For tool-type products such as audio playback, how to stimulate users to continuously use the core functions of the product to cultivate their product usage habits is one of the key points that operations cannot avoid. When discussing how to retain users, most methodologies will mention “check-in” activities. However, traditional click-based check-in activities not only lack sufficient interest incentives to encourage users to check in continuously, but are also somewhat mediocre in activating users to use product functions.

The promotional activity of "45 yuan for VIP annual membership" launched by QQ Music in the first half of the year linked the check-in activities with the core functions of the product in terms of activity form, which is more conducive to stimulating users to use the core functions of the product, and increased users' enthusiasm for participating in check-ins with the gimmick of free VIP monthly cards, providing certain reference and reference for promoting paid dissemination and cultivating user habits. The following article will briefly introduce how QQ Music’s “45 yuan VIP monthly card” achieves both payment and cultivating user habits.

1. How to play the activity

First, let me briefly introduce the main gameplay of this activity. After the user enters the activity page and chooses to activate immediately, he can get a half-year VIP annual card by paying 45 yuan, and get the qualification to sign in for 6 months to get a QQ Music VIP monthly card.

During the 6-month event period, users can automatically sign in by listening to music in the app for 5 minutes every day. If they sign in for 20 days each month (they can stop signing in in the middle), they will receive a 1-month VIP music membership card, which can be received up to 6 times.

In addition, users are eligible to receive other different surprise prizes after completing the monthly check-in tasks.

2. Event Highlights

1. Promotion + check-in combination

Compared with one-time membership promotions, combining membership discounts with subsequent rewards for checking in can not only reduce the impact of traditional promotions on members' price trust, but also stimulate users to purchase in both material and spiritual ways, and extend the influence of the event.

Traditional membership promotions mainly use short-term material incentives to encourage users to make a one-time payment. Although this type of membership promotion can convert a group of onlookers in the short term and encourage users to pay for the first time, in the long run it will lower the price of membership fees in the user's psychological expectations and increase the decision-making time for other users to pay or for old users to renew their memberships, because users will tend to wait for the next more favorable membership promotion.

However, although you can enjoy the half-price VIP discount for half a year by purchasing a VIP annual card for 45 yuan, you still need to sign in for an additional 6 months to get the membership for another half a year. This reduces the negative impact of membership promotions on price stability and credibility.

Secondly, the traditional model of signing in and getting points rewards lacks effective incentives in terms of material and spiritual rewards. In terms of material incentives, this model links the VIP monthly card rewards with sign-in behavior, which improves the user's interest motivation.

From the perspective of spiritual motivation, since users have paid for the membership, they psychologically expect that the membership for another six months will be included in the rights and interests they should enjoy. Therefore, users develop a desire to possess the ownership of the membership before they actually obtain the right to use the monthly card for another six months. Given that people hate losing more than gaining, users will tend to take more determined and persistent check-in actions in order not to lose their monthly cards, which also happens to fit the requirements for user habit formation.

2. Associate clock-in with core product features

Generally, check-in activities within an app are mainly completed by clicking the check-in button. Although this operation is easy for users to understand, it fails to truly guide users to use the core functions of the product. Even if users complete the check-in process, they are not effectively activated to use the product functions. But in order to actually turn users into loyal users, it is necessary to let users experience the product multiple times, so that users can meet their needs and gain satisfaction during use, experience the value of the product, and thus become loyal users of the product.

QQ Music combines the clock-in and the core function of "listening to music", allowing users to automatically sign in after listening to music for 5 minutes in the app. This not only increases the time users spend in the app, but the data generated during this time also constitutes the user's sunk cost, making users accustomed to staying in the app imperceptibly.

3. Reasonable margin for error

Although linking check-in with 5 minutes of listening to music is helpful in cultivating users' habit of listening to music on QQ Music, it also invisibly increases the threshold for check-in. In order to make up for this shortcoming, the activity provides a certain amount of tolerance in the mechanism setting to help users continue to complete the check-in tasks. The activity rules set up a check-in mechanism that allows users to automatically sign in if they listen to music in the app for 5 minutes each month. Regardless of whether the user stops signing in during the month, as long as they sign in for 20 days, they can get a VIP monthly card.

