What should users do if they accumulate tens of thousands of points but just don’t spend them?

2022 has just passed, and it is time for points on major platforms to be cleared. Did you use up all your user points last year? Now most platforms have established a points mall or user growth system. How can we get users to participate in the activities of the points system and make full use of their points? Tiantianwen has given a few ideas for this. Let's take a look.

"Dear user, your 3,000 points on the xx platform are about to expire..."

As the year draws to a close, do you often receive messages like this?

The points system is an important means to maintain user stickiness and increase user activity. Most Internet platforms now add points systems and points malls to retain users while providing services.

But in many cases, users do not pay much attention to the points mall, and many points are often delayed until the end of the year and expire without being used. How can we let users spend their points fully and make the points mall play a greater role? Let's see what the Tiantianwen friends think about this.

1. How to let users open the points mall?

In essence, letting users spend their points is to increase the daily activity of the points mall, thereby promoting the effectiveness of the points mall. From this perspective, we need to first let users fully understand the platform's points system and guide users to enter the points mall.

Tiantianwen's friends have come up with several ideas:

1. Increase the frequency of points appearing

In the daily process of using platform services, the presence of points should be enhanced. For example, when users earn points, there should be corresponding notification reminders, which can include the basic redemption methods of points, etc. Users should be made aware of the existence of points and understand their value and purpose.

In this regard, we can refer to Taobao's points. Taobao's "Taobao coins" are produced in proportion to each purchase, and are mainly used as cashback. After each payment is completed, there will be a pop-up window on the order completion page, prompting the user that Taobao coins have been obtained, and also marking the role of points. This greatly increases the presence of points in the user's payment process.

2. Notification reminder

The platform can add some push reminders on a daily basis, and use some large prizes, privileged services and other content in the points mall to attract users' attention. For example, the simplest one is the "Sign in for three days to get points, redeem free membership time" that often pops up on the new user page of video websites. This is a typical example. By pushing eye-catching and visible advertisements, users are attracted to participate in the activities of the points mall.

3. Optimize the entrance to the points mall

Setting up a more eye-catching and quicker entrance to the points mall can allow users to enter the points mall for consumption more conveniently.

The points mall is generally displayed on the user's personal page, but the user may rarely have the opportunity to open the personal page in daily payment scenarios. At this time, an entrance needs to be handed to the user so that the user can open the points mall at any time when appropriate.

For example, for Alipay points, an option to jump to the points mall will be added when a points reminder is generated.

2. How to drive users to use points?

Now that we have points and the points mall has made its presence felt, how do we get users who click into the points mall to spend their points and participate in the points system?

1. Prize Redemption

Regarding the consumption of points, the most common practice is to create a points mall and provide prizes for users to redeem.

Points malls often need to set up very attractive prizes to give users the motivation to accumulate points. They can set up very tempting but high-threshold grand prizes, or they can set up very practical and low-threshold rewards.

The products in the Points Mall are generally divided into two categories:

1. Physical goods: such as practical daily necessities such as water cups and stationery, or other goods that meet the platform's positioning
2. Virtual goods: virtual service content such as permissions, content, coupons, etc.

Needless to say, physical objects can be practical daily necessities, or related products that are in line with the platform's positioning. As long as the pricing is reasonable, users are generally willing to spend points to redeem them. The platform can also set very attractive and expensive prizes among physical goods. The difficulty of obtaining them can be appropriately increased, but it is still a good way to attract users.

There are many things that can be done with virtual prizes. Common ones now include permission-based service products, content products, coupons, etc., which can be customized according to the services provided by the platform itself.

Generally speaking, for platforms that provide content and services, this type of products customized according to the platform's own content are often more in line with user needs than physical goods. For example, points earned from Bilibili VIP memberships can be exchanged for VIP membership days, and points earned from the stationery group buying platform "Sami" can be exchanged for free shipping coupons. These can all provide convenience to users in the process of purchasing services, which can not only optimize the user experience, but also give full play to the role of the points mall.

For users, the most valuable prizes should meet their needs. The points malls of telecom service operators such as China Telecom and China Mobile generally provide some practical physical goods. In our daily lives, we often come into contact with various thermos cups, small appliances, etc. that are given away for "recharging phone bills"; for example, gas station membership points can be used to buy paper towels, energy bars and other daily necessities at the convenience store inside the station.

