Ask HN: 1000 signups a week, but how to gain long term engagement?
After an embarrassing first release, and an awesome UX/UI redesign of our cloud-based iPhone app, we're pleased to be getting a steady 1000 signups a week on our free app. But we're stumped on how to turn this initial interest into long term engagement for our group productivity app.
The engagement funnel looks like this: we don't advertise much (ad words isn't working for us, banners perform better and in-app ads are ok but not for our target audience: professionals) so through self-driven discovery these new users are coming to us based on App Store searches: Group Messaging, Productivity, Real-time Messaging, Shared Contacts, Shared To-Do's seem to be what's drawing people in. Users have described it as a "peer-to-peer CRM," or an "Evernote for Contacts," or a "Basecamp/Highrise for those who don't know what Basecamp is!"
Next, after installing the app, the sign-up process is easy but we require an email + password based authentication because we support invitations and only want to send out trusted invites. We also give users the options to choose an avatar, and activate location & push notifications. The point is, it's time consuming. Which means the initial engagement, the expectation anyway, is high. About 75% of users are uploading custom avatars. About 80% of users confirm their email address (two-step process).
Last, we offer users an option to invite teammates from either their LinkedIn or Twitter social graph. Again, we're focused on professional users so we avoided Facebook integration. You can also invite teammates later, by email. Perhaps this is our first indication that something's wrong because very few people are using LinkedIn or Twitter invitations.
Finally, users enter the main features of the app. We measure engagement here and find roughly 60% of users create some form of content (Contacts, Status Update, To-Do Item, etc.) so they take the first step.
And then we lose them.
We have about a 35% retention rate the first week, higher in Asia, and then dropping from there. Very few respond to follow-on email prompts or push notifications. They just fade away. Leaving behind a ghost record of their effort & aspirations. Clearly, they were looking for something else. But they signed up, and shared very private info in the hopes of what?
And for those of you who've read this far, I'm hoping that you've had similar experiences yourselves and overcome them. Whether for a web or mobile app, how have you driven engagement?
Thanks, --ff
PS: I don't think the discussion above is specific to an app, but for reference here's ours: http://fieldforceapp.com
PPS: Holding back on using real names 'cause I obviously can't quit my day job with these numbers!