4 steps to create a user activation closed loop?

In the new user acquisition activities, a large number of new users flocked to the product, but many users left before making any purchases. why is that? Because users are not activated and do not experience the aha moment, there will be no subsequent usage. So, how to activate users?

Back to one year ago, Xiao Ming and his friends created a community shopping platform. After adopting some new growth strategies, a large number of visitors poured in.

• User A: Interested
• User B: Yes
• User C: Just take a look

However, the actual transaction situation is not objective: the conversion rate from visitor to transaction is only 5%.

Xiao Ming and his team then analyzed and found that many visitors did not use the product for consumption after coming in.

What does this illustrate?

This means that after acquiring a large number of customers, Xiao Ming’s team did not do a good job of user activation (users will not use the product later if they do not experience the aha moment)

User A: I don’t feel the value of this product, goodbye!

User B: I don’t see what’s so special about this product, why should I pre-order it?

If you were the growth manager of this community group buying platform, what would you do?

• Should we retain existing users first and provide good services to existing users?
• Or should we find ways to increase the activation rate of existing users, for example, by making the content look more attractive?
• Or do you think there are not enough advertisements and we should increase the investment? The more people come, the more people can be activated and the more people can use it?

For this case, here is a method of user activation: creating a user activation closed loop in four steps.

1. Create an activation closed loop
2. Develop an activation strategy
3. Measuring the effectiveness of activation loops
4. Apply and optimize activation strategies

Let’s take a look at the steps one by one:

01 Create an activation closed loop

First of all, what is activation?

• Boss: Kiwi, the key point for our community’s growth is activation. What do you think counts as activation?
• Kiwi: At least you have to experience the core functions
• Boss: How to define core functions?
• Kiwi: Features that allow users to feel the value of the product

To sum up: activating users is essentially about finding ways to make new users quickly feel the value of the product within a limited time.

There’s a word we often mention when we talk about growth: aha moment. This is the key to user activation. In simple terms, we need to clarify four issues:

• who
• In how long
• How many times have you completed
• What behavior

Here are some aha moments for common products:

• Facebook: User added 10 friends within seven days
• Twitter: Follow 30 users, and 20% of them follow you back

Q: So how do we create an activation closed loop?

A: Different types of products have different activation loops.

1. The closed loop of social/community product activation usually emphasizes social feedback and activities.

Their closed loop is probably:

• User Generated Content (UGC)
• This content is seen by other users
• Users express their opinions and comments on the content
• Feedback to content creators
• ugc continues to produce content based on feedback

Common products include: Weibo, WeChat Moments, Jike, Zhihu, Douban, Hupu, Niuke, etc.

2. The activation loop of content products is usually to study user preferences through algorithms and make personalized content recommendations

• User subscribes to/views a certain type of content
• The system determines user preferences/tags
• Continue to recommend content that users like
• Users constantly see new content they like
• Users continue to subscribe to follow more content

Common products include: Zhihu, Toutiao, Douyin, etc.

3. The activation closed loop of tool apps is usually to cultivate users' usage habits, make them dependent on the app, and then further purchase services.

1. Users try out product features (limited features or limited time)
2. Improve user work efficiency/increase user migration costs
3. After the trial, guide users to purchase services (new user discount)
4. Products continue to provide more diversified services to improve user stickiness
5. The more users use it, the stronger their sense of dependence becomes

Common products include: time management, diary, network disk products, etc.

02 Develop an activation strategy

Four common strategies to increase new user activation: increase motivation, reduce resistance, appropriate boost, and timely rewards

1. Enhance motivation, explore the user's own needs, and provide assistance to make users more willing to complete the behavior

1) Leverage social connections

Social connections are the best way to build trust and personalize the experience for new users.

• WeChat Reading: After a new user logs in to WeChat, the homepage shows the books that their friends are reading
• Uber: When a new user registers, if the user is recommended by a friend, the friend’s name will be displayed.

2) New user bonus

Red envelopes and incentives must be related to the core business goals of the product, efforts must be rewarded, and users must be prevented from taking advantage of the product.

• NetEase Yanxuan New Member Red Packet: New Member Coupon: Increase ordering, and receive the mobile phone number required
• Daily Youxian New Customer Discount 100 Yuan Coupon: Increase Order Rate

3) Explain why

When making a request to a user, tell her why and what benefits it will bring to her.

Maimai: Allowing users to share address book permissions means that it can improve career growth opportunities

4) Personalized product experience

Personalization, giving users what they want, is also a way to enhance motivation and let users choose their own preferences.

