12 Strategic Actions to Maximize Mobile App Engagement

The number of mobile apps installed in 2023 will amaze you - 257 billion. At the same time, daily mobile app retention across iOS and Android dropped by 12% in the same year. Where do businesses fail to retain their customers? The massive number of mobile app installs clearly shows how crowded the market is. Therefore, every app must be unique and have exceptional engagement strategies to retain customers. If not, there is no doubt that they might lose their customers to the competitors. Ever tried building a mobile app engagement strategy to retain users and wondered why it failed? The answer is with your customers. Let's find out what the customers are looking for and build strategies to provide them with the same.

Why Prioritize Mobile App Engagement?

87 percent of brands report increasing their customer engagement investment. Do you also plan to invest more in improving customer engagement? Then, let's explore what customers want brands to offer them.

How to Increase Mobile App Engagement: 12 Practical Ways

1. Simplify Onboarding

Improving mobile app engagement rates starts with the first impression users get from onboarding. It's essential to make the onboarding experience as unique as the users. Start the user journey with a quiz that asks the right questions and directs users to features that match their interests. The quiz also helps improve value perception and convert free trial users into paying customers.

• In-App Guides:

  They clarify the users' doubts while navigating and improve their perception of the app.

• Invoke Guides:

  These guides help users to get support whenever needed with just a click.

• Interactive Walkthroughs:

  Walkthroughs are an ideal tool to engage passive users and turn them into active participants.

• Monitoring Onboarding Experience:

  Businesses should focus on monitoring the user onboarding experience. This will give them an idea of the features users find difficult to access and help improve them.

2. Personalize User Experience

Did you know that 72 percent of customers engage only with personalized messaging? Also, 80 percent of frequent shoppers wish brands would give them a personalized experience. A common opinion among customers is that businesses treat them as numbers, not people. Therefore, top companies are investing in improving the personalized experience. For instance, Netflix and Amazon recommend shows and products based on users' unique search histories and preferences.

3. Implement Gamification

Gamification is a proven strategy that improves the overall engagement of app users in various industries. For instance, 80 percent of learners prefer that their educational institution have some kind of gamified engagement, like leaderboards and streaks. Gamification is also a preferred employee engagement strategy in mobile apps. It forms the foundation for leading businesses' tiered loyalty programs.

• Challenges or Exciting Missions:

  Add exciting missions that users can participate in to earn credits or exclusive rewards.

• Leaderboards:

  Rank users based on their credits to let others know how top performers are gaining rewards.

• In-App User Earned Badges:

  Provide users badges based on their engagement level and let them share them on social media or within the app community.

4. Use Push Notifications Strategically

Notifications are ideal for providing users with the necessary information and updates. However, when used too frequently, they can lead to user churn. Moreover, these push notifications mustn't interfere with users' activity.

• Timely Communication:

  Mobile app notifications should deliver real-time updates without interrupting the user workflow.

• Personalized Notifications:

  The notifications should provide information relevant to each user's activities and interests.

• Action-Oriented Notifications:

  Notifications should prompt immediate action from users and assist them in addressing any issues or taking advantage of a new opportunity.

5. Provide Real-Time Support

Customer service is an essential mobile app engagement strategy for businesses. One bad experience can cost you more than half of your consumers as they say they would switch to a competitor. One of the biggest challenges customer service agents face is the lack of consumer data, which can lead to a negative customer experience. With Google removing third-party data, businesses increasingly focus on collecting user data through feedback and surveys. This gives them a better idea of the customer experience within the product and helps develop a positive customer experience.AI-powered user assistance isn't new t customer service, but recent developments have taken it to new heights. AI can handle vast customer data and provide timely and relevant solutions. It improves customer satisfaction and reduces the time customer service agents have to invest in solving customers' queries.

6. Monitor Mobile App Engagement Metrics

Understanding user behavior helps businesses determine how users interact with the app and improve it for better user engagement. So, it's important to track mobile app user engagement metrics right from the user onboarding. It helps simplify the process and identify the right questions to ask during the process. It also empowers marketers to take users to the right features and personalize the experience.

