The world of mobile apps has uncountable challenges. It’s a win-win situation, only when you have users and retention both side by side. Acquiring users is not as hard as retaining them for a longer period. The overall success of a mobile app in terms of brand value and revenue-making is determined by the capacity to retain users.
Understanding User Retention
Generally, customer retention refers to the ability to keep the users engaged with your service over a long time. It is estimated by the percentage of the users who keep coming back within a definite period after their first visit. The higher the retention rates, the more users will find value in your service.
When the rate is low, it indicates the service is not very useful to them. So how can the retention rate be boosted? Let’s have a thorough look at the useful strategies to boost retention rates.
Optimize the Onboarding Experience
First impression is everything; therefore, the onboarding process should be smooth. Keep your interface simple; provide them with an option to personalize and showcase value. The first impression should convey why your app is the best. It sets the tone. With a smooth onboarding process, your interface must show its core features and problem-solving strategies with clarity.
You can insert tutorials or easy-to-go-through guides to address the main functionalities of your app. However, user onboarding tools like https://userguiding.com/ might assist you in creating and improving in-app experiences that can drive adoption and product strategy.
Personalize the User Experience
One of the most common mistakes made by marketers is assuming their customer base is similar, which can never be the case. Every individual has a unique set of preferences and expectations from any app. Here personalization is the key, which should be used to make the interface more user-friendly.
You must provide customizable settings, content recommendations, and goal-specific dashboards. For this, you have to dig into users’ responses, like usage patterns or demographics. Knowledge of your user’s goal and interest is necessary. Personalization helps in keeping your app relevant to them and ultimately drives engagement.
Implement Push Notifications Strategically
Push notifications consist of short spellbinding texts that are received by the user even when they are not using the app. Such notifications are like remainder alerts. It may appear as a banner. But you must consider that such notifications can make your users exasperate if they are consistently irrelevant, leading to uninstallation. Use push notifications wisely, considering the following factors:
- Provide tailored and relevant notifications matching their expectations.
- Each notification must have a value, like the highlight of a useful feature, information, offer, etc.
- Let your users have control over notification settings.
- Set the timing for notification appropriately after determining when they are more likely to engage.
Focus on Performance and Reliability
When the app is new, users have very little patience. Even if it gets a little bit slow in the beginning, you may lose the user’s interest at that moment. Regular optimization of speed and performance is necessary.
Along with it, reliability is another important aspect. If your app is stopping frequently, showing errors, or draining the battery more than usual, all these contribute to frustrating your user. Optimization should be done to:
- Reduce the load times.
- Make navigation easy.
- Optimize for various devices and operating systems individually.
- Ensure the efficiency of the app so that the battery does not drain out soon.
Regularly Update and Improve Your App
Retention comes with consistent hard work. Here consistency is to maintain your user interests and fulfill their changing needs. The best possible experience can only be achieved with consistent upgrading. It can even transform the dormant users into active ones. Here is how you should keep updating:
- Keep adding new and engaging features based on the latest trends.
- Ensure your user knows the benefit of updating to a new feature.
- Enhance the existing feature’s functionality.
- Address reported content.
Implement Gamification Elements
Gamification in your app creates a sense of gameplay for the users. This experience involves the jovial feeling of reaching a certain level, achieving the goal, and excelling with urgency. Users find it enjoyable when some sort of reward is bestowed. Ensure the following:
- Put levels for every action and provide achievement badges.
- Special actions should be rewarded.
- Create a platform for healthy competition.
- Keep the motivation alive by introducing a new set of rewards after regular intervals.
Provide Excellent Customer Support
It is the customer support system that can transform a normal user into a loyal one. Make sure the customer support is easily available at the user’s end. You can incorporate in-app customer support options like Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or chat.
Give a quick response to their issues. Make a separate space to address various common issues and recommend tooltips for the same. Their feedback is important for you, which can later be used to evaluate the scope of improvement.
Leverage Social Features and Community Building
Try building a healthy social community on your app so more and more people enjoy interacting through it. It allows mutual sharing of opinions, experiences, and feedback. Let your users make individual profiles and establish social connections. Enable messaging among them where they can share their achievements.
Implement a Loyalty Program
A loyalty program should be designed to incentivize the already existing users who remain loyal to your services. Giving them rewards creates a sense of value among users. It can also encourage other users to be loyal to your app. Provide exclusive credit points, contents, and membership plans to loyal users.
Analyze and Act on User Data
Your decisions must be data-driven; there is no room for personal interest. Run analytical searches and go through the retention patterns, user behaviors, and responses.
Such data helps you identify the areas for improvement and what area is performing well in your app. It may help you create a precisely tailored retention strategy to refine the user experience.
Re-engage Dormant Users
In the race to impress new users, don’t forget the inactive ones. Their feedback is equally important as that of active users. You may need to redefine your strategies to bring them back to use your app.
You have to make them believe your app has attained a certain level of improvement to meet their goals successfully. For this, you can send personalized emails or text messages to offer new services. Target through ads.
A Holistic Approach to User Retention
User retention is an ongoing process; it must be maintained. Consider working on each aspect, from onboarding the new users to retaining them for the long term. The features and functionality of the app must meet the requirements of the user.
Your motive should not be limited to creating an attractive app but to creating a user-friendly and engaging app. The apps that grow with sustainable success are the ones that make an impact among users.
