Friday view: Keeping customers on board

eGR Mobile Intelligence talks to Len Shneyder, Marketing & Evangelism Manager at app analytics firm Other Levels, about the difficulties of keeping mobile customers around

 

eGR Mobile Intelligence (eMI): How much of a struggle is it to get new customers to download a mobile app?

Len Shneyder (LS): The struggle changes from industry to industry and app to app. It’s safe to assume that most new apps today will have growth challenges when it comes to new user acquisition. There are over 1 Million Apps in the App Store; with that much competition you have to assume that finding an audience presents challenges. By the same token, downloading an app isn’t that hard, lots of people download an app, try it once and then never open it again. The app essentially lays there, fallow on the phone. App publishers that don’t take advantage of mobile communications to engage users are not doing all that they can to grow their user base.

eMI: With so much choice, is it now even more difficult to keep them?

LS: Very much so. App publishers need to create engaging content, in app and through their messaging to drive users back to the app. Depending on the metric and the publisher, users will download an app and use it once, maybe twice and abandon within the span of 30 days. New users need to be nurtured into becoming more engaged, regular users.

eMI: Does this differ at all between smartphone and tablet devices?

LS: There are nuances between sectors on a given device: for instance retail seems to be more tablet centric than phone centric, but the challenges are identical: engage users with compelling content, demonstrate the value of the app, deliver targeted offers once users are engaged, help nurture them into mature, spending fans. For the wagering market you want to reach users at any time, hence it is likely that it will be a smartphone in their pocket. The device changes the possibilities and maybe the design, but the challenge is identical.

eMI: How important are welcome tours and how to guides to new users?

LS: Very. This is part of nurturing unengaged users into more engaged ones. We never recommend aggressive marketing to new users. They don’t know the value of the app, they don’t know what they don’t know. The onus is on the app publisher to leverage app centric communications to help educate and nurture new users into more engaged ones before they start down the monetization funnel.

eMI: Is there more value in them than there might be in welcome bonuses?

LS: Both are valuable tools and will appeal to different people. The right answer here is simple: test it. The OtherLevels platform is optimized for testing different messages and then linking and analysing these outcomes. A great test is to do a random 50/50 split to day 2 users with two offers one can be a welcome aboard message informing them of an interesting game play facet, the other can be an offer for a bonus. The next iteration of these tests can be more centred on what size of bonus, or test different informational welcomes. The first test is a great start, but it should be just that, a starting point for ever finer testing and targeting.

eMI:  Is there any evidence of them helping retain new customers?

LS: New user rates can be dismally low without the application of nurture campaigns. Rates under 1% are not unheard of. A crisp relevant welcome tour followed by a steady and relevant stream of nurture messages will absolutely drive increased sessions lengths and times for new downloaders.