Not only do 9 out of 10 apps see fewer than 5,000 downloads, also 9 out of 10 apps are not launched more than once. You can do the math. Right there, you can see that the chances of having an app that's regularly used by more than 5,000 people dropped to 0.01, or 1 in a 100.
There are a number of reasons why this happens. Some users install an app they hear about, but don't like it and may choose to uninstall it right away. If they've liked the app, they may keep it. While this may sound like a win, it's not always the case. Often, users just forget about the app and may not think about launching it again, even if it fulfils a need that they have.
You may have built a fabulous app that helps the user save money through budgeting, but unless the user remembers to launch the app regularly and track her finances, it will not help her. In Chapter 15, Growing Traction and Improving Retention, which discusses traction and retention, we will see some practical implementations to get the attention of the user. For example, sending (relevant) push notifications is often an effective method to draw the user's attention back to the app.
Frequent usage creates more opportunities to encourage people to invite their friends, broadcast content, and share through word of mouth.
Let's take one step back and focus on the question, How will people find out about the app? Unless it gets featured (by Apple, for example), or unless it gets discovered by accident (as happened to Flappy Bird), you need to promote it actively. You can consider Google ads, flyers, and commercials. That can become pretty expensive. However, if you can let it grow organically, the results will probably be way better, and it will cost you less. For example, people might hear on Twitter and other social media platforms how great your app is. To make that happen, people first need to become enthusiastic and regular users of your app before they share it with their friends or business colleagues.
Users who continuously find value in a product are more likely to tell their friends about it.
Some products capture widespread attention. Nir Eyal describes in his book Hooked what makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit. For example, Pokémon Go!, Facebook, or Instagram are all very addictive apps. People hear about the app, download it, and keep using it, on a daily basis even. Why is that? It seems there is an underlying pattern to the way technology hooks us. Nir Eyal provides answers to this and other questions by introducing the Hook Model. It is a four-step process that is embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior.
Hooked users become brand evangelists-megaphones for your company.
Nir Eyal's classic Hooked Model contains four steps:
- Trigger
- Action
- Reward
- Investment
In a nutshell, this is what you see in this model: The trigger is what brings the user to a product to take an action that results in a reward that's followed by further investment.
At the action step, the user will be asked to perform a simple action that will boost the user's motivation. This phase of the hook draws upon the art and science of usability design, to ensure that the user acts the way the designer intends.
Offering variable and unpredicatable rewards are important tools to hook users. There are many feedback loops already, but they are all predictable. Predictable loops do not create any desire. We should surprise the user and create a desire in the user. Gamification is an example of a tool to accomplish this. We can reward the user with a badge or other digital (or non digital) incentive.
The last phase of the hook is where we will ask the user to do something in return. We do not just want to increase the odds that the user will make another pass through the hook. Besides encouraging the user to continue (unlock a new level and get another badge!), we can ask the user for a rating of the app in the App Store or we can ask the user to share content of the app on social media (challenge a friend!).
If we apply the model to another well-known game, Pokémon Go!, then the model will look like this: The user gets a notification and a pokemon is shown on the screen (Trigger). The user is bored or is looking for fun and wants to play (Action). The user is rewarded with a (special) Pokemon (Variable reward) and continues to play or is asked to share the recent achievement (Investment).
You can apply the model to your app too. What can or will be the addictive features of your app? What can you do to make your users return to your app more frequently? Not only can the process help your app grow, it will also increase the (perceived) value of your company—an investor will be more interested in the number of monthly active users (MAU) than in the number of users alone.
To accomplish this, you need to build an app that people really want to use. To find out what people want, you can ask them what they need. That sounds easier than it actually is. Make sure you ask the right questions, and avoid getting only socially desired answers. Also, make sure you listen carefully to what they tell you. Bear in mind that, sometimes, they will have no clue what they want, until they see it. Here's an example of a survey.
When we started to interact with real prospective users, one of the questions that we asked them were as follows:
"Do you like the app?"
Invariably, the answer would be polite:
"Yeah, it's a really cool idea."
"Wow, this karaoke idea is neat."
Initially, we didn't listen hard enough to comments from users:
"You don't have the songs or lessons that I want."
"My teacher's songs aren't on your app."
"How will this help me find a teacher?"
"Who will review my recording?"
If we'd only listened a little harder and asked the right questions, it would have become obvious to us, sooner rather than later, that we were looking at a marketplace that connected students and teachers, with the app as a tool that enabled this. We eventually went down this route and built a platform with several world-famous musicians and teachers. But we would have saved time and resources early on if we'd asked the right questions from the start.