How can we avoid loss of users that we have worked hard to attract and keep them active?
When developing products and doing operations, one often encounters a difficult problem - after working hard to attract users, one finds that most of them never open the product again, let alone continue to consume here.These users who only come once have almost no commercial value, which means that all the investment in attracting these users is wasted.Some users, after continuing to use the app for a few times, also become churned users.On the contrary, those users who can continue to actively use the app over a certain period of time are called retained users.The proportion of retained users to the new users in this batch is called the retention rate.When considering the retention time, there are generally the next day, the 7th day, the 30th day, etc., which correspond to the next-day retention rate, the 7th-day retention rate, and the 30th-day retention rate respectively.For example, a product has 100 new users, and 30, 15, and 5 users use the product again on the next day, the 7th day, and the 30th day, respectively. Then the corresponding:
The next day retention rate is 30%
The 7th day retention rate is 15%
The 30-day retention rate is 5%
Some people who have never worked in operations may have questions when seeing the data above - in the example you gave, why is the retention number so small, with only 5 out of 100 users remaining on the 30th day?However, in fact, after 30 days, it is normal for a product to still have 5 users logging in on that day. Most products with low retention have a retention rate much lower than this.As an operator, don’t simply assume that all users you bring in are your users, and don’t always use the “total number of users” as an indicator to be complacent about. Instead, you should pay more attention to the number of active users and retention rate.Because only truly active users can generate commercial value.For example, if a product has been downloaded 10 million times on various platforms, and the background data shows that there are 100,000 active users, only these 100,000 active users can generate profits.1. Why is retention rate so important?▎ 1. Retention rate is the criterion for judging whether the product is valuableAn important criterion for judging whether a product is valuable is whether the retention rate of this product is high enough.A low retention rate means that most users have no motivation to open the product again after using it, which means that the product does not meet user needs well.The profitability of Internet products is often delayed. The profits generated by serving users in the future are not like the Qingdao lobster that can be slaughtered with one cut. Without retention, there is no commercial value at all, and investors will not invest in a product with a very low retention rate.For products that cannot retain users, there is no need to attract a large number of new users, because no matter how many users are attracted, they will disappear soon, which is a complete waste.In the early stages of a product, you should pay more attention to whether the retention rate meets the requirements rather than just focusing on the growth of the total number of users.2. The cost of retaining old users is much lower than acquiring new usersCountless data clearly show that the cost of retaining an old user is much lower than the cost of acquiring a new user.Especially in today's situation where traffic costs have risen exponentially, spending more energy on improving user retention is a more efficient and economical operational direction.Not spending time and energy on retaining old users, but only focusing on adding new users is like picking up sesame seeds and losing watermelons.3. Retention rate is the key to determine competitionIn an industry where products are becoming increasingly homogenized, operational efficiency becomes the key factor that determines success or failure - that is, who can achieve higher operational output with the same input.For example, if you attract 100 users, you only retain 5 and the other party only retains 7, then the other party’s retention rate is 40% higher than yours, and your average cost of acquiring active users is 40% higher than that of the other party.This is a huge gap in the fierce competition. The same investment can acquire more active users, and more active users can bring higher competitive barriers and company valuations, which will quickly widen the gap between companies.It is also clear from a revenue perspective that the longer users stay, the longer they can contribute profits. For example, on average, a user contributes 10 yuan in revenue per month. If they stay for two months, that is 20 yuan in revenue. If they can stay for a year, they can contribute an additional 100 yuan in revenue.Improving retention rate is also an important way to increase company revenue.2. The essence of high retention rateMany people will ask me:“What can we do to make users stay?”This common question itself has some problems. In fact, it represents a single-minded thinking, which oversimplifies the issue of comprehensive effects without paying attention to the essence of the matter .Just like in our life we may encounter someone asking:"What can 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.Therefore, what determines whether or not to break up does not lie in what you say, but in whether your values, personality, experience, attitude, conduct, and upbringing meet your expectations during the previous relationship. This