7. Design Separate Experiences for Mobile App and Web Users

Businesses should improve mobile app engagement by making it unique compared to the web experience. Since mobile devices have smaller screens, they demand a simplified and intuitive design. It's also essential to have some on-the-go and easy-to-use functionalities. But how are the leading brands making their mobile app unique from the web experience?

8. Encourage User-Generated Content

The content from users, including reviews, photos, and social media posts, has a more significant impact on customers than the content from the brand. It is social proof, influencing potential users' opinions about the product or service. It also encourages users to interact frequently with the app to create or engage with others' content.

• Social Sharing Features:

  Integrate features to let users share their content on social media accounts to improve visibility and engagement.

• Rewards and Incentives:

  Businesses should reward users for creating content for them through points, badges, and discounts.

• Challenges and Contests:

  Businesses can encourage users to create more content through contests or challenges. This enables more potential users to try and build content, improving mobile app engagement.

9. Regularly Update and Add New Features

Users' preferences and requirements change frequently. Therefore, it's important for companies to update the app with new features to keep it relevant. Adding new features helps businesses to stay ahead of competitors and improve the user experience. But how can companies develop new features that meet users' needs?

• User Feedback:

  It's essential to gather and analyze user feedback to understand what they are looking for in the app.

• User Experience Survey:

  When adding new features, it is essential for businesses to ask customers their opinions. This helps them understand and optimize the features and prevent user churn.

• Analytics Tools:

  Businesses should identify where users engage less and the underlying reasons.

• Market Research:

  Detailed research on industry trends and competitor offerings is vital to ensure maximum user engagement.

10. Offer Incentives and Rewards

Marketers can offer users incentives and rewards to encourage them to engage more. Making the rewards unique and personalized for every user is also essential. This approach builds customer loyalty and prevents user churn. A tiered loyalty program is an example of how top companies reward their users for engagement. These programs improve user engagement at relatively low points. Implementing gamification in loyalty programs makes it more exciting, and marketers can effectively assign users exciting missions and challenges. Through leaderboards and streaks, businesses can keep users returning to engage more.

11. Optimize UI/UX Design

A well-designed UI or UX creates a positive impression on users. It also encourages users to explore the app further. It improves the app's user-friendliness and creates an enjoyable user experience.

• Simplify Navigation:

  It's essential for businesses to ensure that the app navigation is simple.

• Consistency in Design Elements:

  To create an engaging user experience, design elements like colors, fonts, and button styles should be consistent.

• Speed Optimization:

  The app must load quickly and run smoothly to engage users and prevent frustration.

12. Suggest Unique Location-Based App Suggestions

Location-based app suggestions give users relevant content, services, or features based on location. These suggestions are contextually aware and help build mobile app engagement.

Maximize Customer Engagement With Quest's AI-Powered Solutions

With these 12 winning strategies, you can enjoy maximum mobile app engagement. However, finding what works for you and your customers is equally important. Quest Labs helps you identify places of improvement and builds unique strategies to maximize mobile app engagement.

• AI User Segmentation:

  Classify your users into groups based on their preferences and interactions to better understand them.

• Generative Personalization:

  Understanding their preferences makes the user experience unique for every customer.

• AI User Assistance:

  Give users continuous support and minimize user churn rates.

• Gamified Engagement:

  Engage your users through gamification and reward them for participation.

Quest Labs ensures you maximize user engagement by understanding your customers and what works within your industry. Quest's solutions help you launch features faster by reducing development time by 95%. So, book a free demo and talk to us.

FAQs

1. How to design a user engagement dashboard for mobile app?:

   A user engagement dashboard should be clear and user-friendly. It should also include the necessities of different groups with access to the dashboard.

2. Which mobile metrics are used to evaluate app engagement?:

   KPI What's It?