Channeling Marketing to Mobile App Journey?-?The Life & Death of an?App

You can revive the death of an app. Just bring those churned users back.

Think about how many apps you have in your smartphone now. Most of them you haven’t even used for a long time after installing. Some of them you never even opened.

Think about that photo editor you downloaded to create a story for your social media. Or think about that time wasting game you downloaded to play on your free time. Chances are you haven’t opened it after the 1st time.

The major problem underlying such scenario is that our marketing plan ends in acquisition and we hardly think about how to drive them forward after they have installed the app.

But this should not be the ideal situation. In fact, with the booming number of people using mobile phones for regular tasks, your app should not be the one sitting around like a space consuming burden on someone’s phone.

Here are some facts:

Now, more than half of all web traffic is mobile. (Source)

In July 2020, there were 5.15 billion unique mobile users, making up 66% of the global population. (Source)

Ericsson Mobility Report predicting a 25% increase in mobile traffic by 2025.

Bearing this in mind, let’s talk about the stages that a user goes through in an app’s lifecycle:

1. Installation—

The user downloads the app with some intentions in mind. Most of the intentions lie behind the communication that is provided in the installation landing page (Google play store or iOS app store). So be very clear about all the features you have before communicating anything during installation.

2. Engagement —

This is the longest period in an app’s lifecycle. Customers use the service you are offering and either they continue with it, or lose interest. Several things need to be considered here:

• Is the UI user friendly?
• What services are they using the most?
• From where are they dropping off?
• If there’s any bug or unwanted feature in the app
• What can be done to increase the user’s engagement

3. Uninstallation —

The death sentence of an app. Once a user uninstalls an app, there’s high possibility of his/her never coming back again. Even if he/she does, it costs a lot. Things to consider here are:

• Are they potential customers? (Observe their engagement and activities for lifetime)
• What were some of the last actions they took before uninstalling? (Some close or same patterns can give you a solution right away).
• What incentives can be provided for them to come back?

Keeping all the above things in mind, marketers should draw a blueprint regarding what to do in different stages and how that can be automated.

Let’s get down to a simple roadmap how we can visualize a marketing plan with the different cohorts in mind.

i) Acquisition:

Careful and well though A/B testings is the key here. Most marketers can’t confidently say which type of audience will work for them the best. Even if they have the best audience researched, you still need to identify what kind of creatives resonate with them the best. Don’t be afraid to play with multiple types of users and creatives here.

ii) Retention:

Once a user has on-boarded, start engaging with them. Customization is the key here. Use notifications, social media presence and paid advertisements to always be on top of the mind of the customers.

Data plays a vital role here. Observe very keenly what the customers are doing when they land on your app. What products they are searching the most? Where are they dropping off? Are they facing trouble in the UI/UX? Are they getting the service they intended for? Are they getting the opportunity to complaint? Are the complaints taken heed to?

Try to communicate the best things you have to offer to your customers. For any inconvenience, apologize to them. Don’t let them sit idle. Give them challenges to complete, quizzes to attend.

Divide your users into different cohorts to retain. Some widely used cohorts are:

a. Loyal Customers: They engage regularly with your service and are with you even with small inconveniences.

Measure their lifetime value. Then calculate how much more incentives can you give them to get them delighted. Incentives doesn’t always need to be monetary. A simple gesture like a “thanks note” goes a long way in order to retain them.

b. Low Hanging Fruits: These are the customers that are now inactive and are likely to get churned in the near future. Their characteristics show certain behaviors like: Purchased a while ago and did not engage anymore, still have the app installed, sometimes visits the app but very rarely goes beyond the Homepage.

Learn what endured them to take your service the previous time. Tie that with any offering you have related to that service. If the customer is restricting him/herself from because of dissatisfaction, try to understand them by running FGD and surveys. Then communicate to them how it has been resolved.

c. Fresh Basket: These are the users that have just installed the app. Now they need proper roadmap as to what to do in order to enable your service or purchase your product.

Tutorials, First order incentives & helpline.

Make tutorials available in places of the app where they are easily visible. Greet them welcome just after they have installed the app. Give them a way to ask questions (A help button maybe!).

d. Churned Users:

Identifying churned users is not a hard task. Either they have uninstalled the app, or have been inactive for a long period of time and has no app activity.

You can revive the death of an app. Just bring those churned users back. The most effective way is to learn why they churned in the first place. Most cases you will learn the following:

• They don’t need the service anymore
• They were utterly dissatisfied with the service
• They have found a better alternative.

The key role here is to take surveys of a big population.

Ask them questions regarding to your service or product. Learn what pissed them off. Then communicate with them how you are trying your best to solve the issues. They already has the intent to buy from you. They just need a push to continue again.

In order to be a complete marketer, each of these segments need to be paid attention to. Always try to come up with automated processes of reaching to different segments of customers. Apply customizations wherever is necessary. Be the savior of a dead app and the creator of a potential app. Best of luck!

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