Contextual

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  • Ask questions of our Product Adoption GPT

    Ask questions of our Product Adoption GPT

    We’ve released a Product Adoption GPT for you to ask questions. Its free to use for any  ChatGPT Plus user and answers with quality advice for user about mobile and web app Product Adoption.


    Contextual's Product Adoption GPT

    The Product Adoption Advisor for Growth Teams is a GPT chatbot tailored by us, using materials we have published previously (and some other great content) for advising members of Product Teams (like developers, product managers, designers, growth teams) on topics such as onboarding, feature announcements, user engagement, retention, and addressing churn.

    If you tell the chatbot your job role, hopefully it will personalize the responses to your style and level of understanding with the “right” level of jargon. If it’s not clear, just ask it to clarify.

     

    We’ve specifically applied it to mobile and web apps, leveraging our extensive knowledge and lessons learned from customer experiences.

     

    The GPT understands the user journey and advises on activating product features.

    Give the Product Adoption Advisor a try and let us know how we can improve it for you!

  • Contextual Joins the Inaugural Australian Startup to Scaleup Summit (S2S Summit) as an Exhibitor

    Contextual Joins the Inaugural Australian Startup to Scaleup Summit (S2S Summit) as an Exhibitor

    Sydney, Thursday 16th November 2023 – Contextual, a pioneering force in Product Adoption, is thrilled to announce its participation as an exhibitor at the first annual Australian Startup to Scaleup Summit (S2S Summit). Organised by Tank Stream Labs, the S2S Summit is set to be a landmark event, celebrating the journey of founders from initial idea to successful exit. This groundbreaking event will be held at the Sydney Startup Hub, located at L1, 11 York Street, Sydney NSW 2000.

    The S2S Summit, scheduled for Thursday 16th November 2023, will run from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM AEDT, offering a platform where Australia’s leading startup and scale-up talent will come together. This event represents an unparalleled opportunity for networking, knowledge sharing, and showcasing the latest innovations in the start-up ecosystem.

    David Jones, Founder and CEO of Contextual, expressed his enthusiasm about the event, “We are incredibly proud and excited to be part of the S2S Summit. It’s not just an event; it’s a celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit that drives Australia’s startup scene. We’re particularly thrilled to be competing in the Pitch Comp, which presents a unique opportunity to showcase our cutting edge user onboarding  solutions and vision.”

    Contextual’s participation underscores its commitment to fostering a collaborative and innovative environment. The company has been at the forefront of delivering cutting-edge Product Adoption solutions and has played a vital role in driving the digital transformation in various industry sectors.

    The S2S Summit is more than just a conference; it’s a gathering of the minds, where the brightest and most creative entrepreneurs share their stories, insights, and experiences. It’s a place where ideas meet execution, and dreams transform into reality. The event program is stacked with sessions led by industry experts, panel discussions, and networking opportunities, ensuring attendees gain valuable insights and make meaningful connections.

    “We encourage anyone interested in the startup ecosystem, whether they’re entrepreneurs, investors, or enthusiasts, to join us at the S2S Summit. It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet and network with the leaders of Australia’s startup industry. Come visit us at our booth this coming Thursday and see what Contextual is all about – where innovation meets practicality,” added Jones.

    The S2S Summit is an essential event for anyone interested in the future of technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation in Australia. Don’t miss the chance to be part of this exciting journey and witness firsthand the vibrancy and dynamism of Australia’s startup culture.

    For more information about Contextual and our participation in the S2S Summit, please visit https://www.s2ssummit.com/.

    Are you looking to get more users to love your mobile and web apps?  Click on the buttons below to get your 14 day free trial or contact us for a demo!


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  • How User Analytics and Onboarding Can Help Emerging Developers Get Their Fair Share of the $100 Billion Boom in Mobile Spending

    How User Analytics and Onboarding Can Help Emerging Developers Get Their Fair Share of the $100 Billion Boom in Mobile Spending

    Introduction

    In a world grappling with economic uncertainties and slowdowns, mobile consumer spending has emerged as a surprising beacon of hope. Despite the ominous signs of a global economic slowdown, the mobile industry has been thriving, hitting a remarkable milestone of $100 billion in early Q3 2023. This phenomenon is a testament to the resilience and adaptability of the mobile ecosystem. For emerging mobile software developers, this presents a golden opportunity to thrive and make their mark in a competitive landscape. However, in order to capitalize on this potential, developers must prioritize effective user analytics, user onboarding, and user engagement tools. In this blog post, we will delve into the impressive figures and explore the reasons behind this remarkable performance in contrast to the broader economic trends. We will also l delve into the significance of these elements and how they can empower emerging developers to not only compete but excel in the mobile spending boom.

