Demand Curve - The Growth Newsletter #152

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The Growth Newsletter #152

Gamify daily usage. Take back, charge more. The "Price Hike" strategy. 

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN. 

(Man the 80s were a strange time culturally.)

Only a handful of days left in 2023. Here's the final Growth Newsletter of the year:

Topics for the day: Gamify daily usage. Take back, charge more. The "Price Hike" strategy. 

Let's dive in 🎊

– Neal

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1. Gamify daily usage to increase LTV and retention

Insight from Shakepay.

A Canadian mobile app called Shakepay has one of the best gamified incentives to get people to open the app every day and brag about it to their friends.

For context: they're a simple app to buy/sell/send/spend bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum.

How it works

Every day you open the app and shake your phone they give you a fraction of bitcoin (previously 0.00000001 BTC or 100 satoshi or sats).

Every day you keep the streak going, the amount goes up. Day 2 was 200. Day 3 was 300. As it goes up, it tapers the daily increase (ex: 50 per day). And as bitcoin has gotten more expensive, they've decreased the reward:

Note: They even gamify setting up direct deposit with your pay check (they have a debit card too) by offering a chance at a $1,000 bonus.

It starts off at a few cents (21 sats is literally $0.01), but if you kept it up you're basically getting $1-3 every day. And if you know anything about how bitcoiners think:

"$1 today is $1,000,000 in a few years. Guaranteed. Sell the house."

An army was created

A horde of people religiously set reminders and calendar events to open the app and shake their phones every single day (great mental image).

When you open up an app every day you're likely use it for what it's intended, causing you to spend more and retain longer.

And you're gonna brag to your friends about getting "free money." So Shakepay incentivized that by also offering a $30 referral bonus (during the bull market—it's now $5 😅).

Takeaway: If you have an app that benefits from frequent usage, get creative:

1. Get people to come back daily.
2. Then incentivize them to talk about it.

2. Offer a "take-back program" and charge more

Insight from Ariyh and Journal of Marketing.

You've just moved, and you've decided to get rid of your old Poäng chair from IKEA (yes, I know you've had one at some point) and upgrade.

You could sell it on Marketplace, but... people are so flaky it'll take days/weeks. And you'd feel bad if you just threw it out.

Then you discover that IKEA has a sell-back program, letting you get rid of it when you're grabbing a new chair at IKEA anyway.

Score. And they'll fix it up and sell it again.

Not only does this increase the chance you get your new chair from IKEA, but it can actually increase the amount you're willing to spend on IKEA furniture by a whopping 12.2%.

(Note: Apple also does this with their Apple Trade-In and either re-sell the device or recycle the materials to use in new devices. And note, they charge a lot of money.)

This can also apply to a simple "take-back" program where they sustainably dispose of your old mattress or electronics instead of repurchasing from you (for example).

According to Ariyh, researchers found that:

• "People were willing to pay:
  
  • 39.1% more for a pen with a take-back program (versus a regular pen)
  • 12.2% more for an IKEA circular program armchair (versus a regular armchair)
  • 9.2% more for a backpack, but only when buying it for themselves, not others
• 65.3% of people chose a more expensive shirt ($10.15 VS  $11.90) with a take-back program, compared to a regular shirt.
• Return programs increased brand loyalty by 19.4% for a clothing brand and 13.3% for IKEA."

Takeaway: If you sell a physical product, consider offering a take-back or buy-back program. It can increase loyalty and the perceived value of your products.

3. The "Price Hike" strategy to create urgency

Insight from Steph Smith and Alex Llull.

Education and information products have a few huge disadvantages:

1. They're vitamin pains. No one desperately needs another course.
2. They require an investment of time and effort to take advantage of.
3. They're inherently non-urgent. "I'll get it later when I have more time."
4. You need to convince people you have "figured it out." A lot of information is free. You need proof that you're giving up some secret sauce.
5. It's hard to determine a price since there is no marginal cost.

This is why you see course creators do things like limited-time promos and cohort courses. The urgency encourages action—today.

I love Steph Smith's strategy for her upcoming course Internet Pipes about research. (A savvy reader will notice that the sales page copy is convincing you of #4 above).

Her "Price Hike" strategy:

This is smart for a variety of reasons:

1. Built-in urgency. Buy now or pay more later.
2. Rewards fast action. Her biggest fans get the best deal by buying first, making them feel delightful and appreciated.
3. Built-in social proof. The list of prices proves that she's sold over 280 copies already.
4. Price discovery. Instead of guessing, she has data to back up the final price.
5. It's clever and novel. Novel things stand out. They also lead to people like me talking about it and sharing it.

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News and links

News you can use:

Honestly this is the week where everyone is just recapping 2023 and making predictions for 2024, so not much useful things to announce here. So I won't!

Startups are the clients that agencies don't want:

• Founders are cash conscious.
• They have strong BS detectors.
• They expect fast action and responses.
• And they change their mind.

An agency wants a huge company with a lot of bureaucracy that they can land on a long-term contract and burn through a bunch of time waiting for "internal alignment."

And that they can dazzle each week on a call with a finely-crafted presentation deck.

That's not who we are. 

We've created an ads agency specifically for startups earning $1-$10M.

That's our sweet spot, because that's who we are.

As a result, we know exactly what startups want from a partner.

But, we launched on Oct 31st, had a surge of demand, and we can't take on new clients for a bit.

Join the waitlist—we'll reach out when we have open client spots in the new year.

Want to be featured in front of 86,789 founders and marketers? Learn more here–booking 4 weeks in advance.

Something fun

Because we mentioned IKEA:

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See you next week.

— Neal and Justin

Neal O'Grady

Justin Setzer