How to Design for Viral Growth

How to Design for VIRAL GRÓWTH Everyone wants viral growth, but it isn't just a happy accident. Designing growth hooks into the user experience is key to going viral. THE BASICS OF VIRAL GROWTH In order to design for viral growth it helps to understand how it works. K= for each user you have how many new ones they create. Start by calculating the viral growth coefficient of your product. {K = ix conv%} This is defined as K. i= number of invitations each conv% = rate at which user sends out in one cycle of invitations convert into Viral Shorthand: When Kis >1 = viral grouth. When Kis <1 = referrals trend to zero. the loop. new users. Heres an Example: }1). 12,207 15% CONVERSION Users(0) = 50 i = 10 K = 1.5 Start with 50 users of your site Assume each user A 15% conversion rate means sends 10 invites every user will create 1.5 new users 4,883 With a K of 1.5 the user base grows exponentially. At this point, the speed at which users move through the loop becomes the gating factor. Faster is better. If it takes a year to get through the loop you won't see explosive growth. If the loop takes a few hours the virality quickly builds the user base. 1,953, 781 313 125 50 New, engaged users are more likely to invite others than their older, inactive counterparts. Viral growth depends on a fresh supply of new users willing to share. So how can you improve k? INCREASE NUMBER OF INVITES SENT PER USER Make inviting friends a core part of the user experience Keep invites front and center Make inviting large numbers of friends easy Reward users in the UI IMPROVE CONVERSION OF INVITES CTA Test invite creative and call to action Test delivery format: social, email, SMS Test reminder emails Test incentives for signing up INCREASE SPEED THROUGH THE VIRAL LOOP The most important factor for viral growth. This formula is a bit more complicated, but the main thing to understand is that cycle time is exponentially more important than any other factor. Therefore, all things being equal, designing for viral growth means designing for speed through the viral loop. ct = time it takes to complete one pass through the viral loop Users(0) = Your original user base t = time in days } K(t/ct +1) - 1 Users(t) = Users(0) × (K-1) Users(t) = Total users at any given time K= viral coefficient (solved for above) Source: David Skok, Lesons Learned - Viral Marketing – So how can you increase speed? DESIGN ELEMENTS THAT ENCOURAGE FREQUENT REPEAT VISITS TOP STORIES Scott Liked Great place Updates/notifications Light engagement See what's new Eventbrite friends going email AirBnB activity wall Quora feed MAKE IT EASY FOR YOUR SITE AND CONTENT TO SPREAD QUICKLY </> Cross-posting to large sites Embeddable content Simple forwarding YouTube, SlideShare Twitter, Tumblr Instagram to Facebook MAKE SHARING AND REFERRING FRIENDS A GAME Earn perks for sharing Get friends to take action for rewards Gain status through referrals Dropbox, earn free space Living Social 3 friends buy, yours free Fab refer-a-friend program ALIGN VIRAL ELEMENTS WITH YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION Effective viral elements create real value for both the inviting user and the recipient. When virality is aligned with your core value prop, everyone wins. Otherwise it's just spam. High SPAM AWESOME Viral DO IT ANYWAY WTF Low High Note: Improving Virality # Viral Growth Some products don't grom. virally. If there isn't a strong reason to akare, viral gromth isn't libely- Value Prop Alignment Source: Andrew Chen "How do I balance user satisfaction versus Virality" Questions to ask when designing for growth How does a user's experience get better the more people they're connected to on your service? How does a user benefit from reaching out to a non-user? What proportion of growth do I get from viral channels How can a user create content that reaches non-users? compared to others? Source: Adam Nash, Viral Factor Basics GET STARTED! Now that you have the basics it's time to get started on designing your user experience for growth. So after you share this infographic with your friends take a look at your product with fresh eyes and: 1) 3 Determine if and how viral growth can best align with your value proposition Identify the parts of your product where users Test various design changes and measure their impact engage the most on growth BROUGHT TO YOU BY: DIGITAL TELEPATHY www.digital-telepathy.com A special thanks to: Andrew Chen: How do I balance user satisfaction versus virality? http://bit.ly/X8ADHE David Skok, Lessons Learned - Viral Marketing http://bit.ly/XjJGqF Adam Nash, User Acquisition Viral Factor Basics http://bit.ly/Wytvoz