As mobile app experts, we are often asked about how to increase app engagement and marketing strategies towards mobile app development. These are important questions that need to be answered to ensure your app has the best possible chance within its competitive industry and to learn about the strategies to increase your app's retention rate. Let’s look at what engagement means and learn marketing strategies to get your users to come back to your app - time and time again.
Overview:
- What is app engagement?
- How to increase app engagement
1. Email marketing
2. Create a community
3. App store optimisation
4. Push notifications
5. Ratings
6. Incentives & rewards
7. Retarget lapsed users
What is app engagement?
App engagement refers to the level and quality of interaction between users and a mobile or web application which is measured by a series of business metrics. App engagement metrics measure how users interact with an app. These include data like how often users use the app, how long each use lasts, and how many times they open it daily. These metrics help app developers assess how much users enjoy and benefit from the app.
How to increase app engagement & user retention
Engage your users through email marketing
Email marketing campaigns are great for retaining user engagement. You can easily collect your users’ email addresses when they download your app and enter their information during onboarding. You can trigger different email flows, and send subscribers emails that they’re interested in.
This will encourage a higher retention rate because you are providing value to the user and educating them on how to use your mobile app effectively. It also keeps people engaged, so they don't miss any valuable content or updates in future. This is an opportunity for you to remind your app users of your unique value proposition, and click on your app icon if they haven't in a while.
Creating a community
Facilitating a conversation between app users is a great way to build retention. By encouraging users to communicate with one another, you'll make them feel like they are a part of something bigger by encouraging an inclusive and responsive environment. There are many ways to make your community thrive. You can run a monthly contest or allow users to submit photos and stories of how your app has helped them in their day-to-day lives. Implementing a blog/forum and encouraging feedback from users is a tried and tested method to improve user engagement.
App store optimisation
App store optimisation (ASO) is an important element when marketing your mobile app. Ranking in the App Store and Google Play is one of the best ways to generate new downloads.
ASO affects user engagement in two major ways:
Improving visibility
Increasing ratings and reviews
The App Store and Google Play are the first places people will look when searching for a mobile app. Incorporating keywords into your title that relate to your app’s industry, descriptions and screenshots will help ensure your mobile app will be found by the people looking for it.
Getting high visibility is great, but if you're not retaining these new users, then your efforts are wasted. Once a user has downloaded and opened your mobile app they need to be entertained or informed quickly – otherwise, they’ll simply delete it from their phones. This is where retention strategies come in.
One retention strategy is to make sure your mobile app's content doesn't become stale or irrelevant, instead, it remains useful for users at all times - even if they haven't used the app for a while. It’s important to stay on top of digital trends or keep your content relevant because most people won't return to an app unless there is new content delivered to them regularly.
Push notifications
When used correctly, push notifications are a great engagement retention tool. Push notifications can help you to re-engage users who have not opened your mobile app for some time, the same way email marketing works with websites or blogs. Creating intriguing or eye-catching titles/headings is going to reel your consumer in to engage with your mobile application.
If done correctly push notifications will increase retention rates and reduce your app's churn rate, as well as encouraging loyalty which leads to higher retention and engagement over time.
Push notifications have been shamed in the past for being too invasive, so you should only send them when it's relevant and when you believe your users would want to receive them.
Ratings
Increasing your organic ratings is a powerful retention strategy that can be executed by including a prompt for users to rate your mobile app - after they have used it. This lets you know, in an interactive way, what your community of the product and if there are any problems or issues that need attention, such as crashes or bugs in the code.
It's important to pay close attention when people give negative feedback about your mobile app because it can be a great way to improve your product and provide value to consumers.
Offer incentives and rewards
Incentives are a great marketing strategy to improve your app engagement. Incentives reward users who return to your mobile app with a special promotion or discount. You can offer a reward for inviting friends, sharing your app on their social media and other actions that drive better engagement.
Referral systems can be implemented by encouraging users to invite their friends through a shareable link, social media, SMS or email. Offering a reward in return for staying on your mobile app is one way to encourage user engagement. For example, if someone stays with your mobile app for 30 days they may receive extra credits within your app or free services! . This will keep them engaged and coming back time and time again.
Retarget lapsed users
Paid ads are another strategy you can implement to retarget users who have downloaded but not opened your mobile app in a while. By reaching these users with targeted ads, you may improve engagements by bringing back a lapsed user or encouraging a less active user to use the mobile app more.
If your objective is to reduce the chance of users bouncing after they install your mobile app or get your current users to use your app more and make more purchases in-app, many marketers are getting more ROI by focusing on retargeting existing users in paid ad campaigns, rather than focusing on app downloads.
For example, if you have an e-commerce mobile app, and it's been over 28 days since someone made their last purchase, you can run paid ad campaigns to serve these users ads encouraging them to return. Sweeten the deal and make it worth their while with special promotions or discounts on items that fit their previous shopping preferences.
Build apps that your audience needs with PixelForce
We hope this helped you gain some more insights into how to engage your audience through your mobile application. At PixelForce we are expert leaders in mobile, web app development and website development. If you’re looking for ways to increase app engagement or want to learn more about how an app can help your business, get in contact with us today or book a free consultation.
FAQs
How will I know if my mobile app has a high retention rate of users?
There are ways to measure retention that can help you determine whether or not your app has a high retention rate compared to the industry standard. Finding out the retention rate of mobile apps specific to your industry will also help you determine whether your retention rate is high or low compared to the industry
standard. To help you understand retention, let's look at an example. Let's say that 100 people download your app and 20 of those users continue to use it after two weeks - this is a retention rate of 20%.
How can marketing strategies increase engagement?
Marketing is an integral part of any business, and it's no different when you're launching and marketing your mobile app. There are many marketing strategies that you can implement to ensure your users return to your mobile app, such as:
Email marketing
Push notifications
Incentives & rewards
Re-target lapsed users with paid advertising
How do you make an engaging app?
There are many elements that go into making an engaging app, some of the key factors:
Responsive UI/UX design
Clean website design
Simplistic navigation
Graphics, icons and elements
Content that speaks to your target audience