    The Milestone Achievement

    The mobile industry reached a significant milestone early in Q3 2023 when it surpassed $100 billion in consumer spending. This monumental achievement was reported in an article by Business of Apps on September 29th, 2023 (“Mobile Spending Hits $100 Billion Milestone Early in Q3”). While this news might come as a surprise given the global economic slowdown, it paints a fascinating picture of consumer behavior and trends.

    Global Economic Slowdown

    Before we dive deeper into the mobile spending phenomenon, let’s briefly touch upon the backdrop of the global economic slowdown. An article by Reuters on September 5th, 2023, reported signs of a global economic slowdown, citing data from the August PMIs (“Global Economy: Global Business Activity Showed Signs of Slowdown in August PMIs”). This slowdown, attributed to various factors including supply chain disruptions and the ongoing pandemic, had raised concerns about consumer spending in various sectors.

    The Resilience of Mobile Consumer Spending

    Mobile consumer spending has proven to be remarkably resilient in the face of these economic challenges. There are several key reasons why the mobile industry has not only weathered the storm but also thrived during this period:

    Digital Transformation: The pandemic accelerated the process of digital transformation across industries. With remote work, online education, and e-commerce becoming the norm, consumers increasingly relied on their mobile devices for various activities. This surge in digital dependence naturally led to higher mobile spending on apps, subscriptions, and in-app purchases.

    Entertainment and Gaming: Mobile gaming and entertainment apps witnessed a surge in popularity during the pandemic. With more people seeking entertainment options from the safety of their homes, mobile games, streaming platforms, and digital content providers saw a significant increase in user engagement and revenue.

    App Monetization: App developers have become more adept at monetizing their offerings through various strategies, including in-app advertising, freemium models, and premium subscriptions. These monetization tactics have contributed to the sustained growth in mobile consumer spending.

    Mobile Commerce: E-commerce has experienced a massive shift towards mobile platforms. Consumers now shop for everything from groceries to electronics using mobile apps, contributing to a surge in mobile commerce spending.

    Consumer Behavior: The pandemic reshaped consumer behavior, with people increasingly turning to mobile devices for convenience, entertainment, and social interaction. This shift in behavior has become a permanent feature of the post-pandemic world, sustaining mobile spending levels.

    Innovation and New Features: Mobile app developers continuously introduce innovative features and improvements, enticing users to spend more on their platforms. The constant evolution of mobile apps keeps consumers engaged and willing to spend.

    The Role of In-App Purchases

    One significant contributor to the robust mobile spending figures is the prevalence of in-app purchases. Many apps, especially in the gaming and entertainment categories, offer in-game purchases, virtual items, or premium content. These microtransactions add up quickly, encouraging users to spend more within the app ecosystem. The ease of making in-app purchases through mobile devices further drives this trend.

    The Role of Analytics and User Onboarding and Product Adoption.

    The mobile consumer spending’s remarkable performance in Q3 2023, despite the global economic slowdown, is a testament to the adaptability and resilience of the mobile industry. However for aspiring app developers success hinges on more than just creating a great app; it requires a deep understanding of user behavior, effective onboarding, and ongoing user engagement.

    1. Effective User Analytics:

    User analytics is the foundation upon which successful mobile apps are built. For emerging developers, understanding their users’ behavior and preferences is crucial for creating apps that resonate and drive mobile spending. Here’s why effective user analytics is paramount:

    1. Data-Driven Decision Making: User analytics provides developers with invaluable insights into user behavior, allowing them to make data-driven decisions. It helps in identifying what features users engage with the most, where they drop off, and what drives them to make purchases.
    1. Continuous Improvement: With analytics, developers can continually refine their apps based on user feedback and usage patterns. This iterative process leads to a better user experience, increased engagement, and ultimately higher spending.
    1. Targeted Marketing: By analyzing user data, developers can segment their audience and create highly targeted marketing campaigns. This ensures that promotional efforts are directed at users who are most likely to make in-app purchases.
    1. User Onboarding:

    Contextual User onboarding is the first impression users have of an app. It sets the tone for the entire user experience and can greatly influence whether users decide to stick around and spend money within the app. Here’s why user onboarding is vital:

    1. First Impressions Matter: A well-designed onboarding process introduces users to the app’s core features and benefits. It helps users understand the app’s value proposition and encourages them to explore further.
    1. Reduced Churn: Effective onboarding reduces the likelihood of users abandoning the app shortly after installation. A smooth onboarding experience can significantly decrease user churn rates.
    1. Education and Engagement: Onboarding is an opportunity to educate users on how to use the app effectively. It can guide users through key features, prompting them to take actions that lead to spending, such as signing up for an account or making an initial purchase.
    1. User Engagement:

