User operation: user growth system design!

The user growth system is crucial for a product. Through the user growth system, users’ usage habits can be cultivated and loyal users of the product can be trained. So, what is the user growth system? What are its categories? What is the role of the user growth system?

1. Why should we establish a user growth system?

1. User Growth System Concept

A complete growth system is formed by giving users positive incentives (points, medals, growth values, user levels, etc.) through their consumption behaviors or other behaviors that are beneficial to product development, such as signing in, browsing, participating in activities, liking, giving good reviews, posting orders, sharing, feedback, evaluation, and games.

2. Purpose of the User Growth System

The user growth system helps to attract new users, improve user activity, increase retention rate, improve user stickiness, and recall lost users. By measuring the user growth process and value, it is easier to group users for refined operations and ensure that high-quality resources are used by core users;

Establish long-term relationships with users, guide them to make secondary or even multiple purchases, and cultivate their consumption habits;

Users earn points through consumption or point-based tasks, and use the points to gain special consumption privileges for certain types of goods (i.e., consumption → points → consumption), which can form a closed product loop to a certain extent. This can be broken down into a points system or a user incentive system;

Guide users to cross-consumption or upgrade consumption;

Improve commodity transaction rate and product profitability, and give products deeper commercial value;

Improve the active cycle of users using your product. If the user growth system is successful, users can come to your product every day to check in. For example, you may have participated in raising chickens and planting trees on Alipay for a period of time.

2. The Role of the User Growth System

1. For enterprises

By understanding the user growth system, we can differentiate users at different levels. Understanding the user levels facilitates product decision-making, prepares for subsequent refined operations, and plans strong and effective activities for different user levels.

The tasks set by the user growth system are conducive to improving user loyalty and stickiness, and can also guide users to produce something, such as publishing, commenting, and posting orders for e-commerce products, and sharing learning reports for educational products.

It helps to promote user consumption and attract new users, and provides reference data for future data mining, which is of great significance to the platform's realization of commercial value.

2. For users

Positive incentives can be obtained, and users can gain a sense of superiority, enjoy more high-quality privileges, and gain fame, achievements, discounts, spiritual satisfaction and other benefits on the platform.

3. How to design a user growth system?

Before building a user growth system, you should proceed with goals, rules, and feedback. You need to consider the logical closed loop of the entire system, especially the numerical rules, which are very important to avoid chaos in the subsequent points pool.

1. Define what effect the growth system should achieve

What kind of user behavior is stimulated by building a user growth system, and what value does it bring to the company? What is the business strategy behind it?

For example: now almost every platform has a sign-in function.

In order to increase user stickiness, Himalaya has also developed a daily sign-in function, and if you sign in for 7 consecutive days, you will get 100 points on the first day, 120 points on the second day... The points you get every day increase successively, and if you sign in for 7 consecutive days, you can get 7 days of free VIP.

The good thing about Himalaya's experience is that the sign-in page is the welfare center. Users can participate in other tasks while signing in. They can also see all the activities that points can be used to participate in, such as redeeming points for gifts, point lotteries, welfare areas, etc. This can motivate users to sign in every day and redeem coupons or goods.

This will encourage users to be active frequently, extend their life cycle, and guide their consumption within that cycle, thus bringing value to the business.

2. Design the main path of the growth system

The guidance strategy and main paths need to be defined, the incentive system should be combined with the product functions themselves, and cannot violate the user's wishes.

For example, an e-commerce platform can set tasks and distribute incentives around purchasing, payment, and posting orders; for example, the audio platform Himalaya's "Yang Xiaoya" combines a development game with a user's content listening behavior and personal dressing preferences to set incentives, and ultimately return to the main line of the product itself.

3. Balance input and output

Finally, it is necessary to comprehensively evaluate the input costs and the incentive effects brought by the growth system. This needs to be considered from a commercial perspective, and the costs of operating the growth system should be taken into account to see whether they are proportional to the effects brought about.

4. Classification of User Growth System

The user growth system is divided into 5 categories: user level system, points system, membership system, task system, and medal system. Let’s analyze them one by one.

1. User level system

The main purpose of the user growth system is to increase user activity and retention. It mainly consists of the user's current level and upgrade prompts, the incentive policies corresponding to each level, the jump rules between levels, the quantitative indicators of level jumps, the number of level levels and the level relationships.

Users' upgrade methods are mainly divided into active behaviors and passive behaviors, that is, the behaviors that users actively perform on the product or the behaviors that the company hopes for.

For example, NetEase Cloud Music can be upgraded if the amount of music listened to and the number of days logged in reach the standard, thus obtaining corresponding level privileges; Xiami Music increases growth value by listening to songs, sharing singles, commenting and liking, thereby obtaining experience points or free VIP privileges.

NetEase Cloud Music Level

Xiami Music Level

Of course, effective downgrade is conducive to improving user activity and ensuring that users with different levels of activity are given different privileges. For example, the growth values ​​of major e-commerce apps such as JD.com and Taobao are downgraded once a year as a recovery mechanism and reverse incentive to ensure user activity.

Set up incentive policies at different levels to attract users to upgrade, and differentiate privileges, that is, different levels can unlock specific functions and enjoy a high-level product experience.

