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  • The Top 5 Things That Make Users Uninstall Mobile Apps

    The Top 5 Things That Make Users Uninstall Mobile Apps

    Introduction 

     

    With over 5 million apps available on the major app stores, competition is fierce for user attention and retention. Unfortunately almost 50% of apps get uninstalled just days or weeks after being downloaded. Here are the top 5 culprits that lead to users hitting that uninstall button. 

     

    1 – Too Many Permissions

     

    During the initial app setup, some apps demand access to way more data and features on the phone than they need. This raises privacy concerns and makes many users uncomfortable leading to an immediate uninstall. Requesting only the bare minimum permissions necessary helps build user trust.

     

    2 -Hidden/Unexpected Costs 

     

    Nothing is more irritating than downloading what appears to be a free app, only to be hit later with unexpected in-app purchases and subscription fees. Be upfront and transparent with pricing to avoid users feeling like you tricked them into downloading your app.

     

    3 – Massive Downloads/Updates

     

    Users hate when an app update requires downloading hundreds of megabytes or more of data. Keep app sizes as small as possible and avoid giant updates that eat into data plans. Offer options like WiFi-only updates to be respectful of user data limits.

     

    4 – Crashing/Freezing/Bugs

     

    Apps that crash, freeze, or have major bugs are a quick ticket to getting uninstalled. Thoroughly test your app for any issues before release. Also respond quickly with app updates/fixes when users report problems.

     

    5 – Poor Onboarding/Instructions

     

    Don’t just throw users into your app without any guidance! Having no idea how to navigate or what to do first is very frustrating and leads to app abandonment. Include mobile app user onboarding guides and walkthroughs, Tooltips, tutorials, and Guide prompts to help users understand how to use your app properly.  

     

    Summary

     

    Avoiding these key pitfalls will help your app retain more users over the long-term. Remember to request only needed permissions, be transparent about costs, keep downloads and updates small, provide good user onboarding, and test extensively for bugs.  To boost user Activation and achieve even greater Retention check out these 5 proven customer retention strategies.  Follow these guidelines and your user retention should improve dramatically!

    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 Contextual Onboarding? and does it make any difference?

    What is Contextual Onboarding? and does it make any difference?

    Contextual Onboarding is the practice of introducing users to a product via in-app Guides. Adopting this approach Product Managers can make a major improvement in user adoption and retention rates whilst lowering costs.

     

    This strategy helps users overcome any initial confusion or frustration they may have when first using a new product. Contextual onboarding helps users quickly learn to use a product, improving the users experience and increasing user engagement.

     

    Contextual onboarding helps users achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively. It does this by providing the right information to the right user at the right time whilst reducing customer churn rates.

     

    Here 5 key steps to successful Contextual Onboarding :

    1. Understand what users need to do to achieve their goals in your product. This could be signing up, creating a profile, or using certain features. This is referred to as “Activation” in popular product adoption frameworks such as Pirate Metrics.
    2. Give the right users, the right information and instructions at the right time and place within the app. Use tooltips, pop-ups, or interactive tutorials to help them navigate and complete task.
    3. Personalized user onboarding: Customize the onboarding process to fit user preferences, behaviour, or past interactions. By understanding the user and the user journey, you can offer more relevant and focused assistance.
    4. Progressive disclosure is a technique that involves gradually introducing features to users as they become more familiar with the product. This approach prevents users from feeling overwhelmed with too much information all at once. It also allows users to learn at their own pace. This helps prevent cognitive overload and allows users to learn at their own pace.
    5. Monitor and improve the onboarding process by observing user behaviour and collect user feedback via in-app surveys. Utilize analytics tools to track user engagement, completion rates, and drop-off points. Use this data to enhance the onboarding experience.

    By using these strategies, you can create an onboarding experience that will help users learn and use your product or service. As a result, more users will continue to use your product and potentially refer more of their friends and colleagues.

     

    What difference can Contextual Onboarding make? What are the important numbers?

    1. Improved Product adoption. Contextual customers have been able to seamlessly onboard thousands of users in a matter of days instead or weeks.
    2. Lower onboarding costs. Companies have reported that it costs 5 times less with Contextual Onboarding than using traditional methods. Contextual onboarding makes external services like knowledge bases and their maintenance redundant. Users don’t have to attend online classes and can complete the app onboarding in their own time
    3. Increased user retention: Companies using Contextual Onboarding have reported user retention rates of over 80%. Contextual onboarding accelerates Time to Value which ensures that users quickly understand how to use the product to achieve their goals. This reduces the time it takes for users to derive value from the product, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
    4. Enhanced user satisfaction: Contextual Onboarding helps users achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively. This leads to increased user satisfaction and a better overall experience. This can often lead to increased positive reviews on the App and Play Store.
    5. Reduced support costs: Contextual onboarding can help reduce support costs by helping users navigate and use the product confidently. Users who have a clear understanding of how to use a product are less likely to require support or assistance.

