Top App Upgrading Ideas to Boost Your Mobile App Engagement

In a competitive digital environment, making people engaged with your business app is quite challenging. According to an estimate, 80% app users get bored and ditch a mobile app within 90 days of installing an app. It is very hard to retain a user and engage without enriching a mobile app with interesting features that add value to a person’s life.

Most of the mobile app developers focus on the core app concept without paying much heed to the engagement part, today. They are focused on creating logical schemas and framework that are ideal for functioning but forget about creating a delightful customer experience.

Factors Leading to Lower Engagement & Remedial App Upgrade Ideas

Mobile app developers sometimes commit blunders leading to low app engagement rates. Most mobile app today lack simplicity that a user looks for. Some of the major shortcomings of modern mobile apps include:

1. Complicated Onboarding Experience

An app’s main focus is to simplify a user’s life. Sometimes, in a bid to offer sophisticated services, brands and businesses make it hard for users to sign up and use the app. A user struggles to get on board, gets tired and ditches the app in favor of a simple solution. The abandonment of mobile app even before a user starts using its features is the biggest failure of a mobile app design. Apps that make it harder to sign up because of undermentioned problems will never succeed in improving app engagement.

Onboarding Blunders Impacting Mobile App Engagement

· Several steps to successfully sign up and get on board

· Multiple unnecessary input fields during sign up process

· Confusing app sign up process flow

· Lack of social media integration for signing up and using the mobile app

App Upgrade Suggestions to Make the App Intuitive & Engaging

Simple app onboarding process ensures that a user’s lifetime value increases by 500%. The user will feel easier to interact with your app. To make your app promise simple onboarding you can think of the following in your next app upgrade:

· Reduce sign up steps and offer multiple options to register for using the mobile app

· Focus on enlightenment. Offer ready reckoner of essential features and educate the user about availing benefits from those features

· Offer seamless on boarding experience

Example of Simple Onboarding Experience- Hootsuite Mobile App

Bonus — App Onboarding ideas: Don’t Just Inform Users, Engage Them Too

2. Lack of interesting push notifications

According to an industry survey, 68% of the total mobile app users enable push notifications for their favorite mobile app and the same has shown an increase in open rates by 56%. Apps forget to leverage the potential of working technologies like push notifications and expect users to interact on their own. In a busy world, users are constantly bombarded with information overload and to make your app engaging, you have to make them feel that you care about them through relevant push notifications from time to time.

App Upgrade Suggestions

· Embed push notifications in your mobile app

· Give users the option to opt in and opt out for push notifications

· Employing data analytics to study usage patterns and offer valuable information

· Create time sensitive push notifications for creating urgency and increase app engagement

Successful push notification example for improved app engagement- Netflix

Read also: How to make Push Notifications a Growth Hacking Strategy

3. Standardized Approach without Personalization

Achieving great user engagement is not possible without creating target personas and focusing on a particular segment, at large. Many great app ideas failed due to their standardized and rigid approach to offer one-size-fits-all solutions.

Instead of trying to cater a large audience, it is always better to ditch standardized approach in design and features and focus on data analytics to create personalized experience for each user. This will motivate a user to use an app for longer periods and create long term engagement.

App Upgrade ideas to improve personalization

· Embed data analytics in mobile app to track user data and create personalized profile

· Focus on creating a personalized experience through targeted campaigns and segmentation

· Use app engagement metrics to create and evaluate benchmarks and engagement goals

Great Mobile App Personalization Example- Beats Music

4. No Deep Linking

In a totally connected world, it is a mistake if you develop your app with a standalone mindset. Many app developers forget to implement deep linking features in mobile app, making the user experience complicated. A user does not find seamless integration of different platforms and in the end, gets frustrated and uninstalls the mobile app. This dips engagement rates and makes it hard for an app to retain and grow its user base.

App Upgrade Ideas

· Embed deep links in app’s basic interface

· Facilitate deep linking and cross linking by making necessary upgrades in UI.

Deep Linking Success Example: Google indexes deep app links for better visibility and engagement

Read also: Mobile Deep Linking: Key for Growing User Engagement and Sales

5. No use of In-app messaging feature

With the use of in-app message feature, you can display notifications to the user when he/she is active on the app. But if you are not adding in-app message feature then you can face some blunders. Here are some top blunders and solutions if you are not using in-app messaging feature.

Blunders

• Sending the same message to all the users without adding proper or no context

• Not sending any creative or engaging in-app messages

• Focusing on selling products and not on its value

• Fail in using it for optimizing the user onboarding

• Sending too many messages to your users

Solutions

• Try segmenting your messages

• Go for celebrating customer milestones

• Involve in engaging customers when they come or go

• Develop original and concise copy

• Make use of headlines wisely

6. No Gamification factor in the app to entertain users

Gamification factor is imperative to add in the app, but if you are not making its use then you may face some blunders. Here are some blunders and solutions if you are not adding a gamification factor in the app to entertain users.

Blunders

• Not providing any value to the points

• Making use of a linear scoring system

• Relying on UX for the gamification elements

• Forcing users for making irrelevant choices

• Stopping users after On-boarding process

Solutions

• Set proper objectives

• Add value to the whole process

• Ingrained in the ecosystem

• Make it simple and keep it easy-to-use

• Creating sharing loops

Upgrading a mobile app can be a great idea to increase app engagement and achieve business goals. By eliminating app design blunders and implementing the suggested app upgrade ideas, an app can retain users for a long time. If your app developer and designer is not convinced about upgrading a business app, you can always take a second opinion and choose an experienced app development firm such as Intuz.

Intuz has been helping businesses to upgrade their mobile app for better user engagement and results. Through an analysis of latest industry development and innovation, Intuz has been transforming not only the app design landscape but also the way apps are being used. [The proof is here.]

So, the next time you are questioning your app engagement metrics, you should keep in mind that one-size-fits-all doesn’t work in a dynamic digital landscape. Change is the law of nature and for staying relevant and accelerate on the digital growth path, you will have to consider an app upgrade and be benefited in return through a loyal customer base and better mobile app engagement.

If you enjoyed reading, please spread the word by hitting that claps icon!

For more interesting ideas about app development and design, follow Intuz on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.