When you need to survive massive competition, you need to give priority to user attention for the success of mobile apps. Without active users, high download rates considered as zero. As a brand, you are spending thousands of bucks to build a mobile app and acquiring user attention. However, building mobile apps is just the beginning of getting users; the real values endure in user engagement and user retention.
Mobile app user engagement and user retention are two different metrics and are also important keys for the success of your mobile app. Low user engagement and retention rates are signs of failure, whereas high user engagement and user retention are necessary for a fruitful result.
What’s user engagement?
The user engagement can be described as how active your users are on your mobile app. It is a very subjective metric where the experts consider 10+ sessions per month as highly engaged users. There are several criteria that you need to understand for improving user engagement.
User engagement per day
Source: localytics.com
- Average active users: what percentage of your users are visiting every day or every month? You can also consider the percentage of your users four times in a month or eight times in the month or 12 times in the month.
- Average visits: You need to consider how often your users open your mobile app? You can also find the inverse of the visit or the intervals or what is the average time between the intervals. You can get clear insight for monthly or daily average visits of your users.
- Average time spend: after checking the average visits of your users, you need to check how long they are staying on your app for each visit. You need to check the average durable and the time spends in the app.
- Screen views: There are considerations on how many screens is each user visiting. The user might be visiting your app on mobile devices or from the desktop. The screen views should be considered for the exact idea of user engagement.
What is customer retention?
Customer retention is directly related to the user engagement of the mobile app. It is quite a subjective term. The number of percentage of app’s users who return to your app within one or three months of their first session is called customer retention. The experts identify mobile app users retention as the user who returns to the app within 30 days after downloading the app. Every business must include an individual definition of user engagement and user retention, depending on the nature of the app.
Average retention by Industry
Source: localytics.com
5 Ways to improve user engagement and customer retention
After you have built a quality mobile app and have done proper app store listing, there are many ways which help you to boost in-app engagement for higher customer retention rates.
- Easy signup process
You need to provide friendly onboarding experience which helps you to reduce abandonment rates. Difficult or hard sign up experiences and complex features and registration functions can frustrate the users, and the users are less likely to revisit the app. The first impression is very much imperative, and the user experience is no exception. Research shows that a secure signup and registration process can enhance the user’s retention rate up to 500%. Thus, your app’s onboarding experience should be frictionless, intuitive and seamless.
- Provide multiple sign up options
- Educate users to use features
- Tech app’s gestures, actions for a better experience
- Push Notifications
As per the research, push notifications can enhance user retention from 56% to 180%. The users who have opted to receive push notifications have 88% higher app engagement that those who don’t select push notifications. Push notifications serve essential functions and notify the users about important updates for your brand and services. It also encourages the users to take actions on your app. It targets users based on behavioural, geographical, and demographical data.
- Create personalized mobile experiences
Mobile personalization is undoubtedly the most critical aspects of the compelling mobile app. Personalization helps you to provide more unique, relevant and up-to-date expertise to the user. The more aligned the experience with the user’s needs and preference, the more likely they are to continue to use your app. Nowadays, you don’t need to deliver a consistent experience for all customers.
Personalize mobile experience
Source: amazon.com
You can show and prioritize the products and services based on their previous buys, and recently viewed. You can customize the contents with tailored insights to deliver valve to the users. You can include the user’s name on the screen, in the push notifications and the messages create interactions.
- Offer incentives and discounts
To drive engagement and retention, you need to offer incentives and discounts to your users. The offers and incentives should be mobile-specific and can be redeemed only through mobile apps. You can create specialized content access, special promotions, coupons, reference codes and other discounts that will help you to drive conversions and user engagement.
Attractive in-app deals
Source: livingsocial.com
There are many ways to provide incentives and offers which can be excluded from the cost of app development. The incentive program ultimately depends on the nature of your mobile app. The apps that use in-app purchasing as a monetization can benefit from time-sensitive discounts, while free apps can provide usage-based rewards.
- Trustworthy two-way communication
You need to encourage your users for two-way communication. Ask your users about your products and services that help you to improve the overall user experience. You can implement chatbots for quick and seamless user query in your app, which allows you to build a mobile app with reliable two-way communication. Show responsiveness and address the questions and concerns of your users related to your brand. This will ultimately help you to gather positive reviews and customer loyalty solution on your mobile wallets.
Chatbots customer support interface
Source: loyalty-apps.com
Get the right opportunity with mobile app development
All successful apps are developed with the help of daily routines and emotions of the users. You can take the case studies of successful mobile apps like Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Uber, and Airbnb, which identified the missing link between the products/services and the users. With mobile app development, you can address the needs of your users plays a massive role in how frequently they use your app, contributing to higher user engagement and user customer retention rates.
Author bio
Nikunj Gundaniya, Product manager Digipay.guru, one of the leading Digital wallet solutions, which provides mobile finance application development services. He is a visionary leader whose flamboyant management style has given profitable results for the company. He believes in the mantra of giving 100% to his work.
