How to make users addicted to your product?

Why do users keep using some products (including official accounts )?

This is a very adrenaline-stimulating topic.

Speaking of this, I think of a book that fits the theme very well, called Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming.

This book is a bestseller from the United States. It is not about psychology or philosophy. It just reveals the basic design principles behind the operation of Internet products that make users "addicted".

Among them is a very addictive "Hook Model" , which can provide a lot of good inspiration for promoting products, operating public accounts, doing activities, and writing copy .

I just like models. On the one hand, they can provide practical guidance, and on the other hand, they can be expanded and improved according to one's own needs. In other words, they are standing on the shoulders of giants.

To make users addicted is to cultivate user habits. The "addiction model" in this book is divided into four parts: trigger, action, variable rewards and investment, which can basically be used in all habit cultivation.

Let’s talk about how it makes users accustomed to using your product?

1. Trigger

Trigger refers to the inducement that prompts you to take the next action. For example, if you are sick and need to take medicine, the illness is the trigger, which prompts you to buy and take the medicine.

This is the most critical step. If users are not interested in your product, your official account, and will not use it at all, how can they become addicted?

What do users expect to achieve with your product? When and where will they use the product? What emotions would motivate them to act?

This is the first thing to consider. This trigger is divided into external trigger and internal trigger.

External triggers : They are relatively simple. They are the stimuli or prompts that we see or hear directly. For example, just search on Baidu and you will know.

Internal triggers : This is mainly psychological. The human weaknesses we often talk about, the eight strongest human desires, various emotions, and various psychological principles are all of this type.

Simply put, there needs to be an external or internal trigger to activate certain "desires", "pain points" or "interests" in people.

So, what are some ways to accomplish triggering or suggestion?

I saw that the owner of the public account "少加点班" Li Shaojia had very good insights on this, and I recommend it to everyone:

A large number of scientific experiments have shown that almost all the "cues" of behavioral habits can be classified into the following four categories: situation, time, emotional state, and prelude behavior.

1) Context, that is, the specific and vivid scene or environment in which the user is located.

Generally speaking, if we start from the typical situations in which users use our products and think more concretely, vividly and meticulously, it will not be difficult to find the first step to stimulate user habits: user hints.

For example, " Himalaya ": When there is a traffic jam on the road, listen to Himalaya.

2) Emotions, which trigger the user’s mood when using the product, are especially suitable for emotional products.

For example, live streaming products: "Watching TV shows is tiring, and games are expensive, so live streaming is more fascinating." (Example)

3) Time, which refers to the specific time when the product is suitable for use.

For example, Luoji Siwei sent a voice message on WeChat at six in the morning. For example, "Reading at Ten O'clock" , the name alone gives a very clear hint.

4) Prelude behavior, which refers to what you are likely to do immediately after doing something.

For example, if you are operating a product that is used after brushing teeth, you can use "brushing teeth" as a "hint": cultivate the user's habit of automatically using the product as a conditioned reflex after brushing their teeth.

For example: "Rinse your mouth after brushing your teeth to make up for the defects that cannot be brushed" (example)

In summary, in my opinion, to make users interested:

This starts with understanding the various emotions and psychology that can serve as internal triggers, and knowing how to use external triggers to motivate users to take action.

2. Action

The purpose of triggering is to get users moving.

Action is the most direct reaction of users when they expect some kind of reward, such as taking medicine in the hope of getting better soon.

However, to increase the incidence of the desired behavior, the trigger must be obvious, the behavior must be easy to perform, and the motivation must be reasonable.

I won’t say much about triggering, but it must activate certain “desires”, “pain points” or “interests” of people.

The so-called "behavior should be simple and easy to do" means how difficult the action you want to achieve is and how high the threshold is. It all comes down to whether you have the time, the money, and how easy it is to achieve.

The lower the requirements, the simpler and easier it is to implement, and the more actions will be taken. However, most actions have a purpose. Some require you to buy, some require you to download, some require you to forward, and some require you to complete a task.

Correspondingly, the better your triggers and motivations are, the higher the threshold can be.

Speaking of motivation, it is actually similar to trigger. Motivation is just amplifying the trigger. We can improve user motivation in 6 directions:

1) Find fun, 2) Avoid pain, 3) Find hope, 4) Avoid fear, 5) Find belonging, 6) Avoid prejudice.

3. Variable rewards

What drives us to act is not the reward itself, but the little thrill we feel when we desire the reward.

Don’t think of money when you talk about rewards. Money is a type of reward, just one of them. And its effect is relatively weaker and weaker. For example, if you offer someone 5 yuan to scan a QR code , no one will scan it.

In my opinion, apart from the products and services themselves, the most effective reward for user actions is to create random surprises, which must be random and changeable.

A reward that changes layer by layer is not a surprise. It will lose its mystery and appeal over time. However, "random and changing surprises" are the key to maintaining users' long-term interest.

For example, after taking medicine, I feel much more comfortable, which is also a reward. But each pill has a different fruit flavor, which is a little surprise. This is beyond users' expectations.

Therefore, the key principles for creating random surprises are: 1) exceeding user expectations, 2) preferably without any pattern, but random. You can think in this direction.

