Tips for building a user operation membership system!

The systematized process standards were also mentioned in the previous article: it is automatic standardization to free up operational manpower. For example, in the medal system, users follow the rules set by the operator and complete designated actions, which automatically triggers the issuance of medals and rewards; this is systematization.

I'll mention it again, don't be scared or confused by the name; just like the growth hackers who are very popular nowadays, it turns out that they also rely on data analysis to find ways to increase the number of new members, increase conversion rates, increase member payments, etc. Isn't that what you, as an operations worker, have to think about and lose your hair every day? Then, is there output value that needs to be delivered to the boss and the team every month/quarter? If you’re not growing, what are you operating on a day-to-day basis?

Secondly, growth is what we in operations think about every day, and when the word "growth" is added with the word "hacker", my understanding is that the growth routines/ideas should be a little surprising and high-tech (or you can use any means and not follow the conventional routines). Think about it carefully.

Let’s get back to the point, we are only talking about members today.

1. Before building membership, understand the purpose and value of membership

I often mention in my articles that when operations receive a task from superiors, the first reaction should not be to start writing documents and making tables right away. You should first understand or review what problem this requirement solves, what the leader’s purpose is, and to what extent it needs to be completed based on the current project stage and operation rhythm?

Take membership as an example. The boss has raised a demand and we also want to be members. Xiao Ming, you can research and come up with a plan.

Xiao Ming: Membership is simple. Which APP in the market does not offer membership? First look at the competitors and then the industry top, divide the levels and give rights and interests.

The plan was written in three days, but when it came to the requirements review, I was faced with the following soul-searching questions:

1. Why do members need to accumulate growth points? Don’t we have points?
2. What is the core purpose of these rights? Why isn't *** added?
3. How did you calculate the time division for member promotion? Are there any rules?
4. Do you understand why we want to be members? What do you think is the value of our membership?
5. …

Xiao Ming died.

If you have only a superficial understanding of the members and are unsure about their understanding of them , anyone from the product/business/boss/technology department can give you a few good suggestions. Your objections will become less and less confident, and what they say will make more and more sense. You will begin to waver and spend two days adjusting your demands. During this process, your soul will be tortured, and the more you think about it, the more confused your mind will become.

(1) The underlying value and purpose of membership: maintaining the bottom line of business

Through the membership system , the product can clearly divide paying and loyal users, and then through the construction of membership benefits, retain this top-level core traffic; thereby providing seed users for the long-term development of the product or business extension, and at the same time avoiding accelerated elimination in commercial competition.

How to understand it?

It is like the three video websites iQiyi, Tencent, and Youku competing with each other, but each of them has its own number of paid members, and these paid members are the bottom line of each company's business.

For example: Tencent exclusively launched the popular drama "Game of Thrones", which immediately attracted many users who were originally from Youku and iQiyi. However, iQiyi is not nervous because I currently have 10 million paying users, and 80% of them will not expire until next year. Tencent cannot take them away all at once, but during this period, I still have a few months of opportunity to continue to lock in core users and develop product business lines to compete through new dramas and new marketing. These 10 million paying users are the bottom line and confidence of iQiyi's business.

This is the value and true purpose of membership based on the underlying business logic of the product; this is also why we need to be members.

Of course, this important theory is not something that I, a small operator with six years of experience, can summarize. Everyone is welcome to read Teacher Wang Sai’s book “Five Lines of Growth” for detailed information.

I also excerpted a paragraph from my previous article and organized it into an article: "Before growth, please first establish the business bottom line." Unfortunately, the number of readers was not ideal and many people did not discover this value.

(2) Membership operation value and purpose: driving users to generate value

First of all, the ultimate goal of operations is to be responsible for business.

The entry point for obtaining member growth value is the task system, which is operated through rule setting; users are required to complete a series of tasks such as sign-in, activity, consumption, etc. to obtain growth value; the growth value itself is an exchange chip, which reflects the member rights and interests.

