Improve the product, add new features, fix the bugs and the product itself is the incentive 
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Doing this will be just like when the freeloaders from MSE joined to rinse the free ATM usage whilst abroad
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I agree that the product comes first but itās naive to think you donāt have to advertise at all, so why not do that using the community rather than advertisers?
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Iām sold with the idea of investing to grow. My instinct is that there might be better ways than the fiver - but I suppose thatās what the pilot is for. (I prefer the interest rate idea, so I wonder if theyāre open to trialling other options 
)
I completely agree. Many of my friends will not trust their money with an unknown bank, to them that Iāve just brought up out of the blue, despite seeing me use it and having seen the app in action. They prefer to use their known brands of a traditional bank mixed with Paypal. Having some advertising will get the brand more well known and as you said, legitimise it through adverts.
Another example is my dad, who uses a Sainsburys travel card for his currency. Iāve tried explaining that Monzo, my bank offer really great rates which are better, but as heās never heard of the bank outside of me, heās not interested.
A few TV ads would solve all of this.
Iād rather monzo spread to more people than care about it being āOrganicā and feel like iām trying to flog some dodgey pyramid scheme to my mates (when iām not and itās a really god damn good bank).
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Good point @Melton. Some brand awareness might help persuade people who are adhered to traditional banks and sceptical of digital only.
I think the key difference is this is a referral from a friend not a switching incentive. So itās very different from the Ā£100 / Ā£150 incentives that the banks offer.
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I expect Monzo will have to advertise to those users like your Dad at some point but for now, thereās still lots more users who have a relatively āearly adopterā mindset who Monzo can target / sign up far at a far lower cost, compared to what theyād have to pay for advertising.
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I suppose thatās true (although, value aside, thereās no difference that I can see to Nationwideās Ā£100 referral scheme), although it wasnāt the point i was trying to make. I was wondering whether the same outcome can be achieved when the same investment but with different means.
But as I say, this is why experiments and data are super useful.
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Yeah Nationwide is the exception but I think itās a bad sign that they have to pay that much. Monzoās valuable enough for the incentive not to have to be that high.
I donāt like the idea of using interest rates to attract people because once the promotion ends, the rateās taken away. So itās typical of the kind of bait & switch (relying on customer inertia) that we see the banks using to attract customers.
As the challengers get bigger (with their easy signup processes), I expect that relying on customer inertia for your marketing campaign will become a more & more flawed strategy.
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I think youāre right for sure, but whether thats the correct decision is questionable.
The time to push is now while the legacy banks are still behind. They are very aware of challenger banks like Monzo and are pushing to update their services. Every month the list of reasons to switch goes down as a Legacy bank adds a Monzo feature to their app and so on.
Itās all about the cost of acquisition per user. A TV ad may cost more, but it will probably bring in a lost more users bringing that cost per user down significantly (I would guess less than Ā£10 but obviously I have no idea).
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Hmm. Iām torn on this idea. If I had the option to test this then sure I would go for it for the extra Ā£5 here and there but I donāt think itās going to bring in users who will really want to use Monzo, especially as their main account.
I would say that advertising and promoting CASS with some kind of financial reward (like a boosted interest rate for a while) if you complete a full switch and stay for x amount of monthsā¦
I donāt agree with this premise. I expect the gap between the incumbents & Monzo will widen, as they continue to develop their service far more quickly & also, roll out the marketplace.
I donāt think it will cost that little per user but I could be wrong. If it did then Iām all for it.
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Agreed! (For the avoidance of doubt, I havenāt suggested that Monzo should pay anything as an incentive, let alone figures that high!)
I think this is a fair point. Although Iām not sure itās completely accurate to call it bait and switch if users know in advance itās only for a limited period - it might be different understandings but Iāve only ever used it where itās not been clear that the feature will disappear. Anyway, I understand the concern, which I think is a valid one.
More broadly, I wonder if there are any other options? I liked the interest idea as it seemed to me to make the user base more sticky - i.e. they wouldnāt just take the money and run - which would give them time to experience the product and want to stay for its own meritsā¦ Is there anything else that delivers benefit without the downsides identified?
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I understand where youāre coming from here, but I think youāre assuming that Monzo is standing still while the established banks catch up. I donāt think this is true - Tom puts it better than me:
From this post, for reference.
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Oh for sure, donāt get me wrong, I agree they arenāt standing still. But I do think each new feature has a lot less worth than the ācoreā features monzo already has e.g. freeze card, see pin in app, instant notifications, spending summary,
Everything else while nice, Isnāt going to be as big a draw in to convince people to switch e.g. split the bill feature. These will still give monzo the edge but isnāt going to make someone think wow sign me up right now!
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The team have told me that the P2P payments feature has actually been one of the biggest drivers of Monzoās growth, bill splitting only makes it more useful 
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I have no evidence to back this up, but my suspicion is that by focusing on how Monzo works for groups of people (the network effect) weāre likely to see a tipping point over the next year or so where peer pressure / personal recommendation / sheer ease of use within a network makes it harder to not be on Monzoā¦ (there have been similar experiences when apps like WhatsApp, for example, broke throughā¦)
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I wonder if Monzoās considered promoting themselves at Freshersā Fayres? Given the network benefits of Monzo it seems like an ideal place to promote the bank, particularly as people wonāt have the inertia that comes from holding a legacy bank account for years and years previously.
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I think when Monzo first started they had student ambassadors. It didnāt seem to go anywhere, thoughā¦
(Ah yes, slightly mysterious thread here)
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