Investing in an app is not enough. That app has to fit in your company’s overall goals it must be backed by strong product and marketing strategy. Here in this blog, I am going to share 5 effective tips and steps to take for your mobile app engagement in 2018.

Till March 2018 there are 3.3 million apps in google play store and it is rapidly increasing because now businesses know the fact that our future customers spent their most of time on the smartphone and what we need to do is just create a small space in their mobile for our business app.

So, we need to understand how we can engage new customers on our business app and we need to identify the things which are stopping the default engagement of our existing customers so can work on their elimination.

5 very effective tips for your business mobile app engagement for 2018:

Now just focus on the points these will explain the whole thing in the easiest way.

1. Better understand your customers and develop a strategy

Did you know that a recent study suggested that more than 20% of apps are used only once and abandoned thereafter?

Most smartphone users have more than 50 apps on their phones and it’s easy for your app to get lost in the saturated and competing marketplace.

Brand such as McDonald’s, Instagram, Runkeeper, Starbucks and many others have successfully used mobile apps to help improve loyalty, boost sales and enrich the overall customer experience — but a big chunk of other brands have struggled to find an effective strategy.

You already know about play store rankings but businesses need to take them seriously it helps a lot to understand the customers. You need to understand what is stopping them from giving 5/5.

As you can see the rating of an app in the screenshot. Below that it shows top features, a specific feature of the app and it’s like percentage. Linking bank accounts 84% likes.

It shows that linking bank accounts feature has highest likes 84%. In a rectangle, we can see the company’s reply on customer’s comment.

“Response and quick or fast response of customer’s query or issue is very very important. Customer’s really appreciated this and they feel valuable.”

1.1 Customer preference and search analysis:

The mobile user frequently searches the same item or product many times because they are interested in that specific one.

Your app contains thousands of products the first time your customer searches any product now next time he has to search it again from your haystack of products.

So, you need to work on maintaining the log of customer’s activities his likes and dislikes which will be used for data science.

Display products as per search analysis and customer preference.

Give the option to first time user to set preference like shown below [Menswear selected by user]

Further, you can give option to set price but remember skip button should be there in case the customer feels irritated.

Above example help you understand your customer’s likes and preference so now you can start showing this relevant data to the customer in such way.

You can display sections like this which will display products based on customer’s searches, order, Wishlist. [Like, shown above image]

Inside the menu, you can also display [Items you may like, What others like*, Recently viewed and etc.] check the above image.

Now I hope you understand what I am trying to say. You can display What others like this section will display the products which are most searched by another user’s not only most searched ordered and in their Wishlist.

2. How you can improve your app’s user experience

As I have told you the number of apps in the play store so you need to compete with them to get your app visible. In order to ensure that your app is successful, you need to ensure that your free android app is unique and stands out of crowd.

Let’s learn in detail how you can create unique positioning to stand out of crowd.

2.1 You need to conduct analysis

Find apps that are similar to the one you have. Pay attention to which parts of these apps you like and which parts you don’t like, and why.

2.2 Re-identify your users

Build user personas for new features and changes to understand better how users will interact with your app (which activities they perform and what content they expect).

2.3 Cut out the clutter

Cluttering a user interface overloads your user with too much information — every added button, image, and line of text makes the screen more complicated. Clutter is terrible on a desktop, but it’s way worse on mobile devices where users have limited screen space.

“Perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away.”

It’s essential to get rid of anything in a mobile design that isn’t absolutely necessary because reducing clutter will improve comprehension and customer engagement.

Your app needs to get modified and updated with new features from time to time as per your conducted user analysis.

2.4 Prioritize features

To make an app more attractive to users, many product designers try to add as many features as possible. Unfortunately, this rarely results in a better user experience.

Nothing is more confusing for first-time users than an app that has too much going on. The most successful apps available on the market are highly focused and present a limited set of features. Thus, limit your app’s feature set by prioritizing what’s important and trimming nice-to-have features.

Lyft’s designers constantly refine experience around core objectives. Features like seeing drivers that are nearby and your cost up front make it easier for a user to order a ride. Image credited to TechCrunch.

2.5 Design finger-friendly tap-targets

Smaller touch targets are a common source of problems for mobile users — mistaken taps often happen because of small touch controls. When you’re designing mobile interfaces, it’s best to make your targets big enough so they’re easy for users to tap.

Your business app does not need to be fancy or shining with animation but if your app contains some cool design patterns It will not be harmful but your users will definitely like.

2.6 Slide Menu Concept

Some specific products from Wishlist, cart, recent searches etc. Can be shown like this

2.7 Don’t ask for permissions right at the start

See in our business sometimes or now days very often we need user’s location at some point. We need to understand the better way to implement this.

2.8 User relevant terminologies in your business app

Unknown terms or phrases will increase load for the users. They will be like What the hell is this? Avoid acronyms, brand-specific terms, cultural-specific axioms, and technical terminology that people might not understand.

3. How to better use the power of Notification

Push notifications are often seen as a disruptive and annoyance.

3.1. Push itself isn’t the problem

The way push is being used — by way too many mobile apps — is the problem. Wrong way of using this great tool end up with 60% of app users turning push off permanently.

