you want to adopt, you can choose according to the company's funds, technical strength, and operational strategy, but fission must be added as soon as the mini program goes online. The core of fission requires insight into the user's human needs, which can be profit-driven, showing off, emotional satisfaction, etc.

If fission is used well, growth will be worry-free.

Activation: Activate user

After a user enters the mini program, how is it considered activated?

A concept needs to be mentioned here: the North Star Indicator. It’s called “ OMTM ”, One metric that matters.

It is called the North Star Indicator because once this indicator is established, it will be like the North Star, shining high in the sky, guiding the entire company to move in the same direction. The North Star Indicator is not static and needs to be developed according to the development stage of the project.

The activation indicators for each mini program are different, for example:

• E-commerce mini programs are activated only after the first order is placed;
• Answering a question in a knowledge-based mini-program counts as activation.

In the early or start-up stages of a project, I personally think that the North Star indicator is equivalent to the user activation indicator. When the project enters the mid- or late-stage, the two are not quite the same. Setting effective North Star indicators and clarifying user activation indicators will bring different directions to product iteration and operations.

Here is a case study:

Mysapce and Facebook, Mysapce is an old social platform, and FB is a rising star, so how did FB surpass Mysapce?

Because the two companies set different North Star indicators:

• Mysapce: Taking the number of registered users as the North Star indicator, for the marketing staff’s KPI, they only need to attract people;
• Facebook: Using "monthly active users" as the North Star indicator, for marketing personnel's KPI, it is not enough to just attract people, but also to attract high-quality users to make them active.

It is important to define your own user activation metrics based on your business type.

Retention

Even if you can keep me but not my heart, retention is the most difficult part of the whole process, and it determines whether the platform can make a profit.

As the saying goes, activation is easy, but retention is difficult.

Based on the pitfalls we encountered in our previous e-commerce mini-programs, we summarized the following three aspects to improve retention: designing good consumption scenarios, making good use of the mini-program push mechanism, and improving user sedimentation.

(1) Design a good consumption scenario

• "Scenario": Scenario awareness, for example: use WeChat for chatting, Alipay for money transfer, and Ele.me and Meituan for takeout. This is actually part of brand building, so when we make mini programs, we must clarify the positioning of our products and our scenarios from the beginning; let users label you according to the promotion;
• 「Product」: The product is the core of all platforms. You can refer to the PMF model. The product should be appropriate and comprehensive to your scenario.
• "Experience": There are so many apps now, and the experience is great. If your new mini program has problems such as slow response, bugs in ordering, and complicated operations, it will definitely cause user loss.

For example, we made a small program before, and developed a fission function, which worked very well. However, on the first day of its launch, the server crashed and the fission was terminated, which was very damaging to the platform. You couldn't find those users who saw your small program but couldn't participate.

(2) Be good at using the mini program push mechanism

Mini programs are so convenient that users may only stay in your mini program for a few seconds. If the user is not activated and you cannot recall him, then you will always have this user.

Use different message templates to recall different types of users, mainly including the following:

Recalling new users: The mini program has a feature that gives you 7 days to recall unactivated users. If you have installed the APP but have not registered it, and then the user uninstalls it, you cannot recall it.

Why 7 days?

Because a new user accessing the mini program needs to trigger a formId submission, you can send a mini program notification to the user within 7 days. If a payment is triggered, you can send messages to the user 3 times within 7 days. So every time a user comes to our mini program, we must let the user trigger this switch, otherwise it would be a waste of time.

Recall of unpaid users: Users who have not paid need to be sent order non-payment notifications.

Recall paid users: You can send logistics status notifications to improve the user experience, increase activity and promote repeat purchases. Be good at using mini-program notifications. Although notifications are good, they should not be overused.

According to the use-and-go feature of the mini program, the 7-day limit is important. Inactivated users cannot be recalled within 7 days, so push messages will no longer be sent.

(3) Improving user retention

How to accumulate small programs?

Try every possible way to join the WeChat public account and become a fan of the public account . For start-up teams, they can also use WeChat accounts and WeChat communities .

WeChat public accounts can recall all fans, spread the brand, and build trust; WeChat personal accounts and WeChat communities, although small in scope, have high recall rates and conversion rates.

Induce users to WeChat public accounts through incentives:

For example: the Jietu mini program allows users to follow the official account by giving out coupons after answering questions. However, the operation steps are a bit more complicated and it is not possible to follow the official account directly. It requires multiple steps: save the image - exit the mini program - identify the image QR code - follow the official account.

Sediment users into WeChat groups through information value:

This is the "Car Club" mini program launched by Youchehou, which has officially passed the differentiated competition. The convenience of the mini program has allowed Youchehou to quickly accumulate a large number of fans.

Revenue: Generate income

There are three main revenue models for Internet products: "Advertising revenue", "Value-added services", and "Commission profits"

Regardless of the revenue model, the prerequisite is that there are enough users and a large enough number of transactions to create value.

What needs to be considered here is how to get users to pay and generate revenue for the platform? Here you need to clarify what the core source of income for your mini program is and what the source of income is at the current stage? Even if it is not profitable now, as long as the model is correct, it is enough. In the end, different operating strategies need to be implemented based on the core sources of income.

For example: Many distribution e-commerce companies now share the platform's revenue with promoters in proportion, and then they can enjoy a higher proportion of the revenue by paying to become super members. This is a way of giving profits to value-added services, and it is also a way of fission and self-propagation.

Refer: Self-propagation forms a cycle

Self-propagation is about rolling demand. How to roll it fast and large requires good design. Self-propagation is very important for any type of product, and all fission starts with propagation.

There are two concepts that need to be mentioned here: "pull" and "push"

In the APP era, we all need to rely on advertising, buying keywords, brushing rankings , pre-installation, ground promotion and other behaviors to achieve product exposure, thereby obtaining traffic and screening out our own users through the funnel model . This is a typical push, and the cost of one user is often a few yuan, dozens of yuan, or even hundreds of yuan.

Because in the WeChat system, traffic is decentralized. Every user who comes in is your traffic, which is the pulling force of traffic. The fission mentioned above is the pulling force of traffic, which allows you to acquire users at a very low cost.

The cost of activating users for the mini program we originally made was less than 0.2 cents.

In the world of mini programs, pulling force is better than pushing force, but pushing force is indispensable, so there is an hourglass model that I think is most suitable for mini program products:

There are two main types of self-propagation:

• The first type is “ product self-propagation ” , which is personalized (showing off oneself), product placement, exceeding expectations, sense of participation, and catching hot spots, such as: the annual Alipay bill that is popular every year;
• The second type is " marketing self-propagation " , which taps into the potential of products, always has insight into the essence of human nature, and always introduces interactions with friends, such as: bargaining on Pinduoduo .

The spread of the product itself is what we most want to see, and of course it is also the most difficult. It takes time to accumulate and slowly build a brand that is spread by users. Self-propagation of marketing is the easiest to operate, but it must be done properly so that users become addicted without harming them.

This article involves many aspects. If there is anything inappropriate, you are welcome to leave a message for communication.

Source: Product Manager ’s Vision (ID: pmsee2018)