It’s a sad fact that most apps are downloaded and disappear from users’ phones within days. As a result, you can’t rely on mobile users to interact with your app naturally.

The average app retention rate may be low, but you can change the trend with the right metrics and strategies. These essential strategies help drive app usage, lock users into your ecosystem, and boost app retention–delivering more profit for your business and more value for your customer.

Want to learn more?

Read this whole guide. Also, don’t forget to connect with the best mobile app development company UAE to launch your own digital solution in the market. 

What is User Retention?

User retention indicates the number of users who use an app beyond the initial installation.

Why is user retention so necessary?

The number of users who return to your app each month is called retention. Even the most popular apps can lose their users within days. If retention is your primary goal for growth, your company can make a significant difference in its development. To ensure your company’s sustainable growth, you must increase user retention and minimize churn.

Businesses that retain their customers are more profitable than those that don’t. For example, a study shows that a 5% increase in customer service or retention can lead to a 25 to 95% profit rise. In addition, all key business indicators, such as user involvement, participation, user life cycles, payback periods, and the number of users, are affected by retention.

• Offer in-app user support

To increase app retention, it is vital to provide in-app support. Leaving messages on a platform without receiving a response is not a good idea. You will lose your customers. You can avoid this by ensuring you can always answer questions and offer assistance through in-app messaging solutions like automated Customer Support, which provides 24/7 service via preset FAQs.

Users should have multiple options to send their questions or concerns. They use a live chat to help users contact you without leaving your platform. Live chat enables you to build brand loyalty. 82% prefer it over email or phone communication.

• Enhance UX with Tutorial Videos and Documents

With videos and tutorial documents, you can assist users in the onboarding process. These can be included in the app’s experience as part of a natural flow.

You can also use web and app Stories to optimize your onboarding processes. Stories combine concise messaging with images and video to help users move along their journey. These Stories can introduce users to your app, highlight specific features, or encourage specific actions within the app.

• Analyze and collect user data

Delivering a user experience people enjoy and expect is the best way to increase user retention. Therefore, apps must always be aware of user data. In addition, you must combine first-party, third-party, and zero-party data to make the best improvements.

Analyzing all data will allow you to identify user segments, target your efforts more toward specific audiences, and prioritize any improvements you can make. This data can also be used to personalize each user’s experience, which will help increase retention. Schedule a meeting today with the industry experts at the mobile app development company UAE to learn more. 

• User-preferred experiences should be curated

One of the best things to create experiences that users love is to run growth experiments. Therefore, it is imperative to run rapid experiments with extreme agility.

You can test, iterate and optimize the results to find the best features, layouts, and nudge types or when the nudge is triggered. Then, you can distribute different versions to different user groups and set goals related to conversion, CTRs, and specific events. Then, analyze the results. 

You can then choose the version that delivers the best results and distribute it to a larger audience. Additional Agile feature releases help optimize experiments and accelerate the cycle of continuous testing, iteration, and learning.

• Push notifications can be used strategically

Push notifications are powerful tools to increase app retention. This is because push notifications are a great way to remind users to log in when they’re most likely interacting with your app. So, if your app is helping users learn a new language, reminding them after dinner is the best way to start a habit of learning it.

Overuse of push notifications can cause retention problems. For example, a 2021 study found that 39% of users felt they were receiving too many messages, and 8% had uninstalled the app.

You can make the most of push notifications by:

• You can personalize your notification times based on opening rates
• Avoid spamming users with too many notifications
• Test your messages with A/B
• Gamification can be used to increase engagement

We have found that mobile games retain 36% of their customers after the first week. This is significantly higher than any other mobile app. These findings are not only for Angry Birds players. It’s becoming more common to include game-like features in mobile apps. This is called “gamification.”

These are features that make your mobile app more fun and rewarding. These are usually incentives, such as points you accumulate for specific actions. For example, in a mobile reading app, you could assign a level based on how many stories the user has read in the day.

Samsung Health app offers a way to get individual results by combining a personal workout with the opportunity to achieve personal goals.

• Engaged app users can receive perks

You can get your users to return to your app by offering discounts, deals, or other perks. This is true regardless of whether the person has uninstalled your application.

According to a Google study, 30% of users who have lapsed will use an app again if offered a discount. So offering perks is a great way to convert lost users.

App users can be incentivized in many different ways. For example, one way to encourage app users is to give them points they can exchange for various prizes.

This gives users more flexibility to get the rewards they desire. For example, you can earn points by completing tasks such as maintaining a certain balance or making transactions. 

These points can be used to redeem discounts or rebates. To be more effective, incentive programs should include a sense of uncertainty and chance. The prize wheel is a popular way to do this. It generates curiosity and excitement about future wins that can sometimes be even more motivating than the actual prize.

• Social media can be leveraged

The average smartphone user uses at least two social media platforms. In addition, we spend at least a couple of hours each day on social media to keep up with our friends and see what new brands are out there.

You can post engaging content on Facebook and other channels, but you can also use Retargeting Ads to re-engage players. You can let them immediately pick up where they left off. To keep your players interested, chatbots can be used.

Clash of Clans, for example, keeps its players motivated and engaged by sharing tips on achieving something in the game. You can also enable social sharing from your app to solve the problem of players not knowing who is playing your game. A player can share their achievement with their friends, and they will be able to comment.

To Sum it Up!

We’ve discussed the importance of user retention and engagement in ensuring a successful mobile app. The rest is up to your discretion. It’s not easy to create a successful mobile app. However, it’s possible to make your mobile app the next big thing if you have effective mobile marketing strategies that complement these retention strategies. The team of a top app development company Dubai can help you build dynamic strategies for improved user retention. Ensure that you take a consultation and lead a step ahead toward your dream.