User retention is growing ever so important, especially today, when there are so many other options. With unprecedented access to reviews, rankings, and recommendations, users are quick to jump to the next app, the one they think will serve them best.
Retention is also a huge factor in your ability to monetize your traffic, making it a super-crucial aspect of your app’s performance and value.
The question you must ask yourself is how will you ensure that your users stay close and active? There are probably tons of apps that offer similar services as yours.
What is it about your app that goes above and beyond? What will make users want to return to YOUR app again, again, and again?
In this article i’ll discuss the basic keys and tips to improve your user retention rate from a strategic point of view, without going deeper into tactics (which i will on the next post -promise!).
The Keys to User Retention
Keep Entry Simple
“In the Age of Instant Gratification, the path of least resistance is usually the most travelled”, Meaning you have to reduce to the absolute minimum the number of decisions new users are required to make.
This will help you polish and perfect a friction-less onboarding experience which leads to much higher adoption rates and long-term retention. Remember – this is an ongoing optimization process and you should set your own routine checks to ensure every step in your new acquired users experience is understandable, simple and has a natural flow.
Engage your Users – the smart way
It is not enough to send bi-weekly, mass e-mails. Doing so will only make your customers feel as if they are not being valued individually. Engaging your customers means personalized communication.
Keeping in mind the following three basic steps will help you engage your customers and make them feel special: find out who your customers are, segment them by their needs and behaviors, and decide what kind of message you want to send.
Another way to engage your users is to create and send targeted content. Creating personalized content aimed at each of the segments can go a long way.
Community is Everything
Using social media to keep your customers engaged is not enough, which is why it is so important to create a customer community. A place in which your business and its customers can connect directly, and bond. For example, Starbucks created an online community aimed at improving the ‘Starbucks Experience’ at My Starbucks Idea.
Mobile User Retention Rate Tips
Because there are so many apps available, user retention is the most reliable measurement today to determine how valuable and popular your app is with users.
As hinted to above, the onboarding experience needs to be as seamless as possible. Before your users even sign up, you want to show them a super cool product, one that is easy to use and original. By the time they’re given the option to sign up, they’ve already been won over.
Onward to the next step. They’ve signed up, but that’s only half of your battle. A useful tip for winning the battle is showing users only what they need. Rather than bombarding them with useless information, give them clear-cut and simple instructions for your app because a mobile customer will quickly discard overwhelming designs that mimic desktop content page-for-page.
User recordings allow you to see how users interact with your app via tapping, swiping and pinching. Seeing your user’s actions will allow you to refine your product. This is a great way to up your mobile user retention rate.
App Retention Rate Tactics
On my next post, i’ll dive deeper into mobile app user retention tactics.
We will take a glance on how the big players are approaching it and what we can learn from our fellow indie-devs.