“Activating new users is far more than showing them how to use an app”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Common use cases for in-app marketing include onboarding new users<\/a>, introducing new features and collecting user feedback.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have a strategy<\/a> for reaching out to your existing users, you may lose them faster than you can onboard new ones, or you may over-message them, which is just as damaging. Mixpanel\u2019s study<\/a> of 1.3 billion users found that the average retention rate for web-based apps is only about 10%.<\/p>\n Whatever your app does to make your users\u2019 lives easier, here are three ways an in-app marketing strategy can help you increase user acquisition.<\/p>\n Activating new users is far more than showing them how to use an app. It’s also about unlocking your app’s value for your user, and convincing them that this value will last for months or years.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n An app is valuable only if people know how to use it. Walk new users through the basics, even if it seems obvious to you.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n A great in-app user experience includes:<\/p>\n You can use in-app behavioral analytics<\/a> to measure implicit feedback<\/a>. When users start tasks multiple times without finishing, or repeatedly tap the same buttons over and over again, they’re probably frustrated or confused.<\/p>\n You can also request explicit feedback using in-app prompts. Apps can be really robust, meaning there is so much great functionality that it’s easy for app developers to overlook minor annoyances. Your users, however, won\u2019t feel the same way — those little annoyances can drive them away for good.<\/p>\n Collecting feedback signals that you care about their experience. If you go a step further and incorporate this feedback into the app, use in-app messages<\/a> or notifications to let them know.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Use simple feedback mechanisms to encourage users to provide more of it.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Make it easy for users to respond by giving them simple choices, like a numerical rating system, thumbs-up or thumbs-down, or smiling or frowning emoji. One tap should be enough to give you the information you need.<\/p>\n Positive online reviews can drive more traffic and potential users to your app, but only a small percentage of users will voluntarily leave positive, unsolicited feedback on review sites or marketplaces. You can use in-app prompts to ask for these reviews.<\/p>\n Aim to trigger these prompts while a user is clearly enjoying the app. If, for example, a user has logged in every day for a week, it’s a good time to ask for an app review. Reviews on the app store can often be much more influential to potential users than third-party review sites or reviews posted on social media.<\/p>\n There are all kinds of ways to build marketing into your app, including great copy and great design. The techniques below are well-established ways to accelerate behavior and guide users toward positive outcomes.<\/p>\n When you think of notifications for a mobile app, you probably think of push notifications<\/a>. They are widely used and proven to be effective at increasing mobile app launches. In fact, thousands of new apps in Apple’s app store and the Google play store use push notifications frequently.<\/span><\/p>\n But unlike push notifications, in-app notifications can provide users with a quick and obvious action to take. Users also find them far less intrusive and more helpful, since they\u2019ve already opened the app when they show up.<\/p>\n The value of in-app notifications is twofold:<\/p>\n See the red \u201cNew\u201d badge in the screenshot above? It’s designed to show users a new feature, but it also draws the user in as soon as they open the app. It prompts immediate action, meaning users have a clear place to tap. Without a suggestion for immediate action, users could lose interest and leave the app.<\/p>\n You can also use in-app notifications to:<\/p>\n As with all notifications, you should run some tests to figure out how often they should be used. You want to deploy notifications often enough that users find value in them, but not so often that it irritates them.<\/p>\n Tooltips are the overlays that show users where to navigate or how to use an app. While tooltips are most often used to introduce new users to an app, they can also be used to encourage a habitual behavior or direct users to new or underused features.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You probably try to make your app as easy as possible to use, but that doesn’t eliminate the need for tutorials and walkthroughs. Tooltips are a good way to make easy-to-use apps even easier. Use them to:<\/p>\n A splash page is the equivalent of a full-screen pop-up. It requires the user to take action, whether they are responding to a call to action or opting out.<\/p>\n Splash pages are useful for pre-empting system prompts. In the example below, the app informs the user that it’s going to ask for permission to send notifications, and explains why allowing notifications is beneficial.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This works for other system prompts as well, like asking for access to the photo library, camera, microphone, and location. It asks the user to make a decision, and gives them the context they need to allow it without feeling uncertain or unsafe.<\/p>\n Many apps take advantage of in-app messages<\/a> to communicate with their users. In-app notifications can drive users to an inbox, where they can get long-form messages from the app maker.<\/p>\n In-app messages can be used to<\/p>\n While in-app messages are often used for promotion, they can also be used for two-way communication. You can do this at scale by sending surveys or asking for feedback, or you can send one-off messages to check in with high-value users — or those who might be about to churn.<\/p>\n In-app modals are full window overlays that temporarily overtake the user\u2019s behavior, and require interaction to be dismissed. Carefully placed modals can drive sales, subscriptions, or upgrades to higher tier plans.<\/p>\n Just like notifications, modal windows should be used carefully. You should make them timely and personalized to avoid annoying users. You might try them to:<\/p>\n Modals are incredibly useful mobile marketing tools when used correctly. Like all in-app marketing, plan to run tests on your modal windows to optimize their timing, messaging, and calls to action.<\/p>\n In practice, the different types of in-app marketing work together to drive users toward desired behaviors. Here are a few real examples pulled from highly successful apps.<\/p>\n Online language learning platform Duolingo<\/a> has a simple and easy onboarding campaign that gets new users engaged and learning quickly, and personalizes their learning experience within the first few minutes. This is known as \u201cprogressive disclosure\u201d.