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Maximizing User Engagement: Best Practices for Developing and Marketing Mobile Apps for Your Business

Engagement
Written by varsha

When your mobile app completely engages your users, they have a much higher chance of using it for longer, thus increasing your product’s chances of staying relevant. 

The mobile app market is a competitive space, and only the best survive and reach the top. You have two options when building a mobile app for your business: you can make it yourself or hire a professional company to do it for you. 

Companies that create apps must make sure their products are viable, well-built, and engaging for new users. Let’s discuss some best practices for developing a great mobile app for your business that conquers your audience. 

1. Choose a trendy name

It all starts with a good name. Choose a short and memorable name with just one or two words. They have a better chance of drawing people in than longer names. 

When you give your app an identity, make sure it fits and is catchy. 

Do research to ensure your chosen name isn’t too similar to an existing brand. Think of word plays on what your app accomplishes or bring up an interesting description, for example. You would want to avoid getting into trouble or drowning in a sea of competitor brands and apps. 

2. Plan your app launch

When your app is ready to launch, choose the right moment. Set your launch for an hour when most of your targeted users can use it. 

Let’s say your app is designed with young professionals in mind. It would be advantageous to launch it around lunchtime on weekdays. That way, you’re ensuring you’re maximizing your visibility in app stores and getting more downloads from the get-go because lunchtime is a peak time for young professionals. 

Launch your app with a deal or event whenever possible. Promote your new available features and advertise discounted deals. Try to have your app featured by Google or Apple because it increases your chances of being seen and downloaded. 

Use all the marketing channels at your disposal. Social media ads can also help you increase engagement and downloads, so take advantage of them. 

3. Pay attention to your onboarding process

Increase app user engagement by providing new users with an exciting onboarding process. Keep it straightforward; users can easily get frustrated with providing information they don’t consider necessary. 

Poor onboarding is an important reason for users to delete your app. At the same time, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t interact with your users, but you should try to find a balance between asking for signup information and not overdoing it. 

4. Create landing pages for your app.

You can market your app outside of app stores, too. One of the best ways is to create an online showroom for your app. That can mean a website or a webpage where you highlight it. 

The landing page for your app should be attractive, clean, and user-friendly. Of course, it should have the app’s info, a description with features, and a value proposition. Use images and videos to show your app’s functionality. 

Use call-to-action buttons and links to convince visitors to download your app. You can even create a standalone website for your app before you launch it. Show how it works and why users should download and use it. Send email alerts to interested parties before the launch. 

5. Use cross-promotion to your advantage

If you already have some live apps, you can use them to promote your newest one. Many companies use in-app ads to promote multiple products. It’s a cost-effective way to maximize the value of your customers. 

Promote your app across your app portfolio or on social media to grow your business and retain more users. You can also promote your app across multiple social media networks in ways that suit your intended audience and your app. In fact, it’s a widespread technique for casual gaming apps. 

6. Gamify your app interactions.

People love to play games and win. Use games to motivate customers to use your app more. It works with gaming and non-gaming apps alike. 

And there’s no need to rebuild or workaround your app. You can add interactive experiences here and there. As a result, mundane activities can be more fun!

Let’s exemplify this concept with Duolingo. It implements a level-based game mechanic that increases learning value and boosts user engagement. It uses social interaction through Facebook, has an internal currency (lingots), and is competitive because it uses a points system with leaderboards. 

7. Focus on personalized content.

People respond better to things they enjoy. They’re even more engaged by personalization based on the info they volunteered. Use the data collected from your users to create fun activities for them. 

Many mobile apps and businesses that rely on apps personalize content based on their users’ likes and dislikes. 

After some online research, you will find compelling examples like Netflix, which uses algorithms to group its users into clusters to provide them with different recommendations on the main screen. 

Use similar tactics when managing your users. Ask them what they like, and then customize your content to please them based on their recommendations. 

8. Encourage users to leave ratings and reviews.

Asking for feedback and reviews is a great practice that helps you grow and improve. Of course, you will target positive reviews. But it’s normal to receive less-than-stellar reviews as well. 

Focus on the positive, but be prepared for the worst because even negative reviews can help you. 

People will be more inclined to download your mobile app if it’s already talked about. Plus, you can grow in the eyes of your prospective users if you respond to positive and negative reviews and communicate with the people who leave them. 

Moreover, you can work on getting positive reviews from your power users. Maximize your 5-star reviews with prompts for mobile app evaluations sent to your loyal customers. 

Before campaigning for reviews from dormant users, revive their interest in your app with incentives (discounts, promotions, loyalty programs, seasonal content). 

9. Use feedback to improve.

It goes without saying that the reviews you receive are a treasure that can help you grow. Use that information to improve your mobile app and encourage other users to share their opinions on your product because they are helping it become better. 

Make users feel appreciated and heard while at the same time, creating good connotations for your brand. Be careful with applying the feedback to avoid increasing costs and maintenance loads. 

Remember that, sometimes, improvements suggested by your users are worth considering and developing. They may very well bring more users to your mobile app in the future. 

Conclusion 

Mobile apps require much work to create and set up online. Most people would prefer to spend their time doing something else. 

So, if you are developing an app, make sure it’s engaging and fun for the users and for you. 

The first step is promoting your mobile app online so people can learn about it. To keep customers coming back, continue maintaining, developing, and perfecting your product, following some of the best practices expressed in this article.