What’s the key difference between a successful mobile app and an unsuccessful one?
- Ask this question to a developer and you’ll hear about factors like performance and stability.
- Ask a designer and you’ll hear about user experience.
- Ask a marketer and you’ll hear about visibility, downloads and advertising performance.
While all of these answers are correct, there’s one important aspect of mobile app success that many people forget: retention.
The mobile app space is extremely competitive. And it doesn’t take much to lose a user. Today’s most successful apps aren’t just the ones that can win over users in the short term — they’re the ones that can win over and retain those users for the long haul.
Do you need help improving user retention for your mobile app?
Below, we’ve listed four simple ways to keep bringing users back to your app.
Use Push Notifications Strategically to Re-Engage Users
Push notifications are immensely powerful for keeping users engaged with your app. Data from Localytics shows mobile application engagement is 88% higher among users that enable push notifications compared to those that don’t.
Step one in your user retention process should be to get push notifications enabled. This way, you’ll find it much easier to get in touch with users to share news, alerts, and information that leads to engagement.
Like any communication channel, push notifications are most effective when used in moderation. Only use push notifications as often as you need to, since overuse can prompt some users to switch push notifications off entirely.
Create a Simple Onboarding Process
Have you ever opened an app and immediately felt confused? Some mobile apps have simple interfaces that make accessing key features quick and easy. Others are so complex that users are left with no idea what to do upon first opening them.
If your app isn’t totally intuitive, it’s important to develop a simple, helpful onboarding process to help users get over the initial hurdle of using it. A four-screens-or-less onboarding intro is often all it takes to familiarize users with your app and make them feel more comfortable.
Since your onboarding slides are the first thing users will see when they open your app, it’s vital that you get them right. Smooth onboarding helps your app fall into the 20% of apps that people use more than once, as opposed to the 80% that are quickly deleted after installation.
Use Email Marketing to Keep in Touch with Your Users
Push notifications are fantastic for instantly re-engaging users, but many users switch them off in order to avoid constant interruptions. Complementing your push notifications with email is a great way to stay in touch with all of your users — even the ones that disable notifications.
From monthly newsletters to quick and simple guides for new users, adding email marketing to your app retention strategy lets you send relevant, helpful content to your users that draws them back into your app.
Since many of your emails will likely be read on mobile, use deep links that draw users back into your app from their email client. Although email marketing takes time to produce results, it leads to an outstanding ROI (according to some studies, up to 4,000%) when it’s done right.
Remarket to Your Users Through Facebook, Google and Other Platforms
Since many users will disable push notifications and many recipients will ignore or archive your emails, it’s important to have a third tactic for re-engaging users. An easy way to re-engage old users is through remarketing via ad platforms like Facebook and Google AdWords.
Remarketing lets you build an audience without asking for a user’s email address. It also makes it easy for you to market on your terms. You can:
- Reach people who haven’t used your application for a specific amount of time
- Advertise only to paying or non-paying users
- Market your app to people that tried to make a purchase but ultimately left
Like email marketing, remarketing rarely produces an immediate positive ROI. It requires careful optimization and smart targeting. But with the right approach, it can grow into a fantastic source of eager, loyal users for your mobile app.
Get More Practical and Effective Mobile App Retention Tips
Struggling to retain users?
I recommend reading Neumob’s 12 Best Practices to Boost App Usage and Retention in 2016. You’ll find actionable, practical and effective tips to help you retain more users for your mobile app.
It will be intriguing to see what key users engaged as each year progresses.
