Welcome back to our ongoing series on better retaining your paying subscribers. The post below will cover a few ways to ingrain retention-improving mechanics into your product via habit-forming features, like streaks, competitions & challenges, and leaderboards.
Seriously. I met with my Spanish language group this week and we had a 15 minute conversation about DuoLingo streaks. =D The climax was that everyone gave up for a long while if they lost it and agreed it was tough to want to start again. I was thinking of it in terms of "too much of a good thing." I had a similar response after doing a big bike event I'd trained for, afterward... I didn't even want to look at the bike for weeks.
Streaks are definitely a bit of a double edged sword in that way. If you have a streak going, you feel a little extra encouragement to keep it. If you break a steak, it’s super hard to get back into it.
I originally included examples from the reading app Kindle, which does a great job of showing how many days and weeks in a row someone reads. They also have reading challenges, like reading X amount of books in a year, or Y days in a row. Goodreads (also owned by Amazon) is another app that allows folks to participate in similar monthly or annual challenges. Pocket and other reading apps have similar streak features as well.
I think a weekly podcast or blog could draft off of those examples, something we've thought about at Substack. As a Substack publication, it may be feasible to support challenges on your own via the subs tab in the dashboard (https://your.substack.com/publish/subscribers). For example, you could download your data on the first of each month, look at who's engaged in any way in the past 30 days, and spotlight those that have maintained an ongoing streak of engagement. It's not super easy to pull off, but possible. And again, this is a space we've been thinking about, so keep an eye out!
Thanks. Great food for thought. I have wavering feelings about checking stats as it's sort of like looking in the mirror; necessary, but for how long, and how hard? :)
Yep, I hear you! I personally don’t look to deeply at the data either. I feel like it doesn’t make as much sense at the stage I’m at, or my particular situation. I know some writers get a kick out of digging into the data and use it effectively. Different ways to go about it!
DUOLINGO def has the streak feature on lock.
Absolutely, Duolingo nailed streaks & it’s a perfect fit for their product.
Seriously. I met with my Spanish language group this week and we had a 15 minute conversation about DuoLingo streaks. =D The climax was that everyone gave up for a long while if they lost it and agreed it was tough to want to start again. I was thinking of it in terms of "too much of a good thing." I had a similar response after doing a big bike event I'd trained for, afterward... I didn't even want to look at the bike for weeks.
Streaks are definitely a bit of a double edged sword in that way. If you have a streak going, you feel a little extra encouragement to keep it. If you break a steak, it’s super hard to get back into it.
Good stuff Reid!
Thanks John! :)
hola Reid 🙏🏼
thanks for the croissant -- a bit buttery, but good.
Thanks Darren!
We’re trying some things out: different ratios of butter, sugar, milk, and flour. So we very much appreciate your feedback! 🙌😉
Do you think you can pull off challenges for readers of a weekly podcast and blog?
I think that's totally possible!
I originally included examples from the reading app Kindle, which does a great job of showing how many days and weeks in a row someone reads. They also have reading challenges, like reading X amount of books in a year, or Y days in a row. Goodreads (also owned by Amazon) is another app that allows folks to participate in similar monthly or annual challenges. Pocket and other reading apps have similar streak features as well.
I think a weekly podcast or blog could draft off of those examples, something we've thought about at Substack. As a Substack publication, it may be feasible to support challenges on your own via the subs tab in the dashboard (https://your.substack.com/publish/subscribers). For example, you could download your data on the first of each month, look at who's engaged in any way in the past 30 days, and spotlight those that have maintained an ongoing streak of engagement. It's not super easy to pull off, but possible. And again, this is a space we've been thinking about, so keep an eye out!
Thanks. Great food for thought. I have wavering feelings about checking stats as it's sort of like looking in the mirror; necessary, but for how long, and how hard? :)
Yep, I hear you! I personally don’t look to deeply at the data either. I feel like it doesn’t make as much sense at the stage I’m at, or my particular situation. I know some writers get a kick out of digging into the data and use it effectively. Different ways to go about it!
🙌🏼🙌🏼