INSIGHT
FINDING THE K-FACTOR
Nick Duddy from Miratrix introduces the concept of the K-factor , how to predict its impacts across social and websites , and how to trigger it .
LET ’ S JUMP RIGHT IN with the benefit of achieving a K-factor for your business : Free high quality traffic and users . No business would say no to that !
The overall concept of K-factor is to enable you to predict growth of your business through the impact of virality . Once we ’ ve modelled K , it can then help you to set KPIs and go hunting with more precision and more efficiency . In essence , you encourage your users to promote your activity through word-of-mouth , based on enhanced knowledge of what ’ s likely to go viral .
The K-factor edge In a world of increasingly intense competition in the traditional digital marketing platforms , it has become expensive to be heard , to the point of almost impossible .
Frankly , the algorithmic-based marketing platforms , i . e . Facebook , Google and Twitter , are pitting company against company in a bid to increase their revenue at the expense of everyone else ’ s profit . For examples of this , all you need to do is look at your historical ad spend over the years on Facebook and Google , as well as how much time and cash is being deployed to your SEO activity . I ’ m positive that the cost is not declining and I ’ m sure that the impact is not as great as before .
To get ahead , you need to start looking at ways of leveraging your existing user base to share and promote your business to their friends and family . Only your customers can get you free high quality users .
Modelling using the K-factor K-factor has its roots in epidemiology : it ’ s used to track the rate of growth of an epidemic or a virus in a populace .
The formula below helps you model the impact of virality provided you have the number of invites to start with .
k = i x c where i = number of Invites , and c = Invites to users conversion rate
A formula that is more useful for established businesses is one that uses an approach which factors in only your happy
“ K-factor has its roots in epidemiology : it ’ s used to track the rate of growth of an epidemic or a virus in a populace ”
or qualified users . For example those who create an account , place a bet or use a code . What you define as a positive experience is specific to whatever industry you ’ re in : you need to decide what metrics you use to define a happy user .
k = (# of positive experiences * share rate ) * product conversion rate
You can quickly work out what focusing on viral growth through your user base would look like by creating a spreadsheet of your traffic / conversions and applying the formula above to it . From here you adjust rates of shares to understand at what point the model becomes self-fulfilling .
What I mean by self-fulfilling is that the cumulative incremental impact of the viral growth at some point starts to increase your traffic and conversions without need to drive traffic .
Adjusting and tweaking the model is how you set your KPIs for growth .
Don ’ t even try to hit your numbers until you ’ ve read this … If we could package getting viral growth into a solution you wouldn ’ t be reading this article - you ’ d be on a site buying the service that makes it happen . Unfortunately for us marketers , obtaining the growth that you have worked out using K-factor is a process of agile marketing woven through a strong product .
This being the case , you can imagine that if your product isn ’ t delivering a valuable experience compared to your competitor then you will be unable to motivate a user to share your cause . If they didn ’ t enjoy the experience they aren ’ t going to subject their friends to that experience ... to try to trigger viral growth in this environment is an exercise in futility - it will fail .
Where to start Trigger is the operative word . Frankly , what I ’ m going to ask you to do next is tedious work but 100 % necessary . It ’ s important that you build this as part of your operating processes and that you get your entire team on board .
Step 1 You ’ ll need to audit every stage of your product where your user engages and identify where they are likely to have a good experience - that ’ s your trigger point ! You may find more than one , so sift through the entire product experience .
Step 2 Pick three types of triggers , for example emotional , altruistic or transactional . What I mean here is for an emotional
62 iGB Affiliate Issue 63 JUN / JUL 2017