8 Business Growth Lessons We Can All Learn From Savings Apps In Nigeria

There are more than 13 savings and investment apps in Nigeria.

These apps make it easy to save and invest money with higher interests than banks. In a recent article, Techpoint published a roundup of leading savings apps in Nigeria.

After reading that article I decided to automate my savings. But, before making my final selection, I checked out the platform and studied their growth strategy.  After my analysis, I started using three of the apps.

In this article, my goal is to share with you eight growth strategies used by some of the apps and how you can adapt those growth strategies to your business.

• Design Your Product To Solve Major Issues Facing Your Users.

Before you launch, your first goal is to find out the core problem users want you to solve with the product. In the case of these apps, the problem is helping people develop savings habit. As a result, the main product feature created helped users to automate monthly savings and discourage impulse withdrawals.

• Let Your Homepage Show Users What They Will Get.

When users visit your website, they really want to know how your product is the solution to their needs. For example, a typical user looking for savings app wants one of few things; (1) how much interest they will earn (2) how secure their savings will be (3) how easy the automation process can be.

Your homepage should make it easy for your target user to choose you. This is done by creating belief-builder that shows you understand their needs and you can deliver on them. Here is how the three of the savings apps I reviewed did it.

• Learn To Infuse Storytelling Into Your Strategy

How do you share experiences that resonate with prospective users? Tell them stories they can relate with.

As Seth Godin said, “marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but the story you sell”. Just like people relate with the characters of the movies they watch, your goal is to make your target user relate with the result your product will achieve for them. You can get this done by infusing business storytelling tactics to your strategy.

• Ask For Testimonials

Asking users to share their testimonials is one of the best forms of marketing for you. This is because word of mouth is proven to do better than any paid marketing channel. And the best time to ask for testimonial is when someone just had a good experience with your product or service.

Make sure that you prominently display testimonials of satisfied customers on your website. This makes new customers to be convinced of your offer, especially if they have connections with or can relate with the experiences of the person sharing the testimonial.

Like testimonials, getting endorsements from celebrities, influential personalities and brands give your product a better appeal to target customers.

• Host Events

While you can hack your growth by attending or speaking at other people’s event, hosting your own event brings your existing users and potential customers together into the same room and makes it easy for you to indoctrinate them.

The setting of the event could be professional or fun. What matters the most is bringing your audience under one roof.

• Create Online Community For Your Niche

Like physical events, online communities give your brand the opportunity to moderate discussions that will ultimately lead to new business leads for you.

These community can be built on platforms like WhatsApp group, Slack channels, LinkedIn group, Facebook pages and Twitter. The best result is achieved when, instead of focusing on your product, the community focuses on interactions that benefit both your customers and your business. Imagine the positive value of a Facebook group that is focused on investing or building savings culture. This benefits everyone, not just the business.

• Educate Your Users

One of the key engines of hacking growth is educating your users. Imagine the impact of teaching financial planning to an audience who will use your product to automate what they learnt from the guest financial expert.
This can be done via blog posts, live events or even webinars, podcasts, Facebook live and YouTube videos.

• Keep In Touch

Your users want to hear from you. Sending out weekly reports and newsletters is part of strategy that connects you with their everyday choices.

Having a strategy to collect emails of potential customers who are yet to purchase offers the best opportunity for you to share your offers until they are ready to buy. That’s why I love newsletters.

Final Thoughts

The time I spent researching these savings app helped me to see the strategies some of them adopted to build trust with their target customers.

You can apply these lessons to your accelerate your business this year. 

Source: Techpoint.Africa

Red Star Express Plc is a Licensee of Federal Express (FedEx) Corporation, the world’s largest delivery solutions provider. The company has over 150 offices nationwide, with a network reach spanning over 1,500 communities in Nigeria and over 200 countries worldwide. It is made up of 4 subsidiaries specializing in areas such as Express Delivery, Logistics, Freight, Outsourcing services, Supply Chain Management, E-Commerce Logistics Solutions, Printing and Packaging, E-Archiving, Business Enterprise Solutions, as well as Agro Logistics and Trade.