Viral Referral Program – Planning & Development (Part 2)

1
Use a Referral Program To Get 1 Million Users On
The Waitlist To Try Your App Even Before
Launch. Venkatesh Rao / September 24, 2020 /
Gamikcation, Referral Programs, Viral Campaigns /
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Sounds impossible, right? How can a referral
program get 1 million users waiting to try your
app even before launch? Acquiring users for an
app is hard, but its even harder when the app
doesnt exist yet. This is the story of R
obinhood, a US-based commission-free stock
trading and investment app which is now valued at
11.7
2
b illion. As of today, the app is used by 13mn
users across multiple countries. It was founded
in 2013 with the aim to democratize knance for
all.
The founding story
Before staring Robinhood, the founders were
running an enterprise startup that used to sell
trading software to hedge funds. During this
time, they realized that the big Wallstreet krms
pay nothing to trade stocks, while most
Americans were charged hefty commissions for
every trade. This compelled them to do something
about it and thats how the idea of the Robinhood
app was born. Like this?very country, anything
related to stocks or investments requires a lot
of regulatory approvals and they can Share onup a
lot of time. The founders needed to test the
market, so they decided to go ahead with a
pre-launch campaign similar to Mailbox.
In e eat
Mailbox after its launch was rolling out access
to users gradually to ensure that the service
works seamlessly for everyone. The difference
with Mailboxs waitlist was that you had to
download the app to get on the waitlist and not
the other way round.
3
Keeping it Super Simple
Robinhood founders chose to create a simple
website that had a description in very simple
language saying Robinhood 0 commission stock
trading Stop paying up to 10 every trade, an
email input box, and a CTA button Get Early
Access
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Unli land
ke Mailbox, you didnt have to download an app
just to get on the waitlist. I really liked their
super simple
ing page. It immediately tells the value
proposition of their service and compels me to
take action by just
giving an email address. There was also a subtle
option to Watch the video, in-case someone wanted
to know more about them before giving the email
to get early access.
Robinhoods referral solution to a unique
challenge with waitlists
In Mailboxs case most people got tired of seeing
so many people ahead of them in the waitlist week
after week. Mathematically, they were making
progress by moving ahead 40,000 positions in a
week at a time. However, psychologically they
felt that there are still zillion people ahead of
them and started deleting the app.
4
Robinhood took a very interesting approach to
tackle this problem. They gamiked it by giving
users an option to get priority access by
referring their friends and family.
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People love playing games, especially when those
games are tied to rewards they actually
want. Look at the screenshot above, there are
options to refer friends via Twitter, Facebook,
Email, LinkedIn. The more people join using a
users referral link, the sooner she will get
access. Giving users an option to control their
position on the waitlist gives them a sense of
autonomy the feeling of controlling their own
destiny. I ts one of the most important
ingredient of intrinsic motivation. This played
a very important role in the exponential growth
of their waitlist.
Launch before launch
It was a Friday night, Robinhood team had been
working on the waitlist in preparation for their
press launch, which was on the following
Wednesday or Thursday.
5
The very next morning, founder Vlad Tenev opens
up Google Analytics and surprisingly sees 600
active people on their site. It wasnt normal
for them as only a handful of their friends and
family knew about it. Looking closely at the
analytics he saw a lot of trafkc coming from H
acker News A very popular site among the tech
community all over the world. When he opened up
Hacker News, he sees the post Robinhood Free
Stock Trading. trending on number 3
position. The challenge for them was that the
waitlist system wasnt ready and emails werent
getting captured. So, the entire team rushed to
the ofkce to get everything up and running. With
the semi-broken system, they ended up getting
10,000 signups that krst day and over 50,000 on
the krst week which is something they had
never even dreamt off. Within a year, more than
1 million people joined the waitlist to use their
service. The app was ofkcially launched after
getting all the regulatory approvals on March
2015, almost 2 years later.
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yesterday, the app closed a 660 million funding
round.
Just
Ther
e is a lot to learn from others success as well
as failures.
Belo
w are a few articles that I have written on the
topic of growth using the referral program. Do
read them to
get i
nteresting insights.
H L
ow a millennial-focused investment App used
Scratch Cards to 100x their referral program?
essons from AppBrowzer Referral Program 300k to
1.5 million users in 21 days (Part 1)
Dropbox Referral Program A Story of 3900
growth in just 15 months P ayPal Referral Program
Case Study of the Internets krst viral growth
hack using referrals Sign up for our newsletter
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App Referral Program
Referral Program
referral program for apps
P R E V I O U S Going Viral with a Referral
Program Role of Micro-influencers, Payout
Challenges, Monetization (Part 3)
6
A U T H O R Venkatesh Rao
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R E C E N T P O S T S
7
Use a Referral Program To Get 1 Million Users On
The Waitlist To Try Your App Even Before
Launch. Going Viral with a Referral Program Role
of Micro-influencers, Payout Challenges,
Monetization (Part 3) Viral Referral Program
Planning Development (Part 2) Lessons From
AppBrowzer Referral Program 300k to 1.5 Million
Users in 21 Days (Part 1) How to Use GPay like
Scratch Cards for 100x Results in Referral
Program?
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