Tag Archive for: User Retention

How To Improve User Retention By Studying The Competition

It’s tough out there. The app marketplace isn’t what it used to be due to incredibly high competition. Considering that there are over 2.8 million apps on Google’s Play Store and around 2.2 million apps on Apple’s App Store, app developers and publishers have their work cut out for them. And the same old strategies that worked in the past seldom work in today’s digital marketplaces. 

However, it’s not all doom and gloom if you adopt the right strategies for pushing forward the next generation of engaging apps. Firstly, you’ll need to accept that an app building competition isn’t a bad thing, as this creates new opportunities. Secondly, implement a solid ‘update app‘ strategy that causes the user to follow through. Thirdly, think about how to improve user retention since this will help in increasing your ROI.

Finally, never fear competition, as there are several effective ways to develop successful apps in the current climate. Below, we provide a few handy tips about studying the competition and using that to your advantage.

1. Better Understand Your Audience’s Needs

It’s no secret that you can’t tailor a user-centric experience if you don’t know your target audience. Thus, take the time to learn as much as possible about your current and future users. Find out their age, gender, language, location, occupation, devices, interests, and marital status. 

Of course, you can delve deeper by finding out more about their behavior, habits, personality, and values. All this data will help you compile accurate user personas, which will give you a clear understanding of your audience’s needs.

2. Improve Upon Features Users Don’t Like

Even your most well-made app won’t please all your users. You may have released a messaging app that runs smoothly and boasts a ton of handy features. However, some of your users may find the available emojis unappealing and start looking for alternative messaging apps. Check out what your competitors are doing, and implement the necessary improvements when your users click the update app button.

3. Improve Overall UI/UX Design

Your production values make a massive difference in how users perceive your app. The quality of all your assets and overall UI/UX design will make or break the final product. All your visual elements, which may include menu icons, fonts, and the update app button, to name a few, are vital to your app’s success.

Furthermore, you should implement these five key elements for your UX design: information architecture, interaction design, usability, prototyping, and visual design.

4. Release More Purposeful Updates

Always delve deeper into how to improve user retention. It’s common for many developers to focus primarily on bug fixes for their update cycles. While this is good for app stability, many users may grow tired of using apps that don’t offer significant feature upgrades. With these regular updates, you ensure that your app remains modern and secure and that you care for your users.

5. Study User Feedback For New Ideas

Any app building competition can be a game-changer. Your users aren’t just using your apps, but also those released by competitors. That’s why it’s important to gather user feedback and study it carefully. Find out what they’re saying about your apps and those made by the competition. After gaining this valuable insight, discuss it with your team, and plan your upcoming updates accordingly.

In Conclusion

Learning how to improve user retention by studying the competition is a step in the right direction. You’ll need to follow a few important steps, such as understanding your audience’s needs, improving features users don’t like, improving UI/UX design, release purposeful updates, and study user feedback.

The result is an app building competition while engaging users. With years of experience in app development, NS804 can help you achieve your business goals with professionally made apps.

Mobile UX Best Practices for User Retention

Best Practices to Maximize User Retention

Businesses operate through people. In other words, employees, customers, organizational leaders, and even industry thought-leaders. The list goes on and on, but nonetheless, businesses rely on the people they serve. For mobile app developers, the most important type of person is, arguably, the end-user. Hence why user retention is sort of the ‘holy grail’ when it comes to mobile app development.

User retention is critical for mobile app developers because it is the metric that defines the total average userbase of the mobile app. User acquisition is another important metric for mobile app developers to track, but a higher acquisition rate does not always equate to a similar retention rate.

In the app store, user acquisition strategies are what will attract new first-time users. However, user retention strategies are what will keep those users returning to your mobile app time and time again.

Retention Strategies

Whether designing enterprise mobile apps, or consumer-facing mobile apps, retention strategies are crucial to keeping gained users happy. Retention tactics will vary slightly depending on some app-specific data. For instance, financial tracking and personal budgeting apps will have a drastically different user retention strategy than say, a dating app.

