user retention

You got their attention, you got them to download your app, how do you keep them coming back? App user retention is vital for the health of your app business. You want users to be satisfied with their experience enough to keep using the app so your app can prove to be effective in its category and create organic marketing when loyal users tell their friends about your mobile application. This post outlines some strategies, also discussed more in depth by Alon Even at Appsee, you can put in place to help your app increase user retention. Design it First things first: the design of your app is its first impression on a user so make it bold and simple. Users who feel overwhelmed with options in menu screens or option tabs often do not return to those apps. Your app should have fluidity of manageable amount of options and easy functionality. Mobile applications which adopt a minimalist design achieve this very well. Reward users Another strategy with an emphasis on increasing a user’s LifeTime Value (LTV) is incentivized engagement. Many game apps already have this model in place. You can reward your user with extra content, more features or a limited time premium experience if they achieve a specific goal in the app that can only be achieved through a high return rate. This has been known to effectively increase the user’s LTV. Coupons Monetary incentives are also a strong pull for app users to return. Coupons allow you to reward your user for returning and using your app in addition to creating loyal users who feel appreciated. It also creates an opportunity for your mobile application business to build relationships with other businesses and create more opportunities for the future. Notifications Alon Even identifies and explains an important pattern regarding app retention: “In the first month after downloading, when users typically drop out of using an app, users who opt-in to receive push notifications have just over a 25% higher probability to continue using the app than those who do not. Beyond the first month, users who have opted-in are retained at twice the rate of those do not get notifications. Additionally, users who opt-in in also open those apps at twice the rate for those who did not opt-in during their first month. This app engagement percentage increases over time.” Thus it is important to consider how you want to notify your users of activity on your app. Any notifications that are overwhelming will cause the user to uninstall the app, however, a notification system that reminds the user of the app is vital for a frequent return rate. Besides the tactics discussed it is also extremely important to monitor your users and see how they use the app. Observations collected through monitoring your returning user’s habits will help you update your app to become more user friendly and operate more effectively for your user. It may even inspire new features for future upgrades.

With the app environment projected to grow by 270% by 2020, there is plenty of room for new ideas to join the ranks of the already 5 BILLION apps in the app stores. However, true success in the app store doesn’t just boil down to pure downloads when you launch, it is also related to user retention and app longevity. This means that while you might think to generate the app idea was all the brainstorming you had to do, looking towards the future is what can really make or break your success! Look at the marketplace You might have already checked out the competition when you were generating your app idea, but that doesn’t mean you should stop your research. By looking at similar apps to your app idea or apps in a similar category, you can see how different apps are trying to cater to their users. Read the app reviews for those apps and see what people are saying. Are they wishing that the app had a new feature or included an improvement somewhere? Are there any complaints about the app’s performance or its current features? Think about where and how other apps are going wrong so that you can steer clear and not make the same mistakes. Let other apps do the mistake trailblazing for you and you’ll soon discover that features your app has will be received with open arms. Anticipate your audience’s growth As technology improves and apps cater to more specialized markets, app producers are being forced to think of ways of how to hold onto their current audience for longer periods of time. Put another way, like trying to fit into that itchy sweater your grandmother knit you when you were 12, some features you created when your app first launched might not fit your audience years or even months from now. So, to curb this possible outcome, you need to think about where the current users of your audience might be months or years from now. As related to the type of app you have, what kind of user longevity can you expect? While it is true that many apps maintain their longevity purely out of the nature of their market such as those social networking apps, even those have evolved in some way shape or form. Compare Myspace to Facebook and you’ll see exactly what I mean. By thinking about how you can add features to still appeal to that initial audience as it ages, your app will be in a great position to maintain its position firmly on your users’ home screens. Have a cache of improvements lying in wait Closely tied to anticipating how your audience might grow is the idea that you should always have new ideas cooking in the confines of your app’s new feature kitchen. However, whereas thinking about new features to evolve along with your audience is one aspect of the new feature process, new features for all users is something else entirely. Here, we’re talking about new features that you would launch for your entire app audience that will re-engage and re-invigorate your current user base thus resulting in an additional influx of new users. Introducing things like new filters for a photo app or new recipes for a cooking app can mean a world of difference for someone who initially downloaded your app because they thought it looked cool but then didn’t think it was worth keeping. Start looking for inspiration based on how people are either reacting to your app (if it has been launched) or how people are reacting to similar apps in the market. What additional features did you think about when you first came up with the idea? How can you expand on those? But REMEMBER, this does not mean that every new idea you generate should be pushed to the app store immediately. As the title for this tip suggests, you should always have a cache of new ideas in store so that you can pepper your audience and constantly engage them. If you release all your new ideas at once, it is likely that no one will fully be able to appreciate every single one and that new feature you thought would really change the game will end up falling on deaf ears. So, keep writing down new ideas and features and you’ll ensure that you not only hold onto your current audience but engage new users for years to come.