In the general environment, the homogenization of tool-based products is becoming more and more serious, which also puts us in a dilemma for the idea of user growth. So, how to achieve the growth of million-level tool-based products? The author analyzes this problem from four aspects based on relevant work experience.
The homogenization of tool-based products in the general environment is becoming more and more serious, with the same interface, the same function, and the same process, which leads to everyone's crazy involution and continuous new functions, but the number of users and revenue have been stagnant.
Before that, it is necessary to explain that the tool-based products referred to in this article mainly refer to the products that individuals and small self-employed individuals are exposed to, not some products in the field of enterprise services.
At the beginning of the article, I summarized the work experience in recent years, which is basically the qualitative research and quantitative analysis of 4 paths/methods, which are the following 4 types:
- The user uses path teardown
- Product value building
- User lifecycle management
- 4P Marketing Theory
Next, let's talk about it in detail.
1. Dismantling the user's use path
We usually use the user journey map to express the user journey path, here we take keep as an example.
Using the behavior and status quo data on the path can give us a more comprehensive perspective and know what to do next. However, the current conclusions and core questions do not support our in-depth analysis, such as what is the core problem of the newcomer conversion link that prevents users from completing the first exercise.
After completing the path disassembly, the next step is to group users according to scenarios and provide growth strategies for the core problems of different groups.
Path dismantling + crowd scene segmentation will have a more in-depth perspective on the core problem, so as to find the growth stuck point problem.
Second, product value building
The main scenario of tool-based products is to solve problems and provide functions in a certain vertical scenario. For example, the bookkeeping tool meets your bookkeeping needs, and the ordering software meets the needs of merchants for shipping... This is also the main reason for the involution between competing products, the value is the same, where is the difference?
Personally, I feel that the value of the product mainly has two dimensions: soft and hard, and the hard value is what we often call the pain point of the scene, what help can be provided to users, and what problems can be solved. The direction of hard value lies in the coverage of diversified scenarios, taking the order delivery software as an example, it is just an order retrieval and sorting scenario, there can be more than 10 ways, as long as the user has needs, even if there are only a few users, the software developer will help you achieve it.
This phenomenon can't be said to be bad, but more is actually helpless, which leads to the fact that only 20% of the functions commonly used by 80% of users are often used.
In addition to hard value, let's take a look at soft value. If soft value is to be expressed in one sentence, the typical representative is "I think it's good, but I can't say where it's good".
Product brand concept, usage habits, visual effects and even product speed are all soft values, and I often hear when researching users before, "I have used your software for many years, and I am used to it, and I think it is very good."
Behind the shaping of soft value, it is often more necessary to reflect the ability of product students, solve the same user pain points, and bring users different experiences and feelings.
3. User lifecycle management
From my point of view, the user life cycle is not only used to measure the stickiness of users in a product, but also to guide us to build core values for users of different cycles, and it is also the key to measure the quality of growth (growth without value cannot be done for a long time).
Taking the conventional lifecycle model as an example, we first need to define the key behavior nodes of users in different cycles, and take Keep as an example.
Focusing on different cycle behavior nodes, we will improve the conversion rate of links in a targeted manner to achieve high-quality growth.
Fourth, the 4P marketing theory
There are actually many scenarios for the application of classic 4P theory, and almost all of the above three points are elaborated on the part about the product, so let's briefly talk about the other three points.
Price: For paid tool products, based on the unit price, we provide price packages of different cycles and service types for new and old users, and provide the most competitive and profitable prices according to the competition.
Channels: Large-scale promotion and growth are inseparable from channel traffic, in addition to monitoring the traffic of each channel to achieve the purpose of removing the inferior and retaining the good, and at the same time looking for channels that meet their own style according to business attributes.
Promotion: Focusing on common marketing activities, using the user's preference for cheap mentality to promote conversion, which can be roughly divided into two directions: promotion to increase the unit value of customers and promotion to promote the conversion of new users
The above 4 methods are roughly like this, but why do I emphasize the use of qualitative and quantitative as a means of analysis, qualitative is a person's subjective feelings, it is very common to "what I feel" and "how do I feel", the user's pain points and product experience are a kind of intuitive feeling, only by understanding the user can we help the user.
But at the same time, the individual's behavioral perspective only has feelings but no rules, and any simple behavior will have some kind of law after gathering massive data. I've always felt that some very simple behaviors don't make sense to analyze, but the rules behind the data have always taught me lessons again and again, and that's why data analysis is so important and quantitative.
Finally, let's talk about some common problems in the growth process of tool-based products:
- For the sake of revenue, brainless expansion and commercialization; (typical is a variety of tool products, a variety of patch advertising)
- Heavy traffic, do not pay attention to product value;(WeChat's early restraint is very admirable, understand that traffic is the antidote and poison, and the amount of traffic is the last level for garbage products)
Hopefully, our efforts can really impact even one user.
Author: Urban Ferryman, Public Account: Urban Ferryman
This article was originally published by @都市摆渡人 on Everyone is a Product Manager. Reproduction without the permission of the author is prohibited
The title image is from Unsplash and is licensed under CC0
The views in this article only represent the author's own, everyone is a product manager, and the platform only provides information storage space services.