Growth Hacking acquire new users with better activation
What’s one of the biggest bottleneck’s startups face?
OH: The internet is so complicated #OMG ” “
Remember first signing up for Twitter?
We dug in and tried to learn what the “aha” moment was for a new user and then rebuilt our entire new user experience to e...
While Josh was there, Twitter’s active user base grew 10X
It’s now one of the most influential products today..
Activation, isn’t just for social products.
Uber, Square and DropBox work hard to educate their first time user.
So what exactly is activation?
I’m Conrad Wadowski, a Partner at GrowHack which works with venture backed companies. I also run an online school which br...
Activation is the process of getting a new user
to a must have experience. Activation is the process of getting a new user
it’s a set of best practices to get them active.
it’s a set of best practices to get them active. ..and it’s that really common bottleneck.
Activation is similar to “onboarding” although onboarding suggests a process.
The best activation won’t involve too much process.
Instead it mixes selling, educating and using your product.
..without much friction.
When you get it right, what happens is the boundary between trying out a product and using it disappears. Ben Chow, Produc...
Good activation also helps protect current users from things like fake accounts and spam.
Why does it work?
Gets new users to understand your product’s value now, instead of later.
Isolates variables to help you understand what motivates or prevents someone from becoming active.
In an ideal world you already know which user to focus on, which is hard.
So how can we learn to do it well?
We actually have the tool chest available to us at all times..
The best way to learn is from other products.
So we went through and documented the best in the industry..over 70 activation flows from homepage to the “must-have”
Here are some tactics pulled out from the best..
Word of Caution Mileage will vary by audience, product, stage and resources.
Your most powerful lever, will likely be motivation.
The right motivation leads us to do crazy things.
Focus on testing these ideas out and actually talking to your end users.
But this will be a happy place to start.
you ready?
Front load your user experience
Minimalism
Simple, clear value proposition
A subheading for more detail
Visuals
Social Sign in, with an option for email Quora
Say you won’t post on their wall
Embedded form on homepage
Prefilled forms
42% completion time Inline form validation
Pop up navigation, but just because it’s easy to create.
Stick to simple, clear language
Relevant Faces (if not distracting) Celeb Customer Friend Smiling Attractive Female
William Shatner
..Or just an interesting waiting screen
At least tell them to expect a wait
Import contact address books, early on. Facebook
You’ll reach a lot more people that way, so test it out. Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 100% 20% 5% 1% Homepage Import Select...
..the main ones are gmail, yahoo, hotmail
Import phone contacts Step 2Step 1
“skip this step”
Pre-populate with APIs
Link to confirm email
Use a progress bar LinkedIn Groupon
Big, clear calls to action
And again scrolling down...
Large, relevant images (They’re easier to design too)
Say “it’s free”
Consistent calls to action
768 - 800 Pixels Consistent calls to action, above the fold
Social Proof: Quantity
Social Proof: People
Social Proof: Shares
Social Proof: Press
Social Proof: Customers
Arrow pointing to your call to action
Include nav links in the footer
No footer below the fold for direct URL Nothing here
30% conversion Localization English Spanish
Tailored landing pages AmazonWillCall
Call-to-action button in the same spot
Call-to-action button in the same spot
Call-to-action button in the same spot
CEO Email
Relevant Email
How about some worst practices?
Auto-carousels See: shouldiuseacarousel.com
They introduce too many variables so you can’t figure out what’s working.
IF they can get to it in time, people just click the first image anyway..
“Carousels are effective at being able to tell people in Marketing/ Senior Management that their latest idea is on the Hom...
Unnecessary form fields. Do you really need all this?
To many, conflicting, calls to action
Horizontal navigation
As soon as we get on a computer, we all start acting like we have a major case of A.D.D.
Each additional link takes focus away from your most important call to action.
At a certain point this makes your site pretty much unusable.
Just think deep when you’d like to “cross-sell” a feature or product.
If you really need to add a link, why not include it in the footer?
And split each into its own page.
When you use weak calls to action..
..like “Submit” you lose an opportunity to teach users what happens when they click. ?
Who really wants to “submit” anything anyway?
Do as Unbounce.com says and..
Side note ..anyone wanna do a flower startup? :)
Too Strong on Design
Take 3 seconds to figure out what this page is about. ..
While it’s beautifully designed, there just isn’t much being accomplished here.
Spending too much time on form over function can cripple your iteration speed.
Explainer video for new product categories
Helps define the problem to a user
DropBox new users didn’t realize they had a problem.
Consider longer form copy for this or for high priced products where it’s difficult to immediately get trust
Let’s talk mobile for a bit
Asking for permission
This is what happens if someone says no
Preface permissions Poker Friends
Preface permissions
If someone doesn’t FB Connect Poker Friends
Make what you want someone to do really obvious SnapChat
Initial Screen and Description Tinder
Pre Onboarding Tinder
Learn by doing Tinder
Focused feature set Tinder
Tuck away advanced features SnapChat
click here to learn more about our online school Thanks! or find me @conradwa
Acquire New Users with Better Activation
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Acquire New Users with Better Activation

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Growth hacking techniques startups are using to onboard and activate new users. Learn more at learn.growhack.com

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Acquire New Users with Better Activation

