Product Operation: How to acquire new users?

Inviting friends means letting old users invite new users through operational means to increase the number of platform users.

According to the AARRR model, inviting friends is a form of referral communication. In the Internet era, viral communication based on social networks has become a very important way to acquire users.

From self-propagation to acquiring new users, the product can form a spiral upward track. Many excellent applications have made good use of this track to continuously expand their user base.

As competition for Internet traffic becomes increasingly fierce and the cost of acquiring customers gradually increases, inviting friends is becoming more and more important. Especially for products in a rapid growth stage, making good use of the role of inviting friends can achieve a fission effect.

This article discusses some issues that need to be considered when inviting friends from an operational perspective.

01 The role of inviting friends in product operation

For different types of products, or products at different stages of their life cycle, inviting friends plays a different role in operations.

1. For newly launched products, many of them are based on spread among acquaintances, and they really need to acquire new users by inviting friends.
2. Products in the growth stage need to quickly capture the market, and the role of inviting friends is also very important. Inviting friends is usually placed in a very conspicuous position in the APP.
3. For very mature products, due to the high popularity of the products, the importance of inviting friends has decreased, and some products no longer have this function.
4. For products in certain niche vertical fields, inviting friends is more important for acquiring users; for example, financial management, vertical e-commerce, and daily consumption.

02 How to increase the invitation motivation of old users?

The most important thing about inviting friends is the invitation motivation of old users.

Old users invite new users for the following two reasons:

1. The product is novel, the functions are useful, and the content resonates with people, so I share it with my friends.
2. Invite friends to get certain rewards.

Currently, most APPs offer certain rewards for inviting friends. For example, you can get a coupon by inviting a friend.

Taking Meituan’s vegetable sales as an example, you can earn 30 yuan for inviting one user, and you can earn up to 500 yuan. With China Merchants Bank credit card, if you recommend 1 person, you can redeem related products for 10 yuan.

How to increase the invitation motivation of old users:

1. Try to combine rewards with the services provided by the product. For example, if Meituan sells vegetables, you can get vegetable coins by inviting friends. Old users can get a 30 yuan discount on their vegetable purchases. The next time you buy vegetables, you hope to be able to invite other users to get a discount.
2. The invitation threshold should not be too high. Some APPs require 10 people to be invited and a minimum of 100 yuan must be spent before cash can be withdrawn. This undoubtedly increases the invitation threshold and reduces the participation enthusiasm of old users.
3. Add features that facilitate self-propagation to product design, such as placing friend invitations in a prominent position to remind old users that they can get discounts by inviting friends when they use the product.
4. With the help of some operational means, for example, when purchasing goods, you can get more discounts by grouping with new users.

03 How to increase new users’ motivation?

How to increase new users' motivation to use the app and how to improve the conversion rate of new users are also important issues that need to be addressed when inviting friends. New users’ motivation for using the product:

1. I trust my friends, and when I see a product recommended by them, I want to try it.
2. The benefits for new users are attractive. Currently, most APPs have certain benefits for new users. New users can get certain red envelopes, coupons and other rewards when they use the APP for the first time.

When it comes to converting new users, the key is how to make it easier for new users to perceive the attractiveness of the product. During the entire invitation process, new user benefits and related conversion copy must be in place to lower the threshold for new users as much as possible.

In addition, old users are encouraged to guide new users. If a new user has not used the product after registration, old users can be reminded that their invited friends have not used the product yet.

04 How to set up invitation rewards?

There are three types of reward setting mechanisms: only for old users, only for new users, and for both old and new users.

If the cost of invitation is taken into account.

1. Only for old users: This can maximize the enthusiasm of old users. New users mainly trust old users, or the product is really useful to new users. Even if there is no novice reward, new users will experience it.
2. Only for new users: This situation is rare. The difficulty lies in how to get old users to share actively. Currently, Internet users are less and less interested in actively sharing.
3. For both old and new users

This is the most common type. Currently, most products adopt the new user benefits + old user rewards.

