How to improve user retention rate? Share 6 rules!

Retention rate is the most important criterion for judging the value of a product. Only when users are willing to stay can it be said that the product is valuable. So how do we improve user retention rate ? The author of this article gives six rules.

1. Common Misconceptions about Retention Rate

Misconception 1: What can we do to keep users?

This is a very common question and actually represents a kind of thinking. Let’s look at scenes in real life.

What should I say to make her not break up with me? In fact, when she wants to break up with you, nothing you say will be of any use. So what determines whether or not to break up does not lie in what you say, but in whether your values ​​​​match, your personalities match, your attitudes, and whether your personal conduct and cultivation meet expectations during your previous relationship. This is the key factor in deciding whether to break up.

The breaking point that leads to a breakup may be some accidental factors. It is actually quite difficult to ask her not to break up if you just say one or two more words. Even if she stays for a moment, she may leave again the next day.

Therefore, when it comes to solving the retention problem, 95% of the reasons are that the needs of the product itself are not properly addressed. Many people overlook this. As an operations person, it is actually very difficult to operate a shitty product like a cake.

In fact, to be precise: if the product itself solves a false demand - the demand is completely met through subsidies and the boss’s own fantasy, such a demand cannot truly satisfy users.

We know that most startups will fail, and in most failed startups, the problem is that the product is not good enough.

Most of the demands put forward are false demands, which is the reality of entrepreneurship. If what is being solved is a false demand, no matter how good the operation is, it will be useless.

Misconception 2: Can the retention rate be improved by adding a function, changing the copy , or organizing an event?

Many people think that all problems can be solved with just one trick. But in reality it is often the result of a combination of things. If you only do one aspect, the retention rate may only increase slightly, rather than an overall explosion. The improvement in retention rate is the result of doing well in many aspects.

2. Why should we pay attention to retention rate?

If a user downloads an APP today and continues to use it the next day, it is daily retention. If he uses it a week later, it is weekly retention. There is no need to track the specific number, as long as we know that he will continue to use it, this is the retention rate. So why should we care about retention rate?

1. Retention rate is the most important criterion for judging product value

If the product is valuable to the user, it can be assumed that the user will use the product again in the future. On the contrary, if the user will not use it again in the future, it can be considered that the product is not that valuable and is a false demand.

During the start-up phase, retention rate is a very important criterion for us to judge whether the product is well made and whether it is worth continuing to invest in.

2. Retention rate is an important criterion for determining whether to burn money when operating

We should maintain rapid iteration of the product and increase the product retention rate to a stage where it is cost-effective after calculation, so that it is worth spending money. Not all products and stages are suitable for spending money on promotion . Therefore, the retention rate is a very important criterion for judging money burning.

The traffic dividend is gone, and the Internet ’s penetration into the population is already thorough. As traffic is bound to become more and more expensive, retaining old users becomes increasingly important.

The general direction of improving retention rate:

1. Increase the user value of the product
2. Find out why your users are churned
3. Solve the problem of user churn

We will discuss these three directions in detail later.

 3. How to improve retention rate?

1. Magic Number

This concept is the case of Twitter and in among growth hackers , which analyzes the characteristics of active users. For example, Twitter found that its active users would choose to follow five to ten more users than churned users. Another version is that active users will follow 30 users in the first month; and Instagram will add 5 friends in a week. These indicators became the magic numbers for the company.

Therefore, the essence of Magic Number's methodology is to find the behavioral differences between active users and inactive users through analysis and research, and to enable all new users to experience the product value as much as possible through product design and operation.

For example, when it is found that active users have the habit of selecting 5 to 10 users to follow, the product design should use various methods to allow new users to select 5 to 10 users to follow. By strengthening operations and guidance and simplifying the process, users can easily decide to follow 5 to 10 users, which will improve retention rate. This analysis may be data analysis or survey, and then find the behavioral differences.

Speaking of data analysis, if a company has the ability, it can buy some on its own. There are many data platforms on the market that support these analyses.

2. Create high-frequency functions in the value chain

Many products themselves are low-frequency, such as Chunyu Doctor, whose core function is to consult doctors through the platform and expand other services. This kind of product is actually quite low-frequency. After all, it is used to ask doctors questions, and people won’t ask if they are not sick. Moreover, it is impossible to push some disease-related push notifications. Such a product itself is very low-frequency, and it is necessary to create some higher-frequency functions in the relevant value chain to drive the activity of this product. Let's take a look at how Chunyu Doctor does it:

The first function we developed was the pedometer. Chunyu Doctor represents health. It tells you that exercising more every day means you will be healthier and guides you towards health.

