Analysis of promotion strategies at different stages of the user life cycle

Customer Lifecycle refers to the user journey, which is also called the process from the first contact with the product or service, to downloading and registering to become a user, using the product features or services to gain value within a certain period of time, to the final uninstallation and loss.

At the beginning of this process, the "user" cannot really be called a user. This stage is usually called a visitor. Only when the visitor registers on the website or APP can he be called a user.

Users will use relevant functions or services on the website or APP, such as browsing content, interacting with other users, and making purchases. After being active for a period of time, for some reason, users gradually stop using the website or app. We call this user churn.

At this point, the user has completed all stages of his user life cycle for the website or APP.

Operations personnel usually look at the user life cycle from a higher and more rational perspective, exploring the motivations behind each user behavior. Whether it is to make users like the product more or to slow down the user loss rate, the design of every link in the user life cycle has been poured into countless thoughts by operators.

When formulating strategies for the user life cycle, it is most taboo to divide the cycle into segments right away and then formulate specific operational strategies for each stage. Before formulating a strategy, we must clarify the following issues:

• In the process of formulating strategies for the entire user life cycle, is there a supreme goal throughout the entire cycle?
• Based on the highest indicators, are the operational means we designed interrelated and jointly meet certain needs of users?

Without knowing these two points, the formulation of any operation strategy is the self-entertainment and imagination of the operation personnel. We believe that user life cycle strategy analysis has two core goals:

• Improve user engagement
• Improve the conversion rate at each node in the life cycle

Based on the above goals, we divide the user life cycle into categories. As user engagement continues to increase and each node continues to convert, users simultaneously complete the process of value enhancement and traversal of their life cycle within the platform. It should be noted that users do not necessarily complete the entire cycle and may leave (churn) at any stage.

1. Contact Phase

If a product wants to reach users, we can achieve first reach through SEM, SEO, information flow advertising, ASO, exchange, points wall and some offline channels. This is the starting point for users to use the product. At this stage, our operational goal is to attract new customers.

Therefore, we need to accurately position ourselves, tap into high-quality channels, and attract users to register.

During the contact phase, we will get various free/paid exposure opportunities. The focus of free and paid exposure is different. In paid exposure, we will consider the exposure click rate; while in free exposure, we hope to get as many exposures as possible.

At the same time, during the contact period, we need to do a good job of quality management of touchpoints and make every opportunity to contact visitors as much as possible. Here are a few points to note:

• Visual design extension that matches the brand tone;
• Easy-to-understand advertising slogans and graphic descriptions directly express your value proposition;
• A more eye-catching creative display.

2. Landing Phase

Visitors will enter the landing page by clicking the corresponding link of the advertisement. We call this action "landing". If targeting precise traffic helps us complete the first 30% of the entire process of acquiring users, then the landing page carries the remaining 70%.

In the landing stage, visitors from different channels will reach your product. For a website, traffic will land on the homepage or the specified page we need. If the traffic is brought by SEO, the mesh structure of the website allows visitors who enter any page to find what they want.

If it is paid traffic, then we need to pay attention to the connection issue. We should differentiate user needs as much as possible, know what they are searching for and what their needs are, so that we can better design the page content, directly present the content they want to visitors, and use attractive CTA design (Note: CTA is the abbreviation of Call To Action, i.e. "user call to action") to encourage visitors to complete registration or download.

What is a good landing page? Give them what they want and attract customers. During the landing phase, users will enter the landing page through various entrances, and the landing page design needs to keep in mind:

• State the core value of your product or service in the first place on the page.
• A clear call to action
• Multi-terminal friendly experience

3. Conversion Stage

Visitors reach your website or app through touchpoints and start browsing products. They will experience the product along the behavioral path we designed, open a page or experience a certain function. Your copy, pictures, and even interaction methods may cause visitors to leave you at any time.

When we experience websites or apps in our daily lives, what makes us uncomfortable?

They may be:

• The visual design of the page does not conform to the aesthetic taste of the target users
• User interaction is too complex
• The text is difficult to understand
• Mysterious jumps between pages
• Lack of Call to Action

During the visitor conversion stage, the content carried by the landing page determines whether the visitor can become your user. At this time, the advantages of customized content are more obvious.

For example, if a visitor searches for a keyword from a mobile device and enters the landing page, the content of the landing page should match the keyword while taking into account the mobile experience. Most importantly, we must provide sufficient experience comfort in each process of the visitor's experience, and then guide the visitor to become a user through CTA.

It is important to note that not all visitors make it from the landing stage to the conversion stage.

This is because early visitors may not have strong or obvious browsing motivation and lack actual usage scenarios or needs. Therefore, the marketing department or operations department needs to screen out potential leads, improve the content value and depth of the landing page, and specifically increase the stickiness of visitors who have scenarios and needs, and convert them into our users.

IV. Recall Phase

No matter how great a product is, there will be a peak period and a churn period. User churn is inevitable, it’s just a matter of sooner or later.

The most typical phenomenon during the churn period is that the number of times a product or service is used gradually decreases. What we can do at this stage is to continuously make our products better and extend the product life cycle. During this stage, we need to slow down user churn while also finding ways to recall lost users, so we also call this stage the "recall stage."

1. How to make the product better?

Continue to iterate your product. Through user behavior analysis, you can know which features of your product users like, and which redundant features in your product are not used by users at all. Make the functions that users like more useful, and optimize or eliminate the functions that are not used by users.

We always believe that product excellence is the driving force behind gaining customers.

2. How to recall your lost users?

You can recall users through many methods, such as SMS, email, mobile phone push, in-APP messages, or even calling them. We can achieve recall through these methods.

During the recall stage, data-driven can provide an effective idea for your operations - by using data we can improve the efficiency and results of the recall. It is recommended that you use a small-scale test method to verify whether your content is liked by users, which will greatly improve your recall success rate.

Author: Jiuxianqiao Ishihara Satomi

Source: Jiuxianqiao Ishihara Satomi