User Control

User control is one of the current trends in user experience that improves retention rates. Allowing the end-user more direct access and customization over the user experience is a good way to ensure that people are enjoying their time on the app. Developing a mobile app that allows users to customize their individual experience almost guarantees a positive user experience. In turn, this boosts user retention rates.

Additionally, allowing users to choose which, if any, notifications the mobile app delivers to their home screen has been shown to greatly reduce mobile-app deletions. More than ever before, users and consumers are prone to protect their privacy. Limiting the access of a mobile app can provide the level of trust consumers are looking for.

Swift Onboarding

Another pillar of strong mobile app UX is a swift onboarding process. Bringing new users into the world of the mobile app in an efficient and quick manner is a good way to immerse users in the actual application itself. Rather than spending valuable time forcing users to click through another set of screens, that time can be better allocated. Instead, new users can jump right into the heart of your mobile app.

A swift onboarding process also improves in-app efficiency and shows users respect for their already busy schedules. In turn, contributing to the comprehensive user experience.

Mobile App UX and User Retention

Retaining mobile app users is a difficult task in an era that offers consumers so many solutions to a single problem. Prioritizing the development of strong user experience is sure to mitigate fickle users prone to jumping ship, and improve your mobile app user retention rates.

For more information on how to build a successful user retention strategy visit NS804. NS804 is the premier source for everything mobile app development, from UX to back-end development, and even marketing. Visit NS804 today and start realizing your mobile app of tomorrow.

User Acquisition

Enhancing User Acquisition and Retention Strategies

The Importance of User Acquisition and Retention

Building a functional app is only the beginning of the journey. Once available, app developers need to attract users to the finished product. A task accomplished through a series of tactics and strategies known as user acquisition.

While user acquisition is aimed at gaining new users, user retention is the other side of the coin. In other words, keeping the acquired users. There are many strategies related to boosting user acquisition and user retention. Yet these tactics are always evolving.

It’s important to stay up to date on the latest in user acquisition and user retention.

Five of the Latest User Acquisition Strategies

CleverTap lists 10 of the most impactful user acquisition strategies. Let’s take a closer look at five of those 10.

  1. App Store Optimization – Discussed in NS804’s original post on boosting UA, app store optimization is a vital strategy in user acquisition. There are many ways to optimize for the app store. Including updating keywords, and logos, and other media associated. Keeping these elements updated will help continuously attract new users.
  2. Organic Mobile User – This is a newer model of user acquisition. Essentially, it is the leveraging of existing social media channels and the brand online presence to funnel traffic to the mobile app. Twitter, Facebook, and any social media platform can direct users to the mobile app. Additionally, paid advertising can accompany organic mobile user strategies to further drive results.

    The Last Three

  3. Influencer Marketing – Influencer marketing is also a product of the new age. Going hand-in-hand with organic mobile user acquisition strategies, influencer marketing has become quite powerful. The endorsement from well-known celebrities or personalities can drive hundreds of thousands of users to a mobile app.
  4. Traditional Marketing – Sometimes however, the traditional way of doing something is still one of the best ways. There are a myriad of traditional marketing techniques that are still very powerful and impactful. Incorporating email marketing, traditional content-marketing, and more broad avenues of paid advertising are still great ways for mobile apps to gain exposure and acquire new users.
  5. Referrals and Invites – Word of mouth is still one of the most powerful and influential factors out there. No matter the market or product or service. Word of mouth can make a business thrive, or make a business dive, so to speak. Providing a strong user experience will encourage users to tell their friends, post through social media, and garner more natural traffic to your mobile app.

Now More Than Ever

Especially in the world today with the reality of COVID-19 still ruling the globe, consumers and mobile app users are banding together like never before. Composing a strong user acquisition and user retention strategy is more important now, with record numbers of mobile app users hitting the app stores for everything from entertainment to community, and connection.

NS804 is dedicated to making mobile app development and mobile app design services available to anyone with a great idea. Visit NS804 today and get in touch to get the conversation about your mobile app project started.