With apps competing to win in the app market, many focus much on their mobile user acquisition strategies. Yet, they fail to consider how much value their current users add to their success. Here are four ways to increase user retention and ensure a long-term relationship with them on your platform.
According to Bain & Company, a 5% increase in customer retention produces more than a 25% increase in profit. Similarly, ClickZ indicated that the likelihood of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, while that for new clients is 5-20%. The reason is simple: loyal customers will never forget your brand or the product they love — you will always be at the top of their minds.
Because of that, if you have an app, having loyal users is even more crucial. Aside from the profit, the cost of attracting new users outweighs the cost of keeping your current ones satisfied and engaged. The more you can retain your users, the more you will save on overall costs, as the cost of marketing to existing customers is about $7, while it costs roughly 5x that for new users.
However, most apps fail to keep users because of a lack of engagement. Sadly, apps lose up to 80% of their initial users over the first few months. Imagine how much that would cost to acquire new users?
If you're serious about establishing a long-term relationship with your users, you need to give your users a reason to keep coming back. Here are user retention strategies you can implement on your app:
1. Offer in-app user support
In-app user support is crucial to increase app retention. No one wants to message a business on a platform and receive no response — you will just lose them. To avoid this, make sure you're always there to offer assistance and respond to requests on time through in-app messaging solutions such as automated customer support that provides 24/7 service through preset FAQs.
It's also important to offer different ways for users to submit their queries or issues. Integrating a live chat in your app help users reach out to you without leaving your platform. Aside from promoting brand loyalty, live chat can also help increase customer satisfaction, with 82% of customers favoring this method of communication over the phone or emails.
2. Make users more involved
Listening to your customers is one of the best ways to improve your business. When you allow customers to give feedback, you show that you value them. In the end, no one knows better how to improve your application than the users themselves. And they love it, too. Users crave more two-way connections, with 42% wanting to contribute feedback to a product or service, so creating in-app opportunities for your user can help improve your long-term relationship with them.
User-generated content (UGC) is a way to add even more value to your product or service. When people feel that they've invested in your app because they created something, they feel more connected to it are more likely to share it with others.
Stackla found that 79% of people say UGC profoundly impacts their purchasing decisions, 60% of consumers believe UGC is the most authentic marketing content. That’s why finding ways to make users more involved is a great way to make your brand more accessible, as people will feel that they know you and that they are a part of your company.
3. Nurture in-app communities
According to a study conducted by Global Web Index in 2020, 36% agreed that "compared to social media platforms, online community site's conversations were regarded as more meaningful." In their findings, respondents said dedicated communities provide a more respectful atmosphere (28%), users felt more able to be themselves (24%) and respected by others in turn.
Establishing in-app communities is one of the most effective methods of building lifelong relationships with your users. Aside from providing reasons for them to keep using your app, groups create a sense of belonging in your platform. Promote user engagement through group chats and empower users to connect and share ideas with others. Let them post UGCs, or make in-app groups an avenue to offer guidance and advice to new users. Your in-app community can become a safe hub for people sharing the same interests to connect.
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4. Create personalized experiences
People are not as passive as they used to be when it comes to their online experience. They want to be treated as individuals, not as generic web surfers. To do that, apps need to consider what the user wants consistently and make their experience as personalized as possible.
In today's world, users want to have personalized experiences. According to Accenture, 83% of consumers are willing to share their data to create a more tailored experience. For your platform, you can utilize in-app bots to store your customer's usage history. Instead of collecting data from various social media sites, you can also know more about their level of engagement through their in-app communities and how they interact with the content featured on your app’s newsfeed. You can also deliver personalized notifications to your users to promote a more interactive experience. Tailoring in-app messages is crucial because you want to constantly be on their radar — even after the first download.
With 25% of users abandoning an app after one use, app developers seek solutions to engage and eventually retain users in a growing market. With these techniques, you can build a more personal relationship with your users, and at the same time, help them make meaningful connections with others. By providing them features that will keep them coming back to your app, your platform will truly become indispensable, enabling you to retain users over time.