With an enormous number of apps coming up in the market every day, it has become very tough to engage and retain users. So, to avoid your app from being a fling, you need to turn your focus from acquisition to retention and earning loyal users, rather than one-time visitors.
Need to shift focus from acquisition to retention
The acquisition has been considered an important mobile metric by many over the years and continues to be so in some cases. Attracting a maximum number of new users to the app was considered as the strongest indicator of success. However, the capriciousness of these users cannot be ignored, with most of them using an app only once. This makes it vital for marketers to move beyond simply counting the app installs and focusing on in-app behaviour to take account of engagement and retention. But some brands are still focusing on acquisition rather than retention, so there is a need for marketers to focus on retention now.
Defining a good retention rate
For a starter, a good retention rate is defined by using benchmarks such as the user returning to the app at least once within 30 days. As per industry standards, retention is measured over the span of 90 days or one quarter as it takes the lifecycle of the app user into account.
Digging into previous year data shows that on an average the mobile app retention rate across different industries was 20% after 90 days. This indicates that the rest of the app users are churned within 90 days. The reason for this can be tracked down to the marginal number of apps focusing on retention. Thus, a lot of work needs to be done for increasing the retention of mobile apps. Here we have discussed some inevitable strategies for boosting mobile app retention and prevent churning the users.
#1: Provide excellent app onboarding experience
The process of user registration and login should be easy and user-friendly. The user should be able to clearly understand the value of your app and how it is to be used. User retention rate can be drastically improved by implementing a solid onboarding strategy.
#2: Maximize use of in-app messaging
When the user is using the app, you can send in-app messages more frequently. These messages should be based on some previous action taken by the user. This makes the messages highly relevant to the end user, and they can move easily through your app and take any action if needed. Retention rates have been shown to increase three-fold with proper use of in-app messaging.
#3: Use push notifications
Push notifications can be sent to the home screen of the user directly to engage them and bring them back to the app from outside of the app. If done correctly by sending compelling messages personalized for the user, the chances of increasing user engagement and retention are increased considerably. Using the latest and greatest push notification technology, such as Rich Push and Geopush, provides a cutting edge to the app’s retention.
#4: Employ personalization and location-based marketing
Personalization holds the key to retention of users. Users expect the app’s interactions to be tailored based on their location, preferences, and in-app behaviour. Personalized push and in-app messages have shown better user retention by attracting the attention and engaging the user.
#5: Check out predictive insights and data to guide you
You must use predictive analysis to understand which users are at risk of churning. You can look out for predictive insights based on user interests, behaviour, preferences, and in-app behaviour. This provides you with the opportunity to save them by designing highly personalized messaging campaigns to re-engage them before it’s too late. Data can lead you to understand how well you are retaining users and how effective are your app marketing campaigns on the mobile engagement platform. For a positive impact on retention, you need right data insights that allow you to strengthen your interactions with users.
#6: Remarket
Nearly half of the users are likely to opt-out of push messaging. This makes it increasingly hard for marketers to draw them back to the app. The solution to this is remarketing by sending compelling reminders about your app. Social media, emails, and search advertisements can be used to re-engage the lapsed users outside of the app is an effective way. Using data insights helps you create relevant and effective ads for remarketing.
#7: Conduct A/B testing
By performing A/B testing of your marketing and remarketing campaigns, you can assure which marketing strategies are working and which are falling flat, smartly and efficiently. This makes it possible to pinpoint messaging and features that drive engagement and conversion. For instance, by A/B testing your calls to action, you can ascertain which one’s are enticing users to drive higher conversion rates by making the users move through your key app funnels, and the different push and in-app offers. With the increase of conversion actions and in-app activity of the user, your app becomes stickier for the users.
#8: Opt for omni-channel marketing
Using your apps siloed from the rest of your marketing strategy and channels provides a disconnected brand experience to the users. So, for providing a seamless experience to the users, you need to promote and infuse your app ubiquitously across all other channels as well. This will make your app sticky and boost retention.
Need for redefining mobile retention
With mobiles becoming the mainstay of all business, marketers need to step up if they want to succeed. This is possible when, along with acquisition and engagement, they consider retention as a key performance indicator for a successful app. So, set up your benchmarks for app user retention and churn reduction by using the above strategies to carry out smart marketing campaigns.
