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Don't Become A One-App Wonder: 5 Ways To Avoid App Fatigue and Boost User Engagement

One thing is true for all marketers and app developers: retaining app users is difficult. According to Nielsen, there is likely a threshold of how many apps people will interact within a month — just over a couple dozen — and this number hasn’t grown much over the past few years.

This is good news for staples like Google Maps and Facebook. But what does this mean for all the other apps vying for consumers’ time?

Disengagement has been more the norm than the exception, and as a result, many marketers take a “churn and burn” approach to attract users to their app. However, this method proves ineffective in attracting loyal users that engage and re-engage with app content.

Here are five simple concepts and steps to build a more sustainable user base. Pay attention to user behavior and adapting your app to meet the needs of engaged app consumers.

1. Understand What Your Users Are Saying With Every Click

In any business, it is difficult to understand how a product or service is performing without user data. Would you create a product not knowing your audience, what need your product would meet, or what problem it could potentially solve?

The same principle should be applied to your mobile app engagement strategy. As an app owner, it is critical to think about how your audience behaves on your app, and if there are audience segments that you can isolate for targeting purposes, or if certain behaviors are more consistent than others.

2. Let your Data Work For You: Set Goals, Quantify Success

Mobile analytics illustrate how users are finding, engaging with and purchasing your app. They help you make informed decisions on how to engage and re-engage mobile users. However, many brands stop measuring success after the initial application download.

In order to fully leverage your mobile media investments, understand your KPIs. Is the app purely an engagement tool, or is it also a sales tool? Is it an awareness tool? Do you need users to find other potential fans? All of the above?

Without knowing your end goal, is it worth building an app in the first place? Remember, if the goal of the application isn’t clear to you, then chances are it’s not obvious to users.

3. Use Analytics To Predict Trends And Re-Engage Dormant Or Infrequent App Users

Many mobile users purchase or download apps on a whim and forget about them after one use. Not paying attention to these actions (or non-actions) could be a missed opportunity.

By utilizing audience insights, you can communicate with your users in a “you asked and we listened” type of approach, which can be powerful for retention and re-engagement. For example, in-app push notifications are an effective way to let users know when an app has been updated. By analyzing the in-app behaviors of your most valuable users, you can target low activity users via push notifications and incentivize them to come back.

4. Scale Across Multiple Operating Systems

Perhaps surprisingly to most developers, Android devices account for nearly 80% of the mobile market, Apple’s iPhones account for only 12%, according to a recent report from IDC. To fully capitalize on the mobile app ecosystem, brands must create an app for all relevant operating systems for the broadest reach possible. Therefore, it’s important to not only optimize for mobile, but optimize for device.

5. A Steady Stream of Content Will Help Keep Your App Afloat

As with all things digital, the brands that maintain the most relevant, fresh and current content will attract the highest volume of repeat viewers. To win a slice of the mobile app pie, understand your audiences’ interests and present them with a steady and regular stream of usable content. Tap into data insights for more engaging and relevant experiences. By increasing content relevancy, your app will quickly become a regular source of information in daily life.

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