How to motivate users? 4 aspects!

This article combines some of the user operations work the author encountered during the internship. Through the accumulation and integration of theoretical and practical knowledge, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about my personal understanding of user incentives.

The most important thing about user operation is probably how to retain and encourage users to perform a series of behaviors within the product, such as following, commenting, and interacting on social products, browsing, collecting, and purchasing e-commerce products, etc. The premise for a product to retain users is that the product can meet some of the users' needs, allowing users to stay actively or passively. So, this involves the principles and means of user motivation.

1. Three Principles of User Incentives

(1) In line with product value

Any incentive measures serve the product and users, so a series of incentive policies and rules should be formulated based on the product tone and user positioning. For example: QQ's levels and privileges are corresponding, QQ Green Diamond's music privileges, Yellow Diamond's space privileges, as well as Alipay 's Ant membership and Didi 's membership level privileges.

(2) Suitable for user scenarios

Level privileges must be tailored to the user's usage scenario and should not go in the opposite direction. For example: in the game , various props and privileges are deeply loved by users. In e-commerce apps, red envelopes and coupons have a strong driving force on users.

(3) Real incentive effect

When it comes to whether the incentives for users are truly effective, we need to grasp the user's psychology, such as: vanity and showing off, profit-seeking and reciprocity, conformity and comparison, etc.

2. Three methods of user motivation

According to Maslow's need theory, human needs are divided into five levels from low to high like a ladder, namely: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, respect needs and self-actualization needs. Then, when users use the product, the needs that need to be met are one or several of these.

Looking at various products on the market, there are points, growth points, medals, levels, etc. The means of user motivation are nothing more than three categories:

(1) Spiritual motivation

Spiritual motivation should firmly grasp the user's psychology, thereby enhancing the user's perception and identification. I still remember when I was in junior high school (2009), my classmates were all showing off how many suns they had on their QQ. I was in the first year of junior high school when I first came into contact with QQ. So, in order to have more stars and suns, I never turned off my computer during the weekends because I was logged in with QQ...ORZ.

(2) Interest Incentives

Interest incentive keywords : coupons, red envelopes, wealth value, gold coins, drop coins, exchange, mall, withdrawal.

(3) Emotional motivation

Emotional motivation mainly refers to social interaction between users, using emotions to maintain and retain users and enhance user stickiness.

3. Three systems of user incentives

From the perspective of product operation , there are three types of corresponding user incentive systems:

1. Achievement system

The achievement system is divided into a growth system and a points system , for example: the listening level and points of NetEase Cloud Music .

2. Wealth system

The wealth system is generally virtual currency, such as NetEase Koala Beans and JD Jingdong Beans. This kind of virtual currency usually increases with some behaviors of users when using the product, such as: check-in, shopping reviews, signing, etc. To some extent, it is an act of using currency to attract users. But for payment products, such as Alipay account balance and WeChat wallet balance, the incentive for users is the convenience of use.

There are two main differences between the virtual currency system and the payment currency system: one is the currency value, and the other is the validity period.

The virtual currency system is generally at 1:100. For example, one hundred Jingdou can be exchanged for RMB 1. The currencies in the payment system are all equivalent. Regarding the validity period, virtual currency has a validity period. If it is not used within the specified time, the currency will become invalid. This is not the case with the currency of the payment system.

3. Social system

The threshold of the social system is relatively high. Unlike the growth system and wealth system, which can formulate some rules to constrain users, building a mature and effective social system is out of reach for many products. For example: Tik Tok , which is very popular now, has been trying to enter the social field and get a piece of the pie by creating a social atmosphere for the product, but users don’t seem to buy it.

Building a social system is not simply about obtaining the user's address book and relying on LBS intelligent distribution to force users to establish social relationships when using the product. A truly effective social system with strong incentive effects should be one where users come uninvited and spontaneously split.

4. Some Thoughts on User Motivation

Whether it is emotional motivation, interest motivation or emotional motivation, the usage scenarios and incentive effects of the three incentive methods must be tailored to the product and the user. These three incentive methods each have their own advantages. There is no good or bad. When using them, the various methods and systems should cooperate with each other, be used skillfully, and complement each other.

The achievement system corresponding to spiritual motivation is often driven spontaneously by users. For example, signing in can retain users through inertia, but in the long run, users are prone to lose their sense of freshness and become tired, so some auxiliary stimulation needs to be added frequently.

Compared with spiritual motivation, interest incentives are more intuitive and have lower user education costs. When retaining and cultivating new users, interest incentives may be the simplest and crudest but also the most effective way. People have social attributes and emotions, so emotional motivation is often the most advanced means of user motivation, but it is also often the most costly and difficult to achieve.

From the perspective of a user's product life cycle, generally speaking, the initial focus should be on profit motivation, followed by spiritual motivation, and ultimately emotional motivation. The user incentive system formed by such a combination can eventually develop into a great product.

However, the combination, importance and specific form of these incentives vary from product to product. For example: WeChat, a national-level social product, does not require you to sign in every day or invite friends, but you will open it 30+ times a day, right?
The above are my humble opinions on user incentives. Due to my limited ability and writing skills, the article is rather crude and superficial and needs great improvement. I look forward to communication and progress.

Source: Wang Yadong