Mobile App Retention – 4 Hot Tips to Keep in Mind
Mobile App Retention
Mobile app development has been around for over 10 years! Yes, over 10 years, and yet, with millions of innovative, creative, fun and useful apps to download, mobile smartphone users spend 84% of their time using just around five native apps. This is why mobile app retention is so important.
It can be difficult to launch your app into the next biggest spot on the market, and of course you would like robust user interaction and ultimately mobile app retention. However, understanding that 71% of all app users will churn in 90 days, how can you sustain user interest and keep your app on the desktop and not in the trash?
1. Start Lean for Mobile App Retention
Build an MVP that will satisfy 80% of your target market’s needs and worry about the bells and whistles later. A lot of apps get bogged down with unnecessary fluff that creates confusion or even worse, bugs. Obviously, your development team should be debugging during the acceptance period.
Initially, mobile app retention is about starting lean.
2. Simplify the Onboarding Process
There’s a reason that most people will throw out the manual when they get a new toy or device – they just want to use it. Similarly, with mobile app retention, people don’t want to spend a ton of time trying to figure out how to navigate your app. Did you know that retention rates can go up about 50% after a solid onboarding process is implemented? Just make it easy for users to sign up.
An easy way to do this is by utilizing social media accounts as log-in options. You’ll not only speed up the process but also ease your user’s brain of having to remember yet another password.
3. Keep Your App Updated
Let’s be honest, when checking out a new app, users first look at the user reviews and then take note of when the last update took place. As rapidly as technology and user demands change, your app should, too. There are several theories on how often you should update for the best mobile app retention, but the most successful apps release updates between 1-4 times per month.
Keeping your users engaged doesn’t just mean working out the bugs, it also means fresh content. Whether it’s adding levels to your game, new products to your e-commerce app, updating maps, badges, emojis, etc. – by keeping your content relevant it shows you’re listening to market demands, which leads to our final point.
4. Listen to Your Users for Better Mobile App Retention
With any business, the hardest part is getting customers/users, but now that your app has users, you must have a rock-solid customer engagement strategy in place to maintain your mobile app retention. If you look at a traditional marketing funnel, then you know this means loyalty programs and incentives, ancillary products and/or services and referral bonuses, among others. In the world of mobile app development, you should be combining the traditional with the uniqueness of your digital brand to create a personalized experience for your users.
Users want to know that you’re listening to them, and while you don’t need to respond to every negative review, you should, at a minimum, be using the 80/20 rule (aka the Pareto principle) to address the most critical issues. Also, don’t be afraid to use social media platforms to respond to your user base in a fun, yet on brand, voice. Lastly, engage your power users through beta testing opportunities and participating in online communities.
Conclusion – Mobile App Retention
As with any good marketing strategy, be sure to coordinate with your team well in advance of your launch date and make sure the communication pipeline is wide open and active. After all, if your team is not engaged, why should you expect your users to be engaged?
Give Bluestone Apps a ring at (615) 209-9680 or contact us today for help in developing a successful mobile app retention. With over 23 years of experience, we have your solution.