Check out part 1 on product growth here.
3. Product Growth & Vanity
Everyone likes to look good, to feel good. This applies to your customers and you can make them feel good and tap into that in several ways.
Top Lists
Some examples are “best of the best”, Top 10, or Top 20 lists, which can happen for anything—top doctors, agents or restaurants. Think about how you can use your data to create lists or anything to show value to your customers. Zillow has a lot of great data and we made some important lists ourselves, such as places to trick-or-treat, because even cities like to be recognized and they will write about the publicity.
If you don’t have data that shouldn’t stop you—there’s a bunch of ways you can get the information such as creating surveys.
4. Peer Pressure
Peer pressure is powerful and it’s not new—think of Tupperware parties. I’m a sucker for Girl Scout cookies. I can’t walk by a Girl Scout stand without buying cookies. But it works. There’s also B2B or peer-to-peer companies—a beauty counter—which can be popular and powerful.
Guilt is also a form of peer pressure. One example is web popups, for instance asking people to sign up to get access to ‘all these books you should read,” with the option to unlock (signup) or clicking ‘I don’t read.’ But you have to be careful, you don’t want to make people feel bad.
There is also guilt for the greater good—making people feel good about buying your product and perhaps guilty about purchasing someone else’s. This can come in different ways, such as saying we’re natural, organic, local, or gluten-free.
5. Product Growth & Reciprocity
This comes back to us being humans and living in groups in this idea that we are communal by nature and we like to share. We like it when we receive something, and as a result, feel the need to give back. It’s a natural feeling.
You ever wonder why you get a penny, labels, or calendars from some non-profit campaigns. It’s proven that if they give you a gift you’re much more likely to donate because of this communal concept.
Dropbox grew on this gift concept, by giving X amount of storage and the user gets X amount of space in return. It creates this referral virality program. This is also how most ride-sharing, food-delivery services get going to these referral programs where you feel good because you’re giving your friends something and you also get something.
6. Frugality
We all like to feel like we got a good deal to save money. There are a bunch of things you can do such as deals, promotions, 10 percent off, or sending coupons, to show what the customer saves because that is impactful. These are small tactics that give your customers this feeling of one more reason to buy your product.
You can drive behavior with deals as well. It’s common, for example, to offer deals to people who register for the first time with a site, such as giving a 10-percent off coupon on their first purchase. It can drive registrations and sign-ups, and it’s a powerful way to get people connected to your business.
About the speaker
Nate is Vice President, Product at Zillow and has been with the company for over 13 years. He is responsible for Zillow’s Growth and Rich Media Experience teams, helping expand Zillow’s audience and unique rich media. Nate has built and managed a number of Zillow products, including its Growth teams and mortgage business. Nate joined Zillow from Microsoft and has an MBA from the University of Washington and a CS degree from DePauw University.