Even if your app has all the needed components for success, does its job right, and never crashes, you still need to spend considerable effort to attract users and grow traction.
This article is based on the presentation “How to get users and grow” on the Y Combinator youtube channel by the YC partner Gustav Alströmer, who was working at that time as a Product Lead on the Growth team at Airbnb.
It is wrong to think that once a software product has been created, it is enough to release it on the AppStore or a website for users to come for it themselves. It doesn’t work that way. Remember that the most important parameter of a startup is its business development.
But it must be timely. It’s too early to engage in business development if you don’t have a product that might interest the user. Before developing the business part of your startup, you need to understand whether the product is relevant to the market.
To do this, people at Airbnbfollow 2 steps.
- They define indicators that show the value of the product for the client
For Airbnb, it is a confirmed booking and the number of users who will make it again through the service.
- They take the average annual study period since a person travels several times a year.Tracking reuse
The reuse of a product indicates that the user found Aribnb valuable. Let’s take a time period of 16 weeks. Imagine that after installing your application, 70% of users still use it by the end of the first week. In the next 3 weeks, imagine that we see a decline of up to 50%, so approximately 20% of users remain up to 16 weeks and more. Conclusion: the product went well to users, now you can start developing its business part.
Developing a business consists of user attraction and user conversion. First you need to tell people about your product, and then you need to convert them into customers.
User attraction
- Competently tuned SEO optimization. The task of the development department is to customize it in such a way that your product stands out in the first lines for the requests you need. It is more convenient for a person to download the application he needs and use it directly than to constantly use google as an intermediary.
- The system of referrals and word of mouth. You need to provoke the user to share information about your application. For example, reward with money. A very important point is that your user, in principle, should know about the referral program. In a large number of applications, the user may not even see that such a system exists.
- “Virality” of the product. The more people use your service, the more willing newbies will join it.
- Informing potential users in any way. Make a list of all potential users who might be interested in your product. Make them know about you: mail, face-to-face meetings, bloggers, etc.
To choose the right development strategy, you need to try. An important quality that Airbnb managers develop in themselves is constant experimentation.
Every decision and choice you make should be based on experimental data. Otherwise, you will not understand why the tool works. Test several options to determine what is effective.
User conversion
Here are some ways to optimize the conversion of your finished product:
- Internationalization
If your product has already entered the international market, then translating it into other languages will be an effective means of increasing users.
- Authentication
You need to make it as easy as possible for a user to log into your service. The interface must be clear, otherwise, the user will simply sweep aside your application.
- Conquering the user
A good first impression of the service is important. Minimization of the stages that the user will go through from the moment of registration to understanding the essence of your product.
- Purchase conversion
At this stage, the user makes a decision to buy a product. There are a lot of things you can do there, and you can find a lot of information about it.
