In this episode of The Buzinga Podcast, Logan talks about a big issue for developers - retention. Here's how to engage and retain your users so you are squeezing the most value from them.

1. The Buzinga Podcast
Ep 4: How To Engage And Retain Your Current And Future Users
• Hey guys, Logan Merrick here and you’re listening to
episode 4 of The Buzinga Podcast:
• The number 1 resource for startups building and growing
their business in the tech space.
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2. The Buzinga Podcast
Ep 4: How To Engage And Retain Your Current And Future Users
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• How you can listen to this podcast:
1. On iTunes
2. Through any podcast app on your smartphone
3. Listen on our blog at buzinga.com.au/buzz with
shownotes for each episode.
4. Watch with accompanying slides on Youtube

3. What we’re talking about today
Engaging and retaining your users
• Most apps don’t fail because of lack of downloads, but a
lack of ongoing engagement.
• Localytics found that 58% of users who download your
app won’t use it after 30 days.
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4. In this episode…
• The 4 most common factors that distort a user’s
expectation of your app,
• Metrics you need to track and measure,
• 9 strategies to engage your users.
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5. Why People Don’t Engage With Your
App
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• The main reason why people don’t engage with your app
is simply a lack of perceived value.
• They just don’t see the value in it…for them.
• How much ‘time & energy’ will they have to invest in
order to get the ‘value’ that your app will give them?
• What pain do I have to put up with to gain XYZ-benefits?

6. Why people don’t engage with your app
1. Incorrect selling/marketing
• Perhaps your app marketing/promotional material gives
off the impression that your app does something that it
actually doesn’t.
• This is common with app descriptions.
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1. Incorrect selling or marketing

7. Why people don’t engage with your app
2. Poor graphical display
• Humans are shallow creatures for the most of it.
• To avoid losing people at ‘Hello’ make sure your app
design is not only impressive but current to the latest
design trends.
• See also: How To Design A Mobile App Onboarding
Process That Will Get You A Second Date
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2. Poor graphical display

8. Why people don’t engage with your app
3. Unintuitive user experience
• I don’t need to tell you that your app needs to be
intuitive. Everyone knows that.
• However, so few can actually execute.
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3. Unintuitive user experience

9. Why people don’t engage with your app
4. Not designed with the user in mind
• You are likely NOT THE TARGET USER for your app
• Most people know this but end up designing the app
around their own preferences.
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4. Not designed with the user in mind

10. “What you measure, grows”
“What you measure, grows”
• If you measure something and closely analyse it you can
start to understand it.
• When you understand it you can make objective
decisions about how to improve it.
• Here are a short list of metrics you need to track and
measure…
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Metrics you need to be measuring

11. “What you measure, grows”
1. # of active users
• What is an active user? Anything you define it to be!
• As a rule of thumb, an active user is someone who is
actively using your application – i.e. they keep coming
back.
• An active user will depend on the type of app. Eg: An
active user for Facebook would be someone who uses
app daily.
• But a flight booking app could never expect its users to
use its app this frequently!
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1. Number of active users

12. “What you measure, grows”
Session length
• how long is the average user session (time spent by a
single user) within your app?
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2. Session length

13. “What you measure, grows”
Goals completed
• a goal is an event that is deemed important within the
app
• e.g. user has registered their account, invited their
friends, posted content, etc.
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3. Goals completed

14. “What you measure, grows”
User loyalty
• The average lifetime of an active user.
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4. User loyalty

15. “What you measure, grows”
Retention rate (%)
• How many users remain active within your app for 1
week, 1 month, 3 months and 1 year?
• Sometimes referred to as ‘stickiness’
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5. Retention rate

16. “What you measure, grows”
• Remember, an engaged user-base is a hugely valuable
asset.
• Look at Instagram, Pinterest, Slack… – they were all valued
in the billions before making even a cent of revenue!
• That’s purely due to their user-base.
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17. How do we engage users?
So HOW do we engage users?
• We’ve already covered the pitfalls of user engagement.
• Now let’s look at solutions with some simple and practical
ideas…
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18. How do we engage users?
1. Make a good first impression
• First impressions DO count.
• We want our users to think: “Damn, this is awesome!”
Not, “I’ve seen this before…”
• What’s the first impression people have of your app?
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1. Make a good first impression

19. How do we engage users?
2. Give them what they want
• Be what you say and say what you do. If you don’t it’ll
hurt your growth.
• How to know what they want?
1. Run online/in person surveys
2. Post questions in forums dedicated to your niche. This is
also a great way to find early adopters of your app.
• The aim here is to get a cross section of ‘non-biased’
information.
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2. Give them what they want

20. How do we engage users?
2. Give them what they want (continued…)
• Important: don’t steer the surveys/questions to validate
your purpose.
• Instead, practice doing the opposite – try to punch holes
in your assumptions and prove your business case ‘wrong’.
• This might sound counter-intuitive but it lets you see if
your idea actually has legs in the first place.
• Warning: You might not even know what your user
wants…
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2. Give them what they want (cont.)