  1. Growth Hacking acquire new users with better activation
  2. What’s one of the biggest bottleneck’s startups face?
  3. OH: The internet is so complicated #OMG ” “
  4. Remember first signing up for Twitter?
  5. We dug in and tried to learn what the “aha” moment was for a new user and then rebuilt our entire new user experience to engineer that more quickly. Josh Elman, Partner at GreyLock and Early Product Lead at Twitter “ ”
  6. While Josh was there, Twitter’s active user base grew 10X
  7. It’s now one of the most influential products today..
  8. Activation, isn’t just for social products.
  9. Uber, Square and DropBox work hard to educate their first time user.
  10. So what exactly is activation?
  11. I’m Conrad Wadowski, a Partner at GrowHack which works with venture backed companies. I also run an online school which brings together leading practitioners and resources to teach your team user growth. Some background..
  12. Activation is the process of getting a new user
  13. to a must have experience. Activation is the process of getting a new user
  14. it’s a set of best practices to get them active.
  15. it’s a set of best practices to get them active. ..and it’s that really common bottleneck.
  16. Activation is similar to “onboarding” although onboarding suggests a process.
  17. The best activation won’t involve too much process.
  18. Instead it mixes selling, educating and using your product.
  19. ..without much friction.
  20. When you get it right, what happens is the boundary between trying out a product and using it disappears. Ben Chow, Product Designer “ ”
  21. Good activation also helps protect current users from things like fake accounts and spam.
  22. Why does it work?
  23. Gets new users to understand your product’s value now, instead of later.
  24. Isolates variables to help you understand what motivates or prevents someone from becoming active.
  25. In an ideal world you already know which user to focus on, which is hard.
  26. So how can we learn to do it well?
  27. We actually have the tool chest available to us at all times..
  28. The best way to learn is from other products.
  29. So we went through and documented the best in the industry..over 70 activation flows from homepage to the “must-have”
  30. Here are some tactics pulled out from the best..
  31. Word of Caution Mileage will vary by audience, product, stage and resources.
  32. Your most powerful lever, will likely be motivation.
  33. The right motivation leads us to do crazy things.
  34. Focus on testing these ideas out and actually talking to your end users.
  35. But this will be a happy place to start.
  36. you ready?
  37. Front load your user experience
  38. Minimalism
  39. Simple, clear value proposition
  40. A subheading for more detail
  41. Visuals
  42. Social Sign in, with an option for email Quora
  43. Say you won’t post on their wall
  44. Embedded form on homepage
  45. Prefilled forms
  46. 42% completion time Inline form validation
  47. Pop up navigation, but just because it’s easy to create.
  48. Stick to simple, clear language
  49. Relevant Faces (if not distracting) Celeb Customer Friend Smiling Attractive Female
  50. William Shatner
  51. ..Or just an interesting waiting screen
  52. At least tell them to expect a wait
  53. Import contact address books, early on. Facebook
  54. You’ll reach a lot more people that way, so test it out. Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 100% 20% 5% 1% Homepage Import Select Category Rate Books UsersStep
  55. ..the main ones are gmail, yahoo, hotmail
  56. Import phone contacts Step 2Step 1
  57. “skip this step”
  58. Pre-populate with APIs
  59. Link to confirm email
  60. Use a progress bar LinkedIn Groupon
  61. Big, clear calls to action
  62. And again scrolling down...
  63. Large, relevant images (They’re easier to design too)
  64. Say “it’s free”
  65. Consistent calls to action
  66. 768 - 800 Pixels Consistent calls to action, above the fold
  67. Social Proof: Quantity
  68. Social Proof: People
  69. Social Proof: Shares
  70. Social Proof: Press
  71. Social Proof: Customers
  72. Arrow pointing to your call to action
  73. Include nav links in the footer
  74. No footer below the fold for direct URL Nothing here
  75. 30% conversion Localization English Spanish
  76. Tailored landing pages AmazonWillCall
  77. Call-to-action button in the same spot
  78. Call-to-action button in the same spot
  79. Call-to-action button in the same spot
  80. CEO Email
  81. Relevant Email
  82. How about some worst practices?
  83. Auto-carousels See: shouldiuseacarousel.com
  84. They introduce too many variables so you can’t figure out what’s working.
  85. IF they can get to it in time, people just click the first image anyway..
  86. “Carousels are effective at being able to tell people in Marketing/ Senior Management that their latest idea is on the Home Page.” -Lee Duddell
  87. Unnecessary form fields. Do you really need all this?
  88. To many, conflicting, calls to action
  89. Horizontal navigation
  90. As soon as we get on a computer, we all start acting like we have a major case of A.D.D.
  91. Each additional link takes focus away from your most important call to action.
  92. At a certain point this makes your site pretty much unusable.
  93. Just think deep when you’d like to “cross-sell” a feature or product.
  94. If you really need to add a link, why not include it in the footer?
  95. And split each into its own page.
  96. When you use weak calls to action..
  97. ..like “Submit” you lose an opportunity to teach users what happens when they click. ?
  98. Who really wants to “submit” anything anyway?
  99. Do as Unbounce.com says and..
  100. Side note ..anyone wanna do a flower startup? :)
  101. Too Strong on Design
  102. Take 3 seconds to figure out what this page is about. ..
  103. While it’s beautifully designed, there just isn’t much being accomplished here.
  104. Spending too much time on form over function can cripple your iteration speed.
  105. Explainer video for new product categories
  106. Helps define the problem to a user
  107. DropBox new users didn’t realize they had a problem.
  108. Consider longer form copy for this or for high priced products where it’s difficult to immediately get trust
  109. Let’s talk mobile for a bit
  110. Asking for permission
  111. This is what happens if someone says no
  112. Preface permissions Poker Friends
  113. Preface permissions
  114. If someone doesn’t FB Connect Poker Friends
  115. Make what you want someone to do really obvious SnapChat
  116. Initial Screen and Description Tinder
  117. Pre Onboarding Tinder
  118. Learn by doing Tinder
  119. Focused feature set Tinder
  120. Tuck away advanced features SnapChat
  121. click here to learn more about our online school Thanks! or find me @conradwa

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