There are millions of apps out there in the app stores vying for users’ attention. The apps which do get downloaded are abandoned in an eye’s blink. Almost 77% of users never use an app again 72 hours after installing. Time spent on apps is also low with 34.1% of mobile app engagements lasting less than one minute.
In this scenario, how can app developers make sure that their apps are not just downloaded but are retained as well?
In this podcast with Steve P Young of Appmasters.co, Nikunj Sanghvi shares some essential tips of the trade which will help app developers boost user engagement for their apps, analytics tools they should use and fundamentals of a go-to-market app strategy. All that and so much more!
Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about boosting user engagement and the fundamentals to build a successful go-to-market strategy for your app.
Here is a summary of the podcast:
Why is user engagement crucial?
Most app developers spend a significant amount of effort and cost behind acquiring new users. Therefore, it is important to retain those users, ideally over a very long term or at least for a duration of time where their Life Time Value (LTV) becomes more than the customer acquisition cost.
Further, tied to that is also acquiring organic users. It is critical for app developers to have a social engagement strategy around their apps. If an app has already garnered some engaged users and it further allows for social sharing, there are higher chances of the app acquiring organic users. It is beneficial for the app developers as they do not have to spend money to acquire these users.
Recommendations for brands to boost user engagement before embarking on the app development journey:
“User engagement should not be thought of like a band-aid after the app is live.”
A user engagement strategy should be drafted right at the beginning, rather than fixing it after the app goes live and realising that the downloads are not as per expectations or users are deleting the app shortly after downloading it etc. User engagement weaved it right at the strategy, UX/UI design phase will ensure a phenomenally engaging app.
How analytics tools can boost user engagement:
When we think about user engagement the most crucial aspect is to have is a robust notification and analytics tools in place. There are quite a few tools in the market for notifications and analytics, and there are also some which combine these two along with data science components. To begin with, developers can even look at having rudimentary tools like Google Analytics.
Here is how having a robust notifications and analytics tool can help immensely:
- Product analytics tools like Amplitude can provide a detailed understanding how and what features are users actually engaging with, in the app. When an app is built, the app developer might have imagined a particular user flow. However, users might end up using the app in a very different way.
- Push and in-app notifications are essential to drive user engagement for the users who have downloaded the app.
- Cohort analysis can help in understanding if particular batches of users that sign up and perform a specific action soon after downloading the app have a better retention rate and engagement metrics. E.g. right after the app is downloaded if the user places their first order, even if it is at a discount, that user might have a higher retention rate. This kind of data can be a crucial insight for developing an engagement strategy. E.g. as soon as a user downloads the app, incentivise them with a promo code or a discount that ensures they place their first order within few hours or minutes after they download the app. This will increase the stickiness of the app over the entire user lifetime.
- A robust analytics piece in place lets businesses determine – what kind of action taken by users should be incentivised so that they engage more with the app.
- It will also help them to determine what kind of actions that developer expected users to perform on the app hasn’t been performed and devise strategy accordingly for such users. E.g. if a user doesn’t sign in for the first three days after downloading the app, they can be reached out ‘through’ other channels like email to remind them of their pending actions.
Are there tools or SDKs that automate the whole process?
There are tools which we routinely recommend to our clients. There are two kinds of tools that app developers would require- Analytics tools and Notifications tools
Some analytics tools are:
–Amplitude
–Mixpanel
-You can tie the analytics tools mentioned above with notification tools like Urban Airship.
-There are also some tools that combine both of these with data science component to it like Pyze
Are these tools affordable for small sized businesses?
Most of these tools start with a free trial. A lot of developers make the mistake of overestimating their infrastructure requirements or their usage need. Therefore, they might think a free trial subscription is not good enough for their needs and upgrading might be too expensive for them. But the reality is, pretty much all of these tools offer a lot within their free trial itself. That is how they attract the early set of clients, who might turn into larger clients later on.
