Quizlet · B2C · study flashcards app
Estimate word of mouth from direct, branded-search and social signups per active user
Revealed back-to-school and exam spikes in edtech; no numbers
Workedanalytics-attributionword-of-mouth
What they did
Word-of-mouth coefficient: in a period (week or month), count new users arriving through direct, branded search or social, and divide by returning users plus new users from non-organic channels (paid ads, non-branded search). Track how it moves over time. At Quizlet and edtech clients it drops in summer and holidays, spikes in August-September back-to-school, after holidays and around exams; during COVID it fell off a cliff and then recovered differently by country. Use the spikes to time virality pushes matched to the product's type of word of mouth.
What happened
Guest says it surfaced seasonal windows of higher word of mouth to exploit; no numbers.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · The Subscription Value Loop: A Formula for Growth – Phil Carter, Elemental Growth“there's a tool called the word-of-mouth coefficient that allows you to quantify offline word-of-mouth by looking at how many new users are you getting through channels like direct, branded search, or social in any given period.”
“one of the things you often see in EdTech is your word-of-mouth coefficient goes way down over the summer and during holidays, which makes sense, because nobody's in school.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Quizlet
All 13 Quizlet tactics- Ask a few quick questions about why when people cancelFound a third of 'no longer need' churners were just done with one test
- Hire a banker to run a buyout so the founders keep buildingSold to Quizlet; revenue roughly doubled during the process
- Add a monthly plan for students who start partway through the school yearKept after testing; no numbers given
- Give lapsed users a new free trial if they left a year ago and are active againSome success in several tests; no numbers
- Win back lapsed students with content from classmates in their own courses
More from this episode
- Quizlet: Map the few user actions and loops that drive growth, then model themGuest says it made growth more systematic; no numbers
- Quizlet: Have core product own retention and growth product own onboarding and monetizationResonated with the team and executives; no numbers
- Quizlet: Let students' and teachers' flashcards rank in Google for long-tail searchesMost important of four growth loops; low-cost acquisition
- Quizlet: Stay free for years, then add a low-priced subscriptionBuilt a teacher-student network effect; guest says rivals that monetized faster failed
- Quizlet: Copy Blinkist's honest free-trial screen that explains exactly how the trial worksGuest says a big lift in subscriber conversion and revenue; no numbers
- Quizlet: Buy a homework-help product to cover a need users already hadMoved the app into homework help; no numbers
- Quizlet: Let new users use the app during onboarding instead of describing it
- Matter: Add a feature that turns podcasts into readable transcriptsSubscriber conversion almost doubled
- Matter: Show the paywall more often and earlier, and improve its copy and imagesPaywall views more than doubled; ~30% more users subscribed
- uDocz: Survey what students would pay, then drop the Pro tier and cut the yearly price+12% subscriber conversion, +10% net subscription revenue, better margins
- Show the paywall once in the first session, then again when free uses run outGuest's go-to pattern across clients; no numbers
- Offer a discount to users who haven't paid by the time 90% of subscribers usually haveGuest calls it very effective; no numbers
- Superhuman: Ask users how disappointed they'd be without the app, then build for the fansGot past the 40% product-market fit line quickly (founder's blog post)
- Elevate: Run sales and discount promotions once someone can own themCohost calls it a huge unlock; no numbers