With shocking statistics such as 80% of all app users churn within 90 days I feel like it’s almost my duty to warn you well in advance and provide you with the most useful possible advice going forward to try and keep as many of those lovely users engaged as best you can…
In order to provide you with the most relevant, on-the-ground information there is, we decided to reach out to the peeps in the world of app marketing who’ve been there done and get their guidance into how best to go about mobile app engagement…
Table of Contents
- App Marketing:7 Top Tips For Superior Mobile User Engagement
- guaranteed app ranking
- keyword installs
7 Key Tips From The Experts on Mobile User Engagement
1. Multi-Channel
Global Digital Marketing Manager at Zinio, Mirela Cialai highlights multi-channel marketing as one of her strongest tools for creating mobile user engagement. This can include email, push notifications, in-app messaging and more.
Yes, push notifications are the most effective method of reaching out to your app users, but don’t overlook the benefits of trying other channels alongside push. A multi-channel approach will allow you to target the users who opted out, gives more room to provide your users with richer, more detailed content, and prevents you from looking spammy from sending notification after notification.
2. Personalisation
According to Thano Patsis, Head of Mobile at Betway:
“Personalisation is the key here. Try to treat every user differently, use social engagement, ask for feedback and use giveaways or competitions.”
For most apps, your user will require completely different messaging dependant on their reasonings for downloading your app, demographics such as their age, gender and interests plus whether or not they are a brand new user and unfamiliar with your app or if they are regular or even dormant users you are attempting to re-engage.
Given the amount of data you can collect from your user based on their in-app behaviour, the possibilities for personalisation are endless. The more personal your messaging is the more likely it is to capture the user’s attention and make it almost impossible for them not to engage.
3. Learn From Your Competitors
Don’t be afraid to check out what your competitors are doing to engage their users. Yes, thinking outside of the box is great but as Tim Vogel, Head of Performance Marketing at Bux said;
“Don’t reinvent the wheel here. Look at what other (similar) apps are doing to engage their users and make simple adjustments and measure the impact. Also, engagement is great, but if it doesn’t lead to app monetisation in the end, it won’t help your business grow.”
That being said, don’t be a copycat either.
4. Listen To Your User
“Provide some opportunity to provide feedback in a seamless way so that improvements can be learned.”
The wise words of Peter Adams, Mobile Digital Marketing Manager at Shell.
Listening to your audience is quite possibly one of the most important mobile user engagement strategies. Make it easy for your users to contact you and share their dislikes directly. This gives you an opportunity to iron out any issues before users resort to sharing their negative feedback directly online for everyone to see as an app store review. Something you definitely want to avoid as user ratings are core to your app’s success
5. Provide Value
As Rachelle Garnham, Marketing Manager at Mallzee says:
“Value matters more.”
This was further explained by the CEO of Owlie, Cédric Oeblinger:
“Engaging your app audience is not about sending push notifications as this is just a marketing trick. Truly engaging your app audience is about giving valuable content and a bundle of amazing features that matters for the users. Your application must be lovable.”
If your app is providing added value to someone’s life, then chances are, they are going to keep using it. Unless you are 100% sure that the push notification you are about to send to all users is going to add value then DON’T send it. It’s likely that it may only be relevant to a select group of users.User segmentation is key to ensure the right group of users receive the right messaging.
6. Deep Linking
Mirela Cialai, Global Digital Marketing Manager at Zinio stresses that deep-linking is an important strategy to promote mobile app engagement “to make sure it’s a straightforward user journey.”
For clarification, a deep link is a URL that opens and directs a user to a specific location within an app allowing you to take the user to the exact page you wish them to view in any app.
When deep linking is not enough (e.g if the user does not already have the app downloaded) that’s where deferred deep linking steps in and redirects the user directly to the App Store to install the app.
7. Simple Onboarding Process
App onboarding is primarily the first point of contact so this is something you want to get right in order to make a great first impression. A positive first interaction with your app user is vital to encourage further mobile app engagement.
Iain Russell, App Marketing Manager at Moneyhub explains;
“This can be the toughest nut to crack. You have the elusive download from the user and now you want to keep them engaged with the app and ensure they don’t open once and never return again.
My best advice is to make sure any user on-boarding is as seamless and natural as possible being clear and open about anything you need the user to input or opt-in too. This website is great for reference on good and bad case studies for user onboarding.”
Typically, the main goal of onboarding is to educate the user about the apps functions and benefits, allow the user to register their login details and to collect data that can be used to make your messaging more personal and valuable for each user.