The pros and cons of the three options depend on the characteristics of your product and your operational strategy at a certain stage.

When it comes to reward setting, the first thing to consider is whether new user benefits are needed to quickly acquire new users.

1. If you need to acquire new users quickly, set up new user benefits to attract new users.
2. User growth has stabilized, and users are acquired through product features and word of mouth, so there is no need to set up new user benefits.

There are three main types of reward settings for old users:

1. Fixed rewards: the reward for inviting each person is fixed, for example, you can get a 20 yuan red envelope for each friend you invite.
2. Tiered rewards: the more you invite, the higher the reward.
3. You can withdraw cash when the amount reaches a certain amount. You can get 5 yuan for inviting one person, and you can withdraw cash when the amount reaches 100 yuan.

05 Is inviting friends a platform activity or a regular product function?

As a normal function of the product, old users can invite new users at any time.

As a marketing activity, there is a time limit. For example, during the Spring Festival, the collection of cards on various APPs and sharing of red envelopes are taking advantage of the gathering of relatives and friends during the Spring Festival to achieve the effect of inviting friends through benefits.

For example, the “Share” New Year limited-time welfare event launched by Douyin during the Spring Festival was a marketing activity.

06 How to display the invitation page?

1. Invitation method

Invitation methods include: WeChat Moments, face-to-face QR code scanning, link forwarding, poster generation, invitation code copying, Sina Weibo, QQ friends, etc.

Currently the most commonly used method is to share directly with WeChat friends. Click [Invite Now] to share with WeChat friends.

2. Display the page after sharing

The display pages shared with WeChat friends are mostly web links or mini-programs, which are convenient for new users to click.

Share to Moments: Generally in the form of links and pictures.

As people's willingness to share in Moments decreases, friends' willingness to click on links also decreases, and friends in Moments are more likely to accept picture information. For example, the pictures shared on WeChat Moments by Meituan’s vegetable sales and luckin coffee all have QR codes.

07 How to set up anti-cheating mechanism?

Anti-cheating mechanism is an issue that must be considered when doing operational activities. The relevant mechanisms include:

1. The platform limits the number of times old users can share each day.
2. The same login account, the same mobile phone number, the same terminal device number, the same payment account, and the same IP are considered the same user and cannot invite each other.
3. When it comes to incentives generated by behaviors such as shopping, it is necessary to formulate rules for recovering rewards generated by behaviors such as returns.
4. If a user obtains rewards through improper means, the platform has the right to revoke the user's activity reward qualification and cancel his/her rewards.

08 Input-Output Ratio

Any operational activity should consider the input-output ratio.

The customer acquisition cost of inviting friends should be lower than the average customer acquisition cost of the platform, that is:

Rewards for old users + rewards for new users < average CAC of the platform

In addition, we need to consider both the registration cost and the conversion. Some platforms invited many friends through activities, but most of them did not convert. Although the CAC seems to be very low, the output ratio is very poor.

09 How to achieve the fission effect by inviting friends?

For some products, inviting friends is not just a function of the product, but a very important means of operation. It needs to be combined with activities, copywriting, user operations and other operations to achieve the fission effect.

1. Product design : put friend invitations in a prominent position, highlight invitation rewards, make the invitation page easier to share, and make the new user page more user-friendly.
2. Activities : regularly invite friends to participate. For example, during the Spring Festival and National Day, when relatives and friends gather, it is a good time to invite friends to participate.
3. In terms of content promotion : In order to make old users feel the practicality and benefits of invitation rewards, there needs to be certain promotional incentives; in order to make new users feel the temptation of new user benefits and the value of the product, there needs to be corresponding behavioral guidance for new users.
4. User operation : Users who invite their friends to use the product generally have a higher conversion rate. How to get these users to continue sharing and spreading the product?

In summary, inviting friends should be designed according to the characteristics of the product. The operational logic of inviting friends is different for different types of products. In addition, inviting friends requires cooperating with activities, content promotion, user operations and other operational means to better play the value of inviting friends.

Author: Le Wei

Source: Lewei