21. How do we engage users?
3. Find the right type of users
• The wrong users will have the wrong experience
• By finding your perfect user you’ll be able to tailor a
journey with their key objectives in mind.
• In other words, we’re designing the experience around
them, not trying to bend their habits around our solution.
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3. Find the right type of users

22. How do we engage users?
How to find your perfect users:
Who – Who are you targeting? Create a user persona and
identity your ideal user with its’ particular demographic and
psychographics.
What – What does your user persona want? What are their
motivations? What are their challenges and how does your
app solve these?
Why – Why should your ideal user care? Hone your Unique
Selling Proposition and lock down your Elevator pitch.
Where – Where can you find more of your ideal user? Create
a pathway to these users – how do they find you? (Facebook,
Youtube, Advertising, etc.)
See also: Our user persona template on the blog – User
Persona: How To Market To A Mobile Audience
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3. Find the right type of users (cont.)

23. How do we engage users?
4. Build a push strategy
• Push notifications give your app a voice. It’s a one-way
channel to your audience.
• See also: How To Make Your Push Notifications Irresistible
To Open
• An effective push notification strategy can also tell you a
lot about your user base. It can tell you:
1. What types of messages people are most engaged with.
2. At what time people are ready to engage the most.
3. Where the most engaged segment of your audience is
located (geo).
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4. Build a push strategy

24. How do we engage users?
5. Push for virality
• Virality is not a marketing strategy. It’s a design principle.
The Virality-Recipe:
1) Your app must have something valuable to share.
2) Your app must be easy for users to share and join.
3) Your app must provide value and incentives for users to
come back.
4) Your app must provide more value to users the more time
they spend on it.
5) Your app must, if it can, incorporate gamification
mechanics into the mix to reward users.
See also: How To Build An App Born To Go Viral Like Candy
Crush
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5. Push for virality

25. How do we engage users?
Design a magnificent user experience:
• Design and beauty doesn’t always reign supreme.
‘Process’ is the key.
What makes an app intuitive? 5 key elements:
1. Directive Design – your entire app is a navigational
environment, a world in itself.
2. Familiarity – you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
3. Beauty – colour, graphics, size and flow all make for a
perfect experience.
4. Minimalistic Design – Remove unnecessary options, text
or image.
5. User Testing – get users to test your app for you and
provide you with feedback.
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6. Design a magnificent user experience

26. How do we engage users?
7. A/B split testing software
• What is it? You test two different versions of the same app
on the same user base – gives insights into how to
improve the experience.
• Tells you which component, function or design of your app
is working well – and which could work better.
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7. A/B split testing software

27. How do we engage users?
8. Less features = better quality experience
• Do one thing GREAT rather than 2 or more things just
average
• Less really is more, especially when it comes to testing,
conversion, traction and growth.
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8. Less features = better quality experience

28. How do we engage users?
9. A good description really helps
• Explains precisely what your users will get…and why that’s
good.
• Think of FEATURES vs BENEFITS. Tell them about the
features, sell them on the benefits.
Tips:
• Sharp and punchy
• Social proof
• Straight shooter - be honest about what you’re offering.
• Guidance – Use a powerful call to action to guide them to
download your app.
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9. Write a powerful, accurate app description

29. Summary
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• User engagement doesn’t have to be complex.
• Follow these simple ideas and measure the results every
step of the way - you will see huge improvements within
30-90 days.

30. Further resources
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• Hope this has been engaging!
• If you want to learn more about engagement then check
out our blog, I’ve included 3 relevant blogs in the show
notes:
1. 6 Reasons Why Customers Are Leaving Your App (And
What To Do About It!)
2. The Product Death Cycle: Why More App Features Are
Not The Answer To Slow App Growth
3. 10 Addictive Strategies To Re-Engage Inactive App Users

31. Thanks for listening!
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• For more of this please subscribe to iTunes, watch on
Youtube with accompanying slides or on our blog at
buzinga.com.au/buzz
• See you on the next episode!