Here’s a scenario: you spent a few gruelling months developing your app. You performed thorough testing on it, you promoted it on just about every online channel, and you released it.
Fast forward to a few weeks later. Plenty of people have downloaded your app and it now has a sizeable number of users. Congratulations! You’ve accomplished one of your primary objectives in developing your app.
That being said, the hard part isn’t over just yet. You still have work to do.
Your next step is to make sure that users remain engaged so that your app’s user base doesn’t drop off in an instant. Fortunately, it’s not as complicated as you might think.
Enter email marketing. Email marketing works well with all other digital channels, particularly mobile. This is due to the meteoric rise of mobile usage as well as the fact that more than half of all email opens occur on mobile.
There is no question that engaging with your app users is essential to building a positive experience for your users, and email marketing is one of the many effective methods you can use to achieve this. Here are five ways to use email marketing to keep your users engaged with your app.
Make the Best First Impression
You just developed an app, and you see that downloads are steadily increasing. This means people like your app and want to use it. Take advantage of this momentum by making the best possible impression on new app users.
But how do you do that with email marketing?
Easy. You send new app users an automated welcome email that triggers as soon as people register to your app.
From the name itself, the purpose of this type of email is to welcome your new users. Not sure what to put on your welcome email? Take note of these pointers.
- Include your app user’s name in the subject line. Data has proven time and again that personalisation increases user engagement.
- Provide your users with a brief app overview that includes the most important functions as well as quick tips on how to use the app. This way, they already know what to expect before they even spend time within the app itself.
- Place highly visible social sharing buttons on your email so users can share your app on social media. The more people who know about your app, the more downloads it will have.
If you want to design high-performing welcome emails, then take advantage of mobile-responsive email templates. They are not just optimised for mobile from the start, but they can also be customised to serve a wide range of your email marketing needs.
Be Proactive
Don’t wait for people to stop using your app before you make a move to engage with them. Instead, take proactive steps at the outset of the user journey by segmenting your user base into different groups via the inclusion of email marketing.
There are various ways to segment your user base, such as the level of engagement rates with your app, their transaction history, their activities within your app, and much more. For example, you could create a segment of users who haven’t logged on to your app in a while and send them an email reminding them of their absence. You can also send them an email and ask for feedback as to why they haven’t been using the app, which can prove effective when optimising your app.
When you create different user segments, it’s easier for you to send relevant content to each segment and engage with them in a much more meaningful way. This prevents disinterest and helps ensure that people keep using your app.
Remind Your Users Why They Downloaded Your App in the First Place.
People appreciate friendly reminders and gentle nudges once in a while, and your app users are no exception. If you have a segment of users who have not completed an essential action within your app, send them an email to remind them what they might be missing.
For instance, a certain number of new app users have registered to your app but haven’t confirmed their registration. Send them an email reminding them of what they need to do. This encourages them to complete the registration process and start using your app.
You should also include information about the features of your app and how it can help solve your user’s problems. If your app offers both a free and premium version, you can encourage users to try out the premium plan.
Incentivise App Users to Use Your App Again
Make disengaged users return to your app by incentivising them to do so. After all, everybody loves rewards, right?
The type of incentive you offer will entirely depend on the purpose of your app, but here are some suggestions.
- Discount code for in-app purchases.
- In-app points that can be accumulated to redeem various rewards
- Free membership for a specific period of time (if your app has a paid or premium version)
- Free trial to “Premium” services within your app
Whatever incentive you offer, keep in mind that it should serve you and the user/customer. By offering discounts, you are not just attracting users back to your app. You are also enticing them to make a purchase, which positively impacts your revenue.
Leverage Gamification for Engagement
Gamification is another effective way to engage with your app users. In essence, gamification means applying gaming elements into non-gaming scenarios, such as email marketing.
Invite app users to participate in simple text-based or image-based games through email. In exchange for participating, offer your users rewards they can use within your app, like a discount code for a purchase.
There’s a strong chance that your users could be interested in entertainment and games, so why not take advantage of the opportunity?
Wrap Up
Follow these tips and you are sure to keep your app users happy and engaged. If you don’t have the resources to put all these tips into action, don’t worry. Simply formulate a strategy around the ones that you can. Either way, you’re sure to see your user engagement rates skyrocket in no time.
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