These 9 engagement mistakes are busting your chance of a happy ever after ??

Morning!!?

Today for a change, I decided it's time?my cats and I imparted some important marital advice on you...

...no just kidding. We're talking *user*?engagement?here.

And to be more specific -?user engagement?mistakes?that are busting your chances of a happy ever after with your users (aka user "retention").?

Watch my video summary

I see these user engagement mistakes being made over and over again, and sometimes, when I confront product managers about them, it goes a bit like this:?

- So, as you see from my recording, you don't have?any?in-app guidance. The user experience is really confusing.?

- But we have a help center. Has it perhaps occurred to you to click on that "?" button? (I'm literally quoting the PM here)?

- Well, as you?can see?from my recording, I don't actually see the "?" button. Perhaps it's because of my Adblocker. So you?don't?have any in-app guidance.?

We-the-product-people sometimes try so hard to convince the users they shouldn't have the user psychology they do.?

But it's just like trying to push that square peg into a round hole.

It just doesn't work, darling.?

So here are the common user engagement mistakes that happen when you ignore the psychological aspects of user behavior. And that you'd want to stay away from, if you want to make your users happy (and make your company a lot of moolah ?? ):?

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Mistake #1: Not collecting data on new users

So you have 3 different personas with 3 completely different jobs to be done, all requiring taking a different course of action. What do you do??

Show everyone all three?

Where else in the world does that make sense? Don't tell me you don't know who's who. A simple survey in the welcome screen will fix that.??

Gathering data from new users in the welcome screen will enable you to create personalized in-app experiences later on. Jump right here to see these?beautiful examples from Airtable and BacklinkManager.?

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Mistake #2: Not optimizing the first-time user experience (FTUE)

The first-time user experience (FTUE) is often your only chance to leave a good impression. Quickly get users to value and make sure to guide them to engage with what’s relevant to them.

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Mistake #3: Using long product tours that confuse users

C'mon, a human brain can remember 5-7 pieces of information at a time. Your average user can't even remember their own phone number. How are you expecting them to remember 11 steps of instructions?!?

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Mistake #4: Not guiding users to discover relevant features

I seriously doubt in humanity when someone is trying to convince me it's better to jump on a support call every time a user encounters a problem than build a few tooltips.?

And yet - there are still so many tools that don't offer any in-app guidance at all.?

Why???

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Mistake #5: Using too many in-app engagement prompts

It's either all or nothing, eeh? Either a desert or a jungle??

What happened here, Zoom?!?

You just entered a call, and get ambushed with tooltips.?

Or here - Marketmuse, I'm looking at you - why did you put that Resource Center *and* a webinar signup on your signup page?

Mistake #6: Not announcing new features and product updates

I know, I know.?

A PM comes to you on a Monday telling you that you need to come up with a GTM plan for a new feature that's going live on Thursday.?

All your plans for the week go out of the window.?

But please - creating a modal or a slideout to announce a new features takes 50 seconds of your time (at least when you're using?Userpilot???)?

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Mistake #7: Not collecting user feedback (or acting on it)

You should have a feedback widget or use contextually triggered micro surveys to ask users for feedback on e.g. new features.?

E.g. here's an example of Jira trying to mitigate my post-Jira-stress-disorder with some cute emojis:?

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Mistake #8: Not using the right UX microcopy

A wall of text inside your app can do more harm than good.?

Work on your microcopy to make it short, convincing, and action-oriented.

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Mistake #9: Failing to provide proper in-app support

"Yes, I've heard you. You have help docs. But I want help now, here, as I'm trying to get something done inside your product that I'm paying for btw. So don't act like you're doing me a favor by adding instructions in tooltips or pulling your knowledge base into a Resource Center inside your app.?

(Still) Yours Truly,?

Your user."??

+ Last minute webinar announcement?

I will be talking to another Product Hero?later today?-?Gon?alo Henriques -?on what it *really* means to be a Growth Product Manager in a Startup. So if you're curious about this role - jump on the live interview with us today at?6 pm BST!?

See you next week!?

Emilia and?the unofficial Head of Marketing at?Userpilot?