From an operational perspective, let’s talk about the user incentive system of financial products

The user incentive system means that while the product meets user needs, it stimulates and guides user behavior through interest inducement to improve user experience , promote user activity, and realize product value. In this article, we will discuss the three steps of user activation and how financial apps can establish a complete user incentive system during prime time.

In many industries, the 80/20 rule appears: 20% of users account for 80% of the capital scale. But in the field of Internet finance , everyone pursues economies of scale and pays more attention to 80% of users. However, users have a "golden time" for activation (this period is 6 months). Once the golden time has passed and the user is not activated, he will be completely "dead" and difficult to revive.

Therefore, similar to e-commerce products, financial products also require a series of operational designs that are attractive to users. The most effective way is to establish a relatively complete user incentive system, which will help maintain a good user ecological environment, effectively increase conversion and retention , and reduce the risk of churn.

So, what is the user incentive system?

The user incentive system means that while the product meets user needs, it stimulates and guides user behavior through interest inducement to improve user experience, promote user activity, and realize product value.

• For users, it means: what do you need to do to get something?
• For operations, this means: confirming incentive goals, formulating incentive rules, and then making adjustments based on user feedback.

The value of establishing a user incentive system:

American management experts Berelson and Steiner believe that all the conditions, hopes, desires, and motivations that one strives for in one's heart constitute motivation for people - it is an inner state of human activity.

This theory shows that people respond to incentives, and when benefits and costs change, people's behavior will also change. Therefore, operations can use various methods to motivate users to behave in a manner that meets operations expectations, such as being active, posting, interacting, and consuming, etc.

Designing an incentive system can, on the one hand, improve user activity, increase active users, improve retention rate , and retain users; on the other hand, it can also measure the growth process and value of each user in the product, facilitating refined user operations.

Today we will talk about financial APP from the perspective of the three steps of user activation and how to establish a complete user incentive system during prime time.

1. Primary stage

What needs to be done in the early stage of the product is to attract new users . The key points of this stage are the real-name authentication and the first investment after user registration. How to attract users to complete complex operations? The simplest, crudest and most effective way is to use interest incentives, which provides users with various visible rewards to attract users and make them feel that it is "profitable", so that they will spend time to operate.

How to play: interest incentives, attract new users

(1) Register to receive red envelopes (coupons)

Newbie gift packages worth large amounts of money are a common means used by financial APP platforms to activate users. Of course, these discounts generally require users to invest before they can get the corresponding amount, otherwise it is just a coupon.

(Square Loan registration red envelope)

(2) Real-name authentication, card binding, and recharge

Every time users complete a step, they can receive rewards such as red envelopes (vouchers), experience money, points, etc.

(A series of novice tasks of Rongjinso)

(3) Newbie exclusive label

Only after completing the steps mentioned above can users actually invest. The novice-exclusive target is a target that only new users can invest in. Generally, it has a higher interest rate and a shorter term than ordinary targets, which helps to improve the first investment conversion rate and the average first investment amount per person.

(Left: PPmoney; Right: Tuandai.com)

2. Intermediate Stage

There are many operational points involved here, and the difficulties and key points of the entire user incentive system are concentrated here. Operators must not only promote investment and activation to increase user activity, but also use word-of-mouth from old users to acquire new users and enhance user stickiness.

Gameplay 1: Task incentives to increase user activity

Completing tasks to receive rewards is also a common method used by financial apps. User behavior is guided by setting tasks for users. Users can get corresponding rewards for completing each task. After completing all tasks, they can get the ultimate reward, which is virtual currency or virtual medals with cash value.

(1) Check-in

It is somewhat similar to the clock-in system for work, which is used to constrain or reward user behavior. Among Internet finance apps, more than 80% of products have this function, and sign-in is considered to be a very effective means to increase daily activity of products.

The sign-in function can be designed as a phased target task reward mechanism, such as doubling the reward for signing in for a week or enjoying great gifts, etc., using enough gimmicks to attract user participation.

( JD Finance "early wake-up check-in")

(2) Invite friends

Generally, old users will be encouraged to invite new users to register for investment. The stickiness of users introduced/recommended by friends will definitely be much higher than that of ordinary new users. Therefore, many financial platforms will use various methods to encourage users to share and invite friends. Both the invitee and the inviter can receive certain rewards, which naturally promotes word-of-mouth communication among users.

(Left: Financial Farm; Middle: Youqianhua; Right: Baidu Wallet )

Gameplay 2: Achievement incentives to make users feel identified

Achievement motivation satisfies the highest level in Maslow's hierarchy of needs - the need for self-actualization. It is a way to affirm the user's behavior. A common way is to award users medals of honor, certificates, and grades.