    User engagement is the lifeblood of mobile apps. Engaged users are more likely to spend money and become loyal customers. Here’s why user engagement tools are indispensable:

    1. Retain and Grow: Engaging users with regular updates, personalized recommendations, and interactive features keeps them coming back. Loyal users are more likely to make in-app purchases and spread positive word-of-mouth.
    1. In-App Notifications: Well-timed and relevant in-app notifications can encourage users to explore new features, participate in promotions, or complete in-app purchases. User engagement tools help developers deliver these notifications effectively.
    1. Personalization: Personalizing the user experience based on user preferences and behavior can lead to higher spending. Engagement tools enable developers to tailor content, recommendations, and offers to individual users.

    Conclusion:

    The $100Billion mobile spending boom is a remarkable opportunity for emerging mobile software developers to thrive in a competitive market. However, success hinges on more than just creating a great app; it requires a deep understanding of user behavior, effective onboarding, and ongoing user engagement. By harnessing the power of user analytics, onboarding processes, and engagement tools like Contextual, developers can create apps that not only complete but excel in the mobile spending boom. These elements not only drive user satisfaction but also increase the likelihood of users becoming loyal, high-spending customers, ensuring a bright future for emerging developers in the ever-evolving mobile landscape.

    Are you looking to get more users to love your mobile and web apps?  Click on the buttons below to get your 14 day free trial or contact us for a demo!


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  • Top 10 reasons for using Carousels for Mobile app user onboarding

    Top 10 reasons for using Carousels for Mobile app user onboarding

    For mobile app user onboarding carousels used to be a thing but what about now?  Carousels (also known as sliders or onboarding screens) were still a common design pattern in mobile app onboarding. They are used to introduce users to the primary features or benefits of an app when it’s first launched. Carousels typically consist of several swipeable screens, each with visuals and text, sometimes accompanied by pagination dots to indicate progress.

    However, the usage and effectiveness of carousels in onboarding can vary based on several factors:

    Effectiveness: Some studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that not all users swipe through all the screens in a carousel. If the first couple of screens don’t grab their attention, they might skip the rest. Carousels, when used in mobile user onboarding, serve a variety of purposes. Here’s a breakdown of the role they play:

    1. Introduce Key Features: One of the primary uses of carousels in onboarding is to give new users a quick overview of the app’s main features. By swiping through a series of screens, users can get a glimpse of what the app can do before they dive in.
    1. Simplify Information: Instead of overwhelming a user with a single screen full of information, carousels break down information into bite-sized chunks. Each slide typically focuses on a single feature or benefit, making it easier for the user to digest.
    1. Engaging Visuals: Carousels allow for the use of visuals, including illustrations, animations, and screenshots, to complement text. Engaging visuals can make the onboarding experience more enjoyable and memorable.
    1. Tutorials and Guidance: Some apps use carousels to guide users through a series of steps or tutorials. For example, an image-editing app might use a carousel to demonstrate how to crop a photo, add a filter, and then save the edited image.
    1. Highlight Value Proposition: Apart from just showcasing features, carousels can emphasize the benefits of using the app. This helps users understand the value the app offers, which can be key to retaining them.
    1. Flexible Design: Carousels can be designed to match the app’s aesthetic and brand identity. This makes them a versatile tool in the designer’s toolkit, suitable for a range of apps and audiences.
    1. Prompts and Calls to Action: Many carousels conclude with a call to action, like signing up, logging in, or diving into the app’s main interface. This prompt can encourage users to take the next step in their journey.
    1. Conditional Onboarding: Some advanced carousels might change their content based on user responses. For example, asking a user their primary purpose for downloading an app could tailor the subsequent carousel screens to that specific use-case.

    However, while carousels can be useful, they’re not without criticism:

    Overuse: Because carousels have become a staple in app design, some users may skip them, thinking they already know how the app works.

    Accessibility Issues: Carousels can pose challenges for visually impaired users or those who use screen readers. It’s essential to ensure that carousels are accessible to all users.

    Information Overload: If not done well, carousels can still overwhelm users with too much information. It’s crucial to strike a balance between being informative and being concise.

    In summary, carousels in mobile user onboarding can be a powerful tool for introducing users to an app’s features and benefits. However, they should be designed with care, ensuring they’re accessible, engaging, and genuinely helpful for the user.

