A private domain operator tells you how to double user retention (Part 1)

In the current fierce market competition, companies are paying more and more attention to how to effectively maintain and increase user retention. This article deeply analyzes the importance of user retention and explores the three key factors that affect user retention in the private domain for your reference.

Since ancient times, good businesses have had one characteristic: many repeat customers. Especially in the current context where traffic is becoming more and more expensive and it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract new users, projects have been forced to change from focusing only on traffic at the beginning to focusing more and more on "retention", and user retention has become the "lifeline" for many projects.

Compared with the public domain, the performance of the private domain can be seen by looking at the user retention rate.

I have seen private domains that claim to have millions of fans but have very low monetization. I have also managed a private domain project with only 5,000 people that easily achieved 2 million yuan in sales per year. It can be said that user retention determines the length of the private domain's survival cycle.

If you want to retain users in your private domain, you need to understand two issues:

①Why do users stay in your private domain?

②How to keep her in our private domain

Because the article is quite long, today we will mainly discuss the first question. I will still go straight to the point and explain this topic thoroughly.

Regarding the question of why users should stay in your private domain, many bosses may think: as long as my product is good enough.

But is this really the case? No.

The business nowadays is no longer about “good wine needs no bush”, but the bushes are getting deeper and deeper, and there are more and more shops selling wine in the bushes, so don’t simply use products as the only criterion for judging user retention.

There are only three reasons why users can stay in your private domain:

① Your product can solve customer needs

② Your private domain can continue to provide comprehensive value to customers

③The cost of users abandoning you is relatively high

1. Your product solves customer needs

This is also the most basic condition that determines user retention.

A qualified product can solve a certain need of a certain group of people, while a good product can solve certain needs of a certain group of people in a shorter time and with less effort. If you evaluate your product based on this standard, you will know which level it belongs to. So continue to research and develop to improve your product strength.

First make a qualified product, then upgrade the qualified product into a good product, and then develop more good products. This is what every private domain or every business must do.

Never expect a crappy product to retain users.

2. Ability to continuously provide comprehensive value to customers

Why is it comprehensive value?

Because the value of a product is actually limited, in today’s market there is no product that is unique in the world, and there are always a large number of similar competitors eyeing your customers, so at this time you need a private domain to add other additional value.

Using product power + IP power to build high value that customers like is what a good private domain should do.

Through our private domain strategy, we can make users transition from recognizing our products to recognizing us as individuals, and at the same time be willing to introduce us to their friends. At this time, we will be successful.

The power of IP can be simply summarized into three points:

① You are a real person, so customers are willing to contact you

②You are a warm person with your own characteristics, which makes customers like to contact you

③The value you can provide that exceeds customer expectations [product value + service value + emotional value]

The creation of IP power is something that every private domain must persist in doing. When your IP power is strong enough, your private domain can sell everything, and this is the end point of the private domain. Therefore, improving the comprehensive value of your private domain is the key to retaining users.

Because whether it is payment or continued attention, it must ultimately be because of your value.

3. High switching costs for users

How do you understand it?

For example, before you got your hair cut, you always went to the same barber shop and found the same teacher Tony, who could basically cut a hairstyle that suits you every time. Now Tony happens to take two days off for family matters, and you want to get your hair cut again, so you have two choices. The first is to wait for him, and the second is to go to a barber shop you have never been to and risk having your hair cut ruined, and hand over the power of life and death of your hairstyle to a teacher Tony you have never met.

I don't think I need to say much about how to choose. This is an example of high user conversion cost. The essence is actually to take advantage of the user's fear of being harmed by conversion.

So the same principle applies to our private domain: establish user usage habits through various means, allowing her to continue to reap value in our private domain. When you achieve a level that your competitors cannot, you win.

Because the homogeneity of the product itself cannot be solved, the private domain is to complete the part that competitors cannot do.

For example, when selling children's clothing, others collect the money and ship the goods, but you not only do this but also ask the user about the child's wearing experience after receiving the goods, and send blessings and small gifts on the child's birthday.

In this case, I think it is self-evident which one the user will choose.

4. Final Thoughts

So, apply an idea that is applicable to online products.

When users are faced with multiple competing products, the conversion formula begins to determine user retention:

① The value of the old product + the switching cost > the value of the new product, and the users are retained;

② The value of the old product + the switching cost < the value of the new product, and users are lost

The value of a product is a measure of how well it satisfies user needs and its long-term value. The switching cost includes the time, money, level of honor, social relationships, etc. that users have invested in the old product, as well as the difficulty of using the new product.

The same logic applies to private domains. When the value and conversion cost of our private domains are not enough to keep users in our private domains, users will definitely choose to leave.