is the key factor in deciding whether to break up.The breaking point that leads to the breakup may be just some accidental factors.It is actually quite difficult to ask her not to break up with you if you say a few more words. Even if she stays for a moment, she may leave again the next day due to other accidental factors.If you only focus on saying sweet words to solve the problem, but do not reflect on the values, personality, experience, attitude, character, and cultivation reflected in your words and deeds during past interactions, you are doomed to fail in the end.Similarly, when it comes to improving retention rates, there is no one-size-fits-all method that can instantly increase a product’s retention rate.What we should pay more attention to is whether the product itself meets user needs well.Regarding the issue of low retention rate, 95% of the reasons are that the needs of the product itself are not properly addressed.As an operator, it is actually very difficult to make a shitty product as delicious as a cake.If the product itself solves a false demand, and the usage scenario is based on the boss's own fantasy, and early users are basically attracted through subsidies, it will be difficult to keep users active no matter what operational means are used.We know that most startups will eventually fail, and in most failed startups, the problem is that the product is not good enough.Most of the demands put forward by companies are false demands. This 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.So, if product demand is not false demand, what should we do to improve product retention rate?3. The magic number for improving retentionIn foreign cases of improving retention rates, a concept is often mentioned - the magic number.
Twitter found that compared with churned users, retained users will choose 5-10 more users to follow during their first use (another version of the statement is that retained users will follow 30 users in the first month);
Facebook found that adding 7 friends within 10 days has a high retention rate;
The characteristic of Linkedin's retained users is that they add 5 friends within a week;
Users who use Dropbox once will become more active users.
The numbers in the picture above have become the magic numbers for these products.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 allow all new users to experience the product value as much as possible through product design and operation.For example, when Twitter discovered that active users have the behavioral characteristic of selecting 5-10 users to follow, it simplified the process and highlighted the key points in product design, strengthened guidance and preferentially recommended people to follow in operations, etc., making it very easy for new users to follow 5-10 users, thereby improving the retention rate.Why does this increase the retention rate?Because the core value of Twitter's product is to see the update message stream sent by users who are worth following. If a new user follows only a few users at the beginning, it will be difficult for him to experience the benefits of Twitter, and the possibility of giving up using it will increase significantly.Once users are able to better experience the core value of the product and better meet their needs through products and operations, the product retention rate will also increase.How was this magic number found?The essence of finding the magic number is to find the behavioral differences between active users and inactive users. One way to find this difference is through data analysis, and another is through user return visits.The method of data analysis is to see which user behavior characteristics are positively correlated with user activity. When the degree of positive correlation is very high, it means that this difference is likely to be the key to affecting activity.In theory, all interactions between users and apps can be recorded, and this kind of analysis can reveal some problems.If capable companies can build this kind of data analysis system themselves, there are many data platforms on the market that support these analyses, and start-ups can also use them at a lower cost.The method of user return visit generally adopts the way of telephone return visit. Through more in-depth chats with active users and inactive users, we can understand the user's age, occupation, region and other background information, analyze their behavioral characteristics, usage motivations, demand pain points, etc., and find the differences between the two types of users.Many differences in user behaviors are revealed through follow-up interviews, because this way we can learn the users’ true feelings behind many numbers. For example, in one case, a follow-up interview revealed that the user gave up using the product because the process was too complicated. After optimizing the process, the retention rate increased significantly by 27%.What happens once you’ve found a possible magic number?Whether through data analysis or user return visits, after obtaining user behavior characteristics that may have a positive correlation, some A/B testing can be done to verify whether the retention rate can be significantly improved.Suppose, through data analysis, it is found that users who view more than 7 products after first registration will appear to have a higher retention rate.Design an A/B test, with one group as the control group that remains unchanged, and another group as the adjustment group that is optimized to guide users to view more products, and see whether there