Finding and Improving Customer Activation - A Quick Guide

Are you happy with all the organic traffic you're getting, but could definitely use a bit more NEW customers?

If so, you have come to the right place.

Your problem might be due to low customer activation, which can be detrimental to your business if not understood and treated. 

Today, we are going over:

• What customer activation is,
• Why it is critical to your success, and
• How to identify the particular customer activation points for your business,
• How to come up with an effective customer activation strategy

Let's get started without further due. 

What is Customer Activation?

Customer activation, at its core, is the process of engaging and encouraging customers to take action and become active users, and loyal advocates of your product or service. The ultimate purpose of customer activation is to motivate customers to use the product or service they are provided with in a way that leads to a specific result.

👉🏼 Such as making a purchase decision, signing up for a subscription, or beginning to use a brand-new feature. 

An impactful customer activation strategy generally is all about creating an impellent value proposition that speaks to the needs and requirements of the target audience.

While you're there, take a look at our user activation guide 👈

It offers relevant instructions on how to master the product and an exceptional customer experience that motivates consistent participation. 

By activating your customers, you can:

✅ Increase the overall revenue,

✅ Boost user adoption, and

✅ Build brand loyalty from scratch

But, hey, what makes these such important assets to achieve?

Why is customer activation the key moment in the user journey? 

Customer activation is perhaps the most critical moment in the user journey.

But why?

Simply put, it refers to the particular point at which a potential prospect ✨becomes✨ an active user of your services.

This is the exact moment when the user takes the further step towards achieving the wished result and comes to an epiphany:

The very moment they realize the true value of the product you are about to offer. 

👉🏼 The user journey generally includes numerous stages, such as awareness, consideration, and decision-making, before they reach the desired outcome, which is the activation stage.

At this stage, a rather passive visitor turns into an engaged and interested user who is definitely more likely to keep using your product and become its fan. 

👉🏼 Further, the stage of customer activation typically includes a period of onboarding, where users start to learn how to make use of the given product in an impactful way. 

Clearly, this becomes a unique opportunity for your business and your teams to offer a memorable user experience and create a mutually beneficial relationship with your current customers.

Once the onboarding process gets completed smoothly, users become highly likely to feel encouraged and self-assured to keep using your product. 

This is where customer activation, setting the foundation for overall user retention, engagement, and success, becomes the key moment in the journey. 

Identifying Customer Activation Point for Your Product 

So, you've come this far.

What's next? 

Next is finding out how to identify the precious customer activation point for YOUR precious product.

Identifying the activation point of your product is extremely vital given the fact that it is the number one thing that can help you understand the point at which customers begin to show interest in your product and perceive its value. 

👉🏼 Your activation point is the very trigger that encourages your users to begin trying the product, and it can vary hugely depending on the type of product and the targeted customer base. 

Therefore, it might seem a bit tricky to begin with, but once you get the hang of it you can refine your marketing and messaging strategies to better identify potential prospects and increase the activation rates.

👉🏼 Furthermore, it can also help you have a better understanding of product development since it primarily highlights the features and many functionalities that your users seem to love. 

On to some of the most popular -and successful- examples from real-life companies that master the entire process of identifying customer activation.

Here's a look at them: 

Best Examples of Activation Designed Right

1- Spotify 

Spotify has identified its customer activation point as the point at which a new user signs up for a premium subscription. 

This is the exact moment when their user gains access to all the additional benefits and core features of Spotify, such as offline playback, higher and better audio quality, and unlimited skips. 

To activate its users, Spotify typically provides promotions or free trials of its premium services to motivate users to upgrade and see what else is accessible. 

2- Uber

Uber's customer activation point is when a user decides to take their very first ride.

This becomes the moment when the user sees for the first time the convenience and comfort of using the Uber app to request a ride. 

To activate its users and offer personalized experiences, Uber usually gives discounts or referral bonuses to motivate first-time riders.

3- Dropbox

Dropbox's customer activation plan works out when a customer installs the mobile or desktop app and uploads their very first file. 

This is the magical moment when the user gets to experience the great ease of use and accessibility of cloud storage and what else it can do for them.

To activate users, Dropbox generally offers additional storage space or collaboration features to encourage further use. 

4- Amazon Prime 

Amazon Prime's customer activation point is when a user decides to sign up for a Prime membership. 

This happens to be the moment when the user gains further access to all the additional benefits, such as free two-day shipping, streaming of movies and TV series, and exclusive prices. 

