💎 Growth Gems #40 - Gems from "How Habit Formation Can Fast-forward Sub Growth"
Hi there,
Today's gems are mined ⛏️ from a Mobile User Acquisition Show podcast episode where Govind Balakrishnan (CEO of Curio Labs - Curated Audio Journalism App) talks about design changes to increase engagement, working with Apple, onboarding, activation and revenue.
💎 #1
If you can get people really using your product, you don’t need to talk about it. Especially if these people include Apple employees.
💎 #2
When making product decisions, go back to the “jobs” you’re trying to get done and why people come to you. Example for Curio: 1. Understanding the world 2. Self-improvement and inspiration 3. Smart escape
💎 #3
For a content app you have to constantly experiment on how much content choice you’re giving. You’re actually trying to aim at a moving target because people cycle through their moods and motivations.
💎 #4
When they tried to delay the subscription pop-up to after users experience all of the product instead of after you sign up, their conversions fell by 40%. It was more preferable to be up-front with people.
💎 #5
There’s a relationship between someone who builds a habit to the product and becomes a subscriber. But people are also willing to take a chance on a product, especially if they come from a good acquisition channel. A lot of people are willing to subscribe first then try it up.
💎 #6
For products around inspiration and self-development like Curio, people project a future version of themselves. This translates into some people being comfortable projecting this future self, subscribing and building the habit later.
💎 #7
Curio removed email sign up, because they were asking for information without giving anything in return. Instead they became very up front about the fact that it was a paid product (first screen is the paywall), yet allowing users to experience the product without giving any information in return. Generous, but honest and upfront.
💎 #8
There is the obvious form of hard activation (e.g. listening to a track), but there might be other signals as well that you can find through a more sophisticated data infrastructure. You can even find the signals that lead to a higher LTV.
💎 #9
Activation and revenue might not be in conflict, but they need to be thought of differently. The mindset between people coming in can be very different. Example: someone who wants to build the habit first then subscribe vs. someone who projects the future version of themselves, takes a chance on the product and subscribes directly.
💎 #10
When thinking about price testing, keep in mind that people are more interested in getting value than they are sensitive to price. There is actually a point where there is an inverse correlation (conversions falling when reducing price).
💎 #11
When testing out the best features to make available for free, also think about the context in which users first hear about your product. Example: maybe tracks are not the most valuable to give for free (vs. saving for later) in the case where someone tells you about Curio while you’re watching Netflix.
Stay savvy!
⛏️ Sylvain