The activation of users 💡

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Welcome to "note to self" #13 focused on marketing & growth 💻

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Today we're discussing the activation of users. Let's dig in 🍽

User Activation - an overview

Improving activation is at its core about increasing the rate at which you get new users to your aha moment. Your aha moment is the magic moment for users, an emotional reaction to a specific feature of your product ( for Facebook users, the aha moment was the ability to see and share photos of and with their friends/family ). The aim is to deliver the aha moment to users as quickly as possible but you also must provide the core value of your product to users as often as possible is just as important.

The Activation of Users

1. Optimizing the new user experience ( NUX )

When designing your product's new user experience, it should be treated as a one-time and unique encounter with your product. A new user landing page, for example, should be thought of as its own product. The NUX landing page should always feature three things: It should show the value of your product, communicate relevance ( does the page match the desire of the visitor ) & provide a clear call to action.

Google’s single sign-on ( SSO ) or “Log in with Google” feature is a large addition to the success of the NUX for many companies, but this will always depend on your particular product and business. Sometimes SSO can actually decrease conversion.

An example: Let’s take a common NUX example. As mentioned, getting users to experience the aha moment as quickly as possible is pivotal. In addition to this, the feeling of having built something already ( known as stored value ), is likely to increase sign-up rates. This can be called “flipping the funnel”, which means you allow users to start experiencing ( using ) your product before asking them to sign up, and once they have invested time in creating something with your product, you ask them to sign up.

While eradicating friction is crucial in a lot of cases ( desire - friction = conversion rate ), in some cases, positive friction ( like the above ) can increase activation, but this only truly be known through experimentation!

2. The power of triggers

Many people are no doubt aware of triggers, ranging from pop-up notifications on their phones to website CTAs. There are a number of key factors to consider when thinking about experimenting with triggers.

• how much they motivate users to take the action you want them to and

• how easy it is for users to do so at the time they receive the trigger.

• following the rules set by the platform you deliver them on.

App push notifications: A good rule of thumb about deploying triggers is that your reason for getting in touch with the users should be to notify them of an opportunity of clear value to them. They should know why they would want to receive these messages in the first place. Experiment with triggers but with a thoughtful understanding of how they can actually be beneficial to your users.

Case Study: Facebook Profiles

When Facebook asks new users to fill out their profile, and add a photo of themselves, they are not just gathering personal data that is valuable and also for selling advertising, they are establishing commitment (since I already spent all this time picking out a picture or writing a bio about myself, I might as well keep going) and providing a psychological reward (the satisfaction of a completed Facebook profile).

The more information that people put into the product, the more their commitment rises, through a concept called stored value, as previously mentioned. In a way that is rewarding and through actions that increase the level of commitment to the product—this can also be a catalyst for activation and further growth.

In other news: 📰

-> What we know about Apple's AR/VR headset.

-> Tesla launches its self-driving beta

-> Blog/Pod/Video of the week: Figma's community-led growth.

-> Website/tool of the week: Lexica art for stable diffusion prompts + more

Have a great weekend + happy Thanksgiving to the US folks!

Harry Arkwright