Creating a Winning Welcome Campaign

Congratulations you got the download … now what? We know on average 70% of app users may become dormant or delete your app within the first 30 days. Your initial campaign to engage your app users and turn them into loyal users is the most critical campaign you will run.

So how can brands get users engaged early and often in your app so they become loyal users?

First, focus on the initial open of the app. Many brands will take users through a tutorial of the app focusing on top features to ensure users understand the value of the app and how to use it.

We also recommend “educating before asking” in terms of encouraging users to opt in to push notifications and location services to ensure they understand how and why your brand will be using these services before you ask permission. Focus on the value for the user to maximize your opt in rates. Brands should be conscious of length as well – some users may grow tired of clicking through a multitude of screens and skip through the process without reading, leading to a missed opportunity for both user and brand to share value.

Brands are most successful when they leverage message center technology to welcome clients and share relevant content. Using a message center allows users to read this content on their terms, as it’s persistent and non-interruptive — a simple update in the app shows they have new content to read.

The value of the message center is that it’s available for all of your users to view, including those who may have opted out of receiving push notifications. By having a message ready and available when the user initially downloads the app it gives marketers another option to educate and welcome users to the app. Users can also go back and read older messages or refer back to a previous message at a later time. Typically we see new users going back into read messages multiple times.

Above: Neiman Marcus uses a Message Board to share the latest events and lookbooks with app users.

Once the user has exited the app, you’ll want to tailor your subsequent messaging based on both behavior and time since download. This is critical in bringing users back into the app for the second or third time and engaging them more long-term throughout the app lifecycle. To learn more best practices on getting users engaged in your app from the very beginning, check out our whitepaper “Onboarding New App Users.”