    These are just a few examples of the benefits that companies can enjoy after implementing contextual onboarding. By providing a seamless and guided onboarding experience, companies can drive user engagement, satisfaction, retention and sustainable growth.

     


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    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! 

  • The Rise of B2B Mobile Apps: 3 Examples of Product Teams Getting it Right

    The Rise of B2B Mobile Apps: 3 Examples of Product Teams Getting it Right

    Mobile apps aimed at business users (B2B) are growing rapidly as companies realize the benefits of putting tools and information quite literally in the hands of their employees and partners.

     

    Well-designed B2B apps can drive efficiency, collaboration, and insight by allowing quick access to business data and processes.

     

    Here are 3 examples of successful B2B mobile apps and some of the key reasons these product teams found success:

    DocuSign Mobile

    DocuSign allows organizations to manage electronic agreements and signatures. Their mobile app enables signing documents on the go, along with other features like sending documents for signatures and managing workflows.

    Key factors in their mobile success include:

    • Excellent onboarding guides users on how to start eSigning quickly
    • Announcements about new features engage existing users
    • Usage metrics help inform which features to improve and expand
    • Offline access allows signing documents without connectivity
    • Syncs seamlessly with DocuSign web and desktop apps
    quickstart guide tooltip
    feature modal
    tooltip next step options

    Concur

    Concur develops travel and expense management solutions. Their mobile app gives business travelers tools to book travel, manage itineraries, submit expense reports, and more.

     

    Reasons for their effective B2B mobile approach:

    • Connects directly to company’s Concur platform instance
    • Snaps images of receipts to auto-populate expense reports
    • Provides alerts for flight delays and gate changes
    • Offers easy mileage tracking for rewards programs

    GitHub Mobile

    GitHub’s mobile app allows developers to access their source code repositories, review code, monitor projects, and collaborate on the go.

     

    GitHub’s mobile strengths include:

    • Onboarding walks new users through app capabilities
    • Push notifications keep users updated on project activity
    • Tracks feature usage to guide development priorities
    • Syncs seamlessly with GitHub web and desktop experiences
    • Supports code reviews and merging branches

    Key Takeaways

    As these examples show, successful B2B mobile apps provide robust onboarding to get users started quickly. They announce new features to engage users. And they track usage data to inform product decisions.

     

    By keeping the needs of mobile employees top of mind, product teams can develop B2B mobile apps that deliver real business value.

     

    This leads to high adoption and satisfaction among an app’s target users.

    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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  • Boost Mobile App Retention with These 5 Strategies

    Boost Mobile App Retention with These 5 Strategies

    Einstein said, “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.” Similarly, small improvements in user retention compound over time, dramatically increasing revenue.

     

    For Product Teams, their App is fighting for attention along with dozens of other App on the phone and any small MAU change in retention or churn usually equates to MRR – and your Apps survival!

     

    In this post we offer 5 proven tactics to reduce churn and increase retention in your mobile app:

    1. Optimize Onboarding

    • Guide new users to an “aha” moment quickly
    • Prompt for push notification access
    • Shorten/extend onboarding flow and test different variations
    • Highlight value and set expectations upfront

    The onboarding flow is crucial for setting expectations and showing the value of your app. Optimize this experience to convert more new users into engaged, long-term customers.

    the internal user journey to "aha" moment is the first JTBD

    2. Encourage Repeat Use

    • Identify power users and highlight their preferred features
    • Promote habit-forming behaviors
    • Segment users based on behavior data to optimize paths
    • Prompt for ratings/reviews after milestones

    Getting users to repeatedly open and use your app is key. Analyze behavioral data to understand user cohorts and encourage the actions that drive ongoing engagement.

    google-chat-tip
    Google chat nudges active users to start threading

    3. Reduce Friction Points

    • Simplify internal reports to focus on key metrics
    • Monitor real-time feedback to quickly address issues
    • Offer omnichannel access across platforms
    • Close experience gaps that could send users elsewhere

    Identify and eliminate pain points that cause users to churn. Continuously monitor feedback channels and behavioral data to surface and resolve friction.