Users pay labor costs (time, money, interpersonal relationships, etc.) on the platform, so the platform needs to settle the users' labor, and the content of the settlement is membership rights. (The same applies to points acquisition and consumption)

Therefore, the higher the labor cost users pay on the platform, the more rights and interests they will naturally obtain. How much money is the labor cost of the user, how much money is the rights and interests under each membership level, and making a profit rather than a loss are the key considerations for operations.

On the other hand, users accumulate personal content on the platform through continuous labor, such as establishing social relationships, obtaining higher rights and interests, consuming recent content, etc., thereby increasing the user's migration cost and making their loyalty and stickiness to the platform stronger and stronger.

Therefore, if your purpose of becoming a member is to increase user activity and loyalty; that only proves that your understanding of the membership system is still superficial; your membership establishment has failed from the very beginning.

Secondly, the membership system and the points system are two systems; they can be combined or independent.

The growth value corresponding to a member is obtained through the task system, and the exit is the membership level and corresponding rights and interests; the entrance for obtaining points is the task system, and the exit is the points mall.

Therefore, when people talk about the membership system, they always mention points because the entrance is a task system, and most products reward points while completing tasks to increase growth value.

Secondly, many membership benefits will come with additional points doubling reward tasks, or consumption plus growth value plus points, making them hard to tell apart; but operators themselves must be clear that your membership system may have nothing to do with points.

2. Before building a membership, determine the membership type first

Currently, the mainstream membership systems on the market are divided into free membership systems and paid membership systems, but this does not mean that the membership system can only be divided into free and paid.

Blindly investing in member development, construction and operation is also a disaster for the product. First, you need to understand the types of members, and then decide which membership form is suitable for your product and industry. The membership system can be roughly divided into five categories:

The first type is to become a member by registering: new users will become VIP1 or VIP0 upon registration; there is almost no threshold for joining this type of membership, and no consumption is required first. In order to encourage membership, new member gifts, discounts or trial services are even provided. This type of membership system is designed to attract more new members; we usually call it a free membership system.

The second type is that one can become a member only after spending a certain amount of money: this type of membership system encourages users to consume first, and when the consumption amount reaches a certain standard, they will be automatically promoted to members. The higher the consumption amount, the higher the membership level, and the corresponding rights and interests will also be different. The design of this type of membership system is based on the perspective of managing loyal users, and is commonly seen in products such as air travel and hotels.

The third type is that you have to pay to become a member: this type of membership system represents a product business model, which is no longer just for marketing purposes; the charging model is divided into one-time charging and batch charging, which can be divided into per time, day, week, month, quarter, half year, year, two years, lifetime, etc. What is sold is the core rights and added value of the product; secondly, membership pricing is also an operational strategy, which we will discuss separately if necessary.

The fourth type is credit card co-branded membership: My China Guangfa Bank credit card is a Taobao co-branded one. In addition to enjoying China Guangfa Bank benefits, I can also enjoy Taobao benefits. Although I have never figured out how to use it, if you have a credit card, you should be familiar with it.

Members don't necessarily have to do it themselves. Cooperating with bank credit cards through additional benefits is also a way to achieve the purpose of expanding the customer base through cross-industry cooperation. This level of membership is created by cross-industry cooperation, and different industries emphasize complementarity and efficiency in customer bases. But I haven't experienced it yet, so I don't know the specific data and settlement content.

The fifth type is invited VIP membership: this refers to membership systems such as the American Express Card and China Merchants Bank Golden Sunflower. Not anyone can join if they are willing to spend money. You must have a certain social status or spend a lot of money and have a high fixed deposit to be invited. It is a symbol of honor and nobility.

The benefits received by such members are also very different from those of ordinary members. How different is it (well... it's different anyway)? Many social e-commerce or social products now use a similar concept of invitation system. The sense of mystery and scarcity will arouse users' curiosity, thereby driving publicity and exposure. So it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have high-end products to play with it. The key lies in the operational packaging.

