App retention is one of the issues causing distress for small and large businesses alike. It’s no doubt that people are using mobile apps. In 2017, there were 178 billion app downloads, so it seems more than likely that mobile apps should have some sort of success, right? The number seems promising, however, most apps are not engaged with as much as most would think. In fact, 23% of apps are only used once.
This abandonment can be attributed to many different reasons. For instance, 66% of users feel like they can do the same things on mobile website as on its app. This means that there are a notable amount of apps that don’t offer a value proposition that makes their app stand out from their website. This lessens the value of an app and may give customers a bad impression for future apps, especially if since it’s not a unique case. This, along with other factors like limited storage space in phones and short attention spans, contribute to sizable turnover for mobile apps. Some marketing teams may tend to put retention efforts on the back burner due to this, but the potential of a rewarding return makes this worth another look.
Did you know that a 5% increase in retention can result in a 25% to 95% increase in profits? This goes to show that a little effort can go a long way. With customers constantly migrating to mobile for many of their needs, including shopping and consuming information, many roads point to the increased effort in all things mobile. Apps offer organizations a more direct medium better serve their customers as well as a potential way to better gather consumer data. You can potentially see what part of the app they use the most, how long they use it and receive feedback directly from the user right on the app. A robust and high quality app is also a way to stand out from the competition. The bigger the problem your app solves and the easier it is to use, the better. With all of this in mind, there’s no time better than now to start thinking about a strategic plan for engagement and retention for your mobile app.
To give you a clear idea of where to start and what you can do, CleverTap created a fun guide to teach you about the app retention life cycle and how you can draw data-backed solutions from app retention statistics.
Keeping users on your app requires the similar attention and care needed in (believe it or not) dating! There are a lot of lessons from personal relationships that we can apply to our relationships with our customers. For example, retargeted users show more retention and bring 37% more revenue than new users. This means that it’s a much better return on investment to nurture your existing relationships than to start fresh with new ones.
Throughout this life cycle, you’ll need to make a great first impression and give constant effort towards nurturing your relationship to get them to “say yes” to you and your products or services.This begins by starting out strong by having a great app and by getting your users well-acquainted with your best features. Next, you need to keep in mind the rules for reaching out and keep in contact with intention and personalized attention. Then, you need to nurture your relationship to finally get them to commit to your app and say “yes” to your product or service.
Take a look at their guide below to get a better idea of the app retention life cycle and to gain some actionable steps you can take away and apply to your own app retention strategy.
Please include attribution to CleverTap with this graphic.
