This document provides tips on how to gain and retain users during the COVID-19 pandemic. It recommends focusing on SEO, referrals, paid acquisition, affiliates, and social media to acquire new users. It also suggests communicating with users, improving the experience, being generous with policies, personalizing engagement, and providing ongoing content to retain existing users. The document stresses showing empathy, engaging communities, and focusing on customer support during this challenging time.

1. How to Gain & Retain
Users
Prashant Mahajan

2. About Me
Paytm - Launched Paytm QR Code, Grew Paytm Consumer
Payments from 200k to 20M
Tokopedia - Lead Growth & Marketing Products. Launched
Referral, Challenged, Recommendation and Marketing
Automation Engine
Branch - Lead Branch Core Platform which help customers
like Uber, Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm etc. to grow their user
base.

3. About the Topic
How can a company Grow it's User Base
How can a company retain + engage existing users

4. Before We Start
Be Realistic. Covid-19 has impacted everyone. Understand this.
Create Value and Show your Value
Identify the Goal - Acquisition, Retention, Sign Up, Transaction
Identify the user - Loyal, Freeloader, Dormant etc.

5. User Acquisition
SEO
Referral
Paid Acquisition
Affiliate
Social Media
Engage

6. SEO
Optimize your site for SEO
Use tools like MOZ, SEM Rush etc.
Make your website Mobile Friendly
Search Google
Create Content
Make your website Accessibility Friendly
Consider AMP
Use Backlinks
Check Chrome Light House
SEO - Search Engine optimization helps you
to get organic traffic from Search engines.
How to get SEO Juice -

7. Referral
Tokopedia used to drive Around 100k App
downloads month just from Product shares.
Focus on Value of Product.
Put Nudges in flow to motivate your users to
share.
Create Incentive, but beware of fraud.
People love talking and now more than ever.
If you can make it paid, sure. If not create a Share
Button at products and ask users to share.

8. Paid Acquisition
FB and Google Ads are cheaper. So your CAC will
be lower.
You should invest now and wait for results later.
Don't get vanished.
Paid Acquisition could be cheap now, since more
people are on apps. PPC is 40% down.

9. Affiliate
Create an affiliate program, which rewards users and
partners to get you traffic.
See examples of Flipkart, Amazon etc.
Help people in creating content. Make tutorials.
Not just individual, make it for influencers, partner
apps, OTT platforms and other partnerships.
People are at home, people have lost job. Everyone is
looking for extra income. Use this opportunity.
E.g. at Tokopedia, we had partnership with a music
streaming service. Codashop is doing with Tinder and
Pre install campaigns with mobile vendors are there.

10. Social Media
Have a dedicated social media manager or spend
dedicated time everyday.
Use tools like Buffer, Hubspot etc. to automate the
posts.
Tie up with influencers if you can.
Everyone is spending time on Social Media.
Use this channel for organic traffic.

11. Come up with challenges. (E.g. Share your lockdown
Look, fitness challenge, cooking challenge etc.)
For B2B - Use College grads for ambassador
program, create a digital university and teach them
skills. E.g. Appsflyer University.
Use your product to create an engagement amongst
user. Leverage your users to get more users.
Engage

12. User Retenion
Communicate
Experience
Be Generous
Personalize
Social Media
Engage
Content

13. Use service like Clevertap, Moengage or so to do
smart targeting your users.
Activate dormant users.
Do targeting of when to target, where to target and
whom to target.
Use Push Notification across web, app, in app.
Send Relevant Email, but check bounce rate.
Ask for feedback, people are going to share.
Get users excited about new features and updates
This is the time to reach out to your customers. Just a
friendly msg, no need to push things.
Communicate

14. Experience
Invest and create a superior User Experience.
Make Covid-19 focussed experience. (Swiggy,
Domino's etc. are good example.)
Do user research now.
Change your copy across all channels, E.g. post
transaction copy on email, receipt and app,
Onboarding copy.
Collect Feedback
This is a time to improve your user experience. Your
customers are going to remember you now based on
how you treat them.

15. Be Generous
Better “Paused” than “Canceled”, give option to pause
subscription
Or add free extension, acquiring will be tough and expensive.
Increase benefits of loyalty program.
Consider Concierge service
Curefit, BigBasket etc have already done so.
This is not the time to collect money, but to invest for long game.

16. Personalize
Find patterns in user behaviour. Do User Clustering.
Scale up your marketing capabilities.
Come up with A/B Testing Plans.
Automate User targeting.
Right Time, Right User, Right Product, Right Channel and
Right communication is the goal.
If you had not been using Data Science (AI) so far. This is
the time.

17. Include Social media in your product flow.
Reward people to follow you on social media.
Ex. - Follow us on Instagram for free trial.
Share regular content, can be personal.
Try to Break out your image.
Similar to as discussed earlier, Use Social Media
to keep users engaged and update about your
company and Product.
Social Media

18. Engage
Create a Game or a Nudge to keep bringing user back
to app (Nir Eyal Hooked)
Try user generated content. In B2B Trello has, In B2C
Stickers or videos are examples.
Ask Feature Requests from customers.
Do Online Engagements, Videos, Share Stories, Dog
Pics
You need to keep your customers engaged at this time.

19. Other Things -
Language/Tone
Show Sympathy, Have Empathy. Don't Brag or Force your
customers. Be Humble.
B2B
If you are in B2B, Focus on your Business Partners, Do case
studies, Do Webinars, create experts in industry.
Fix your internal Data
Your VPN might not be whitelisted
You might have data pipeline issues, would be good to fix
them now.

20. Other Things -
Be Honest
Be Honest with your customers, tell them why you are charging them. Or
your financial condition, if possible.
Ask Help
Ask your customers for help. If you have treat them well, they would love
to help you out. Very important in SME
Build a Community
Make a community around your users. Everyone is looking for a
connection now.

21. Other Things -
Marketing Content
Update images, don't show crowded places.
Payments
Give options of Pay Later.
Customer Support
Double down on Customer Support, people have other stresses in life.
Build an Image - LazyPay, has a coupon code, where if you use them, they
donate 10% to NGO. Do something Similar.

22. Thank You
This is time to invest and reap fruit later