Use these 4 science-backed steps to make your SaaS sticky
Episode 74
Hey Friends,
Welcome to Episode 74 of the MarketCurve newsletter - today I’ll show you the 4 science-backed steps to make your SaaS sticky and increase retention. Let’s dive in.
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Friends,
Stickiness refers to the natural retention mechanisms workflows designed into your product. Sticky products lead to more user sessions and longer session durations resulting in strong long-term user retention and engagement.
Today we’ll look at the Trigger - Action - Reward - Investment model so you can build stickiness into your SaaS product.
Trigger = Triggers are behavioral-based calls to action that incentivize the user to start a habit by enabling them to take action. Triggers can be external or internal. External triggers include push notifications, app icon badges, emails, etc. Internal triggers, on the other hand, feel like an “urge” to use your product. For example, having an urge to form social connections, getting rid of loneliness etc.
Action = Whether or not the user will take action depends on 2 factors: (a) motivation and (b) ability. You can create 4 quadrants here: Q1 = high motivation + low ability ; Q2 = high motivation + high ability, Q3 = low motivation + high ability, Q4 = low motivation + low ability. Q2 is the best place to be in, followed by Q1 and Q3. Example: you get a push notification from Tinder saying “you got an image from Vanessa” - you’re highly motivated to open the message. And your ability to execute on it is super easy too - all you gotta do is click on the push notification.
Reward = If you want people to do something, reward them. If you want them to stop doing it, punish them. But these are external incentives. Internal incentives are more powerful since they’re formed by a combination of (a) autonomy (b) competence and (c) personal benefit. Use external incentives to build habits in your product usage. Once that habit has been ingrained (takes roughly 21 days of consecutive usage), you can use internal incentives to drive retention.
Investment = User investment includes actions that cost time, data, effort, social capital, and money. In exchange, your user’s investments should make the next trigger more engaging, the action easier, and the reward more exciting. Your user’s switching costs should become higher and higher creating a moat around your product.
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