With the right channels and prices, your product is still not well received?

Nowadays, procrastination has become a social problem. Almost everyone has procrastination to varying degrees. It not only affects personal behavior and mentality, but also has a significant impact on business activities:

• The user downloads your app, takes a quick look at it, and then puts it on their phone without touching it again;
• Consumers open your page, browse it casually, but do not use specific functions;
• Your products are thrown into the favorites by some customers, and it seems that they never intend to buy them;
• The customer happily received your coupon, but did not make a purchase until the coupon expired.

These users have needs and your product has functions, but procrastination is like a Berlin Wall, blocking your further contact and delaying the user's trial and experience. There are many factors that cause procrastination: lack of confidence in achieving goals, the belief that the process of achieving goals is difficult or the results will not be good, goals and rewards are too far away, and distractions that cannot be self-disciplined. Of course, we cannot subjectively ask consumers to overcome procrastination, nor can we treat every potential consumer with procrastination through psychotherapy methods such as "Morita therapy". But there are also some practical techniques borrowed from psychological theories. If used properly, they can overcome the threshold of procrastination and allow products and users to have an intimate embrace.

1. Targeted Intervention

Any book or program on treating procrastination will basically mention the issue of goals. After all, procrastination itself means "difficulty in achieving goals", either rarely completing the set goals as planned, or even if the goals are completed as planned, but a lot of painful struggles are experienced in the process.

Many users think their goals are clear when they first come into contact with a product. For example, they download a knowledge quiz app to learn new knowledge every day. However, after opening the app, many users begin to get confused about their goals: should they read the recommended hot news, search for interesting content, ask questions directly, or register an account first?

As Steve Jobs once said, “Consumers don’t know what they want.” When there are too many options to choose from and no clear guidance, procrastination may become a problem. The solution to this problem is simple: users don’t have goals, so we give them goals.

1. Clarify your goals

"Wanting to learn knowledge" can be said to be a decent goal for users who enter knowledge question-and-answer platforms, but this goal does not have a clear way to achieve it, no clear standards for achievement, and no fixed measurement scale. With such a vague goal, many users feel at a loss when using the product and are prone to procrastination. We need to transform users' vague profit goals into specific and clear behavioral goals.

For users, "learning knowledge" is a vague goal, but "viewing an article recommended on the homepage" is a relatively clear and feasible goal. We can guide user behavior through page prompts. It is important to note that the goals you set for users must be in the same direction as the users' own goals. Only when users feel that they can achieve their ultimate goals by completing the goals you set will they follow the goals you set.

2. Detailed decomposition

It is not enough to just have a clear goal; a goal that is far away and difficult will also stop people from moving forward. I believe that many managers have suffered from the user registration interface. Whether it is insufficient guidance, too complicated process, or too many pages jumping during the process, it may lead to the termination of user registration behavior and waste the intended traffic .

The goals given to users must be simple enough and feasible. By breaking down the big goal into small specific goals. This can be seen from the task design of online games , especially the tutorial stage. The guidance experience of various online games is very detailed and specific.

From the initial tutorial guiding players on how to move and which buttons to click to fight, to the subsequent tasks broken down into killing a few monsters, finding a few items, and reaching places marked on the map, everything is very specific and detailed, making it easy to get started and easy to operate. With reference to these online games, our products can also provide clear guidance prompts, suggesting to users to achieve segmented goals such as clicking a certain location on the page, selecting a certain option, reading a few articles, and writing a few comments.

3. Difficulty curve

For customers who are new to the product, we need to set minimum goals. In the early stages of contact, procrastination is most likely to spread, and any goal that is slightly difficult can easily stop people from moving forward. By setting a minimum goal that is extremely easy to accomplish, users can interact with the product with almost zero learning cost, which will start the subsequent usage experience. It's like a hello between two strangers. It seems like a small thing, but it breaks the distance of silence and communication. If it is a food delivery platform, our minimum goal can be to click the nearby merchant button to enter the browsing interface; if it is a log platform, our minimum goal can be to click the New button to create a blank log. These simple, easy-to-do, thought-free, and no-longer-than-1-minute operation guides are the best minimum goals. Through such new user prompts, we can quickly break the ice and allow customers to get closer to our products.

Simple tasks cannot be repeated over and over again. If you have been using a log software for a year and it still pops up a prompt every day when you open it, asking you to create a new blank log, you will definitely feel that it is insulting your IQ. Decomposing goals requires an increasing difficulty curve to allow customers to gradually gain deeper exposure to more features and value. At the same time, the target difficulty curve from easy to difficult will continue to increase user participation.

There is a notorious "Blue Whale Game " in Russia. When participants first join, the organizers only require them to listen to music and watch horror movies . The difficulty will continue to increase, first asking the participants to get up at 4 o'clock every day and talk to animals, then to self-harm, until the ultimate goal is to make the participants commit suicide. Of course, "Blue Whale Game" not only uses the difficulty curve, but also many other factors that combine to ultimately lead to those tragedies. However, this case also indirectly confirms the impact that the difficulty curve can bring.

4. Information Feedback

Information feedback is a yardstick for users to judge the completion of goals. It's like an old experiment in which several teams of people are asked to walk through a stretch of wasteland. The experimenter will tell one part of the team at any time how much percentage of the total distance they have walked, while the other part of the team has no idea how much they have walked. The experimental results show that the team without information feedback is more likely to give up than the team with information feedback.