Therefore, if you want to build and operate a membership, you must first think clearly about which membership system is more suitable for your industry, products, and brand; currently most products on the market are based on the first three types, and small and medium-sized project products also refer to the first three types; but your understanding of membership cannot be limited to three types.

2. Before building membership, classify users first

It is relatively easy to classify members into different levels, but before classifying, it is necessary to be clear what is the core driving force that drives members’ promotion? This core driving force must be linked to the core business of the product.

Depending on the core business objectives of the product, we will have different division methods, one is based on RFM classification (transactions), and the other is based on user stratification (user status).

1) Use RFM to classify members

I don't need to introduce the use and classification of RFM here. Through the cross-analysis of RFM consumption time, amount and frequency, we can get the average number of transactions and average consumption amount of active users. According to the average or median, we further define the membership level, which is generally 4-5 levels.

For example, those who have spent less than 100 yuan and less than 12 times in the past year are at the first level (below the average); those who have spent 100-200 yuan or more and more than 12 times in the past year are at the second level (at the average); and those who have spent more than 200 yuan in the past six months with no limit on consumption frequency are at the third level (above the average).

Judging from this membership level division method, the main purpose is to encourage members to maintain consumption and to maintain marketing to users who can make greater contributions in a short period of time, or users who do not consume a high amount in a short period of time but repurchase frequently. This grading method is often used for e-commerce products or products with a built-in mall as a business model.

2) Classify members according to user status

According to the AARRR model, the product will have a basic hierarchical framework for users. For example, the active level can be further divided into normal active-high active-core active, etc. So what are the criteria for defining activity?

For example, the core of the airline travel membership system is to use the frequency of flights or total flight mileage as the promotion standard. Didi members use mileage as the growth value, etc. Therefore, the standard of activity is the number of times or duration of use of the core functional modules of the product.

But how do we determine whether the user’s activity status is low, medium, or high? It is also necessary to make a comprehensive classification through data values ​​combined with business characteristics. This type of members is generally divided into levels 4-8.

Why do some products have level 4 membership, while others have reached level 8 membership? This is linked to the product's task system. For example, Didi's core growth value is obtained through mileage, and there are no other ways to obtain it. The membership level is divided into 4-5 levels at most. For products with multiple membership levels, in addition to the core ways of obtaining it, there are also additional channels for obtaining it, such as daily tasks, marketing tasks, and activities. Therefore, there will be dilution in the growth rate and level of members.

After the membership levels are divided, the next task is to name these different levels; the most brainless way is to copy, for example, you can follow the level names of King of Glory and name them gold, silver, bronze, etc., or follow the e-commerce gameplay, called diamond card, gold card, silver card, etc.; if you use your brain a little, you can combine the product name or business to come up with a unique name, including growth value or points, some are called beans and some are called coins...

3. Starting from the core of the product, set up membership tiered benefits

First of all, the way members obtain growth value is relatively fixed (continuous consumption or use of products); therefore, when setting membership rights between different levels, there must be obvious, distinguishable and attractive rights, even if there is only one; otherwise, the user's motivation to actively and frequently use the product and the desire to upgrade the level step by step will be greatly reduced. This point does not need to be emphasized.

Secondly, the design of membership benefits must take into account the balance between costs and benefits; this is a little more complicated and will not be discussed in detail here. In terms of thinking, operations should have a businessman's mindset. For example, the membership benefits packaged for a silver card user is equivalent to how much money the user is subsidized. So how much money can an average silver card user spend on the product in a year?

Because of the different product types, the rights and interests that each company can package will also be different, but generally they can be divided into six categories: basic rights and interests, discounts, service expansion, content value-added, and points feedback.

Basic benefits type: that is, membership upgrades to open up more basic benefits, such as new member gifts, birthday gifts, upgrade gifts, member-exclusive redemption, etc.

Discount type: mainly based on the product's built-in mall or saleable goods, such as mall discounts: users with different membership levels enjoy different discounts in the mall, 9-92-95-80% off, etc. Discounts and gifts: Users of different membership levels can enjoy monthly coupon gifts, 2 coupons, 3 coupons, etc.

