The Anti-Churn Secrets Behind the Ladder App

For the past 3 months, I've paid $29.99/mo for a workout app called Ladder that provides me with fool-proof workouts, 5 days a week. It's great app, user-friendly, and I love it.

I'm also a human and have gained 7 pounds since the beginning of June (mostly due to the fact that cookies are widely available at most BBQ's) which lead me to start second-guessing the monthly subscription I was paying for. I started thinking...

Do I even need to pay for this app?

I'm not working out as much as I was last month...

It's summer, I'm probably not going to have a ton of time to stay consistent.

Maybe I'll just get rid of it and come back later.

As a marketer, you probably know what's coming next...

Churn, Baby, Churn

Churn is a common conflict between customers and brands. It's especially true in the app space.

‍"Research into worldwide retention rate shows that the average retention rate across 31 mobile app categories was 25.3% on Day 1, before falling to 5.7% by Day 30."

(Read the full article here.)

That's a lot of churn, which is interesting because it seems very counterintuitive to logical reasoning. In the case of the Ladder app:

• Their product does exactly what it's supposed to.
• Their brand is exactly what their customers want them to be.
• Their customers seem happy after purchasing...

But eventually, many of these "satisfied" customers will churn within weeks or even days of gaining access to the app, even though they seemed committed during the purchasing process.

There's many reasons why this might be happening, but in my case, however, I actually didn't churn. In fact, I did something even weirder: I upgraded.

I upgraded to their most expensive subscription model, and there's some science as to why...

The Anti-Churn Secrets of the Ladder App

The amount of behavior science Ladder has injected into their app is amazing. They're in a highly competitive industry and can't afford to lose customers when they inevitably prioritize cookies over compound movements. Improving their product using psychology is how they're dominating the competition, keeping their customers happy, and growing like crazy.

Here's how the Ladder App reduces monthly churn using psychology:

STEP ONE: They've made it psychologically painful to leave.

Ladder has done an expert-level job of making their customers feel awful when they try and churn by using something the brain knows well - a perfectly placed "danger zone."

This is a masterful use of both association, ("Dangerous Areas" are usually...well, dangerous) and the Availability Heuristic.

The Availability Heuristic works by allowing the brain to easily recall scary events (like a plane crash). Based on how vivid the mental picture of that event is, the brain will make a mental note to watch out for similar events in the future.

This "dangerous area" within the app brings up all kinds of negative mental pictures that causes a lot of anxiety and hesitancy for any customer trying to use it.

STEP TWO: They made it psychologically fun to stay.

Ladder assigns their customers with a coach (a great use of Authority Proof) which a lot of other apps do as well. But they're also doing something sneaky to keep their customer's attention...

The secret to their app's success lies within the psychology behind their teams. Each customer gets assigned to a coach and a team upon signing up, and each week the teams compete against each other. They stack up "points" by working out, all of which gets tracked within the app.

(They're using our competitiveness against us...😂)

This is especially powerful for any customer who responds to healthy competition and creates an us-versus-them mentality that customers can't resist.

1. Weekly competitions cause their customers to use the app more and start seeing results...which leads to more app use.
2. Then they give away swag to the teams with the most workouts logged each week...which leads to more app use.

App use, which leads to app use, which leads to app use. It's genius. 🧠

STEP THREE: They've engineered their app to provide massive amounts of dopamine.

Each time you workout, you have the opportunity to send another customer some love using the "cheers" function within the app. This sends a rain shower of emojis (👏 🔥 🦍 🌶️) to the profile of the person you've chosen and creates a rain shower of emojis on your screen as well.

This is highly addicting.

Dopamine is a powerful motivation neurotransmitter - it literally causes you to want more of whatever you're interacting with.

It's so addicting, I cannot stop sending people emoji rain showers...even if I'm not working out. 😂

This is a brilliant feature, especially for the audience who looks for moral support during their workouts. The more support you give, the more you get, and the more you'll return to the app to see if someone sent you a high-five shower today.

Ladder is CRUSHING the behavior science game, and I'm here for it. 🤩

By injecting some serious behavior science into their app, they're able to drastically reduce churn from a customer base who is notorious for it...and build a better brand because of it.

Here's How to Reduce Churn Using Psychology

If you're a brand who wants to use some of Ladder's secrets, here's a simple formula:

1. Make it mentally painful for your customers to leave you. We're not talking about making it physically difficult to leave you (like the brands who make you call a human before you can cancel your subscription...please don't do this!) Make it mentally painful by associating another painful experience with the painful experience of churning.
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2. Make it mentally satisfying for them to stay. Identify the emotions your customers experience while using your product - then build that into the brand experience. If your customers love competition, build that into the experience so they can satisfy that itch. If your customers love community, build a vibrant community for them to be a part of. The more you personalize the experience, the more loyal they will become.
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3. Give them a dopamine hit every time they interact with your brand. Send them a shower of emojis. Write handwritten notes. Record a personal video just for them. The more dopamine you can inject, the more they'll stick around.

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