(1) Medal of Honor

Giving a certificate to a user for completing a task represents a spiritual and psychological reward for the user. This can be combined with tasks to split the process into multiple parts. Users will be awarded a medal after completing each part. This can be made into a medal wall, and the corresponding medal will be lit up after completing each stage of the task.

Such as Ant Farm:

(2) Certificate

The significance of a certificate is greater than that of a rank or medal. A physical certificate or a virtual certificate can be issued, such as the tree planting certificate number of the Ant Forest.

(3) User level

There are actually many factors that affect our judgment of users' investment potential. The most intuitive method is to create a user level system, whose goal is to design a predictable level promotion path. By setting different user levels, users are encouraged to unlock different rights through continuous use of products. The higher the level, the more exclusive benefits and rights they will have.

(PPmoney's membership system )

Gameplay 3: Points incentives, user rebate mechanism

Points are a user rebate mechanism. When there is not enough funding to provide users with more attractive rewards, earning points is an effective means to motivate users in the user growth system. By encouraging users to deeply participate in the product and continuously earn points or coins, these points can be used to redeem investment interest rate coupons, discount coupons, etc., thereby promoting users to reinvest and increase the trading volume and conversion rate of core products.

(1) Points lottery

Points lottery is the most commonly used rebate method and one of the activities that users are keen to participate in. Allowing users to participate in point lottery activities not only meets their psychological needs, but also ensures a certain amount of points recovery.

(Xiaomi Financial Points Lucky Draw)

(2) Points Mall

The points mall is designed for users to "consume" points. Users can redeem their points for merchandise, which is an important scenario that reflects the value of points.

(Tuandai.com Points Mall)

Gameplay 4: Emotional motivation to maintain users’ sense of belonging

Focus on maintaining the emotional bond between products and users, eliminating users' distrust of products, and building an emotional bond between users and products. The simplest way is to create exclusive posters for users for key operations such as user registration, card binding, first investment, first income, or birthdays and holidays, and attach certain benefits, such as: birthday-exclusive interest rate coupons, birthday celebrants’ exclusive red envelopes, holiday gift packages and other benefits to continuously stimulate them.

Therefore, when building an incentive system, we need to deeply understand the psychological demands of users and accurately grasp the product value output and user demand satisfaction, so as to help amplify the core value of the product.

( Tencent Wealth Management "Birthday Privilege")

3. Advanced Stage

As the growth rate of industry investment has slowed down, the previous extensive user operation strategy of financial platforms has become unworkable. Operations personnel need to break the previous mindset, adjust user strategies, and carry out refined user operations, which is beginning to become a new direction for financial platforms.

How to play: Establish a label system and refine user operations

The so-called refined user operation is to divide users into different groups through labeling for marketing . By analyzing customers’ behavior and identity data, the system will label them accordingly and predict the financial products that users with the same label like.

For example: A user labeled "white-collar worker" and "loves traveling" may be very interested in travel installment products. But group operation is definitely not something that can be achieved overnight and requires repeated testing. By labeling, it keeps leaking down. We cannot guarantee that “white-collar” users will like the “travel installment” product, so repeated testing and verification of data is required.

It can be seen that all operating methods are to continuously test and activate users, gain understanding of existing users, and then through a series of operating strategies, let them form brand awareness, progressing from shallow relationships to deep bundling.

4. Several issues that need to be paid attention to when establishing a user incentive system

In short, there are 3 points:

(1) Generous rewards and fun

In order to attract users to participate in tasks, two conditions must generally be met: predictable benefits and fun. The former is to stimulate users to participate in activities, while the latter requires that the activity itself is interesting, novel, and has a certain degree of playability.

(2) Rules must be simple and easy to understand

The rules of the user incentive system should be as simple as possible, and users should be able to understand them at a glance. Because of too many levels and overly complex rules, it is easy for users to lose patience and motivation to explore.

(3) Adjustment and optimization

"Water flows according to the terrain, and soldiers win according to the enemy. There is no constant position for soldiers, and there is no constant shape for water."

The user incentive mechanism grows continuously with the product, with different focuses at different stages. After the user incentive mechanism is launched, the incentive system must be gradually adjusted and optimized due to changes in circumstances.

5. Final Thoughts

In financial apps, the user incentive system has become a very common function. It is a set of product connectivity that is independent of the core functional value of the product but integrated between users and products. A good user incentive system can make users feel dependent on the platform and make it difficult for them to say goodbye to the platform. If you don’t want users of your platform to leave after using your platform, I suggest that you also improve your user incentive system. From a long-term perspective, it will be very helpful.

The above is all the content of this issue’s financial APP user incentive system. Students who are interested are welcome to discuss it together!

Source: Activity Box