Our information feedback, whether it is a page jump, a prompt for a successful operation, an increase in points, or the acquisition of privileges, is a reference for users to subconsciously evaluate the previous behavior and regulate the next behavior. It can effectively improve the procrastination symptoms caused by "fear of difficult processes and bad results" or "lack of confidence in achieving goals", so don't ignore the importance of information feedback. In addition, effectively utilize positive and negative incentive mechanisms to give users some rewards after they complete certain goals: coupons, badges, points, or even just words of encouragement, to stimulate the user's dopamine secretion and make him more motivated to achieve new goals. It should be noted that rewards should be divided into two types: one is the reward that you know clearly before the goal is completed, and the other is a random reward. Under the cross-effect of these two reward methods, the user's dopamine will be better mobilized to continue to achieve subsequent goals.

2. Time Intervention

Procrastinators always have insufficient time. Some people even believe that procrastination itself is a time management problem. Although this view is somewhat generalized, time management is indeed an effective way to improve procrastination problems. We need to help users manage their time wisely since they don’t know how to do so.

1. Time plan

Everyone has a timeline, either tangible or potential. Some people will write down a daily schedule to plan their schedule for the day or week. Some people may not write it down in a document, but in real life, they must have a relatively stable biological rhythm for what is suitable for them to do in each time period. For example, when is the best time of the day for socializing , when is the best time for exercise, when is the best time for rest, etc. We need to find the user's "schedule" and "write" their plan for using our product.

Based on data and through behavioral analysis of the target group, we can find the general time patterns of users using the product. Based on this, we can bind users to the most suitable time through direct reminders, limited-time activities, new content push, etc., to bring them a better user experience, help them develop usage habits, and reduce procrastination caused by uncertainty.

In addition, we can combine the feedback mentioned earlier with time planning, yes, this is the check-in system. Users can obtain rewards by logging in every day and completing certain basic actions. By completing them cumulatively, they can obtain larger rewards. It helps to mobilize consumers’ own subconscious monitoring mechanisms, encouraging them to get rid of procrastination and use products. One additional thing to note is that the sign-in rules need to be set slightly flexibly. For example, there can be two remedial opportunities during the continuous sign-in process each month. This can avoid the situation where most people give up signing in directly because they cannot get the full-month sign-in reward when they occasionally fail to sign in.

2. Advance the time

Some people believe that if the function is there, users will find out how to use it when they need it. However, psychological research shows that when demands continue to increase, the increasing pressure caused by the demands will have a certain impact on cognitive function. This is an obstacle for users to learn product functions, making them think the product is more difficult to use and reducing the product experience.

Users often procrastinate to learn about a product until the need arises, but we need to prepare time for users in advance. When users are using some of the product's features, we can use small tasks or introductions to allow users to simply experience or understand other features of the product, thereby facilitating future use.

3. Time limit

Too much time is also a prelude to procrastination. For the same job, if the time limit is different, your attitude towards the job will be completely different. If you are asked to write a plan in seven days or to write a plan within one day, there will definitely be a significant difference in your degree of procrastination.

The American company Deitch conducted an experiment in which they gave customers two coupons with the same discount but different time limits. One is valid for two weeks and the other is valid for two months. After the experiment, they collected statistics and found that customers who received two-week coupons were much more likely to use their coupons than customers who received two-month coupons.

People may generally think that setting a longer deadline will give users more choices and a better experience. However, this is precisely another factor that causes users to procrastinate. When we need to set a time limit, we must be careful not to leave too much time.

3. Emotional Intervention

Even severe procrastinators don't procrastinate on everything. Some people will delay submitting a proposal tomorrow morning in order to watch a movie; some people will delay turning off the lights and going to bed in order to play with their mobile phones for a while longer. Procrastinators always have something they really want to do and are doing. Although we do not need to completely change the functions of our products and turn all products into toys because of the procrastination of some people, we can still make some appropriate adjustments to promote our products to become things that users do, rather than things that are procrastinated.

1. Simple settings

Clutter is always the best aid to procrastination. There is a very famous book in Japan called "Danarisha", and some people also use its ideas to treat procrastination. "Dan Li She" is a book derived from home organization techniques. Part of the concept is to change the clutter of the environment, adjust psychological distress, and solve problems such as procrastination, laziness, and distraction.

If you just come into contact with a new product and there are a lot of complicated functions in front of you that require you to take the trouble to discover and find them, you will also feel a headache and want to put it aside for the time being. Therefore, don’t assume that you will win customers just by having rich and comprehensive functions. Simple functions and clear classifications allow users to avoid detours and spend less time thinking on the way to finding the functions they need, and more users will stay to cheer for you.

In addition, in terms of layout design, try to avoid being dull or cluttered, which will bring a certain sense of oppression to users and increase their desire to procrastinate. You can also try using some relaxed or even cute language. Create a more relaxed atmosphere in many aspects, reduce the pressure in the product usage experience, and bring better retention effects.

2. The power of the group

When an individual is in a group, the individual will reduce his or her procrastination behavior due to the influence of the group. Some psychological treatments for procrastination can also intervene in individual procrastination through the power of the group. The group can provide a special situation where, under the influence of elements such as understanding, care, and trust, individuals will reduce their procrastination behavior. In addition, the sense of connection with the group will also bring positive guidance to individuals and improve procrastination. For products, while paying attention to the interaction between products and users, we should also strengthen the interaction between users. Whether it is the built-in social system, comment area, scoreboard, or using communities on other platforms, we can effectively use the power of the group to solve the user's individual procrastination.

While improving users' procrastination problems, we should also remember to look at our own procrastination problems. Are there any functions that you know can be improved but you haven't started to do it? Do you always say you are busy even though you can take time to spend with your family? Do you still hold your phone when you should turn off the lights and go to bed? If you happen to see this late at night, dear, turn off your phone and go to sleep now.

The author of this article is @Mi Kuang Academy and it is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, information flow advertising, advertising platform