Three Ways to Increase Mobile Engagement Through Apps
In today’s market, eCommerce doesn’t end at a PC. It certainly doesn’t end on a laptop, either. Your business can target customers that shop from home, and it should, but that isn’t the end game. Technology has been integrated with ways never seen before, and your brick and mortar store could be visited on a whim by a man in a nearby park searching for a product that you sell on his mobile phone. That’s right, mobile is the future. You want a fully optimized site for your mobile customers, too, or you’ll be left in the past.
One thing that plenty of businesses ponder is the necessity of apps. Well, as any Google AdWords training course will tell you, your mobile site is there to encourage new customer engagement in hopes for conversion. Your app, however, is there to retain ongoing customer relationships and encourage further engagement from those who already have. The success of a mobile app is overwhelming if done right.
An Example:
I would never have thought to look to Groupon for Father’s Day, had I not had their app. The moment that I received a push notification reminding me that Father’s Day was arriving and that Groupon had plenty of deals to choose from, I was sold. What does this mean? It means that I, an already active user of Groupon, was invited to re-use, re-engage, and send Groupon a conversion through my purchase. It wasn’t hard to convince me; I already enjoy the platform. Customers like me and customers similar to me are the customers that your mobile app can reach, and a recurring customer is always a win.
Let’s Talk Apps
Simply having an app isn’t going to do you any good. Why? You need to build an app that customers actually want to use. You need to think about strategy, consider a PPC campaign, and implement the latest trends as a hook. At the end of the day, there’s only so much room on someone’s phone. Why did I keep the Groupon app? It’s fantastic. It’s an excellent app that encourages me to utilize the platform to purchase more goods, and successfully, I might add. Be like Groupon; care about your app. 1Digital has put together a few tips to creating an excellent app, and remember, we can help you design it!
PUSH NOTIFICATIONS:
Caps Lock is for the angry or the important, and honestly, we’re angry that so many have skimmed the importance of push notifications. Without the guidance of Groupon, I would never have thought to use it for Father’s Day. I bought my dad a round of golf for him and a few friends; a great gift, right? I digress, there’s no way I would’ve thought to do that without a hefty push notification from Groupon.
What exactly do push notifications do for your customer? Plenty. For one, they’ll remind the customer that they’ve downloaded your app. With so many apps out there, it’s easy for yours to get lost in the mist. However, a push notification will alert the person of their download, typically convincing them to revisit your app. Outside of this, you can specify your notifications like Groupon did, and reach out to your customer with a specific offer. 1Digital Agency can help you create and maintain push notifications to better retain customers and increase your engagement rates.
QUICK ONBOARDING:
Don’t make your customers fight to understand your application. It should not be a puzzle, it should not be a hassle, it should be easy. If you create a thousand steps to sign up, you’re going to lose them. You want to be authentic and you want to be simple. Users should understand the purpose of your app and how to navigate it in no time.
Imagine the first impression with a street canvasser; have you ever stopped to listen to what they’re saying? If you have, have you ever realized halfway through the conversation that you’re being solicited for money, and that you aren’t simply signing a petition (as they coerced you into believing)? Well, think about that anger. Your time was wasted, and you, in some ways, feel lied to. That’s what happens when someone downloads your app, only to spend five minutes trying to sign up to use it. Don’t force people to jump through hurdles; you want engagement, not rage.
INCENTIVIZE YOUR APP:
Don’t make customers feel like your app is simply another extension of your website; give them app-specific deals that make your app worth downloading. For instance, if you’re selling soccer balls, maybe create a two for the price of one deal that is exclusive to those who purchase your soccer balls through your app. You get the idea. Regardless, these are the kind of things that drive engagement, and also drive home the point that your app is a necessity.
This also means advertising your app through your mobile site, as well as your desktop site. Let people know that the app contains app-specific deals, and let them know how easy it is to download and use. Once you’ve got customers using your app, it will be much easier to boost your customer retention.
Contact 1Digital For Your Mobile Success
All of these things sound easy to pull off on paper, but you’re going to run into some snags along the way without the help of eCommerce experts. The designers and developers at 1Digital know how to navigate a mobile platform in a way that brings out a clear victory for customer and merchant alike. Don’t sit around while your sales dwindle, take action and contact a proven success-driver like 1Digital Agency. Check out our mobile app development page, and then give us a ring. You’ll be glad you did.
Retention Tactics, Translated Into Metrics You Can Track
Editorial note: the article references “Google AdWords,” which was renamed Google Ads in 2018; the strategy it describes is unchanged, only the product name. The push-notification, fast-onboarding, and incentive tactics above are sound, but they only improve retention if you measure retention. Translate each tactic into a number you watch weekly:
- Day-1, Day-7, and Day-30 retention. The share of users who return after install. Quick onboarding moves Day-1; app-exclusive value and well-timed pushes move Day-7 and Day-30. If a tactic does not move one of these curves, it is not working — change it.
- Push opt-in rate and post-push return rate. A notification only helps users who allowed them, so the opt-in prompt’s timing matters as much as the notifications themselves. Then track how many recipients actually return per campaign so you can cut the messages that train users to mute you.
- Repeat purchase rate and customer lifetime value for app users vs. web-only users. This is the number that justifies the app’s existence; if app users do not buy more often or spend more over time, the retention work has not paid back.
Push Notifications Without the Uninstall
The Groupon example shows push done well; most apps fail by doing it loudly. The discipline that separates the two is segmentation and restraint. Send behavior-triggered messages (a back-in-stock alert, an abandoned-cart nudge, an order-status update) rather than the same broadcast to everyone, cap frequency deliberately, and respect time zones — a 2 a.m. promotion is how an app gets deleted. Ask for push permission after the user has experienced value, not on first open, and the opt-in rate climbs sharply. The goal is for each notification to feel like a useful reminder, exactly as the Father’s Day example felt, never like an interruption.
Do You Even Need a Native App? Consider a PWA First
An honest addition the original did not cover: a dedicated native app is not the only path to app-like retention, and it is the most expensive one to build and maintain across iOS and Android. A Progressive Web App — an installable, fast, offline-capable storefront — delivers add-to-home-screen presence and (with permission) web push without a separate codebase, and is often the right first step for a store testing whether app-level engagement pays off. Reserve the native build for catalogs with genuinely high purchase frequency and a loyalty program rich enough to justify the ongoing maintenance. Choosing the right vehicle before investing is itself a retention decision.
The designers and developers at 1Digital can help you decide between a PWA and a native build and instrument the retention metrics above so the choice is driven by data. See our mobile app development page and get in touch.