Keep trial users engaged
Variety is the spice of life
Hey there, it’s Jacob at Retention.Blog 👋
I got tired of reading high-level strategy articles, so I started writing actionable advice I would want to read.
Every week I share practical learnings you can apply to your business.
We spend tons of time optimizing the early onboarding experience to get more trial starts.
And then we hope the product will do the heavy lifting of converting users on the trial.
The product you build may have tons of value, but it’s not always obvious to the user.
Or they just get distracted by daily life and aren’t motivated enough to return.
Trial start rates can be influenced more readily by conversion optimization and persuasion tactics, but it’s only one-half of the trial→subscription formula.
How can we improve our trial conversion rate?
One app I love is Finch.
They work to create a progressive journey that pulls you in and motivates you to continue.
Finch promotes mental health and productivity through their “self-care pet.”
I’m sure you can guess what animal they use as the pet…
They guide you through the product with gamified tactics.
A core part of the app mechanics is sending your finch on an adventure each day. And it takes 8 hours for them to return.
I love this because it creates a built-in loop that brings people back into the app.
It’s not quite as simple as telling users to come back in 8 hours.
First, you have to complete some actions to be able to send your finch on an adventure.
This investment feels important because it makes the adventure more meaningful. If you didn’t have to do anything to earn the adventure, you wouldn’t care as much.
Second, when your finch returns, it shows you something it found or learned.
Every single time it’s something different
We all love rewards.
Giving someone the same reward every time they complete an action gets old quick. Can you create 100 unique interactions or rewards like Finch?
Variety is the spice of life or something like that…
This is a tangential example - Opal is a screentime app and they could have easily used some default message when you try to open a blocked app.
Instead, they have hundreds of unique copy lines that put a smile on your face when you try to use a blocked app.
💡 New KPI idea: SPAO (Smiles per app open)
Finch infuses variety and excitement into their app.
You can buy items for your pet using gems. Do you get the same items every time you go to their store? Nope. Every 12 hours or so the store items refresh.
This is another powerful time-based trigger. You want to return to check it out and over time, this trains you to be curious about what’s new in the store.
Can you set up an interaction that causes people to be eager to return?
And that’s not all!
Finch now also has live events.
Every day you open the app and you get access to a new surprise reward.
They show you what you can earn each day to pique your curiosity and motivate you to open the app tomorrow.
They add a cool little trick to this screen to show that if you’re premium you get different and better rewards each day.
This is great because it makes the premium users feel special that they get more and is also an upsell opportunity for free users to show what they’re missing.
For Freemium apps: Always think about opportunities to show your free users they could have more and to let your premium users know about the value they are getting.
The subscription model is all about providing value long-term. Often, you are providing the value, but aren’t communicating it well to your users.
Finch has figured out how to use a lot of tactics common in games to power your mental health and productivity.
My core takeaways:
Create a natural and obvious progression for your users.
You want them to know what they should do next, and also be excited about that next step!
Variety is the spice of life
Add unique and changing experiences and visuals to your product. Try to put a smile on someone’s face next time they open the app
(I’m serious about the smiles per app open KPI, I’ll try to write something else on that later…)
Reward usage
The more time someone spends in Finch, the more items and stuff they acquire, which over time, creates a stickier product that they don’t want to leave
Successfully onboarding and activating new users is critical to good retention and monetization.
Let’s look at how a few other apps create a progression for their users to complete.
Super simple example: Breeze has a daily 3-step plan for what you should do in the app. These change every day. Make it easy for your users!
When you start tracking a habit in Fabulous, they show you a 7 day map to help you visualize your journey and motivate you for your streak.
Paired is a relationship app, and when you open the app, they suggest 3 “conversations” you can start with.
Your product may be great, but users always need a little guidance and help to uncover the value.
It doesn’t have to be the same gamified tactics Finch uses, but a great way to help your users discover your product is by getting them excited and having fun.
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