How do you get your users?

Asked all Internet companies everywhere.

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about how we increased user engagement on Avelist, specifically focusing on the methods we used to increase time on site from 1:30 to 4:30. Following that article a lot of people asked me how we attracted users to our platform in the first place.

This is by far the most common question asked by the founders of Internet consumer platforms: “How do you get your users?”

Over the years it’s become easier and easier to build online platforms which has led to a crowded marketplace which in turn has made it increasingly difficult to stand out. There isn’t a magic formula for user acquisition. Your company is a unique platform and figuring out how to market the product and grow the userbase is a puzzle that you and you alone can solve. That said, there are several marketing methods and principles that tend to work well for Internet products. Customer aquisition can be divided into three parts: manual marketing, organic marketing, and product philosophy. Let’s walk through each…

Manual Marketing

First let’s talk about manual marketing. Successful methods include (but are not limited to) influencer strategies, media coverage, writing guest posts on other publications that link to your site, seeding your product with content until users start to produce content for you, holding clever contests, and utilizing methods of gamification. It helps to have a “pretty” product and being actively involved on social media helps too.

Manual marketing requires a lot of effort on your part. Is it worth it? I think so. Unless your early users become obsessed with your product at first sight and tell all of their friends who tell all of their friends (not impossible, but very rare), there aren’t many other options for early growth. But most importantly, manual marketing allows you to run tests, hone in on your target audience, and ultimately discover the things that will drive organic growth.

Organic Growth

The second option (the one we all want to achieve) is organic growth. This is when the coveted “viral” phenomena takes place. Users start to come to your platform on their own. Numbers grow exponentially without your manual marketing efforts.

There are a few ways you can achieve organic growth. 1) You can provide user incentives, often in the form of giving giving a financial discount to users when they invite friends to your platform. 2) You can crack the SEO code. It’s no secret that showing up at the top of Google search results can drive massive traffic to your product. Note: Your SEO efforts can take months or even years to truly take affect. Or 3) you can “hack” word of mouth marketing by cleverly making your product more valuable to users if they invite their friends.

Product Philosophy

People talk a lot about manual marketing and organic marketing, so I want to focus most of my efforts in this article on product philosophy and how it contributes to user growth and engagement.

Have you heard of biomimicry? It’s essentially the practice of imitating nature to solve complex human problems. For example, early aviators used the shape of birds’ wings to develop aircraft wings. We studied polar bear skin to develop thermal clothing and we copied the feet of tree frogs when we decided to add treads to tires. Biomimicry has occurred time after time throughout history. When we’re trying to create something new, we use something that has already been proven successful as a model.

So what does biomimicry have to do with attracting users to your platform? Stick with me while I introduce my new favorite concept. I call it “vitamimicry.” (Vita means way of life and mimicry means imitating).

Put it this way: In the same way that inventors have taken a cue from nature to develop new products, I believe the most successful Internet entrepreneurs take a cue from real life when building virtual platforms. This is my product philosophy.

Applying the Product Philosophy

The experience of throwing a party is a perfect real life model to use when you’re launching a new product.

How do people hear about your party? You might send out invitations. You start with the people you know and invite them personally. If you want your party to be huge, you tell your friends they can invite their friends too. But what happens if there are a ton of other parties that night? How do you get people to show up to your party? You tell them about all the fun things you have planned. You brag about the celebrities who will be there. You convince influential or popular people to RSVP yes and to tweet about the party. And you might consider making the party exclusive.

What happens when your guests arrive? Once people get to the party, you make sure they’re properly greeted at the door. You make sure they have a tour of the place, that they know where the bathroom is and where to find the food and drinks. If someone comes alone you introduce them to other people so they have someone to talk to. If you advertised that there’d be good music, there better be some good music. If your guests are the glamorous type, you’d better have a glamorous venue.

How do you know if people liked your party after it’s over? Are they talking about it? Are there pictures all over Facebook and Twitter and Instagram? Are people texting you to ask you to throw another party? And most importantly, do they come to your next party and bring even more friends?

Now for the vitamimicry. Simply substitute the word “company” for every time I said “party” and you’ll be on the right track to building a platform that people come to, enjoy, and tell their friends about.

The party example is a pretty generic model that can be used by any startup, but the concept of vitamimicry can help your specific startup in very unique ways too if you learn how to apply it. Take my company, Avelist, for example. We’re a platform where people can share knowledge with each other in the form of a list. If someone was recently married, they can come to Avelist to share useful information with other brides. Tips on creating a good wedding registry, best venues, best bands, etc. Likewise, if someone just backpacked through Peru, they can come to Avelist to share a list of all the best hostels they stayed at and Peruvian food people should try.

Users making lists on Avelist is clearly an important part of our platform. After we launched our product, we asked ourselves how we could incentivize people to make lists. That’s when we first used vitamimicry. We asked ourselves why people share information in real life. By thinking through real situations, we realized that people don’t usually share their knowledge and experience unless someone asks them for it. For example, I might not walk up to you and tell you the steps I went through when I sold my house but if you tell me you’re trying to sell your house and ask for tips, I have a few good ones!

After we realized people need to be asked for information before they contribute, we built a request feature that allows people to ask for a specific list. Lo and behold, this was a natural interaction that people were used to in real life, so our users quickly caught on to the concept of requesting lists and answering list requests. Vitamimicry for the win! Try it. You’ll love it. And your user numbers will too.

Jody Porowski is the Founder & CEO of Avelist. She likes writing about entrepreneurship and making up words in the process. Like vitamimicry, case in point. Want to learn more? Check out her blog and follow her on Twitter.