Home / Module 4: Driving Key Metrics / Getting Sign-ups
Getting Sign-ups
In our final article in this module, we wanted to briefly discuss getting sign-ups. Of course, what are commonly referred to as "sign-ups" in the traditional loyalty business, would be referred to in the mobile games industry as "authentication," since it's typically executed using the third party authentication provided by Facebook, Apple, and Google.
In this article, we'll discuss:
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Why focus on sign-ups?
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Carrots and sticks
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How playAWARDS can help
Let's get started and be better together!
Why Focus on Sign-ups?
You need to get your players' contact information...
Collecting customer data is critical in any business, and mobile games are no exception. Being able to speak to your players beyond only inside your app is critical to customer relationship management (CRM) and to the longevity of your app. Of course, push notifications should be part of your strategy, but (a) that's only one channel in what should be a multi-channel approach, and (b) push is a VERY busy and over-used channel that as a result tends to yield relatively low-engagement from your players.
...for reactivation...
There are more apps in the app store than ever before, offering your players tons of other options of new, exciting games to play. Player loyalty can be fickle, hopping from one app to the next with very low switching costs. You can design all sorts of features and benefits in your app that hopefully help your players fall in love with your app and keep them there. But what can you do once they stop playing? That's where having their email and SMS opt-in can save upwards of 3-5 percent of your churning players every month!
...for engagement...
Even if your players are actively playing your game, their play time is limited and typically shared with 1 or 2 other apps. Having a channel to remind them to come in and play, either through email or SMS, can be very effective at taking a larger share of wallet/play time.
...for richer communication...
Finally, the communication real-estate you have at your fingertips in push notification is very short. Only a few characters and a small image. SMS and MMS allow you to go a bit deeper into your topic, and email allows for an even richer experience, with more space for images, gifs, more text, and multiple calls-to-action.
...and so you're not simply losing them for no good reason.
Finally, when players get new devices, their apps can migrate over. But if they didn't establish an account with you, they often lose all of their progress. If players get new devices on average every 2 years, that's 4% of players each month you'll lose for no reason at all!
How to Drive Sign-ups
So now that you understand why you should focus on getting sign-ups, let's shift to how. In this section, we'll talk about the some of the tools you can use to motivate your players to sign up.
As a note, there are two books we recommend as it relates to influencing the behavior of your players, Influence by Robert B. Cialdini and Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.
Carrots
The most obvious method is to encourage sign-ups through carrots, or incentives. These could be in-game currency, loyalty currency, special boosters or exclusive items in your app.
When crafting an incentive-based approach, try to follow the reciprocation rule: People generally feel obliged to return favors offered to them. Think about how you can position the offering as something you'd like to provide them, and all they have to do to get it is sign up.
You must be careful when using incentives, as the platforms' (Facebook, Apple, Google) rules are constantly changing and you'll want to make sure you're in compliance.
Sticks
One of the most powerful influences of people's behavior is the threat that they may lose something they already possess. Countless studies have found this to be far more powerful than even awarding them the same or more of something.
In your game, this could take the form of a warning that if they don't sign up, they may lose their progress. You may also tack on scarcity, such as offers that have "limited availability" or are for a "short time only" to help motivate them.
Unity
People value being part of a team or group. If you have group play or can leverage this psychology in some way, consider fencing group behavior behind authentication.
Social Proof
People generally look to other people similar to themselves when making decisions. This technique is used all the time in e-commerce, such as "300 people are viewing this item." It may help to let your players know that signing up is an expected behavior that many players such as them do.
Measuring Success
Let's briefly talk about measuring success. You're never going to get EVERY player to sign up. Your benchmark should be to shoot for achieving 60-70% of your active DAU. This of course will be comprised of deeply engaged players, who you should expect to sign up at a rate closer to 80-90%, and less engaged players or newer players from whom you should expect much lower rates. This success is all going to hinge on the strength of your carrots and sticks.
How Can playAWARDS Help
In traditional loyalty programs, people can't earn until they're a member. They must sign up/create a login, provide their essential information, and potentially even show an ID. Only then can they earn points, rise to higher statuses, and of course, redeem rewards.
playAWARDS does things a bit differently. Players of loyalty-enabled games can earn points "anonymously." They can amass both loyalty points and tier points. They can even tier up to higher statuses and enjoy the benefits of those statuses. It's not until they attempt to exchange their loyalty points for a reward that they are interrupted and solicited to create an account.
We built it this way because we believe mobile games are different. We'd rather see players focus first on the game, mastering the mechanics and falling in love. Only once they've absorbed the essentials of the game do we want them to shift their focus to loyalty. By then, they will hopefully have amassed some loyalty and already feel invested.
There are two main ways playAWARDS can help you drive sign-ups, at the point of reward purchase and through marketing campaigns.
Reward Purchases
When a player attempts to purchase their first reward, they'll be interrupted and asked to sign in to continue. At that point, we'll send them back to you to authenticate.
This a great time to solicit the player to join because we know we've got someone super motivated and really wanting to go to that next step. And with thousands of rewards sold every day, this is a powerful tool for driving authentication!
This is also yet another reason why you should offer in-app benefits in your loyalty center. You know your players want more of our currencies and boosters, and if you nest them behind reward purchase, and thus behind authentication, you're going to get more sign-ups.
Campaigns
When you partner with playAWARDS, you get access to our amazing marketing team and powerful suite of marketing tools.
We'll work closely with you to devise and execute a strategy that talks to players via the channels available through playAWARDS and that helps you get closer to your authentication goals.
