How to build a user growth system?

I have recently been reading Professor Huang Youcan ’s "The Light of Operation " 2.0, and one of the chapters mentioned a term: loss warning mechanism. A good churn warning mechanism requires accurate user portraits, and user portraits are essentially user stratification and user labels, all of which rely on the user growth system . So I spent a day sorting out how to build a user growth system. enjoy~

The thinking framework of this article is as follows:

1. What is the user growth system?

2. What is the role of the user growth system?

3. How to design a user growth system

4. Parts that require special attention

1. What is the user growth system?

1.1 Scope of Internet Operations

Before we start talking about the user growth system, let’s first introduce the scope of Internet operations:

Internet operation scope

User operation:

Maintaining user relationships, regulating user behavior, building a user growth system , handling user complaints, user models and user portraits. Common ones include interactive communication between staff and users, user level privileges, etc.

Content Operations:

Creation, construction, editing, review, recommendation, organization, and presentation of content to enhance the value of content and maintain a content atmosphere that is consistent with product concepts. Common ones include content push of WeChat public accounts and article recommendations from UGC communities.

Event Operations:

Plan and organize user activities to achieve goals such as spreading product values, enlivening community atmosphere, and strengthening brand building. There are two forms of activities, online and offline. Online activities are mostly H5 page fission forwarding and dissemination activities, while offline activities include sharing sessions and fan meetings.

1.2 Common Methods of User Growth System

There are three common methods:

1) Points/growth value/experience value

Obtained by completing a certain operation/task, it serves as a quantitative interval for judging the level, and can sometimes be exchanged for gifts/enjoy certain benefits.

Common forms include upgrades in games/websites, high recommendations for experience, discounts based on points, and gift redemption based on points.

2) Tier Membership

Level membership classifies users according to certain standards, and different user levels match different ranges of authority.

Common membership levels: ordinary member, bronze member, silver member, gold member, platinum member, etc.;

Common grades: V1, V2, V3, V4, V5…

3) Medals/Awards/Achievements

Issue a certificate to users who meet a certain requirement/task, indicating the user's participation experience/characteristic.

Common ones include Sina Weibo badge.

In addition, there are other ways to play the user growth system.

1) Number of followers/fans: This refers to how many people follow you. It can also reflect your influence and voice in the community/website to a certain extent. Such as the number of fans of Jianshu and the number of followers of Zhihu

2) Authentication: real-name authentication, enterprise authentication, etc. For example, Sina Weibo’s V

3) Virtual currency: A virtual currency circulated in a community or a specific group that can be used to obtain and exchange resources. For example, gold coins and diamonds in Honor of Kings can be used to purchase heroes and skins.

4) Tags/evaluations: You can add them yourself or others can add them. Self-evaluation is personal recommendation, and evaluation by others is social satisfaction.

5) Ranking: Rank users according to different dimensions and display them accordingly. Such as the recommendation mechanism of Tik Tok

6) Check-in/task/share: Common user growth system gameplay, used to increase user stickiness and social recommendations

Summarize:

Among the above, the growth system in the same product is often a cross-over of multiple methods , and the growth system is not necessarily explicit, it can also be implicit .

The essence of the user growth system is:

1) User growth system is an operational means

2) The essence is to stratify users and provide differentiated incentives

2. What is the role of the user growth system?

The role of the user growth system can be viewed from two perspectives: for the enterprise and for the user.

For Enterprises:

1) Ensure that high-quality resources or value-added services are used by core target users

For example, the PDF to Word conversion function is only available to paid members.

2) Provide reasonable guidance for user behavior, ensure the unity of user interests and website interests, and build a healthy and stable website ecological environment.

3) Filter out the real target users from the users, and stratify and differentiate the users

4) Eliminate inappropriate users as quickly as possible. The product's tone needs to be consistent with the user's attributes

5) As a form of incentive, it can enhance user activity, increase user emotional investment, and strengthen user stickiness.

For users:

1) The growth system enables high-quality users to gain a sense of superiority

2) Receive positive and negative incentives in a timely manner when achieving value through using the website. For example, one of the great pleasures of playing games is the process of upgrading, not just the successful upgrade.

3) Users who meet the level requirements can enjoy the privileges brought by the level upgrade

4) Allow target users/users who continue to use the product/users who abide by the rules to continue to enjoy the product

Therefore, it can be concluded that the goals of the user growth system are:

1) Retain valuable users (target users)

2) Cultivate high-value users (differentiate users and cultivate them with limited resources)

3) Increase product stickiness and activity

3. How to design a user growth system

3.1 5 clear

Before you start designing a user growth system, you need to make “5 things clear”. as follows:

3.2 Establish a quantitative model to ensure user expectations

The user growth system needs to establish a quantitative model by establishing quantifiable models, such as points, growth values ​​and other indicators. This allows for convenient and efficient calculations of points or growth values, rather than having them constantly change at will.

In summary, there are dimensions to consider and standards to calculate.

3.3 Three systems

1. Reward and Punishment System

Give users positive or negative responses based on their different behaviors and performances.

2. Hierarchy

Users are classified into different levels, with different scopes of authority.

3. Promotion system (upgrade, downgrade, relegation)

The conditions and paths required to switch between different levels

So how to design the above three systems? There are 2 ways:

1) RFM model

(R is the most recent consumption, F is the consumption frequency, M is the consumption amount) - three dimensions to classify users

2) Pre-set scale/standard

The indicator settings in the above system can pre-set one or two numbers and then reversely deduce the other numbers.

Let me give you some examples.

Jumei Youpin membership upgrade requires two conditions:

1) The accumulated purchase amount reaches a certain amount

2) The cumulative amount of returned goods does not exceed a certain percentage of the cumulative amount

To retain your membership level, you must meet two conditions:

1) Minimum number of purchases/amount per month

2) The cumulative amount of refunds does not exceed a certain percentage of the cumulative purchases

4. Areas that require special attention

4.1 Think clearly from the beginning

If you are not well prepared in advance, you are already half way wrong. If you are heading in the wrong direction, you will get half the result with twice the effort. Common mistakes are:

1) The growth system is not suitable at all

2) Constantly changing the gameplay makes users feel confused or even teased

3) Don’t put the cart before the horse

4.2 Providing Response and Feedback

Users have emotions when using products, and these emotions include: happiness, sadness, confusion, puzzlement, anger, excitement, etc.

No matter what actions the user takes, there must be a response and feedback.

Pay attention to user behavior and provide timely feedback.

4.3 Suitability is most important

The most important thing in designing a growth system is the right marketing.

The user growth system is not omnipotent, and is not even necessarily necessary. It manifests and displays differently in different business products.

The user growth system is related to strategy, platform, product concept, target users, and usage scenarios.

With the above analysis, let’s try to analyze the following two questions:

1) As both are social tools, why does WeChat not have a hierarchy system but QQ does?

2) Why do Douban and Zhihu have no hierarchy system?

5. Summary

With the above ideas in mind, I started to design a user growth system background. The background design framework is as follows:

above.

Author: Liuliu Laodie

Source: Liuliu Laodie