6 major types of user growth projects, just do it!

Growth is a part that operators cannot escape. User growth means attracting users and then realizing user conversion. There are many types of user growth, and companies with different needs have different requirements for user growth. The author of this article shares six major types of user growth projects. Let’s take a look.

For most companies, especially Internet companies, users are assets and the foundation on which the company relies for development.

With the rise and popularization of the concept of user growth/growth hacking, user growth teams have gradually become standard for major companies, and growth projects have also become the driving force for business development.

However, when it comes to user growth, many people still don't have a clear concept. Fission and attracting new customers? Advertising? Private domain traffic? These are all user growth, but they are not equal to user growth.

This time, we will discuss user growth and types of user growth projects, and understand and plan user growth from a holistic perspective.

1. User Growth Definition

Let’s first talk about the definition of user growth, and then break it down and explain the meaning of the word.

Users are the core of user growth work. This is nonsense, but we must also keep in mind that users are the core to help us achieve growth better.

• Increase, increase the number of users, focus on the efficiency of user acquisition, and pursue the optimization of cost and quality.
• Long, the growth of user value, pay attention to user retention and activity, and pursue maximization of life cycle value.

To put it bluntly, user growth means that the company spends money to attract users. The less the company spends, the more and higher-quality users it has, which is really amazing. Then let the users spend money to support the company. The more and longer the users spend, the lower the company's costs are, which is even more amazing.

The term "spending money" here is not rigorous. For example, users may not need to spend money to contribute profits to the company, but I believe everyone can understand it.

Focusing on the growth in the number of users and ignoring the growth in user value may be the most common misunderstanding of user growth. For company development, the growth in the number of users is a prerequisite, and the growth in user value is the key, and the two complement each other.

However, when most companies are focusing on user growth, it is because they have encountered a bottleneck in the growth of the number of users, and they seek more incremental users, and they put increasing the number of users first; but as long as they do not ignore the quality and value of users, there is nothing wrong with this.

The definition of user growth is not complicated, so I will not discuss it in detail. Instead, I will focus on sharing with you the types of user growth projects.

2. Six categories of user growth projects

Because user growth is a newly emerging function within a company, different companies have different growth positioning and organizational structures, resulting in a variety of user growth project types, some of which are even managed by multiple departments. However, the various user growth projects are all aimed at achieving the goal of user growth.

Understanding the comprehensive types of user growth projects can help user growth practitioners better plan and implement growth projects. Moreover, new growth opportunities are hidden under the complete user growth project matrix. Let’s share with you the six major categories of Internet user growth projects, enjoy!

1. Market-based growth

Market-oriented growth mainly includes brand marketing and channel placement, which are mainly the responsibility of the marketing and operations teams.

Brand marketing is the main means for traditional industries to achieve business and user growth. It is also applicable to the Internet industry. Specific forms include brand advertising, brand activities, cooperative sponsorship, etc. However, brand marketing is not taken seriously in the growth of Internet users, mainly because of its high cost and the fact that its effects cannot be accurately tracked. However, leading companies generally still invest heavily in brands, striving to occupy the minds of users and pursue market leadership.

Channel placement is the main way for Internet companies to achieve market growth, and customer acquisition is achieved through performance advertising on external traffic platforms.

The user traffic on the Internet is relatively concentrated, mainly including search traffic (Baidu), social traffic (Tencent/Sina) and content traffic (Tencent/ByteDance/Kuaishou/Xiaohongshu/iQiyi/Bilibili), as well as some tool or e-commerce traffic.

Although it is possible to acquire users on external platforms through basically free search engine optimization (SEO) or app store optimization, the benefits are relatively small. Currently, companies generally invest less and mainly focus on paid advertising directly on traffic platforms.

After the delivery model is implemented, the cost and quantity of customer acquisition are relatively controllable, and the data can be tracked and monitored, which is conducive to experimental optimization; although the cost of customer acquisition continues to rise, as long as the company has sufficient budget, channel delivery is still the most stable and main way to increase customer acquisition.

2. Functional growth

Functional growth refers to growth achieved through product features and is primarily the responsibility of the product team.

Products are vehicles for serving users. In the process of using products, users are exposed to and use various functions. Considering the specific scenarios of users within the product in product design and adding growth-related functions are of great value to user communication, new user acquisition, active retention, and conversion to payment.

Common red envelopes, sharing, and group buying are typical functional growth. The gamification functions that have become popular in recent years are excellent representatives of functional growth. When users use these functions, they can bring value enhancement and new users. General functional growth is unlikely to bring about explosive and large-scale user growth, but as a long-term product function, it has a continuous contribution to user growth.

In addition to direct growth functions, functional growth has two other sources. One part is evolved from conventional functions; such as coupons and point level growth systems. These functions are mainly for user retention and activity, but when combined with growth goals, they can achieve the dual goals of user activity and user acquisition; the other part is transformed from short-term activity-based growth. Well-proven activity-based growth projects can be solidified into product functions, such as Pinduoduo's bargaining assistance.

3. Activity-based growth

Activity-based growth refers to driving user growth through short-term activities, and is primarily the responsibility of the operations team.