I have communicated with their product manager . This product has boosted activity. The frequency of use of the Chunyu APP is relatively much higher. The high-frequency functions have helped to improve the activity of the APP to a great extent.

Recently, Chunyu Doctor has added a similar product value chain centered around health, adding some more high-frequency functions, such as health plans. The health plan actually has the opposite value to the disease, but at the same time it will be relatively high-frequency. For example, what to eat every day to lose weight will be opened once a day. The more frequent the opening, the higher the active retention of the product.

Another point that many apps are starting to add is content. Content consumption is a form of consumption that occupies a longer period of user time.

When we look at Moments , we consume content; when we watch Youku videos, we consume content. Users spend a lot of time online, and for users, meaningful and valuable information is not something they are so averse to.

The operation of news or information related to content has also become the mainstream now. This should be the main way to stimulate activity. Through content information, some people who are more concerned about health may open it from time to time, and naturally have a certain sense of trust. After all, this is a doctor's platform, and the sense of trust will be stronger than the rumors on WeChat .

Content operation is a good way to improve retention for some professional fields or tool platforms.

To review, using high-frequency functions to drive low-frequency functions, the core function of the product itself is very low-frequency, but at least this function is not a completely false demand or no demand. The key word here is: "product value chain" . For example, it would be very strange if Chunyu Doctor added live broadcasts of beautiful women .

In addition, retention can also include:

• Sign in and clock in. For example, the Duokan APP will remind you to check in when you are reading a book. By checking in, you can get book coins and read new books. Signing in and clocking in is relatively not very costly, but it is also objectionable to many users.
• live streaming . For example, Momo has now added a live broadcast function, which has brought it a lot of revenue and activity.
• Fun mini games .
• Free for a limited time. It also captures the needs of some users, as does Apple's limited-time freebies. When there are limited-time freebies to be claimed, people will take a look at other things as well.

A special reminder: the method of improving retention rate mentioned here is not suitable for all products. We still need to carefully analyze whether there is such a demand among users, and whether adding this demand will be helpful to the product itself, whether it will confuse the product positioning, or whether it can really improve retention.

3. Remind users at the right time

People tend to be forgetful, and if they are not reminded, it is easy to forget many APPs. Reminders themselves increase activity. For example, getting messages, text messages, service numbers, and emails. Email is a more traditional method, but sometimes it is very effective.

For example, Zhihu’s weekly selections, taxi orders, relatively important information, or content with richer formats can all be completed via email. Each reminder is actually an interaction with the user, and each interaction will help the user recall the feelings he had when he used the product before.

If an APP does not remind or notify users in any way after downloading, the retention rate will definitely be very low. This is also the biggest expectation and concern of many people about mini programs , whether there will be a notification function and whether they can actively send messages.

A few things to keep in mind when making notifications:

1. Compared with no reminders, having reminders is much better. Reminders will increase retention rates;
2. Remind the copy to be combined with the scene. Avoid making users feel disgusted. For example, when it is raining heavily, you may receive a Didi notification saying that it is raining heavily and offering you a 50% discount coupon. This is very heartwarming. If users are disgusted, they will either block notifications or uninstall the app, which is a huge loss;
3. Refined operations are required for different users. Different users have different preferences, and under different attributes, they may want to receive different messages. For example, if you are in Shenzhen, you don’t want to receive notifications from Beijing;
4. Keep looking at data and feedback, and constantly optimize copywriting and timing. For every operator, if you want to do this, you must go through a process. If you don’t have enough knowledge and understanding of users, you don’t know what kind of copywriting will get good user feedback, so you need to make certain adjustments and feedback.

4. Increase the cost of user departure

There is a concept called sunk cost:

It means that when people decide whether to do something, they not only consider whether it is good for them, but also whether they have invested in it in the past.

We call these irrecoverable expenditures, such as time, money, and energy, sunk costs. For example, the cost of attending a lecture is a sunk cost, so the attendance rate of paid events will be much higher than that of free events.

Therefore, allowing users to invest time, energy, money, and emotions on the platform will promote more retention on the platform. We define these users who are willing to invest time, energy and emotion as core loyal users. Maintaining them well is very helpful to the entire platform. The activeness of an opinion leader will continue to attract many fans and users.