is a significant improvement in retention rate in the end.If the retention rate is significantly improved, it means that the behavioral characteristics found are correct and optimization can be continued.4. Create high-frequency functions in the value chainMany product demands are correct in themselves, but the problem is that they are too low-frequency .For example, Chunyu Doctor, its core function is to consult doctors through the platform.This kind of product is actually quite low-frequency. After all, it is used to consult doctors about their medical conditions, and most people will not ask unless they are sick.Moreover, it is impossible for it to push disease-related messages on a daily basis. For example, it is inappropriate to push messages related to diseases such as "Do you have any problems with diabetes?" and "Andrology experts are waiting for you to ask questions." Once pushed, it will inevitably lead to a large number of users being disgusted and uninstalling the program.So what should we do?The demand for such products is itself 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 added a few years ago was the pedometer function, which had just become popular at that time. It told you that exercising more every day means you will be healthier. Chunyu Doctor guides you from disease to health.This function has led to an increase in the opening rate of the Chunyu Doctor App. Even if the step counting function is used more, it will increase the possibility of needing to consult a doctor, because with greater familiarity, the probability of being remembered and used will increase.This relatively high-frequency function helped the App to increase its activity to a great extent. After that, they continued to create more related high-frequency functions around the core value chain of health, such as health plans and menstrual functions.In the past two years, we can see an obvious trend that many products have begun to add content functions. Taobao, JD.com, and Maoyan Movies have added many information modules. Even tool products such as UC Browser, Cheetah Clean Master, and Youdao Dictionary have begun to add content modules.Because content consumption involves long online time, multiple triggering scenarios, rich content, and strong continuity, it is more likely to become a feature that users use frequently.Even on WeChat, which we use every day, besides chatting with others, more of our time is probably spent on consuming content such as reading Moments and subscription accounts.In Chunyu Doctor, it is much easier for users to accept health information by pushing it to them than by directly recommending the consultation function itself.Moreover, this is a platform about doctors. Compared with WeChat where rumors are flying all over the place, the sense of trust here will be stronger, and it can also continuously strengthen users' trust in this platform.In addition to the above case, common functions that can improve retention by using high frequency to bring low frequency include:A. Check-inFor 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 inexpensive, but very meaningful to many users.B. Live broadcastFor example, Momo has now added a live broadcast function, which has brought it a lot of revenue and activity. Maimai has added some "job broadcasts" by well-known workplace experts, the expert live broadcasts of the Chitu App, and the live broadcasts of the columnists of Duode.C. Free for a limited timeIt also captures the desire of some users to get a bargain, such as the limited-time free apps in the Apple Store. When people regularly check out the limited-time free apps, they will also check out other apps, which increases activity and drives downloads.What needs to be pointed out here is that although the core function of the product itself may be relatively low-frequency, this method of using high-frequency functions to drive low-frequency functions is not a completely false demand or no demand at all.In addition, there is a key word in this sentence: " product value chain ". There is no point in adding functions that are not related to the product value chain. If Chunyu Doctor added a beauty live broadcast feature, it would feel very strange. It might lead to an increase in the number of active users in the short term, but it would soon die completely because it would destroy the product positioning.The method of using high frequency and low frequency to improve retention rate is not suitable for all products. You still need to conduct a careful analysis and think about whether users have such a demand , whether adding this demand will help the product itself, whether it will confuse product positioning, or whether it can really improve retention.5. Remind users at the right timePeople tend to be forgetful, and nowadays everyone has a lot of apps on their phones. The possibility of users actively searching for and opening a page is actually not very high.If you don’t remind yourself, it’s easy to forget about many apps. Compared with no reminders, reminders will increase retention rate.The most common notification methods are Push messages, SMS, service numbers, and emails. These different methods have their own characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, and are generally used in combination with each other.