I remember that when I was playing QQ, I was most impressed by the growth value. In order to get more suns and moons, I kept QQ online every day, waiting for the upgrade, and used it as a capital for showing off. I was considered young and frivolous at that time. Now I don’t even have QQ on my mobile phone.

User levels are mainly used to display personal differentiation on personal homepages. Homepages, identity labels, and exclusive effects are customized for users of different levels, giving people a unique feeling visually and satisfying personal vanity.

There is a possibility of "ranking manipulation" in the ranking system, so risk control must be done well and an upper limit must be set for the increase in experience points required to upgrade each operation every day. The higher the level, the more experience points need to be accumulated. Certain behaviors may not give experience points to prevent confusion in the level system.

2. Points system

What is the points system?

The points system is a virtual currency within the product, and is a disguised operating strategy designed to stimulate certain user behaviors. The purpose of the points system is to enhance user loyalty, stimulate consumption, screen users, increase stickiness, and increase the cost of user leaving.

For example: Most of Alipay’s points are generated directly from transactions, such as shopping, scanning QR codes to pay, taking buses and subways, recharging mobile phones, and financial management. Different types of user behaviors correspond to different points.

Points are a relatively practical small discount, and for price-sensitive users, points are indeed an effective means of stimulating users.

When users accumulate a certain amount of points, they will consider the cost of leaving. Inseparable from the points system is the points mall, where you can redeem vouchers, VIP memberships, merchandise, peripheral products, etc. You can also conduct point lotteries, allowing users to participate deeply.

Alipay Points System

3. Membership system

Now, whether it is video, audio or food delivery platforms, there is a VIP membership system, which allows users to obtain value-added services by paying, with the aim of encouraging users to pay.

There are relatively few e-commerce companies that use membership systems, but such products do exist.

For example, MissFresh and Vipshop. After becoming a member of MissFresh, you can enjoy VIP exclusive prices for some products, task red envelopes and member day activities, etc.; Vipshop offers 9.8% off on top of the discount and unlimited free shipping value-added services. Free shipping is more attractive to many users.

Membership is a kind of light luxury, targeting people who are not sensitive to prices and whose demand for products is close to rigid demand. For example, if the show "Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves" you want to follow is only available on Mango TV, you must have VIP if you want to follow it.

Sometimes adjustments are also made based on the business characteristics of the product, which is different from VIP memberships for videos, such as Ele.me’s Super Foodie Card and Meituan membership, because eating is a basic need for users.

After opening a Super Foodie Card, you can receive 4 red packets of 5 yuan with no threshold within 31 days; after opening a Meituan membership, you can enjoy 6 red packets of 5 yuan with no threshold within 31 days. If users often order takeout, they will feel it is worth it.

4. Mission System

A way to abstract and systematize the operations of obtaining points in the point system and experience points in the level system, and to obtain honor incentives and benefit incentives.

The main categories of the task system are: daily tasks, novice tasks, medal tasks, event tasks, game tasks, etc.

For example, the learning points task of Xuexi Qiangguo is mainly aimed at increasing user activity, and the main path is to guide users to learn; for example, JD.com’s interactive game task of planting beans and getting beans is mainly to guide users to browse products and consume, and users obtain the in-game props "nutrient solution" from it.

Study the powerful country learning points task

JD.com Plant Beans and Get Beans game interactive tasks

5. Medal System

The medal system can exist independently or as part of a task system. The ultimate goal is to give users honor incentives, such as achievement medals, task medals, category medals, etc.

Children's educational products are very suitable for the medal system, and medals combined with animation IP are very attractive to children.

KaDa Story uses a task medal incentive mechanism to earn coins in exchange for medals, which motivates children to keep reading picture books and listening to stories. For children, being able to complete challenges and get feedback is also very motivating - because these incentives are equivalent to money for children, and they can be exchanged for their favorite medals.

As for the product itself, it can create more commercial value through user activity.

E-commerce products and sports products also have badge systems, such as Taobao's achievement badges and Xiaomi Sports' step badges. Many of these badges are generated invisibly and exist as witnesses.

Taobao's medals bear witness to your shopping history, including your registration years, spending amount, number of completed orders, and number of times you participated in Double 11 events. If you don't look, you won't know that you have left so many traces on Taobao. The App has recorded them for you.

The badge system of Xiaomi Sports is relatively simple. Many badges are given passively. Sometimes you may get a badge without knowing what you did.

Taobao Achievements

Xiaomi Sports Medal

V. Summary

The user growth system is the inevitable result of user segmentation and refined operations. It is also a direct measure of user rights, allowing more high-quality resources to be allocated to highly loyal users. The user growth system should mobilize the enthusiasm of users to participate, especially when faced with many competitors to choose from.

What kind of products require the establishment of a user growth system?

You must have a sufficient base, otherwise there is not much need. You can do it step by step, starting with a simple points system and points mall. Moreover, more and more products are becoming gamified, especially educational products, which use games to motivate users. Gamification can also be well utilized in user growth systems.

Last words: We all started as a newbie. There is a saying: We understand a lot of things, but we still can’t live a good life; similarly, we have seen a lot of successful products, but we still may not be able to make a good product. Practice is the best way to grow wildly. Think more, output more, and you will never reach a thousand miles without taking small steps!

Author: Sister Watermelon

Source: Sister Watermelon