Functional upgrade type: that is, membership upgrade, you can enjoy a higher product function experience, such as Evernote, cloud disk and other products. Ordinary members enjoy 2G memory, which is expanded to 4G after membership promotion; linked to the core business of the product.

Content value-added type: that is, providing better product content to members. For example, iQiyi members can watch films that only members can watch, such as novels and comics. Members can watch serialized content or newly launched comics first, etc.

Points Reward Type: Members who upgrade can enjoy double sign-in bonus: users of different membership levels are given different double rewards for daily sign-in bonus points. Task doubling: Users of different membership levels will receive different doublings on their reward points for completing tasks. Double consumption: Users of different membership levels will have their reward points doubled for each consumption they complete.

Service expansion: After membership upgrade, members can enjoy more exclusive services. For example, air travel members can enjoy airport VIP lounges, VIP channels, etc.

What benefits can be used or packaged at home depends on operation, but two points must be noted:

1) The membership benefits packaging of any product must be divided into primary and secondary. The core business of the product is the core benefit, e-commerce focuses on discounts, content products focus on content services, and tool products focus on function upgrades; the rest are secondary, so there must be a balance between how much to give to the core and how much to give in total.

2) The design of member benefits is not always the same. Through data, if a product accumulates a large number of diamond members in a short period of time, and the user benefits affect the company's profit maximization, then we need to consider whether to increase the promotion threshold or weaken the benefits; or if most users are stuck at the gold card level, then we need to consider whether the benefits are not attractive enough or the growth value acquisition speed is problematic; for example, if the business changes...

At this time, we need to consider fine-tuning the membership growth value and rights and redistribute the membership ratio; based on one year of operation, the best user promotion speed is 10% senior members, 60% intermediate members, and 30% junior members.

4. Set member growth value and promotion speed

Let’s talk about the promotion speed first. As mentioned above, based on one year of operation, the best member promotion speed is 10% for senior members, 60% for intermediate members, and 30% for junior members. Therefore, I usually divide it according to the time dimension of one year and break it down downwards; there is no formula model. If you have a more professional practical methodology, you are welcome to communicate with me at any time.

Let me first state the conclusion. Through the above standards, we have divided the membership into levels. Now we take a basic value and increase the value according to the promotion multiple, 1.2/1.5/2 and other promotion speeds; we obtain the corresponding growth value for each level.

The growth value is calculated based on the speed of obtaining the product task, with 1 year and 12 months as the specified range, and the growth value figures are continuously adjusted to eventually determine the required weeks/months.

As shown in the figure, a user can be promoted to the highest diamond member in as fast as 10 months within a year, and of course you can slightly exceed 12 months; let's break it down one by one below.

1) First of all, we need to sort out the ways to obtain growth value? Consumption refund and task completion; summarize it in a summary table; if there is a task system, please pay attention to self-differentiation.

As shown in the example:

2) Then, sort out the subtasks in each module and attach growth values. For the growth value here, the operator can choose a rough range based on his/her own judgment and make adjustments later.

As shown in the example:

3) Finally, the sub-task growth values ​​under each task module are calculated on a weekly basis and compared with the growth values ​​set for each member level above to determine whether they are exceeded or insufficient, and to make adjustments accordingly.

4) Member downgrade settings. Whether to design downgrade rules depends on the product business attributes. In addition to negative factors that must reduce the growth value, such as returns, deletion of reviews, etc., e-commerce platforms, for example, are mostly determined on a monthly basis, and will increase or decrease based on user consumption behavior. For example, the Feizhu platform operates on an annual basis, and all employees will be reduced by 800 growth values ​​at the end of the year.

Finally, you come up with a preliminary membership construction plan, but this is not the end. The corresponding membership marketing plans for each level also need to be sorted out together, but this is enough to write another article. Given that the length of the membership system construction is already long enough, I will supplement it in detail if necessary~

Author: Mao Li

Source: Operational Growth