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 activity and retention rate will definitely be very low.There are a few points to note about notification reminders:A. Remind the copy to be combined with the scene.Combining scenarios can avoid making users feel disgusted. For example, when there is a heavy rainstorm, you receive a Didi push notification saying that it is raining heavily and offering you a 50% discount coupon for a taxi home. This is very appropriate and heartwarming.If users are disgusted, they will either block notifications or uninstall the app, which is a huge loss;B. Refined operations should be carried out for different users.Different users have different preferences. Under different attributes, the messages they want to receive are also different. For example, people in Shenzhen don’t want to receive notifications from Beijing; women don’t want to receive notifications from men, etc.Label users in a targeted manner and push different notifications to users with different labels. This information will be more valuable to users.C. Keep checking data and feedback, and constantly optimize copywriting and push timing.Both copywriting and time need to be constantly optimized. Throughout the entire process, by constantly looking at data and user feedback, we can adjust and iterate to create better copywriting, which will not only avoid offending users but also give them more expectations.6. Increase the cost of user churnThere is a concept called sunk cost , which means that when people decide whether to do something, they not only consider whether it is good for them, but also whether they have already 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 user 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.▎Get users to spend moneyProducts that users have already spent money on will be more likely to be used frequently.This point is already very mature in traditional industries, which is to issue membership cards.For example, before I purchased a Youku membership, if I wanted to watch a video, I might search it on every platform. Once I purchased a Youku membership, I would go to Youku to look for videos.If you haven't watched much in a month, you might still think that you don't want to waste the money, so you might find time to watch a movie online on the weekend.Similarly, NetEase Cloud Music's targeted traffic packages and Kindle unlimited all play a similar role.The paid membership designs that can drive sales are even more ingenious. For example, membership on Ele.me, which costs 20 yuan a month, is free of delivery fees from Fengniao Express, and the cost of purchasing the membership becomes a sunk cost for users.Once you buy an Ele.me membership, you basically won’t order takeout from other platforms; the 20 yuan membership fee already invested will encourage users to order more takeout, otherwise they will feel they are being cheated.Similarly, Amazon's Prime membership, JD.com's Plus membership, Maoyan Cinema's discount cards, etc. are also very good designs.Once users pay a price, the cost of leaving will be higher, which will promote higher user retention.▎ Make users emotionally involvedInvesting emotions is also a sunk cost, which will prevent users from leaving easily.When people invest their emotions in something, they will subconsciously make themselves more accepting of it because they don't want others to think they are stupid.After choosing a product, if it is good, we will work hard to promote and recommend it; if it is not good, we will explain it to others - maybe it has its own difficulties, and we should understand.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.So when the product is very good, encourage users to participate in and love the product, form a product-based community that allows users to participate, invest more emotions in it, and are less likely to leave.▎Pre-chargeThe money recharged in advance is also a considerable sunk cost.In offline scenarios, many common pre-charged membership cards are of this type.For example, Duoduo and Himalaya deliberately stagger the pricing of common products when choosing the recharge amount, so that after you recharge and buy a product, there will always be some money left, and then you can only continue to buy other products.▎Subheading: Get users to invest their timeUsers who invest time in it are less likely to leave, like forum moderators and Zhihu experts.Some people who play games may have lost the thrill of fighting monsters in the early days when they have upgraded to a certain level, but because they have spent a lot of time on it and accumulated a lot of sunk costs, they have no choice but to continue playing.7. User Incentive SystemMany of us like exciting games like the NBA and the World Cup, and enjoy watching the stars perform wonderful dribbling and scoring goals on the court.But if you look at it calmly, it's actually just a group of people scrambling to put a ball into a man-made net.If an alien who doesn't know the rules of the court passes by, he might wonder:"What are these people doing???" (← black question mark)If you are alone at home and put the ball in a basket, you will definitely not feel any excitement. But why do people jump up with excitement when Kobe shoots a buzzer-beating three-pointer?Why does his buzzer-beating shot make you feel passion, dream, honor, miracle and belief? Isn't it just putting the ball in the frame?Because through mechanism setting, joint participation, competition and comparison, this matter has been given a different meaning.I remember a news story more than 10 years ago, in which the newspaper criticized QQ for wasting the nation’s electricity. Many people kept their computers open for 24 hours and used QQ just to get the level of stars and suns. But what was the use of those