It can be immensely beneficial to your company if you understand the process of how a potential user decides to purchase your product and become a user. It’s one important way to gain new user insights on why they chose your product
For users, becoming a new user of a product can be challenging, but if the company understands and improves its product adoption process, it doesn’t have to be.
What Is Product Adoption?
The moment when a user finds your product kicks off what is considered product adoption.
Product adoption is when a user begins using your product for its intended use to help them complete the intended task. For metric purposes, product adoption can be expressed as a percentage of people who successfully use the product for its intended use.
Depending on your product type, the product adoption process can be very simple or somewhat involved. By using the Kissmetrics product and marketing analytics tools, you’ll be able to map out your product adoption process.
What Are the Stages of the Product Adoption Process?
The process of product adoption may be different for each product or company, but the process should be similar across tech platforms. Product adoption is divided into 4 stages:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Evaluation
- Conversion
Awareness
When a potential user initially learns of your products but has no information, that is considered awareness.
They may have learned about your product through advertisements, word of mouth, or any other form of media. This phase is important as it is the first impression users get of your product.
The way your product is advertised will have a large impact on the awareness phase. It’s important that potential users feel intrigued to learn more and see your product as something with potential.
This first impression leads to the next phase of product adoption, the interest phase.
Interest
After a potential user first sees your product and begins to show interest in it, they have moved to the interest phase.
The interest phase is when users start to gather information and search for details about your product. This phase is critical because it’s when potential users need accurate and concise information on your product.
If users cannot find enough information to make an informed decision, they may either choose the wrong product or no product at all. Once users gather enough information to make an informed decision they move to evaluate the product.
Evaluation
The product evaluation phase is where users initially try your product and test its features. This can be part of a trial period or the initial purchase of your product.
During the evaluation phase, users will determine if your product meets their needs and provides the value they’ve been seeking. They may be comparing the product to previous products they’ve used or attempting to find a solution to a problem that has remained unsolved. Having well-documented user guides is a great way to improve the evaluation experience for new users.
If the user is satisfied and convinced the product is a good fit, they become a user and move to the conversion phase.
Conversion
At this phase, the user has purchased your product and is fully using the product to their advantage. Remember, it’s helpful to make the payment process easy for the user to increase conversion. Product delivery should also be simple and intuitive for the users. Having new users wait to use the product will not set a good tone.
The product should solve their issues and deliver value in real world situations. Conversion can be measured directly by monitoring your conversion rate, but that doesn’t always give enough detail. You’ll want to monitor several KPIs to ensure your conversion rates are optimal.
What Is the Difference Between Product Adoption and Product Diffusion?
Product diffusion is similar to product adoption but they are not the same process.
Product diffusion refers to the process of a large group or social class of people adopting a product. An example would be when mobile phones became normal for everyone to own. At first, mobile phones were very expensive and only for business use or the upper class.
A few years later mobile phones dropped in price, so ordinary people could afford them. When consumers begin using cellphones en-masse, that is product diffusion.
The product adoption process is tracking an individual person adopting your product. In other words, when you have a single user purchase and begin using your product that is product adoption.
Why Is Product Adoption Important?
It’s vital to track the process of users discovering, learning, and purchasing your product. Ensuring your users know the ins and outs of your product will maximize the product value and give them a better overall experience.
A successful product adoption will lead to an increase in long-term users and higher user satisfaction. Kissmetrics can help you track product adoption and find ways to improve your processes.
How Can Product Adoption Be Improved?
There are multiple techniques that can improve your product adoption. Be sure to check out Kissmetrics to begin gaining insights into your product adoption process.
Some ways to improve your product adoption process are:
- First-Time User Experiences
- New Feature Launches
- Behavioral Emails
- Targeting
- Constant Bug Fixes and Upgrades
First-Time User Experiences
When users are new to your product, their first experience using it needs to be smooth and convenient. The first-time user experience could be the checkout process, a trial, or a wizard setup type of process.
If not designed properly these processes can be frustrating and deliver a bad experience for new users. Kissmetrics has experience with enhancing their first-time user experiences and can help you improve yours.
New Feature Launches
When your product has new features or improvements it’s important to make sure your users and potential users are aware. A new feature can make a huge difference to a user who needs the additional functionality. Making sure your users are aware of these changes can ensure they get the most value from your product.
New feature launches can help reduce churn by re-engaging users. The new feature launches also improve user loyalty by showing you continue to support and improve your products.
Email Updates
A tailored way to reach users and improve product adoption is behavioral emails. These emails are created for specific situations and sent to users when certain behaviors or actions occur.
Some examples would be when a user gets halfway through a signup process then stops, or a user has been inactive for a long period of time. A reminder email to a user to finish the signup process is a nice way to improve product adoption.
Behavior email updates are not generic blast emails sent to all users at once. Emails that are not personalized are likely to be ignored by users and won’t be as successful.
Audience Targeting
Getting your product in the hand of its target audience is a sound strategy. Products are not typically one size fits all, so marketing your product to everyone wouldn’t be the best use of resources.
Targeting your core audience with a cohesive marketing strategy will have a large impact on your conversion rate. So, having the proper information about your core users is needed for proper user targeting. Kissmetrics can help you analyze the key characteristics that you need to target the right audience.
Constant Bug Fixes and Upgrades
Every site and product must deal with bugs and the need to upgrade from time to time. When bugs arise it’s important to prioritize and fix them as often as possible. Bugs can diminish the overall experience for users, especially if the bug occurs during a critical task for the user.
If users consistently experience bugs, you’ll likely have a much higher turnover rate and lose user loyalty.
Upgrading your site should also be a consistent practice. This will reinforce that your product is being cared for as constant improvements are happening. Keeping your product fresh with new features and constantly improving the interface will create positive feedback and increased loyalty from your users.
Conclusion
Product adoption is something every new user will experience. While the process may differ from company to company, the key phrases will be the same across your industry.
Understanding your product adoption process will give you more insight into what it’s like to become a new user of your product. Using this knowledge to improve your processes will increase user satisfaction and lower your churn rate.
Visit kissmetrics today to schedule your demo and learn how we can help your product and market analytics.
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