    4. Keep Users Engaged

    • Highlight new features, content, and activities
    • Create exclusive benefits for loyal users
    • Promote social sharing and interaction
    • Send win-back offers to re-engage lapsed users

     

    A nice feature prompt for stickiness

    Long-time users can still churn due to waning interest. Continually add value by introducing new experiences, benefits, and ways to interact.

     

    Here are two great examples::

    1. the first is a news app that needs to “Hook” users while they have their attention, otherwise there are many other news apps the user can switch to.
    2. The second is a robot vacuum cleaner advising of  automatically mapping the house – magic!
    Encourage single click recurring use
    Encourage single click recurring use
    Surprise and delight! When the Apps magic is done for the user.

    5. Continuously Optimize

    • Define key metrics for each stage of retention
    • Measure baseline rates and experiment relentlessly
    • Track retention cohort trends over time
    • Prioritize fixes for major drop-offs
    Manage user drop-offs

    Improving mobile app retention requires continuously measuring, testing, and optimizing based on data. Fix drop-offs, find wins, scale what works, and keep experimenting.

     

    Using customer-centric data to understand user behavior is key to optimizing retention throughout the journey. Turn insights into product improvements and experiences that convert and keep mobile users engaged for the long haul.

    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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  • Contextual the no-code platform for mobile and web app Digital Adoption today announces new pricing including a new Free version.

    Contextual the no-code platform for mobile and web app Digital Adoption today announces new pricing including a new Free version.

    July 3, 2023, Contextual the no-code platform for mobile and web app Digital Adoption today announces new pricing including a new Free version.

     

    New Free version Contextual Track & Guide

    The newly announced Free “Track & Guide” version allows product growth teams, Product  Managers and Growth Marketers for Mobile and Web applications Track app usage and provide entry level user onboarding walkthroughs to help guide users to their usage goals.  Contextual Track & Guide is free of charge for up to 10,000 monthly active users and provides the following capabilities;

      • User reporting and analytics on user engagement
      •  daily installs and retained users.
      • Tracking and Reporting on screens and pages.
      • Up to 2 concurrent Guides – page and screen level announcements

     Plus more 

     

    New entry level Guide & Retain

    Starting at just US$100 per month for up to 10,000 monthly active users Guide & Retain provides next level user analytics and a suite of user onboarding tools to Guide users to sustained usage.  Guide & Retain provides all of Track & Guide plus the following capabilities; 

    • Additional Field Level tracking
      • 5 Features (Buttons)
      • 2 custom tags
    • 10 concurrent Guides
      • Guides, Tips, Videos, Announcements,
      • Per page FAQ
      • In-app Feedback surveys
    • Guide Analytics
    • Feedback (NPS, questions)
    • Limited Feature Tracking

     Plus more

     

    Guide, Retain & Grow

    Guide, Retain and Grow is for product growth teams planning for the next growth inflection point.  Starting at 10,000 monthly active users Guide, Retain and Growth offers all of Guide & Retain plus. 

    • Integrations with popular analytics products:
      • Segment, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Webhooks plus more
      • API Access (extended)
    • Extended Feature tracking
      • Screens/pages
      • Fields
      • Buttons
    • 50 concurrent Guides
      • Multi-language Guides
      • Rich User Targeting
    • Segments and Goals

     Plus more

     

    David Jones CEO and Founder Contextual commented “we are really excited to be able to put Contextual’s capabilities in the hands of every product manager, growth marketer and growth teams who are aspiring to make awesome products”.

     

    About Contextual

    Contextual was designed to understand your consumers’ needs and assist them in their journey to product adoption and retention by giving them a tailored experience. As fierce devotees of Pirate Metrics (AARRR), the company’s mission is to:

    •  help your users understand your core product utility,
    •  deepen engagement by Progressive Onboarding.

    Most Apps have around 30 seconds to attract the user’s attention after downloading and roughly 3 minutes to give some usefulness to the user. Working with app developers, the Contextual team learned the hard way that without a compelling onboarding experience, your retention rate plummets.

     

    Companies tend to spend a lot of money on Advertising, Sales, and Marketing (the first “A” is acquisition), only to lose customers. Progressively improving a user’s education and comprehension of the product is a priority for the firms from whom we’ve learned. Testing and iteration, enthusiasm, and a focus on “the statistics” are all used to attain this goal. Retention, revenue, referrals, and business development are the prizes. We are here to assist you on your quest.

     

    Contextual is a product delivered by the StreetHawk company and was built on top of the StreetHawk Engagement Automation Platform. 

    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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