To activate its users, Amazon typically offers a free trial of Prime to encourage users to give the service a try. 

🖐🏻 Just like these companies, you, too, can tailor your marketing and onboarding strategies to encourage your users to take the desired action and become consistent users of your services, by identifying your very own customer activation point. 

How to Identify Your Customer Activation Point & Method

❗️Define your business goals

Before you can completely identify customer activation points, you first need to decide what your business goals are.

What specific actions do you want your users to take?

Do you first want to make a purchase, sign up for a subscription, or learn how to use a given feature? 

Defining your business goals is the number step to identifying the key moments in the user journey that eventually lead to the aforementioned results. 

❗️Map the customer journey

Once the first step is completed, you need to monitor the customer journey map.

This stage includes identifying the numerous customer stages that users go through while interacting with your service, beginning from awareness and leading to post-purchase. 

Check out our customer journey mapping & user journey mapping guides 👈

❗️Analyze user behavior

To be able to clearly identify customer activation points, you need to analyze user behavior.

Look at some critical data such as user engagement, conversion rates, customer activation metrics, and retention rates to identify where exactly users are deciding to leave or where they are most participating. 

❗️Identify key customer actions

Solely based on your analysis of customer behavior, identify the key actions that lead to customer activation.

For instance, is it when a user makes their first purchase, completes their profile information, or uses a new feature successfully for the first time?

❗️Test and iterate

Once that's done and gone, test your hypothesis by implementing experiments and analyzing the results.

This will help you purify your strategy and optimize the UX to motivate more users to take the desired action. 

❗️Implement customer onboarding

Finally, build an onboarding process that guides users through the activation process.

This can include tutorials, incentives, or personalized onboarding experiences that directly address the user and their particular needs. 

Talking about personalized onboarding experiences, how about you give a no-code, easy-to-use option a try 🤫⬇️

✍🏼 By following these given steps, you can easily identify the customer activation points that are most vital to your business and come up with a relevant strategy that is able to motivate your users to take the desired action and become active customers. 

How to Get Activate Customers - 6 Strategies 

And here is the part where I elaborate more on those relevant strategies that you can come up with.

Here are some of them and how they worked brilliantly for some of the most popular businesses that we know today:

📌 Offer Incentives.

Offering incentives such as free trials, discounts, or exclusive content can encourage users to take the desired action.

This is previously done by Dropbox in a brilliant way.

Dropbox offered users extra storage space when they complete the onboarding process, motivating and pushing them further to become active users while maintaining customer satisfaction. 

📌 Simplify the UX. 

Simplifying the product experience can make it A LOT easier for users to take the desired action that you're aiming for.

For instance, Amazon's one-click ordering makes it seamless for users to make a purchase without needing to go through a long checkout process. 

📌 Personalize the experience. 

Personalizing the user experience can make users feel more connected to the given product or service, thus encouraging them to become constant, paying users.

For instance, Spotify provides its users with personalized playlists, and weekly recommendations based on the user's listening history, and offers annual wraps, displaying the past year's listening activities of the user.

📌 Use Social Proof.

Using social proof, such as user reviews or references, can help build trust with potential customers and motivate them to take a step further.

TripAdvisor is a great example of this.

It features user reviews and ratings of hotels and restaurants, helping its users make more informed and wise choices. 

📌 Provide Brilliant Customer Service.

Providing excellent customer service can never fail you.

It can help users feel supported and valued, which directly creates a positive impact on their user journey and encourages them to stick with you right away.

For instance, Zappos is famously known for its exceptional customer service, which has helped them build a loyal customer base from the very start.

📌 Gamify the Overall Experience. 

Gamifying the user experience can help you offer a more engaging and fun journey for your users, getting their pure attention and providing them with motivating rewards after a game-like experience.

For instance, Duolingo uses gamification to help its users pick up new languages by offering rewards and badges, creating a competitive environment in which users can compete, learn, and have fun at the same time. 

Final Word

Finding and improving customer activation points is critical in identifying the key moments or actions that actually trigger prospective customers to engage more and more with your product or service. 

These activation points represent the initial step in the customer journey, and if they are not constantly optimized, it can lead to a high rate of customer churn or abandonment. 

By understanding where and how customers become activated, you can come up with relevant strategies and a solid marketing message that guarantee a great deal of customer acquisition in the long run.