Why did the number of daily active users not increase despite daily sign-in?

This article is based on the basic principle that the content of the article must be useful, as well as personal experience in successfully operating daily check-ins. This article mainly describes the construction techniques of a daily check-in system and how to make this system "useful" to achieve the purpose of construction. Students who operate low-frequency products should pay special attention to reading below (pay attention)!

In actual operations, there is a most basic premise, which is that the purpose must be clearly defined before taking action. What does it mean? It means knowing clearly what the core purpose of doing this thing is. 50% is not enough, 80% is not enough either, you must know 100%. Some people may say that I really can't know exactly what to do, then you are likely to bear an ambiguous result. This is not to alarmist, but operation is a refined behavior, any slight difference can lead to deviations in the results, so this major premise requires you to think carefully before you start. After making this basic judgment and having a clear idea in mind, let’s discuss the focus of today - why the daily active users have not increased despite daily check-ins?

The content of this article is mainly shown in the figure below:

Following the above logic, let's sort out the purpose of daily sign-in. I personally think it can be divided into the following categories:

1. Increase daily activity, typical representatives: Fliggy (with complete reminder function), mutual finance products (no other way, the product itself is used less frequently);
2. The purpose of reaching a transaction is relatively implicit and usually occurs with subsequent actions after signing in, such as guidance on the path to the next scenario and the use of the rewards obtained.

In summary, the ultimate purpose of daily sign-in is to increase the number of daily active users. If anyone still doesn't understand the necessity of daily activity, think about where the store rent is the most expensive in your area? It must be the place with the heaviest flow of people. Only with the flow of people will there be the possibility of more people coming in to consume. The same goes for sign-ins. As the number of daily active users increases, the products and services provided by the platform will have the possibility of being used by more people.

To achieve this goal, daily sign-in mainly strives in two directions:

1. Set up a relatively comprehensive sign-in system

1. Make the system contain the factor of “interest”

(1) The threshold for obtaining this “benefit” is low. This low is not a personal subjective low (for example, you can get 100M traffic by signing in, A thinks this is low, you can get 100M traffic by signing in for 3 days, B thinks this is low), but in actual operation, signing in to get "benefits" has the shortest path and the least operation steps. In my opinion, a sign-in with the lowest threshold should be like this: open the APP - click sign in on the homepage - and you will get "benefits".

(2) “Benefits” have high universal applicability. It can be something that is generally applicable within the platform or on the market, needed by everyone and used frequently, such as: cash, traffic, platform-wide virtual currency, etc. The purpose of this setting is to attract the most people.

2. Make the system include an "incentive" factor

(1) This “incentive” is something that can be expected in the future

There are two levels of future to look forward to:

• One is to get a certain reward for doing something, for example: 500M of traffic for signing in for 7 days;
• The second is to convey this information to users intuitively on the activity page/post-check-in process.

(2) This “incentive” is attractive

When compared with the rewards that can be obtained by signing in, you can intuitively feel that this "incentive" is more tempting. For example, signing in can get 100M of traffic, and signing in for 7 days can get 10 yuan in cash.

3. Make the system include an element of “honor”

(1) Make this “honor” feel superior to others

In fact, this feeling is very private, and even if the other party has such a feeling, they will not make it public. However, we can still grant these users a privilege or honor to obtain this social currency that can be shown off to others. For example: when a user signs in for 100 days, you will be informed that you are the only XX user who has signed in, and you will be awarded XX medal, which can be shared with others.

(2) Make this “honor” scarce

This scarcity is generally achieved in two ways: one is threshold setting; the other is quantity limitation. For example, the first 100 users who sign in for 300 days can receive XX medal/XX privilege/XX reward, etc.

According to the actual purpose of the platform, after setting up the system according to the above principles, will there be an increase in daily active users? The answer is not necessarily. Just having a good tool , how much food can be harvested still depends on the ability of the operator, which is another key point we want to talk about:

2. Make the system effective through operation

1. Inform users as much as possible

(1) Proactively inform

Our efforts are mainly made in two aspects: "widespread" and "multiple". In terms of purpose, we need to let users know the existence of this system, guide them to generate interest, sign in, and through continuous sign-ins, move from the initial stage to the stage of being in love with the system. Generally, we use tools that are more advertising in nature, such as banners, push , SMS, and in-site messages. For example, when the sign-in goes online, users are informed through banners, push, and SMS. After a period of time, changes in the items available for sign-in and changes in the text are used to gain users' attention and encourage participation. Personally, I prefer to use large sums of cash as a gimmick to attract users in the lottery session accompanying the sign-in. Firstly, it is because Internet finance users are extremely sensitive to cash, and secondly, people naturally believe that they are the lucky one in a low-probability event.

(2) Embedded process guidance

• First-time use education. There are two situations for the first time here: one is when a new user registers, the sign-in is directly embedded in the process, and the user is guided by copywriting and related jumps to allow the user to have a preliminary understanding; the other is when the sign-in is online, all users are educated, generally through a masked process display.
• Scene embedding. The user's usage path in the APP is generally linear, that is, complete A - next step B - then next step C. For a usage process like this, when we think it is necessary, we can embed sign-in into some frequently used scenarios to guide users to sign in. For example: for e-commerce products, after users purchase the products, remind users who have not signed in to sign in.

2. Adjust the variables in the system according to the actual situation

(1) Adjustment based on cost

The check-in cost is mainly affected by two variables: one is the life cycle of the check-in; the other is the current purpose. The benefits of sign-in just launched are greater than the benefits of sign-in in the mature stage. The benefits that require rapid increase in the number of daily active users within a certain period of time are greater than the benefits of the current sign-in period.

(2) Adjustments guided by “current objectives”

What can compete with cost is our current goal. When the importance of the current goal is greater than cost considerations, we will focus on the more important side. For example: A daily sign-in bonus of 0.1 yuan can attract 100 users to participate, while a daily sign-in bonus of 0.2 yuan can attract 300 users to participate. If a large number of daily active users are needed in the current period, choose the latter cost.

However, this is not the entire direction of adjustment. Sometimes, operators can also obtain the best of both worlds by balancing costs and current goals, that is, the 0.618 golden section point in operations. In actual operations, it requires multiple attempts, in-depth summaries, and continuous accumulation to gain precise control of this 0.618.

After writing so much, there are actually many points that can be added, but it is impossible to expand endlessly. Let's just focus on the key points. The basic intermediate sign-in operation is enough. To go further, it depends on personal luck. It has been observed that many apps that have daily check-ins are useful but not influential when they are playing their role. This is actually a very embarrassing thing. It is like because A did this, B also followed suit and copied it and put it there, but there was no clear role it was needed to play. This is actually a pity, which not only wastes the workload of developers, but also incurs unnecessary costs. So let me briefly summarize this article again. First of all, we must be very clear about the purpose of the sign-in platform; secondly, taking the purpose as the starting point, appropriately select and combine useful factors and design a good system; finally, through operation, make this system useful.

postscript

Anyone who has read the knowledge points in this article must not think that you have mastered the key to signing in. Please be sure to verify it in practice, otherwise you only "know" but not "master". In order to strengthen the persuasiveness of the above theory, I wanted to analyze the existing sign-in system as an example. After a round of searching, I found that there is no high-quality example that can be found. I hope that friends who have thought of good examples after reading this article can share them with me. I also hope that friends who think they are good will subscribe and forward them.