Xiaohongshu: The new user registration process allows users to select the content they are interested in

5) Simulate the pre-Aha moment

If it takes a long time for a new user to experience the Aha moment, you can simulate the Aha moment and put it in front of the user.

Zhuanzhuan: When recycling mobile phones, users can get an online valuation first, so that they can see the benefits and increase their motivation.

6) Influence users through user psychology

Increase users' motivation to act quickly by creating a sense of tension, scarcity, and gamification

• WeChat Reading: How many new user unlimited cards are left today?
• Online education: Course pricing is tiered, with a 50 yuan increase when 50 or more people sign up.
• Pinduoduo: Remaining time of coupon validity

2. Reduce friction and remove all obstacles that prevent users from completing activation actions, helping users quickly reach the Aha moment

1) Remove unnecessary steps and information

In the conversion process, one more step means one more loss. Optimizing the process can reduce the loss

User login and registration: WeChat one-click login, one-click registration

2) Avoid user cold starts

Give users default options and content, don’t leave it blank at the beginning

Investment APP: Add 10 yuan default value

3) Highlight key behaviors and paths

Prioritize users to use core functions and highlight key functions

Beginner's Guide

4) Avoid giving users too many choices

Too many choices may cause users to not choose any

5) Use first and then pay or register

First, let users experience it at the lowest cost, enhance user trust, and then guide subsequent actions

Free use for the first month, 2 free courses for new users

3. Timely promotion: Use multiple means to help users complete activation within the critical time window

• Consideration: How quickly do users make decisions?
• How long is the time window to win back users? (New user activation period)
• If the user is not activated, is there any channel to reach the user?

1) Newbie Guide

It is important to provide new users with guidance at the right time through various means, and do not let new users' guidance become an obstacle for users to use the product.

• The novice guide boot page of the curtain
• Key function pop-up window guidance after entering the product
• Product documentation

2) User recall

If the user does not complete the activation action, use external channels to promptly pull the user back to the product through push notifications and other means to continue trying the product until the Aha moment.

E-commerce platform non-payment reminder

4. Timely rewards: Give timely feedback and rewards to users who have completed activation behaviors to encourage them to move forward and complete more behaviors.

• Consideration: The more difficult the action is for the user to complete, the more reward they should receive after completing it.
• If the behavior is a key action for your product, rewards can help form a habit
• If the process is too long, give users rewards in the middle to recharge

1) Timely incentives

After the user completes the key behavior, celebrate to show encouragement. The more information required, the more difficult the behavior, the greater the encouragement should be, and reward the user with surprises.

Maimai: After completing registration, you can mine the network information animation

2) Timely feedback

Give users instant feedback After the user completes the action, timely feedback, even if it is small, makes the user feel rewarded

• Xiaohongshu: Generate homepage animation after completing user evaluation
• 58 Tongcheng: Use progress bar to show progress

03 Measuring the effectiveness of activation loops

The main purpose of measuring the effectiveness of the activation closed loop is to make the activation more quantitative and specific. First, we need to have a clear, specific, and quantifiable activation indicator. Then use the activation indicator to calculate the "activation rate".

How to find activation indicators? Based on the aha moment, find the key behaviors and quantify the key behavior nodes.

For example, we define the aha moment of a community product as publishing content within 7 days.

Then his activation rate = users who posted content within 7 days of registration / total number of registered users within 7 days * 100%

Then, we need to split the user path of the entire activation action, sort out the activation funnel, and get the conversion rate of the funnel.

Common activation funnels include:

Download the app –> Open the app –> Register the first step –> Register the second step –> Complete registration –> Complete key actions

By optimizing the conversion rate of each link, the activation rate will eventually be improved!

04 Apply and optimize the activation closed loop

In this link, we just need to clarify two issues:

1) After applying the strategy, did the activation rate increase? If not, why not?

This is the most intuitive data. Everything you do revolves around improving the activation rate. So the first step is to see whether the direct indicators meet your expectations. What is the reason for not achieving the expected results? At this time, you can analyze the activation funnel mentioned above and find the reasons for each node.

2) The activation rate has increased, but has retention increased?

After we optimize and improve the activation rate, we still need to continue to pay attention to the follow-up, which is the retention of new users. You have to judge whether optimizing the activation rate will help retention? If not, you probably found the wrong aha moment and need further adjustment.

At this time, we need to analyze the user retention data and find the key nodes that can affect user retention. This node is most likely the user's aha moment.

Once we find the answers to the above two questions, we can further optimize the activation loop and start a new round of activation cycle.

Author: kiwi

Source: Hutong No. 6