small icons of stars and suns? Is it worth spending so much time and energy hanging there?No matter how boring it may seem to others, this point-based rating system is very helpful in promoting product activity and retention.There is an innate drive for comparison in human nature, and people want to be better than others in some aspects.Therefore, an appropriate user incentive system can encourage users to use the product more actively.The user incentive system includes points, levels, rankings and medals. We design the behaviors we expect from users into the user incentive system to encourage users to perform more behaviors.Regarding points, levels, and medals, I have to recommend that you study them. The points system and membership system in the QQ system are indeed very good in this regard.8. Increase the number of scenarios that can be usedThe 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 me first give an example of a traditional industry - the herbal tea Wanglaoji.The initial copy was adjusted from "curing internal heat" to "fear of internal heat", and the usage scenarios were suddenly expanded.A person may not have a sore throat today, but may have behaviors that may cause a sore throat, such as eating hot pot, dry weather, staying up late, etc.After the scene expanded, Wanglaoji's sales increased 100 times, surpassing beverage giant Coca-Cola in China. (Of course, the 100-fold increase in sales is not entirely due to the change in scene, but this is a very important factor)Think back, have you ever used Applepay, Baifubao, NetEase Payment, or Tenpay?Maybe you opened one of the above payment products because of a certain event or a certain product, but why didn’t you continue using it later?Because there are so few usage scenarios, after you open Baifubao and go online, there are so few merchants where you can use it that it is difficult for you to remember to use it.Let’s take a look at WeChat Pay, which uses the Tenpay payment license.WeChat Pay was very difficult in its early days because Alipay already had hundreds of millions of users, and with the support of Alibaba Group's large number of e-commerce transactions, people were already accustomed to using Alipay for payment.The Alipay team already had one or two thousand people at the time, while the WeChat Pay team had only a few dozen people. It would be unlikely to expand the marketing in the short term. How to break the deadlock?WeChat Pay mainly achieves breakthroughs through usage scenarios.1. WeChat Pay created a scenario - red envelope.Following Tencent's tradition of asking bosses for red envelopes after the beginning of each year, the team made an H5 page for grabbing red envelopes and inadvertently discovered that the speed of spread was very fast and the participation rate was very high.We also found that this scenario is very familiar to people all over the country, and it is also a very good scenario for binding users' bank cards.We therefore focused on developing the red envelope function and planned interactive marketing during the 2015 Spring Festival Gala, which led to a large number of ordinary users starting to use the WeChat red envelope function.Now the use of red envelopes on WeChat has become a popular activity among the entire population. During this year's Spring Festival, the total number of red envelopes sent and received on WeChat reached 46 billion.2. WeChat has further optimized the payment scenario - transferring money between friends.Because WeChat itself has a mature social relationship chain, there is no need to leave WeChat. You can talk about money while chatting, and then the money can be transferred directly.This scenario is much better than opening Alipay separately and entering the other party’s Alipay account.It is said that the transaction costs (bank fees, server costs) incurred by WeChat Pay for money transfers have exceeded 100 million yuan per day, which shows that this number is already very large.3. Provide a very convenient payment method.In the past, a major obstacle to the deployment of payment systems was the cost of payment hardware equipment, so the scope of deployment was very limited.If there are too few payment scenarios, users will use it much less frequently.With WeChat Pay, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars to buy hardware equipment. You just need to open WeChat to generate a QR code for payment. The amount will be credited to your account in real time, there is no need to print a signature, and there is no handling fee (at the time). It is low-cost and easy to use, so whether it is a high-end store or a fruit vendor on a cart, almost all of them now support WeChat Pay.As more offline transactions are connected, there are more scenarios in which it can be used, and more people will use WeChat Pay frequently.What is the difference between many people who keep adding features but fail?Expanding scenarios is based on successfully grasping the previous core needs, rather than constantly trying to change functions to increase activity when the main function is unsuccessful.Are there any scenarios in which your product can be expanded?ConclusionTo sum up, the general direction to improve retention rate is:The best way to retain users is not to constantly add functions and reminders to burden users, but to truly treat users as friends and find ways to provide them with better products and services, solve their pain points, and meet their needs.
Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising
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