<\/p>\n Rather than asking learners to sign up right away, they\u2019re first asked to choose a language:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then how much time they want to spend learning each day, from just a few minutes (a small commitment, easy to make) to 20 minutes or more.<\/p>\n The user is then presented with the option to choose their own learning level, rather than being thrown immediately into beginner lessons. The app\u2019s \u201cplacement tests\u201d ensure that new users start learning truly new words and phrases, keeping them engaged \u2013 and less likely to leave for another app.<\/p>\n In this way, you can restrict the amount of complexity the customer is exposed to as they onboard.<\/p>\n Discord<\/a>, a \u201cSlack for gamers,\u201d doesn\u2019t assume that every new user of its software knows how to chat, @mention, use emoji, or customize their profile. Instead, they show new users prominent tooltips, pop-ups, and modal windows to help get them chatting in channels as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n While inside the app, users will see this prominent orange exclamation mark near certain features. Clicking near the icon will trigger a pop-up window explaining a specific Discord feature, how it\u2019s used, and where you can go to adjust the settings further.<\/p>\n Users can also \u201cskip the tips\u201d if they\u2019re familiar with Discord\u2019s functions, or simply want to explore at their own pace without prompts interrupting their setup process.<\/p>\n The app also uses modal windows to ask for permissions, or occasionally display important system notifications. Below, you\u2019ll see how Discord takes over the user\u2019s entire screen to ask for permission to download a desktop application that will enable the Push to Talk function.<\/p>\n With tooltips and pop-ups like these, Discord\u2019s users get a crystal clear understanding of how they can use the app, and when they need to take additional steps to make something work the way they\u2019d like it to.<\/p>\n An \u201caha\u201d moment<\/a> is the instant the value of your product becomes crystal clear to the user.<\/p>\n For the mobile app Hopper, that moment is when users realize they can automatically \u201cwatch\u201d prices for hotels and flights. That moment makes it very clear that setting up an app is well worth the peace of mind, not to mention the savings, that it offers.<\/p>\n Hopper highlights the watch button for new users. It’s simple but effective. Once a user taps that button, they have skin in the game and are much more likely to use the app more.<\/p>\n Ready to get started? Here are the three steps you’ll need to take to plan and implement in-app marketing.<\/p>\n Find some of your best users \u2013 the ones who have been around for a while, regularly engage with your app, or have upgraded to a paid plan. What behaviors did they take early on? Does anything stand out? This is where you should begin defining your in-app marketing strategy.<\/p>\n Here are some questions to help you formulate a plan:<\/p>\n Keep in mind that a well-rounded strategy<\/a> should account for onboarding, engagement and retention.<\/p>\n To put in-app marketing into practice, you will need a few tools<\/a>. First, you’ll want to choose an analytics platform. Amplitude<\/a>, Mixpanel<\/a>, AppsFlyer<\/a>\u00a0and Localytics<\/a> are popular choices.<\/p>\n Each of these tools requires that a tracking code be integrated into your app. You may want to do this with Segment<\/a>, a tool that streamlines data collection inside apps. Once integrated, Segment will allow you to easily set up tools for notifications, life-cycle email, customer support, and more.<\/p>\n You can build your own splash pages, tooltips, inboxes or modals, or you can use a tool like Leanplum<\/a>, Urban Airship<\/a>, or Intercom<\/a>, of course. (All three of these tools also integrate with Segment.)<\/p>\n We suggest you choose an analytics tool first because testing is so important. You’ll want detailed metrics on behavior in your app, and you’ll also want the ability to run A\/B tests.<\/p>\n Some of the tools mentioned above offer A\/B testing features, but you may want to check out a tool like Apptimize or Optimizely that is built specifically for mobile A\/B testing.<\/p>\n With a solid in-app marketing strategy, you can keep your users happy, engaged, and more likely to be retained long-term. Follow these guidelines to create a thoughtful strategy for your own app, from onboarding to collecting app reviews.<\/p>\n If you’re interested in reading more about onboarding, engagement growth and marketing, check out some of our books:<\/p>\n Intercom on Customer Engagement<\/a>Why you need an in-app marketing strategy<\/h2>\n
1. Guide your user\u2019s experience<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-02.png\")
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2. Capture user feedback<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-06.png\")
<\/p>\n3. Collect positive reviews<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-03.png\")
Ask active users to rate your app while they are highly engaged <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n5 types of in-app marketing<\/h2>\n
1. In-app notifications<\/h3>\n
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![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-12.png\")
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2. Tooltips<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-13.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
3. Splash pages<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-04.png\")
<\/p>\n4. In-app messages<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-07.png\")
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5. Modals<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-14.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
3 examples of an in-app marketing campaign<\/h2>\n
1. Onboarding users at the right learning level<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-10.png\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-011.png\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-08.png\")
<\/p>\n2. Utilizing helpful in-app tooltips and modals<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-05.png\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-11.png\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-09.png\")
<\/p>\n3. Pushing users toward an \u201caha\u201d moment<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Intercom-In-App-15.png\")
<\/p>\nHow to set up your in-app marketing<\/h2>\n
Step 1: Define your strategy<\/h3>\n
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Step 2: Choose the right tools<\/h3>\n
Step 3: Test, test, test<\/h3>\n
Get started on your own in-app marketing<\/h2>\n
\nIntercom on Product Management<\/a>
\nIntercom on Marketing<\/a>
\nIntercom on Onboarding<\/a>
\nThe Growth Handbook<\/a><\/p>\n