In the setting of check-in activities, rule makers often need to take into account that users may interrupt their check-ins due to various conventional or unconventional factors. If there is no corresponding mechanism to help users "recover from mistakes", it is very likely that users will give up all check-in tasks within the stage because they have lost the qualification for the "ultimate prize", which will actually affect the effectiveness of the check-in activity in promoting retention.

In order to avoid such situations in general check-in activities, make-up cards are often set up. As long as the user meets certain requirements, he or she can obtain the make-up qualification to fill in the days missed. In this activity, the number of days for signing in each month is reduced, the sign-in can be interrupted, and automatic sign-in is provided to help users continue to sign in after "accidental errors" and reduce the risk of "quitting halfway".

4. Multiple surprise gifts and great discounts

"45 yuan for a VIP annual card" itself is an eye-catching discount. Compared with the original price of 180 yuan, users only need 45 yuan to get a one-year VIP membership. The price concession can encourage price-sensitive users to make their first payment. At the same time, it has its own dissemination attributes to promote the spread of the event on self-media platforms. In addition to the preferential prices, QQ Music also provides a limited number of tiered rewards for users who complete the monthly check-in tasks. In the first month, users who complete the check-in task will receive a KFC Home God Card (which will be exchanged for other prizes of equal value after 500,000 copies are distributed), the second month will receive a limited edition of 400 Morning Light gift boxes, the third month will receive a limited edition of 100 Weibo membership monthly cards, the fourth month will receive a limited edition of 50 Little Yellow Duck Beauty Combs, the fifth month will receive a limited edition of 10 Tencent Video Annual Cards, and the sixth month will receive a limited edition of 5 Sony smart speakers.

Below the sign-in calendar, a list of users who have received prizes scrolls in real time to increase the authenticity of the event. The multi-layer gift stacking and first-come, first-served setting are more conducive to increasing the user's sense of urgency and stimulating users to pay and place orders to start the check-in task immediately.

3. Insufficient activities

1. The activity cycle is too long, which increases users’ sensitivity to the activity

The formation of user habits requires a long-term approach. For music playback software with strong substitutability such as QQ Music, appropriately extending the activity front can not only increase user content sedimentation and improve the migration cost of users to other competing products, but also help to subtly accustom users to high-quality membership services. However, too long a check-in time may also become an obstacle for users to participate in activities.

Because a long time represents strong uncertainty, the user's psychological expectation when paying for a purchase is not to spend 50% off to buy a half-year card, but to spend 45 yuan to buy an annual card. Therefore, if the user feels that he cannot guarantee to complete the half-year check-in task, he will hesitate and wait and see.

Obviously, QQ Music also realized this after the launch of the event. In its latest summer event "45 yuan for 9 months VIP", it used the same "promotional concessions + check-in" routine to shorten the user check-in period from half a year to 3 months.

2. The punch-in reminder function is not perfect, and the entrance to view the task progress is not obvious

A reminder to check in is provided at the bottom of the activity page, but the appointment reminder mechanism has certain flaws. First, the reminder function only provides a reminder service for the next day, rather than a continuous reminder. Due to the automatic check-in mechanism, users generally do not go to the event entrance page to click the reminder to check in, so the reminder function of this function button is weakened to a certain extent.

Secondly, the reminder time to punch in is 10 o'clock in the morning, which is a non-free time period for students and workers. Even if users see the punch-in reminder, they cannot be immediately activated to listen to music in the app. Therefore, the reminder time should be more suitable for the usage scenario and the time should be changed to commuting time or off-get off work time. Finally, although the event has a visual clock-in calendar, the entrance to the event details page that carries this function is deep in the settings. In addition, due to the long event time, in the later stages of the event, its display page is offline from the fixed entrance, which increases the inconvenience of user queries.

In response to this, the official can use private messages on the site to set up stage reminders at 5 days, 10 days, 15 days, and 20 days to inform users of the progress of the activity.

IV. Conclusion

In the process of promoting user conversion, we often adopt promotional activities to stimulate user paid conversion by reducing prices. However, in actual operation, we can also introduce the concept of "checking in to get more membership cards/surprise gifts" into promotional activities. This can not only make the prizes of the event look more generous and enhance the intensity of the event, but also guide users to use the core functions of the product, develop product usage habits, and promote user retention.

Author: Gekala

Source: Gekala