Retaining users on a mobile app is one of the most tedious tasks that require some critical measures. There is no point in creating a mobile app if no one is going to use it. The process of retaining the users on the app is called app retention and this article will give you a clear understanding of multiple ways to prevail just that.
According to the statistics, more than 40% of users stop using the app after one month of using it continuously while the percentage goes down to only 10% after 6 months of the app launch. Ultimately there are only 4% of users that continue to use the app even after a whole year.
The statistics speak for themselves when it comes to understanding how companies don’t bother to retain the users even after spending multiple dollars on launching an app in the first place. The rate of getting a mobile app is increasing by the moment while the app retention strategies are nowhere to be seen.
With the increasing cost of development, every organization must keep a budget to implement app retention strategies to get maximum ROI.
Understanding Mobile App Engagement Metrics:
The way multiple users engage with a mobile app makes you determine the success and failure of the application. More is the user engagement, more is the app success and better is the completion of goals. Here are some of the major app engagement metrics one must know:
Mobile App Downloads: More is the number of downloads of a mobile app, more is the number of users for that app that can be retained with several practices.
Active Users: It represents the users that are using the mobile app daily.
Session Interval: It represents the time between two sessions of using a mobile app.
Session Length: It represents the duration the users are putting into using the mobile app.
Lifetime Revenue: It represents the revenue gathered from a single user from the time he started using the application to the time he stopped.
Understanding the app engagement metrics can give the organizations a clear picture of where they lack and where they suffice to the user requirements. It further makes them get a clear understanding of their ROI as well as the intervals they need for optimization of the app for better retention.
Here are some of the strategies for better app retention and increased app engagement:
1. Cohort Analysis
It is one of the most necessary steps of retaining app users as well as keeping them engaged for a longer period. Determining the actions of the app users from the very beginning can offer you a clear understanding of the best features of the app and the features that pushes them to quit using the app. Evaluating the different actions of the same group of individuals within a time frame can help you retain them better. For instance, you can use heat maps to understand the obstruction sixers face while using the mobile app.
2. Easy Onboarding
It is vital to offer an efficient onboarding process to the users to retain them. Making the onboarding process of the application easy should be one of the topmost priorities of an organization. More is the difficulty faced by the users in using or signing up with an app, more is the probability of them abandoning that application. For instance, the signup process should be easy enough for a 70-year-old to understand while offers sign up success in not more than 3 to 4 steps. In addition to this, the apps must offer to sign up with social media accounts. The designers can further offer a little feature education for the users to understand the functionality of the app but it shouldn’t overwhelm them in any way.
3. Using Push Notifications
Push notifications are used by the mobile apps to offer timely information to the app users thereby adding to the retention rate. The app must offer push notifications whenever required to the user as a way of welcoming them to the app platform, offering them the relevant information, taking surveys and more. They can be further used to engage the customers that have stopped using the app altogether. One must make sure that the push notifications should be offered promptly as well as they must be customized according to the user’s behavioural activity on the app. Apart from this, sending too many push notifications can be a turn off for the customers so one must make sure not to overwhelm the users with them.
4. Using In-App Messages
Using in-app messages is one of the most useful strategies of user engagement and as well as retention on the application. Most mobile apps with the highest customer retention and engagement send out timely and significant in-app messages to keep the customers in the loop. Apart from offering a better UI/UX, sending out necessary in-app messages such as payment approval, payment denies, an order placed, order delivered, requesting feedback and more can help the apps to retain the customers while increasing the engagement tenfold. According to the statistics, better use of in-app messages increases customer retention by a total of 3.5% when compared to the app that doesn’t send them out.
5. Personalized User Experience
Another way of engaging and retaining customers on an application is to offer them a personalized in-app experience based on their app store history, location and more. The personalization can be dynamic or static based on the app budget requirements. The developer must keep in mind that the personalization doesn’t overshadow the security terms and conditions. Apart from this, personalization tactics also include sending them the email on card abandonment, products stocks, and more.
6. Rewards and Credits
Offering rewards and credits to loyal customers is one of the most sought after ways of retaining customers on the app. This is fruitful for the eCommerce apps that can offer discount coupons, rewards, credits and more to its customers for increasing the overall engagement on the app as well as get better revenues. Offering the users perks for prevailing additional sign-ups and referrals is another tactic to increase engagement and retention.
Since creating a mobile app requires lots of effort and money, shifting the retention curve up must be one of the topmost priorities of an organization while deciding the development path. A business that can retain as well as engage major customers over their mobile or web app can ultimately increase its overall revenue. One must make sure to offer a dedicated strategy and management to user retention before acquiring more customers. Converting the users to long-term customers is the ultimate goal and a customized retention and engagement strategy can help businesses get just that.
