Tinder’s Model of Product Growth

Product-driven companies have redefined the standards for successful growth strategies and marketing tactics. As a result of evolved company models, market strategies have evolved as well — from sales-led to product-assisted to product-led.

The company’s growth engines are now products. Customer acquisition, retention, and expansion are mostly driven by features and usage.

Hence, it is safe to say, The current growth strategies must take this into account.

How does it apply to Tinder?

Product-led businesses have changed the playbook for successful growth strategies and approaches to marketing. Tinder seems to master it. Through creative marketing and a targeted launch effort, it has rewritten the online dating rule book. And till date, it is doing extremely well, all thanks to the product-led growth model, i.e. the tinder app.

Tinder has dominated the online dating landscape among millennials in recent years. It is a popular dating app that most of us have used or know someone who has. As a result, learning how Tinder became one of the most popular dating apps on the planet is intriguing.

Building your product in a way that allows you to monetize and expand without necessitating a sales and marketing team to scale at the same rate is what product-led growth is all about. It is truly customer-centric. Let us see how tinder made that happen with its excellent product.

Customer-centric Approach

Emotions, rather than reasoning, impact consumer behavior. Users of Tinder are driven by a desire to have romantic encounters (pleasure) while avoiding rejection (pain). Because both parties have shown mutual attraction before a Tinder match is established, users don’t have to go through the hassle of approaching someone they like and hope the other person feels the same way, nor do they have to worry about being approached by someone they don’t like. Tinder too employs a system of occasional rewards. A “reward” is new matches. When you swipe right, and it’s a match, you get a notification that there’s a new match waiting for you. Very customer-centric concept.

Making the product Viral

A product reaches its exponential popularity when it becomes ingrained in people’s daily routines and is incredibly easy to enroll new users into — regardless of how they came across your product. In the case of Tinder, incentive programs, word of mouth fuel virality’s fire since they make it simple for consumers to become advocates.

In the beginning, Tinder went to college campuses and threw parties, inviting all the most popular, attractive students and requiring them to download the Tinder app to get into the party. After that, they can swipe left or right all night. By the next morning, the entire campus will have our app, and they’ll be telling everyone about it!

Refer a friend and incentive programs provide the fuel for virality’s fire since they make it simple for consumers to become advocates. Allow your product to grow by allowing consumers to refer their friends and colleagues.

Excellent User Experience

Now, let’s talk about user experience. It is critical for user onboarding to be easy and quick in order for word-of-mouth marketing to be effective. If you’re thrilled about an app because a pal told you about it, but you can’t log in or figure out how to use it, it’s not really helpful. Tinder presents you with a slew of possible companions, all of whom you may approve or reject with a single hand gesture based on first impressions. Unlike the desktop, Tinder’s fast-paced dating action is best experienced on a smartphone. Swiping left or right on a smartphone is analogous to swiping through a deck of cards, and it seems natural. Because smartphone screens are image-centric, you easily make rapid judgments based on what you see.

Takeaway

There are several aspects that influence the success of most businesses, but having a fantastic product and a creative growth plan has become a necessity in today’s fast-moving environment.

Tinder has shown to be a force to be reckoned with in terms of growth. You can also read some excellent books on how Tinder is doing it all. One very good example is Tinder Code: Secret Hacks To Crack The Algorithm And Increase Your Matches 10x that comes to mind. By streamlining the online dating experience, the platform gives genuine value to its users and seems to be a pioneering example of product-led growth!

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