From a global perspective, here are 4 tips to help you improve product activity

For all our promotions , we must identify the target users , otherwise it will be a waste of money.

I have been writing some cognitive and workplace articles recently. I haven’t talked about operations for a long time. I will no longer write more popular science articles. Beginners can search on Baidu for “What exactly does Internet operations do?” The cumulative number of readings of this article of mine has exceeded 180,000. I recommend it to job seekers who want to engage in operations work.

Back to today's topic, as an operator, we often encounter a problem, that is, the product's activity is low and the user retention is poor. How should we solve it? The product here can be an APP or a PC website, or it can refer to a community . Before looking for a solution, let's first analyze the cause of the problem.

In my opinion, the poor product activity is mainly caused by three reasons.

1. The product lacks long-term value or is inherently a low-frequency product

The level of activity of a product cannot be judged solely by the operators; the product itself is also crucial. Products are demand-oriented and provide long-term value; while operations are user-oriented, create short-term value, and use means to stimulate users.

If the product itself lacks long-term value, even if the operation methods are superb, you can only try your best to maintain its activity, but it cannot be sustained. There is another type of product that is naturally low-frequency, such as the recruitment industry I am currently engaged in. Whether it is a website or an APP, it is difficult to keep users active for a long time through a single-point recruitment function.

2. Operations lack a guiding process

When I started my business and made a school guidance APP, since I was iterating on the previous product, there were too many functions and it was a bit complicated. It was not as easy to use as WeChat . Many older people replaced their smartphones and entered the 4G era because of WeChat.

For these more complex products, due to the lack of good guidance, users may not be able to find the features and essence of the product, and thus leave the product after just a few random clicks.

3. Channels blindly attract new users , and users are not matched

Every product has its own special user group. Previously, due to the bubble in the entrepreneurial circle, many companies spent money on promotion and data in order to obtain financing . In the end, a large proportion of the users they acquired were not actually the target group. It is normal for such users to choose to leave after entering the product.

In order to improve product activity and user stickiness, we need to solve the above problems one by one.

1. Change your mindset

For some naturally low-frequency products, taking recruitment products as an example, you can actually try to change your operating strategy. You don’t have to blindly pursue so-called user activity, but instead turn to occupying the entrance and occupying the user’s mind through various promotion strategies and market PR activities. Although the frequency is low, making your product the user’s first choice every time they need it is already a relatively successful result.

2. Increase high-frequency sectors

If you still want to increase the activity of low-frequency products, you need to add high-frequency sections. Currently, various low-frequency tool products that want to increase activity mostly tend to create content and increase the overall user usage time through content. This content section needs to be more closely aligned with the product itself, and it would be best if it could also become a new way of monetization, which would be a particularly great adjustment.

3. Strengthen user guidance

Regarding user guidance, many current products are very good. For example, when we use products such as Weibo and Toutiao for the first time, they will recommend us to choose the appropriate section and follow some celebrities to complete the cold start process.

If the above links are not there, you can imagine how boring the content on Weibo will be. Including the recently popular League of Legends , there is also a good guidance section when users first enter the game to help them integrate into the product.

4. Adjust promotion strategy

We spend money on promotion, sometimes to deal with investors , sometimes to deal with superiors, so most of the time we focus too much on numbers, but in fact user quality is more important than activity.

For example, when I recently formulated the company's new media operation indicators, in addition to the number of fans, I also emphasized the user opening rate. Otherwise, for the sake of KPI, the operations staff will buy a lot of fans, which will ultimately not benefit the company, the employees will still spend money, and the only ones who will profit are the water army in the middle.

For all our promotions, we must identify the target users, otherwise it will be a waste of money.

The above four points are relevant suggestions given from a global perspective. Therefore, during the operation process, it is necessary to constantly create surprises for users and create what they need in order to extend the maturity period of the product and make users love it.