There’s only a few things someone building a product really wants.
Good profit, loyal customers, and the chance to leave their 9-5 job.
So let’s say you built a product that you think is the one. But now the question is…
How are you going to convince people they need to buy your product?
You could run ads, but everyone hates obvious promotions to the point their brain automatically turns away. Or you could hire influencers, but you don’t want to value them based on their follower count. They’re not media outlets with guarantied conversions.
But there’s another route you can take…
One that gets people excited to promote your product for you.
Product-driven viral growth
Going viral is more than a funny piece of content that gets a million views.
Products with built-in network effects create their own virality and is much more sustainable than an ad.
Their viral growth is in the product itself.
Products like Dropbox and Loom attract new users whenever someone shares them.
Someone receives a file or a video, then the next time they decide to share a file or record their screen, they’ll remember to use Dropbox or Loom.
So how it works is someone hears about the product, signs-up, finds a use case for it, and uses it. And for the product to have real tangible value, it needs to be shared.
And every new user will repeat this process, creating an infinite product-led growth loop.
Some ways to build it into your product are:
Boosting people’s social life
We all seek social approval.
It’s human nature. So we share things that we think will boost others’ perception of us.
So you need to make your product easy and incentivize people to share.
Why should strangers repost it? It's something they wish they had or makes them look good or smart.
Why would a bigger network repost it? It's timely, fits their narrative, and amplifies their brand (Example: Microsoft working with Miss Excel).
Why should your fans repost it? It validates their reason for supporting you.
It’s all a status game.
This works for luxury products and even apps like Snapchat.
Having a high Snap score, a metric that increases with each sent and received message, reflected their popularity on the platform.
Making it a win-win solution.
More time on the app is good for the company, and the high score became a status symbol for users.
Curiosity and exclusivity
Gas app got 5M users in 2 months because it built up curiosity for teens.
Receiving notifications of people complimenting them that they could then show off to their friends. And even if you didn’t download the app yet, if someone voted for you, you would get a text about it prompting you to check it out.
Tell me which teen would say no to that.
And early Clubhouse and Linkedin were invite-only. People wanting to show off they have access to exclusive apps, people without an invite would ask for one and people with the invite wanted show them off.
Giving people what society values to incentivize them to keep sharing.
The easiest way to hook people
Every habit begins with a trigger, a repeatable action, and a variable reward.
Finding triggers to remind the user
There are two types of triggers:
External triggers - ads and content.
Internal triggers - boredom (so they go on social apps), uncertainty (so they search on Google), and loneliness (so they open up Tinder).
Internal triggers are much more powerful than external. Over time, it becomes part of their subconscious to take an action whenever they feel that specific trigger.
Easy, repeatable behaviors
When someone experiences the trigger, the action they take must be done with little to no effort.
What you don’t want is to have people drastically change their current routine. You just want to subtly implement ourselves into their lives to fill any voids.
Let’s take Tinder app for example:
The swiping action became addicting because it’s much easier to swipe on your phone than it is to get ready, go outside, and physically go up to someone and talk to them.
You didn’t have to face any rejection or embarrassment. Just keep swiping until someone likes you back.
Give them a reward, but keep them guessing
The most important part of developing a habit is your product keeping its promise.
There needs to be some type of reward or good feeling after using your product. To the point where they feel something is missing if they don’t.
Imagine if people swiped all day on Tinder, but never found a match. They would feel that it’s useless, and look for another fix whenever they feel the lonely.
But it goes deeper than that…
The reward needs to be variable and have some mystery to it.
When people swipe on Tinder because they’re feeling lonely, they’re not really looking to find their perfect match to be with forever. That would end the thrill of their reward for swiping.
The reward of simply matching with someone is what they’re seeking.
A new experience every time they match, not knowing how the next person will come in and affect their lives keeps them coming back to keep swiping and look for the next match.
So don’t be boring, incentivize people to try and share your product.