Keeping Your App Users Stick To Your App – Here’s How The World Is Doing It

Loyalty these days is a myth you say? Customers are increasingly becoming impatient and are always on the lookout for competitor vehicles? We agree to disagree with your opinion here; because data says that apps that go the extra mile manage to retain their user base, no matter what avalanche or blizzard while en route. This document intends to focus on a few tricks that are being widely hailed as the best of practices on user-retention around apps.

Laws of attraction:

#1 – User should come back to your app

The popular football game app, FIFA 16 Ultimate Team, has a catchy hook – each day, they give out a reward package to the gamer-user first thing in the morning.

It is important that the user gets motivated by the push notification from the app. It is not like “Hey you have forgotten me!” that would go out to the user. The notification should lure the consumer; pull the consumer towards the app.

#2 – Get the ‘Loyals’ on board

And now that you have a steady stream of people daily coming back to your app, it is time to focus on your “superusers”. These Loyals are your mouthpieces; they are the people who will drive your conversions – and this is where you should create a proper rewards program to gratify these power users.

Wikets have a fantastic program that drives more engagement once an user shares the app on SM channels after using it.

Reward programs allow a user to look forward to using the app more, so that they get gratified more. Is that too much to ask for? We would not mind on that.

#3 – Get those feedbacks in line

Up next, once you have the superusers in action, there is bound to be a steady stream of feedbacks, and trust us, it will take more than ‘listening’.

It is essential to have a healthy feedback process, but more than that, it is essential to have a mechanism that will process these reviews and carve out solutions too.

UBER has a fantastic rating system (and which is 2-click). India-based Book My Show, a ticket-booking app, has a similar rating system in place that asks so much yet is so much hassle-free.

Feedback processes are vital to user-retention ecosystem.

As a start, incorporate a small survey within your app that will ask the user about her / his experience.

You may also deploy a “Contact” button that will go back to the user every time the user faces an uphill task.

Positive ratings boost the app-store ranking too.

And we all know how positive app store ratings give the app credibility in front of the world.

P.S.

Feedback should be collected in-app.

Taking the user outside the app is not a good practice and often leads to a break in the concentration of the user while using the app.

#4 –Content is still the king

And now, how many times have you heard of this statement? Yet one may never get tired of this sentence – because yes, content is still the king. And this applies to apps too, where new kind of content is what users comeback for on a daily basis.

Take the example of Subway Surfers. They have a weekly hunt and a world tour that takes the user round the world in this world of endless running. Also, the user experiences new locations, new visuals and definitely new characters that make the game intriguing and the user stick to the app.

How can content create a difference for your app? You may curate various relevant contents as per your users’ choices. You may create new stuffs too. This is an internal decision which the internal stakeholders have to decide based on the audience behaviour and pattern emerging out of that behaviour.

#5 – Metrics

Last, not least, metrics will play a vital role in deciding what is working for your app and what is not. What are the factors that are creating a sticky factor for your user base is something that the metrics will help you to decode.

There are 3 types of metrics that you should track –

Mobile visitors – Volume, demographics, buying patterns of your audience should be clearly focussed on. Optimization of your app can be created accordingly.

User behaviour – Tracking the usage pattern on your mobile app can help you find useful information about your audience. This will further help you to adjust your sails as per the wind.

Campaign performance metrics – Did that last movie tie-up you did work well with the audience? Did they click enough on that meet-your-fave-superstar button? This is exactly what you need to gauge before signing the next set of campaigns with external stakeholders.

In this age of increased competition, retaining a user is a mean task. We at Capital Numbers work hard on fine aspects like these so that the overall product creates an effect that is soothing to the end-user.

How has your journey been as an app owner? Share your thoughts with us by commenting below.