Master of psychological tricks

Who ME+?

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 Tuesday I share practical learnings you can apply to your business.

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Me+ is a master of psychological tricks

Me+ uses a long onboarding flow full of questions, social proof, reassurance of value, gamification tactics, and more.

Will you want to copy and paste all of these into your app? Probably not, but there is 100% something you can try that will likely boost your conversion.

Let’s dive in.

Effective onboarding flows build excitement and emotion early

• “Millions of users”, “4.8 High-rated app”, “5,000,000 goals achieved”

• Repetition - they repeat these social proof messages twice in the first 5 screens

• Testimonials from app store reviews engage

Tip: Use the “Laurels” graphic style since people associate that with Apple awards. Me+ “borrows” this positive association

“Join ME+ on a journey of self-love”

• Don’t neglect copywriting, it’s a critical part of the UI

• Who doesn’t want to go on a journey of self-love?!

Questions implicitly teach what the product is for

• People will assume the app will help with the specific topics you ask about

Questions will educate new users on a problem in their life

• And guess what? Your product is the solution!

If you ask a negative question, follow up in that question, or right after with reinforcement of the value prop and how the product will help solve that issue

Use stats to build more trust in your effectiveness

• “3X times more successful than other to achieve the goal by behavioral science”*

• Ideally, these stats are real, but you can easily create these through surveys

*Flawless grammar is not a requirement for a top-ranking app

• Me+ has grammar mistakes throughout onboarding.

• Do I recommend it? Of course, but it shows you how closely people actually read

This one is silly: Show a picture of a brain if you want your product to feel backed in science or research

• Me+ and Impulse have a similar graphic showing parts of the brain

• Headway’s entire mascot is a brain

Create a false loading screen to show your app doing work for them

• Me+ uses a loader to show they’re, “Creating your personal journey”

• They use this captive audience to insert more social proof and testimonials

• People feel if the loading takes longer, it must be building something special just for them

Show an output of all the personalized questions

• This can be a ranking, summary, next steps, or something else

• We all want to feel like we’re being listened to, prove it to your audience

Try the “foot-in-the-door” technique before a paywall

• Get a small “Yes” with a few easy questions to build up momentum and increase the chance of a “Yes” for the purchase

The entire concept of the long onboarding is an extension of the “foot-in-the-door” technique

Me+ builds up investment right before the paywall with a “Let’s make a contract” screen

• Flo and Fabulous uses a similar style, Me+ asks you to write your signature

Check out my post on Flo here and the full Fabulous onboarding here

Guide people to your annual plan through your price points for lower churn

• Their monthly price is 4x their annual price per month!

• Only the annual plan has a trial

Continue the new user flow after your paywall and onboarding

• Dropping people onto your home screen after onboarding can cause people to feel overwhelmed

• Continue your onboarding after the paywall for better activation rates

  • Check out the Whimsical board below to see the full flow

Want to send a daily reminder push? Ask people to select the time

• Giving the option to choose the time for a notification will boost opt-in rates for push

“Gimicky” gamification tactics can work

• Me+ uses a price wheel spinner to offer a subscription discount

• Everyone wins the “jackpot” of 50% off

You are building a brand here, so it’s okay not to use these tactics if you feel like it doesn’t fit with your product. This can lead to increased trust over the long term.

Sales need to be for a limited time and have a sense of urgency

• When you tap on the 50% offer on the home screen, they start a countdown for 1 hour saying it’ll expire

Widgets can be powerful for retention

• It’s unlikely that a majority of users will add the widget, but those who do have a powerful reminder on their phone home screen

ME+ has a strong early monetization flow, and it clearly works well for them.

The tricky part is now delivering on all your promises to build a business with strong retention and renewals.

I don’t know many gimmicks for creating a product that delivers tons of value…

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Check out the Whimsical board here to see the full onboarding

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