In a sea of apps, every company is faced with the challenge of getting in front of their target audience/standing out (marketing), getting those users to sign up or convert (user acquisition) and, most importantly providing enough value/creating a habit to keep users coming back (retention). The first two items rely heavily on marketing, SEO, social media advertising, and AppStore optimization; while the final point (retention) relies heavily on the product team, specifically UX. In this brief article, our design team here at Calibrate will detail some pro tips on strategies that tend to work well for various products.
- Push Notifications – Push notifications are the most cost effective way to engage your app users. The open rate for emails is not as high given so many people are getting spammed, SMS has the highest open rate, however, it gets very costly. Push notifications are free and right in front of the user, potentially at opportune times.
- Highly Relevant Messaging – Through leveraging geo-fencing and user data, any app has the potential to trigger in app messaging or push notifications at highly relevant times during the user journey. This ensures the app is valuable and will lead to greater traction.
- Gamification — this is a term you hear lots of products folks throw around. Not to sound cliché, but they do it for a great reason; it works! People are competitive and tapping into their inner athlete or competitive personality, tends to drive engagement and traction. The key is coming up with creative ways to gamify your product, which are sure to keep users engaged and coming back for more!