Holy Grail of Growth: How Top Companies Optimize Retention
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This document discusses retention and its importance for growth. It begins by stating that retention separates the top 1% of companies from the bottom 99% in terms of growth. The rest of the document then discusses analyzing and optimizing retention through segmentation, identifying quantitative indicators, qualitative user interviews, and experimentation. It describes the retention curves of one company before and after making improvements based on these techniques, showing increased retention levels over time.
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Holy Grail of Growth: How Top Companies Optimize Retention
- 1. THE HOLY GRAIL OF GROWTH BY: BRIAN BALFOUR
- 2. DISCLAIMER: ALL DATA IN THIS PRESENTATION IS FAKE (don’t go public if you want to present real data) Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 3. WHAT SEPARATES THE TOP 1% FROM THE BOTTOM 99% IN GROWTH? Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 4. Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com ANSWER…RETENTION! GRAPH CREDIT: WWW.ANDREWCHEN.CO & QUETTRA
- 5. IF YOU HAVE POOR RETENTION NOTHING ELSE MATTERS Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 6. BAD RETENTION GRAPH CREDIT: DAN WOLCHONOK - SR PM @ SIDEKICK Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 7. GOOD RETENTION GRAPH CREDIT: DAN WOLCHONOK - SR PM @ SIDEKICK Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 8. AWESOME RETENTION GRAPH CREDIT: DAN WOLCHONOK - SR PM @ SIDEKICK Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 9. BUT THERE’S MORE… INCREASE RETENTION AFFORD HIGHER CPA INCREASE LTV INCREASE RETENTION DECREASE eCPA INCREASE VIRALITY INCREASE RETENTION DECREASE PAYBACK PERIOD INCREASE UPGRADE RATES Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 10. EVERY IMPROVEMENT TO RETENTION ALSO IMPROVES VIRALITY, LTV, AND PAYBACK PERIOD Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 11. THE ANATOMY OF RETENTION RETENTION COHORTS AND CURVES
- 12. IT ALL STARTS WITH COHORTS… Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 13. RETENTION COHORT CURVE 0%! 25%! 50%! 75%! 100%! 125%! 0! 5! 10! 15! 20! % Active! Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 14. WHAT IS GOOD AND WHAT IS BAD? 0%! 25%! 50%! 75%! 100%! 125%! 0! 5! 10! 15! 20! % Active! THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT IS THAT IT FLATTENS GOOD BAD Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 15. TO UNDERSTAND AND OPTIMIZE RETENTION YOU NEED TO THINK ABOUT IT IN ACTIONABLE PIECES Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 16. WEEK ONE RETENTION 0%! 25%! 50%! 75%! 100%! 125%! 0! 5! 10! 15! 20! % Active! W1 RETENTION GET USERS TO EXPERIENCE CORE VALUE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 17. IMPROVING W1 RETENTION SHIFTS THE CURVE UP 0%! 25%! 50%! 75%! 100%! 125%! 0! 5! 10! 15! 20! % Active! BETTER ONBOARDING CLEARER MESSAGING SEGMENTED NUX Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 18. MID TERM RETENTION 0%! 25%! 50%! 75%! 100%! 125%! 0! 5! 10! 15! 20! % Active! MID TERM RETENTION GET USERS TO CREATE HABITS AROUND CORE VALUE (RE-WIRE) Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 19. LONG TERM RETENTION 0%! 25%! 50%! 75%! 100%! 125%! 0! 5! 10! 15! 20! % Active! LONG TERM RETENTION GET USERS TO EXPERIENCE CORE VALUE AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 20. SLOW/FLATTEN CURVE OFF 0%! 25%! 50%! 75%! 100%! 125%! 0! 5! 10! 15! 20! % Active! FEATURE REFINEMENT RETENTION HOOKS PRODUCT QUALITY RESSURECTION Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 21. NOTICE I DIDN’T SAY NEW FEATURES Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 22. OPTIMIZING/IMPROVING RETENTION WEEK ONE RETENTION
- 23. SIDEKICK RETENTION CURVE DEC 2014 0%! 25%! 50%! 75%! 100%! 125%! 0! 5! 10! 15! 20! % Active! TIME! Problem #2: Not Flat! Problem #1: ! Over time W1 Retention Was Decreasing! Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 24. 1 SEGMENTATION Segmented retention curves by different factors: Acquisition source, email client, persona, type of email HOW WE FIGURED OUT IMPROVEMENTS Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 25. Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com CORPORATE VS FREEMAIL 0%! 25%! 50%! 75%! 100%! 125%! 0! 5! 10! 15! 20! Corporate Emails! Gmail and Other Freemail! % Active! Time! Higher W1 Retention! Slower User Churn!
- 26. 1 2 QUANT INDICATORS SEGMENTATION Segmented retention curves by different factors: Acquisition source, email client, persona, type of email Looked for quantitative indicators by comparing data between those who churned and those who retained. Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com HOW WE FIGURED OUT IMPROVEMENTS
- 27. Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com SOME OF OUR FINDINGS WTF?!!
- 28. 1 2 QUANT INDICATORS SEGMENTATION 3 1:1 QUAL DATA Segmented retention curves by different factors: Acquisition source, email client, persona, type of email Looked for quantitative indicators by comparing data between those who churned and those who retained. Extremely targeted 1:1 emails to users asking open ended question. Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com HOW WE FIGURED OUT IMPROVEMENTS
- 29. Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com SOME OF OUR FINDINGS “Didn’t have time to figure out.”!
- 30. 68 EXPERIMENTS LATER... Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
- 31. Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com RETENTION CURVES 0%! 25%! 50%! 75%! 100%! 125%! 0! 5! 10! 15! 20! Older Cohorts! Newer Cohort 1! Newer Cohort 2! % Users ! Still Active! Time! Woohoo!! Curves Shift Up In Latest Cohorts! Woohoo!! Old Cohorts Flatten!
- 32. STRATEGIES THAT WORKED FOR US 1 SEPARATING NEW USER EXPERIENCE 2 SEGMENTING BASED ON PERSONA 3 SWITCHING USER CONTEXT PERSONAL -> WORK 4 5 TESTING MEDIUM OF EDUCATION CONTENT