Apps need to go back to boot camp.
And not just any boot camp. Apps need to become more friendly and require sensitivity training. Why? Without it, user retention goes down the drain in just a few days without it.
A few years ago, the main concern for developers and companies was the Download Wars. Now, the front lines have changed into what’s become the ,,Engagement Wars”.
With more than 1,6 million apps on just Android and iOS, developers are faced with an important question.: What happens to my app after it’s downloaded and how do I get users to keep using it?
Now before we get down and dirty let’s put user retention into perspective a little.
Now you might be thinking that an overall 35% retention rate after three months is not too shabby, but this table is just for app categories. According to 2012 data from Nielsen, the average smartphone user has 41 apps installed on his device in 2012, an increase from 2011 average of 32. When a user has 20 apps installed, the total decrease in average number of sessions per app grows to an alarming 94.2%, says Apsalar. Yet the situation is not so bleak as you might think.
We”re going to look at this situation and see how we can avoid the known cricket sound when you’re wondering why nobody uses an app after a certain period of time.
Your mobile app has been published and downloaded. A few years ago, that was reason enough to kick back, relax and pat yourself on the back. Not anymore. With so many apps out there for every mobile device, and with more than 90% of downloaded apps being free, making a dime out of them is more of a challenge now more than ever.
As such your app should have two simple traits in mind. User experience should be friendly and it should be useful.
Keep in mind, that fun apps are also useful, they help people relax and bring a smile to their face. By friendly, we mean for example simple things such as when a user installs your app, a nice feature would something among the lines of ,,Thank you for installing the X app, we hope you have a great experience with it and if you encounter any issues, please contact us @thiscontactpoint.com”.
Another way of implementing user friendly apps to increase retention is to offer updates and simple design. Remember that even tablets have small screens in the end, and the point is to offer the crucial tap points to gain info in a quick and timely fashion. And don’t forget about user personalization. After all, it’s their app, so give them the means to make it feel as such.
Analytics are your map to find out if your app users got lost or took another turn when using your app.
Good analytics can measure user behaviour so developers can figure out the reasons why their app users stay active or start to forget they have the app in the first place, whether they be daily active users (DAUs), as is most common in the mobile games industry, or monthly active users (MAUs).
Analytics are a pivoting tool to benchmark different turning points, not just for your own app, but to generally see what periods in the year create the most app activity. Take for example the 2012 Christmas to New Year’s Even holiday week. It sported the record-breaking 1.76 billion downloaded applications.
Micro-analytics are just as crucial as macro-analytics (MAU’s). Figuring out at what specific hours or occasions your users access the app can be best combined with push notifications and in-app promo’s to maximize monetization and user satisfaction.
If you combine metrics with general hypes around the year and different events (such as the Olympics, celebrations, holidays, etc.), you can get the best results through ads, in-app purchases, new content and user engagement. Keep in mind, Valentine’s Day is also around the bend.
Push notifications aren’t just discounts, reminders and offers. Most people define loyalty through respect and that’s what an app should give in the first place.
It’s nice to receive coupons for example, especially because they get 10 times the redemption rate vs. traditional coupons, but if your PN strategy will be based solely on that, then the user skepticism about spammy PN’s will endure.
A nice addition to PN’s would be simple notifications, such as images, just wishing your app users / customers a good day or a nice tidbit (such as, did you know that today was the day Jimi Hendrix had his first kiss?). It creates a stronger bond between users, apps and brands and let’s face it, people appreciate kindness without a price tag.
The key word for this strategy would be serendipity, which is the concept of finding out the answer to a problem in an unlikely place, or a happy surprise.
Apps should be shared just as easy as you can access them.
Each month, approximately 600 million of Facebook’s 1 billion monthly active users already accesses Facebook via mobile. And that’s just Facebook. Word to mouth on social networks spreads like wildfire. Despite this huge opportunity, out of the 1.6 million Android and iOS apps, in December, the company announced that nearly 200,000 iPhone and Android apps connect with Facebook.
Take that into consideration when users are 75% more likely to make a purchase or a review based on what their friends say about the app, product or brand on social networks.
Integrating easy to comment and share features in apps stand to build strong social communities through a mobile app and provide the support so your app can go viral.
If neuropsychology has taught us one thing, is that we learn things easier and we keep interacting with them if it’s contextualized in a fun environment. Even to the point where the tapping fingers enjoy the app.
App gamification has been one of the strategies that has grown at an incredibly fast rate. In-app purchase revenues have skyrocketed from 7% in June 2010 to 68% in June 2012. That’s nearly a ten times increase in just two years.
Even the simple act of rewarding a user with free in-app content gives him the first reason to consider trying out that application and increases your value proposition.
Discounts, promotions, content updates stand to incentivize the user to try out new features and they’ll be grateful that your app’s experience wasn’t just ankle deep.
Again, using events such as the advent of spring would be a good example to offer new juicy updates, items, content, thus showing that your app can keep up with people’s lives.
In a world where mobile applications have become the fastest multiplying software around, spanning countless devices and numbers, user retention has become the main priority to ensure that mobile apps have the longest possible lifespans.
Think of app users as friends. Making them is easy, keeping them is the true challenge, and user loyalty is priceless compared to number of apps downloaded. Loyalty also means value, both to developers and to the users themselves, because their lives were made easier through that nice piece of code on their phones and they’ll return when you make a new app to help them out.
At ease Apps!
,,Related article : App Retention Increasing, iPhone Ahead of Android”
,,Related article: Mobile apps see greater engagement, monetization from Facebook login”
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