How not to retain users
on a mobile app.

1. Focus on the first time experience.

If you don’t have a strategy for releasing your app, then the chances are you will lose 77% of your users in the first initial 3 days. That means for every 1,000 people you bring into your app you will lose 770 of them unless you do something about it. 

From the moment the new user downloads your app, the first 3 days are the most important, so, onboarding, signing in/signing up and initially using the app should be well thought through. 

Limit the number of restrictions as possible. You should be looking to wow the person in the first 3 days. Try and think of a clever way to take your customers on a journey.

Be creative, you don’t always need to stick a big sign up button on the first page. 

If you can think of a clever way to keep your users interested in the first 3 days, then you are already ahead of your competition.

2. Utilise personalised push notifications. 

If you don’t use push notifications then your app is in a strong position to fail.

Push notifications get 20% more retention rates, and personalised push notifications (like social media apps) do even better. Some studies say you get up to 7 times more retention with personalised push notifications.

If you aren’t personally inviting your users back into your app regularly, then they most likely will forget about you. 

“On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behaviour becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact.” James Clear: Atomic Habits

We aren’t saying spam your users, but let them know regularly when there is a great reason to reopen your app. Because it may take as long as 66 days before your users will remember to open your app without receiving a notification.

3. Offer a strong enough reason to use the app.

There are a lot of barriers to a mobile app. Your customer has to hear about your app, go onto an app store, download the app, wait 20-30 seconds, sign in, etc etc. 

Compare that to a website, where they can have almost instant access.

Because of this, you have to make sure there is a strong enough reason for your customers to use your app regularly, or you will lose people very quickly.

In the app world, our main measure of success is something called “stickiness”. Stickiness means, how sticky is your idea, how often will someone need to come back onto your app to solve a problem they face.

Lots of companies have done this well, Starbucks – reward users for buying coffees. Under Armour – help people work out. Uber – Help you get a taxi. These are “real-world” problems that require regular action.

You may be wanting to create an app that doesn’t solve a real-world problem. That is ok, but you still need to apply stickiness to your app to maximise retention. 

4. Focus on the user experience

Unfortunately, irrelevant to your idea, you are competing with the likes of Facebook and Google if you want to make a good mobile app.

We are blessed in the modern world that companies like Facebook and Google offer us amazing technology for free.

This is a problem because we (as app users) have got used to expecting amazing software, without spending a dime.

How often are you on Facebook and it crashes? How many times do you search for something on Google and get no helpful response? ALMOST NEVER!!!

That is because they focus on great user experience and preventing any bugs.

Irrelevant of the app you are looking to build, if your app isn’t easy to use or has lots of issues with it, you will lose people. Because nowadays, we expect to use great software all the time.