the holy grail of traction - brian balfour, hubspot

THE HOLY GRAIL OF GROWTH BY: BRIAN BALFOUR

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

WHAT SEPARATES THE TOP 1% FROM THE BOTTOM 99%

IN GROWTH?



ANSWER…RETENTION! GRAPH CREDIT: WWW.ANDREWCHEN.CO & QUETTRA

IF YOU HAVE POOR RETENTION NOTHING ELSE MATTERS


BAD RETENTION GRAPH CREDIT: DAN WOLCHONOK - SR PM @ SIDEKICK


GOOD RETENTION GRAPH CREDIT: DAN WOLCHONOK - SR PM @ SIDEKICK


AWESOME RETENTION GRAPH CREDIT: DAN WOLCHONOK - SR PM @ SIDEKICK


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


EVERY IMPROVEMENT TO RETENTION ALSO IMPROVES VIRALITY, LTV, AND

PAYBACK PERIOD


THE ANATOMY OF RETENTION RETENTION COHORTS AND CURVES

IT ALL STARTS WITH COHORTS…


RETENTION COHORT CURVE

0%!

25%!

50%!

75%!

100%!

125%!

0! 5! 10! 15! 20!

% Active!


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


TO UNDERSTAND AND OPTIMIZE RETENTION YOU NEED TO THINK ABOUT

IT IN ACTIONABLE PIECES


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


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


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)


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


SLOW/FLATTEN CURVE OFF

0%!

25%!

50%!

75%!

100%!

125%!

0! 5! 10! 15! 20!

% Active! FEATURE REFINEMENT

RETENTION HOOKS

PRODUCT QUALITY

RESSURECTION


NOTICE I DIDN’T SAY NEW FEATURES


OPTIMIZING/IMPROVING RETENTION WEEK ONE RETENTION

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!


1 SEGMENTATION Segmented retention curves by different factors: Acquisition source, email client, persona, type of email

HOW WE FIGURED OUT IMPROVEMENTS



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!

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.




SOME OF OUR FINDINGS

WTF?!!

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.




SOME OF OUR FINDINGS

“Didn’t have time to

figure out.”!

68 EXPERIMENTS LATER...



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!

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

THANKS! MORE AT: WWW.COELEVATE.COM

the holy grail of traction - brian balfour, hubspot

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