Because recharging phone bills and refueling are consumption scenarios that are bound to appear in people's daily lives, these merchants often do not need to maintain daily activities. What they need to do is to provide more valuable services to users. Therefore, the exchange of daily necessities appears to be very practical and can meet the needs of users.

As for content platforms, video sites, e-commerce platforms, etc., users enter the platform based on other non-essential and specific needs, and the goods in the points mall should also be linked to these needs. Platforms targeting specific groups of people should also set prizes in the points mall based on the needs of specific groups of people. For example, NetEase Cloud Music has headphones in its mall, Zhihu Member Mall has books, and Dingdong Maicai points can be exchanged for fresh fruits...

After setting up the prizes, the platform also needs to calculate the value of the points first. For example, for points linked to money, how much money one point roughly corresponds to, and then set the points required to redeem goods in the points mall according to a certain ratio, set a more reasonable price, and then make appropriate adjustments based on the different positioning of the goods.

For example, the prices of some expensive physical goods that are more eye-catching can be appropriately raised, while the prices of virtual goods related to platform services can be lowered to maximize the practical value of the points mall.

2. Points deduction

In addition to prize redemption, another major use of points is cash deduction, that is, using points to correspond to cash at a certain ratio. Users can use points to deduct cash at a certain ratio when paying on the platform. This method is suitable for platforms with many payment scenarios, such as e-commerce platforms, and can quickly consume users' points.

Take Taobao's "Taobao Gold Coin" as an example. When paying for goods that use Taobao Gold Coins, a certain percentage of cash can be directly deducted. There is a certain upper limit on the amount that can be deducted when paying for a single item, but one Taobao Gold Coin corresponds to one cent, so the exchange rate is quite considerable and it is very convenient for users to participate in the deduction.

3. Points game

In addition to conventional means, in order to let users fully spend their points, you can also add some additional channels to consume points. Points games are a good way. Set up sufficiently attractive prizes for the games and let users spend their points to participate in the games, which can effectively recover some of the overflow points in the hands of users. Common methods include lottery games, such as various turntables, capsule machines, scratch games, etc.

4. Earning and saving points

The way points are earned will affect whether the end user will participate in point consumption. Users decide whether to continue to accumulate points based on whether the services that the points can be exchanged for meet their requirements, as well as how many points they have and whether it is difficult to continue accumulating points.

If the difficulty of earning points is too high, users will be unwilling to spend energy to accumulate points. If the difficulty of earning points is too low, users will have too many points, which will reduce their willingness to accumulate points and be detrimental to the pricing of goods in the points mall. Therefore, the way to earn points should be carefully formulated and adjusted in a timely manner according to the situation of the points mall.

In addition, clearing points is a very important additional rule in the points mall. Setting a clearing date for points can increase a sense of urgency and encourage users to accumulate or consume points faster. The reminder message of point expiration issued at the end of the year is often an important opportunity for many users to open the points mall.

3. How to ensure that users’ points are spent wisely?

The role of the Points Mall is essentially to increase user activity. By building a user growth system around points, the interaction between the platform and users is enhanced, thereby achieving the effect of retaining users. The Points Mall is not just about designing a flea market that trades with points, and setting up prizes is far more than just setting up stalls.

Therefore, for the platform, it is not enough for the points mall and points system to simply provide services to users. Users' actions of consuming points should be linked to the services and features of the platform itself, such as the membership rights redemption of the video platform and the cash payment deduction of the e-commerce platform mentioned above.

In addition, prizes linked to the platform's business can also be set up in the points mall, such as low-threshold listings of goods that need to be cleared, coupons for seasonal products, course content provided by the platform, etc., to again encourage users to use the platform's services and guide users to pay attention to the content that the platform is recommending, thereby achieving the purpose of attracting traffic to the platform.

According to this idea, there are still many things that can be developed in the middle, for example, the membership points in the Everyone is a Product Manager APP can be used to redeem courses in the Qidian Classroom.

In summary, the points system and points mall exist to continuously increase the interaction between the platform and users. By infiltrating the points system content into all aspects of the platform business and the points mall content, and fully integrating the points mall with the platform business, users will naturally notice the points mall and participate in the activities of the points system.

Source: Tiantianwen Topics Selection

Part of the content of this article comes from the wonderful answers of @大鱼汤海棠@大宝@小海海@路中的铁钉

This column is compiled, edited and published by @李绮雯. Everyone is welcome to ask questions and communicate.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 agreement