    Contextual onboarding and carousels can complement each other when used strategically. While carousels usually offer a generalized introduction, contextual onboarding offers help and guidance based on where the user is within the app and what they are doing. Merging these two can offer a rich, layered onboarding experience. Here’s how they can be used together:

    1. Initial Overview with Carousels: Start with a carousel to introduce the app’s primary features and benefits. This gives users a high-level understanding of what to expect.
    1. Contextual Tutorials Post-Carousel: Once the user has swiped through the carousel and enters the app, provide contextual tutorials. For instance, if they land on a dashboard for the first time, tooltips or highlight overlays can guide them through the features specific to that page.
    1. Progressive Disclosure with Carousels: Instead of showing all the features upfront, use the carousel to introduce basic functionalities. As users dive deeper into advanced features, use contextual onboarding to guide them.
    1. Interactive Carousels: After a general carousel introduction, integrate interactive elements. For instance, if introducing a photo-editing tool, the carousel can show the editing feature, and the next step might allow users to try it out on a sample photo within the carousel itself.
    1. Adaptive Onboarding: Gauge user interactions during the carousel phase. If a user shows particular interest in one feature (by spending more time on a specific slide or interacting with it), the subsequent contextual prompts can be tailored around that feature.
    1. Feedback Loops: After introducing features through the carousel, use contextual onboarding to ask for feedback. For instance, after showing a new feature in the carousel, a contextual prompt can ask, “Would you like a detailed tutorial on this?”
    1. Contextual Reminders: If a user skips the carousel or rushes through it, contextual cues can remind or reintroduce those features when the user encounters them within the app.
    1. Deep Linking from Carousels: If your carousel touches on advanced features, deep linking can be useful. For instance, a carousel slide introducing a particular function can have a “Learn More” button that, when tapped, takes the user directly to that feature with contextual onboarding ready to guide them.
    1. Continual Learning with Carousels: For apps that frequently update and add new features, occasional carousel reintroductions can be beneficial. Once users are familiarized through the carousel, contextual onboarding can take over, offering in-depth guidance on the new features.
    1. Personalized Experiences: By analyzing user behavior and preferences, the carousel can be personalized to show the most relevant features to individual users. Following this, contextual cues can further tailor the onboarding based on the user’s interaction with the carousel.

    In essence, while carousels set the stage by offering a bird’s-eye view of the app, contextual onboarding goes deep, offering guidance and assistance as users navigate the app. When combined, they offer a holistic onboarding experience that is both informative and user-centric.

    Are you looking to get more users to love your mobile and web apps?  Click on the buttons below to get your 14 day free trial or contact us for a demo!


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  • What is Microlearning and how can it be useful for onboarding mobile users?

    What is Microlearning and how can it be useful for onboarding mobile users?

    George Miller was a psychologist who in 1956  theorized that short-term memory can hold between five and nine pieces of information. This information can be stored in single units called bits or in groupings called chunks. Creating chunks of information allows you to hold more information in short-term memory.

    Microlearning exploits this condition by breaking down training content into very small, bite-sized pieces that can be consumed quickly. This could mean short videos, interactive modules, quizzes, infographics, or   and pop ups. The components of microlearning are typically focused on a single goal or learning objective such as;

    • Employee onboarding, compliance training
    • Daily check lists
    • Software application training

    Microlearning is particularly well-suited for mobile learning because:

    – It aligns with shorter attention spans and ability to digest information quickly on mobile devices. Microlearning components are designed to impart knowledge in minutes.  This strategy can be particularly effective for mobile app user onboarding.

    – Works well for spaced reinforcement of concepts. Learners can review microlearning content multiple times, which strengthens retention and recall.  For example a curated set of contextual tooltips displayed to the right user at the right time.

    – Easy to fit into small pockets of downtime. Learners can access microlearning on smartphones whenever it’s convenient as opposed to scheduling longer training sessions. The most effective way to deploy this is for mobile user onboarding and in app announcements when the user is in a specific part of their user journey.

    – Provides performance support tools. Microlearning modules can serve as quick reference guides and refreshers to support learning transfer.  For example content from user onboarding guides can be recycled as per page in app FAQs.

    – Makes updating training simple. Individual microlearning pieces can be updated easily as needed vs. revising lengthy courses. With Contextual mobile app onboarding content creation and onboarding user flows can be delegated to marketing or customer success.

    – Allows for interactive content and assessments. Mobile microlearning can incorporates gamification, scenarios, and in-app customer surveys for micro feedback.

    So in summary, microlearning can make training more accessible, consumable, and engaging for mobile users specifically. The bite-sized format fits well with on-the-go learning.

    Are you looking to get more users to love your mobile and web apps?  Click on the buttons below to get your 14 day free trial or contact us for a demo!


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