Activities are mainly short-term operations initiated at specific nodes/events with specific themes for various purposes such as sales/new customer acquisition/communication. Not all activities are activity-based growth. The key to activity-based growth is to focus on growth goals and bring about an increase in user numbers and value.

Good activity-based growth can fully trigger users' motivation to participate, interact with users, and guide users to complete key behaviors responsible for growth goals. Activities such as sharing red envelopes during various festivals, collecting cards, and year-end inventory are all activity-based growth. The gift fission activities common in the WeChat ecosystem are considered to be relatively common activity-based growth.

Activity-based growth generally has a shorter cycle and amplifies the growth effect by leveraging momentum, bringing in a larger amount of user growth in the short term. Proven activity-based growth can be carried out periodically, or it can be fixed as functional growth to promote user growth in the long term.

4. Strategic Growth

Strategic growth refers to lightweight growth projects based on data analysis, which are mainly managed by the operations team.

Strategic growth is more data-driven and uses data analysis to gain insights into users. User stratification, reach, and recall are typical examples of strategic growth. Through differentiated push strategies based on user analysis, active conversions can be improved and silent churn can be reduced. User stratification, reach, and recall strategies are particularly important for products with a large user base.

In many cases, strategic growth does not exist alone and needs to be combined with other types of growth projects to achieve better results.

Activity-based growth combined with strategic growth can enhance the effectiveness of activities, and functional growth combined with strategic growth can amplify the value of functions. For example, differentiated activity design and copywriting optimization can enhance the participation of different users in growth activities, and functions such as red envelopes and coupons combined with refined distribution strategies can achieve greater GMV growth.

Strategic growth also relies on basic technical capabilities. Data platforms, user portraits, CRM systems, notification systems, AB testing, etc. are powerful guarantees for achieving strategic growth.

5. Word-of-mouth growth

Word-of-mouth growth refers to driving user growth through good word of mouth. It is difficult to intervene directly and there is no specific team responsible for it.

Word-of-mouth growth comes more from services/experiences that exceed users' expectations. Of course, this is also the goal that every team in an Internet company is pursuing. The product solves users' pain points very well, making users feel that it is very easy to use and that they also have friends who need it. Or it exceeds users' expectations and reaches their satisfaction points. Such good content has upgraded my cognition and I must continue to pay attention.

Although word-of-mouth growth is difficult to intervene directly, it is not powerless. The net promoter score (NPS) and user satisfaction surveys can be used to understand and monitor product reputation to a certain extent. The collection of word-of-mouth feedback, proper user guidance, and the shaping of user sense of belonging can amplify the effect of word-of-mouth growth. Xiaomi in its early days was a typical example of word-of-mouth growth. By guiding users to participate in the design of Xiaomi's MIUI system and mobile phones, it shaped Mi fans' collective sense of belonging and honor, thereby achieving good word-of-mouth communication.

6. Comprehensive growth

Comprehensive growth focuses on the combination optimization of various growth types, as well as the integrated utilization and innovation of multiple resources, and cannot yet be fully defined.

I think private domain traffic is the best comprehensive growth at the moment. Compared with market-oriented and activity-based growth types that tend to seek incremental users from the public domain, private domain traffic better balances the value enhancement of existing users and the conversion of incremental users, and has lower costs; compared with functional growth and strategic growth that focus on overall analysis and utilization of users, private domain traffic is more flexible and refined.

In actual applications, private domain traffic also integrates activity-based growth, strategic growth and even functional growth, and can promote word-of-mouth growth.

In addition, the imagination space for comprehensive growth lies in the integration of online and offline; the business of most Internet companies is still mainly online, but in addition to online users, there are many offline scenarios. Especially for the O2O industry, there is a lot of room for user growth through the integration and complementarity of online and offline.

The above is an introduction to the six major types of user growth projects, summarized in the above picture.

The six major types of user growth projects all promote the achievement of user growth goals. However, as mentioned earlier, when there is no user growth team in charge of each type of growth project, the marketing, operations, and product teams are all involved. This is also a reflection of the overall nature of user growth work, and it also poses a huge test to the organization of the user growth team.

As shown in the blue curve in the figure above, the functional, activity, and strategic growth in the lower right are generally the responsibility of the growth team, which also corresponds to the current common user growth team composed of operations and products. The market growth in the upper left is mostly the responsibility of a separate marketing team. Word-of-mouth growth and comprehensive growth involve cross-departmental cooperation and are difficult to be placed under a single team. However, the user growth team must have a holistic mindset when doing their work, and even if it is difficult to execute some growth projects, they must still consider it.

As shown in the red curve in the figure above, the market-oriented, functional, and activity-oriented growth projects in the upper right corner are currently the more mainstream growth projects, and their role in promoting user growth is more direct and obvious; many companies do not pay enough attention to the strategic, word-of-mouth, and comprehensive growth in the lower left corner, and their value for growth has not yet been fully demonstrated, but as they approach the growth ceiling, these three types of growth projects also have more growth potential.

The perfect layout and effective coordination of user growth projects are a powerful engine for achieving growth goals. User growth practitioners should also have enough awareness, understand, think clearly, and then just do it!

Author: Wu Yijiu

Source: Wu Yijiu