Launching an app is great. Getting people to use it again and again is a different story altogether. Ayat Mohammed, Media Planning Manager at Hearts & Science, explains how to overcome this challenge.
According to former product leader at Facebook, SC Moatti, “to build products that people love, you have to build products that are extensions of ourselves. Consumers expect that the apps they use will grow and learn alongside them.” It seems simple, right? However, with over 2.5 million apps in the Google Play Store alone, achieving app engagement and retention rates proves to be challenging.
A staggering 37% of users are retained within 30 days of apps in the e-commerce/retail category on average, while 25% of users abandon an app after a single use. These numbers indicate that app creation is relatively easy but developing content to keep users coming back is what leaves brands struggling for effective strategies.
Repeat users directly impact the success of any app – just observe how TikTok has mastered retaining users with addicting content. Keeping users engaged and retaining them are two metrics that reveal qualitative insight into your app’s success. The average person spends 90% of their mobile time on apps, and the reasons for that can vary from the ease of functionality to additional capabilities, in comparison to the web browser. This is showcased across different demographics and markets.
With that in mind, it is no wonder more businesses are turning to apps as a stream to pull their customers to actively engage with their brands. As the app landscape continues to develop, customers’ appetites are maturing along with their expectations. A user’s impression is critical, so learn how to keep them coming back with these four strategies that can be adopted and implemented to capture and retain your audience.
- Focus on the purpose of the app
Yes, all stakeholders are important, but we must remember who the app is serving. The answer will always be the user; without them, you do not have stakeholders. Therefore, the customers are your mobile app royalty and should be the focus. As this is the foundation, identify the value added to the user and ensure the app provides relevant content that upgrades the customer’s experience in real time.
- What does the user want to get out of the app?
Plan out the digital journey and capture highlights from start to finish. A well-designed mobile app should be easy to use for consumers and can quickly provide answers to what they seek with convenience. The idea is to remove barriers and pain points to expand your consumer base. It is important to provide an outstanding mobile app experience that drives customer adoption.
- Set up an agile methodology to measure improvements
Ensure a strong process is established when it comes to reporting and data mining, as this will empower the evaluation and decision-making process. Solid reporting capabilities are critical to capture all the relevant metrics, such as following an agile methodology to ensure an ongoing cycle of improvement for strong adoption and use. Even as mobile app revenues grow, never let your attention deviate from serving the needs of your consumers. Their satisfaction and engagement drive everything – always.
- Relevancy: from push notifications to creative communication
The digital ecosystem as it stands is noisy, and users are opting for ad-less environments such as YouTube Premium. People respond positively to relevant and useful ads while bombarding them with irrelevant content will impact the brand negatively. Empower your digital campaigns with relevant creatives that will pull users, while utilizing push notifications to draw them into the app. Focus on sharing value-added, relevant information/offers to customer segments to keep them updated and coming back. Take it one step further and personalize the app experience with the ability to get users to customize and favorite their products, ultimately creating a seamless user experience.
Push notifications are powerful, but only when the content is helpful and valuable to the recipient. Be careful not to flood it with low-value messages as too many interruptions will encourage consumers to opt-out and you will end up losing a receptive audience that you worked so hard to attract.