You can use push notifications to retain more of your mobile users. You just need to understand best practices for doing so. Now read and understand these points carefully for your business app.

3.2 Tell users their input is invaluable

This was the first push notification after installing the app, and it came about a week later — so Amazon is treading carefully in order to avoid losing its chance to send future notifications. These kinds of PN make user’s special.

3.3 Better timings and its representation

This is a fantastically timed push notification that their blood donation is right now being pumped into a patient in need. It also references the exact date of the donation.

3.4 Call to action in Push Notification

This above CNN PN clearly gives three options Share, save, view to do relevant action. It is easy for users and they really like this. In e-commerce notification’s like item in wishlist from last 7 days.

So you need to maintain the frequency of this PN. Once sent next one should be after at least 36 to 48 hours.

4.The effective way to promote your business app

We need to approach our target customers for that we need to promote our app. You may already have a good marketing strategy but it needs to be real-time effective in the current scenario.

Let me explain to you some points.

4.1 Leverage Your business website

Some businesses have a product which can be only used using a mobile app so that does not mean you should not have a website. You still need a website which will tell users to install your business mobile app like Zebpay.

Zebpay is an Indian cryptocurrency trading platform. You can trade over mobile app only. The website does not provide but it tells the user to install the company’s app.

User’s google for something what they want and they get relevant websites which provide the relevant content that content has the ability to redirect them to Play store or Apple store.

That’s why a business website needs to be taken seriously not only mobile app.

As you can see whole mobile app UI is displayed in webpage. So it creates things clear in user’s that Oh! That’s how it looks and works.

4.2 Feature the App in an Official Blog

Your business site needs to have a blog section which will time to time post new features of your business app. This will help your customer to keep updated with new things in your app.

4.3 App features in Emails

Whenever new features release send mail to your customer telling them about your app’s new awesome feature

Like:

Our new app, (Insert app name here), helps you (insert what the app does). Click here (include hyperlink) to check it out!

4.4 Create a Demo Video

Videos are an easy way for you to showcase everything your beautiful and well-built business app has to offer. Your videos, along with all your content, should be updated weekly or monthly.

Be sure to leverage your social media and other platforms to promote your app. Your demo video can be included in your blog post, Instagram, and YouTube channels.

4.5 Consider Alternative App Stores

Do not rely only on Google Play & App Store; there are various other app stores on the online market where you can upload your app.

We have to promote our business so there is no harm into going for other online app stores.

These are some very good app stores that you should consider:

Google searches matter’s a lot.

Below image show play store apps for a specific google search. They are ranked in specific order as per their google ranking. Relevant content, ratings, searches and many other things that affect ranking.

5. Implement basic good characteristics of the business app

5.1 Size of the mobile app

Your business app size needs to be small below I mentioned app sizes of some famous e-commerce mobile apps

Amazon: 17 MB

Flipkart: 12 MB

Snapdeal: 11 MB

So, what we need to understand here above ones are giants one they have a lot of features and functionalities but still, they have max 17 MB size. So, we need to range our mobile app size as minimum as possible because it increases chances of your business app to get installed.

The developer knows how to reduce the app sizes. While developing App this you need to monitor these things should be done in such a way.

5.2 Graphic and static content

Images in your app should be in proper resolution and lowest size

No place for Grammatical errors

Clear, simple symbols and should be meaningful

5.3 Speed of mobile app

The speed of your app should be fast. It is very obvious. At least decent in different – different network situations.

Use skeletons to create a feeling of fast loading. It feels like data is coming even network is slow.

5.4 Mobile storage usage

For optimization and better user experience mobile internal memory used to store data but sometimes mobile storage is filled with a lot of data rapidly and the customer’s really don’t like this.

This screen shows a file created by WhatsApp on my mobile which is 129.22 MB in size. So, a 100 – 200 MB sizes are ok but if your business app started occupying user’s mobile memory with various files of 100 -100 MB sizes.

I am sure your app will be uninstalled unless it is really important for the customer.

5.5 Icon of mobile app

Eye-Catching App Icon is really very important characteristic of any mobile app

Have a unique shape that stands out

Be creative!

Some of the most popular mobile apps with a great take on the idea of leveraging a logo icon over text.

5.6 Manage Error

If in case any error occurs so display a relevant page or redirect from their even better will be to give an option to report an error.

Overall Don’t get stuck because nothing in your app should be a dead-end.

provide instructions and actions to move forward and manage the situation to get out of it.

It simply doesn’t help users understand the root cause of the problem and doesn’t answer the questions: “Why is this happening and what can I do about it?

Bottom Line:

Engagement is the key for any business to make it successful no matter is it website or mobile app. Engagement comes from best landing experiences for your target audience.

I have tried to describe 5 effective steps to engaged your users on your business mobile app. It is good to follow these 5 steps for mobile app engagement in 2018.

Ask me in the comment section if you want to know more about advance mobile app engagement strategies for your business success in 2018.

Habilelabs is the one stop company for web based and mobile based developments. Contact us if you need any assistance for your next project.