When we were young, I believe everyone must have tried the activity of drawing prizes from a large lottery box. That is a typical use of "random surprises".

4. Invest

In order for users to make psychological associations and automatically take actions, they must also be invested in the product.

Investment in a product will cause users to form preferences, because people tend to overestimate the results of their work and try to be consistent with their past behavior to avoid cognitive dissonance.

Investment occurs when users provide their personal data, social capital, or give their time, energy, money, or even emotions to a product. The more users invest in it, the more they become dependent on it.

This is equivalent to increasing the user's "abandonment cost", which is a key step in making users addicted. It is very critical because people only care about what they have paid for.

Playing games basically conforms to the [addiction model], but the most critical factor is investment.

I think everyone who has played online games knows that you may start playing games because of interest, boredom, or excitement, but as time goes by, you actually don’t have that much interest anymore. You may have reached the maximum level, have all the equipment, and have completed the dungeon, but you just don’t want to stop.

Because players have invested so much in this game: first of all, a lot of time, money, a lot of memories, many good friends made in the game, many setbacks and joys, their own teams, unions, and even the ultimate dreams and so on.

And the more effort we put into something, the higher its perceived value in our minds.

Therefore, we need to interact more with users and guide them to invest more. The sense of participation that Xiaomi mentioned before is a good example. Getting users involved actually means making them more invested.

The more users invest, the more likely they are to have the next "trigger", and then be rewarded for their actions. This is a positive and virtuous cycle. Slowly, you become addicted.

So, how do you make users addicted to your product? Develop a habit of using the product?

Think about this:

● What is the trigger of your product/activity/copywriting/official account? What are the internal triggers and what are the external manifestations?

● What actions do users need to take to obtain rewards/achieve goals? Is there any reinforcing motivation? How difficult is it to achieve?

● Will the feedback to users surprise them? Can it exceed user expectations?

● Are users invested in your product/official account/event? What will be invested? Will it be impressive?

5. Give some examples

Next, let’s give a few examples based on this “addiction model”.

1) Learning community

First of all, for example, many learning communities now often have programs such as "Change yourself in 7 days", "14-day study plan", "Develop reading habits in 21 days", etc., which are very popular and always work.

The corresponding "addiction model" is:

Trigger : Overcome your own lazy habits, solve users' growth anxiety, and make progress together with a group of people with common characteristics in a short period of time;

Action : The motivation for this is also very obvious, which is to find hope, to be free from fear, and to find belonging. And it is not difficult to take action. You just need to join a group or pay a certain amount of growth money, and there will be professional teachers and a group of people to complete it together.

Rewards : First of all, it is personal growth, and you will make a group of friends and gain more valuable knowledge . Many such communities will also have various honorary awards and gift rewards. Sometimes red envelopes will be given to those with good performance, and some people will even be reported individually after completion.

Investment : This investment is obvious. It involves a lot of time and energy, as well as investment in interactions on various tasks, completing a certain task with a group of people. Communities that do well will also have deeper emotional investment.

2) Popular products (fitness tools KEEP)

For example, many products nowadays are based on this "addiction model", including behemoths like WeChat and Weibo, as well as Meipai and Kuaishou . Here is a fitness tool called KEEP as an example.

The corresponding "addiction model" is:

Trigger : With the improvement of material conditions, young people have an increasing demand for fitness. But most people are too busy at work to go to the gym, don’t have the equipment at home, or don’t have personal trainers at the gym... KEEP can help solve this problem;

Action : Just download KEEP and you will have a mobile fitness coach.

Rewards : First, you need to change yourself. Then, you will see fitness videos from fitness experts, coaches, and influencers . The videos have also been optimized so that they can be downloaded in seconds. There are also many fitness badges, multiple training plans, and you can share your experience in the community.

Investment : Not only investment in fitness, but also investment in various social activities.

3) Public account operation (taking mine as an example)

Now let’s talk about the operation of public accounts. Now it is difficult to retain fans and the serious loss of fans is a very serious problem. Therefore, public accounts also need to make fans accustomed to reading, interacting, and becoming addicted to the public accounts.

I’m going to shamelessly use my own account, Mumu Laozei, as an example. Although it’s not doing very well, it has not experienced negative growth so far, fortunately.

The "addiction model" corresponding to this number is:

Trigger : Solve some knowledge anxiety problems of marketing operators , provide practical suggestions and guidance, and give everyone some fuel;

Action : The motivation is also simple, to learn more, and the action only needs to be to read the article, occasionally forward it, like it and give a reward;

Rewards : First of all, what I learned and felt from reading. From time to time, some content just helps me. Occasionally, I get some learning materials. A useful tool pops up at any time, and it can help answer a few questions.

Commitment : They will take the time to read the article. Some people even come to read it every day. Thank you. Liking, leaving messages, interacting, and rewarding are all considered investments.

Once the above happens frequently, users' behavior on your official account will become spontaneous and habitual. The chances of opening articles here to read, share, leave comments, like and appreciate them are higher than those on other accounts. The longer you use it, the more you will get used to it, unless you do it yourself.

So, I will often guide everyone to like and leave comments (my intention is exposed).

Okay, that’s all for now. You can think carefully about these 1 model and 4 steps.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

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