A survival toolkit for the planet of the apps (INFOGRAPHIC)

It’s not about how sleek your app is. It’s about how you engage with the app user.
Photo credit: AFSUSA

Time was when a mobile strategy meant creating a buzz around an app and getting millions of people to download it. Circa 2015 the thinking has moved way beyond installs into every stage of a user’s engagement with an app – from discovery and download through uninstalls, retargeting, reinstalls, purchases, and hopefully retention.

Here’s a telltale stat from digital marketing firm TargetingMantra – three-quarters of shoppers who install an ecommerce app will proceed to registration. But a mere 2 percent will go on to make their first purchase through the app. And there’s a twist in the tail even when users do make a purchase – nearly 40 percent of them will uninstall the app immediately afterwards.

According to Flurry Analytics, three-quarters of users drop out of an app within three months of installing it, and only 4 percent remain after a year.

Conversion is the name of the game

Understanding a mobile user’s behavior and trying to influence it has therefore become vital. This is even more so in a mobile first market like India, where three-quarters of the 402 million internet users get online only through mobile devices.

And the action is mostly in apps. Big data firm Vizury says nearly 80 percent of mobile shoppers in India this year are buying things with apps rather than through mobile websites. Conversion and retention of app users has thus become the central theme of mobile strategy for Indian startups big and small.

Even at the very first stage of discovering and downloading an app, there are new insights gleaned from user data analytics. TargetingMantra points out, for instance, that more than half the time, consumers learn about apps from friends, family, or colleagues. Hence the thrust on referral campaigns by the likes of Uber.

The following infographic from TargetingMantra traces the app user’s journey right from discovery to purchase, with insights and tips for engagement and conversion of the user at every stage of that journey.

See: India has half a billion mobile subscribers and it’s growing faster than any other market