• Video sites will adopt methods that allow users to invest more money. For example, for Youku membership, you might search on every platform in the past, but once you purchase Youku membership, you will go to Youku to look for videos. Payment is a good way to retain users. If a user has already purchased a data package, he will think that the money has been spent and he will lose money if he doesn’t listen to a few more songs. Once users are made to pay a price, the cost of leaving will be higher.
• For community- based groups, you can try to invest emotionally. Investing emotions will prevent users from leaving easily. When people invest emotions, they will subconsciously make themselves more accepting of this thing because they don’t want others to think they are stupid. I choose this product, and if it is not good, I will explain it to others. There may be difficulties and shortcomings, and we should understand each other. For example, when it comes to Apple phones, many people choose to buy them because they love the Apple brand beyond rationality, so such users will not leave easily.
• Recharge in advance. For example, with Yidao Car, those who recharge more will definitely use it more frequently. This is also the case in many offline scenarios. For example, when you go to get a haircut, they ask you to apply for a membership card, which is also an attempt to bind your future consumption in advance.
• The investment of time. Users who invest time in it are less likely to leave, like forum moderators and Zhihu experts.

5. User incentive system

For example, QQ members. I remember a news report more than ten years ago. The newspaper criticized Tencent QQ for wasting the public's electricity. Many people stayed idle there in order to get the level of stars and sun. This shows that the membership system is definitely helpful in motivating users and improving retention. QQ is not used for chatting, but the computer is left open just to get a higher level.

Points ranking and medals, these three are all part of the incentive system. First design the points, then there is a ranking, and then after completing the task, for example, you will be given a medal for signing in for seven consecutive days.

6. Increase the number of usable scenarios

The reason why many products fail to become popular is that there are too few scenarios in which they can be used, so much so that users have forgotten about them.

Let’s take an example of a traditional industry, Jiaduobao and Wanglaoji . The original copy "curing heat" changed to "fear of getting heaty", and the crowd and scene expanded suddenly. I may not have a heaty today, but I feel that I may have a heaty recently. As the scenarios expanded, sales also increased a lot.

Let’s take a look at WeChat Pay . WeChat Pay had a difficult time in the early days because Alipay already had hundreds of millions of users. The WeChat Pay team has only a few dozen people, while the Alipay team had one or two thousand people at the beginning. There is a huge gap in strength and the foundation behind them. How to challenge? Mainly through scene breakthrough:

1. WeChat Pay created a scenario, the red envelope. They accidentally created a red envelope grabbing function internally, and it became very popular. It was found that this was the scenario of binding the user's bank card. This scenario has begun to be used extensively, including special marketing during the Spring Festival Gala. Now the use of red envelopes on WeChat has become very common, attracting many users.
2. WeChat has further optimized payment scenarios, allowing direct transfers between friends. Because WeChat itself has a mature social relationship chain, there is no need to leave WeChat. Transactions can take place while chatting and the money can be transferred. This scenario is better than the Alipay experience at that time.
3. There is no obvious lag in ground promotion . For example, if you want to pay for breakfast with Tenpay, there are basically no supported devices. But WeChat has gradually supported it, for example, you can pay with QR code on WeChat.

Some activations are meaningless and it is easy to make mistakes. Some demands cannot be stimulated through operations.

For example, 58.com’s moving service, even if there is a big discount, will give you a hundred yuan off if you rent a house, but you will not want to rent a house if you don’t have the need. 58.com’s efforts to improve retention should be directed towards ensuring the core experience through optimization: the rental information is rich, authentic and reliable, and when people around them want to rent a house, there will be users who will recommend it. There are also extended related services including moving after renting a house and moving and selling second-hand houses. This will bring user activity.

To recap what was said:

1. The general direction of improving retention is to increase the user value of the product. If the user is attracted by you, it is not your false demand, but the subsidy, which makes him curious for a short time. Even if you get in, you can't stay. Therefore, improving retention itself requires optimizing and increasing the user value of the product. At the same time, some users may not be able to experience it after coming in. You may need some means, such as using magic numbers to find the core of active users and inactive users. The retention rate of this product will be higher.
2. There must be some reasons for losing users. By visiting users again, we can find out why they don’t use our products and then optimize our products and operations.
3. Solving the problem of user retention is the big idea. The methods mentioned above under the big idea are the methods under the framework of the big idea.

The author of this article @飞鱼船长 is compiled and published by (青瓜传媒). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games