How do you increase user engagement and step off the acquisition hamster wheel?

Retaining users costs between five and twenty five times less than acquiring a new user. That’s right, 5–25x less.

While the number of new users is an important metric for platform growth, your user retention rate is arguably even more important. Why? Because without user retention - all the time, effort and money that goes into acquiring new users, eventually goes to waste.

Here are four user retention strategies to reduce the churn rate on your platform.

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Never assume what your users want

Ultimately, your platform serves your users. And while you know your platform inside-out, you will never fully know how your users see it, or what they need from it, unless you ask them.

This is why you need a customer feedback strategy. You could invite users to join a user advisory board, or a beta testing group for a new feature. You could simply make it easier for them to flag any bugs and make suggestions.

This rich, in-depth feedback is incredibly valuable, but it will only give you a small snapshot of your user base. (Users who take time out of their busy schedule to give feedback are sadly few and far between). A solid understanding of your users requires both qualitative data (user feedback) and quantitative data (user monitoring).

User monitoring technology analyses user behavior to highlight any issues or snags in your UX (user experience) that you might not have noticed. It answers questions like:

• Can my users find this important page?
• Is the sign-up process too complicated?
• Which are our most-used features?
• Which are our least-used features?

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Armed with this insight, you can then make changes that enhance your user experience. When users can see that your platform takes on their feedback, and takes action to implement their feedback, they feel involved in the process. They feel valued. And they know that, in the future, their feedback could continue to shape your platform as their needs evolve.

Top tip: If your team has built a new feature from user feedback, make sure to mention this in your comms. With their permission, you could name the users who were involved in your beta testing group, or feedback rounds, and credit them for their contributions. Thus, showing other users that they too can influence future builds.

Be radically transparent

Transparency is an act of integrity. And when a platform shows integrity, it builds trust with their users.

But what does it mean to be “radically transparent”? It means going against everything we’re taught about marketing. For example:

• Actively telling users when you’ve made a mistake (and addressing how you’re going to fix it).
• Letting users know when their subscription is about to renew, and giving them ample time to cancel if they want to.
• Explaining terms and conditions in simple ways (even if those terms and conditions are more beneficial to your platform, than the user).

While this strategy may seem counterintuitive for user retention, it sets your platform above the rest. Users know they have nothing to worry about, because you have nothing to hide. And trust like that is hard to beat.

Reward loyal users (not just new users)

You know the feeling. You see a great offer and then…the dreaded small print “Available to new customers only”. Phone companies are notorious for this.

But what if, instead of rewarding new users, those businesses rewarded their loyal users with the best prices and exclusive perks?

The benefits of this strategy are two-fold. Your existing users see that their business is valued, and new users see that you will continue to treat them well once they sign up.

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Prevent scams on your platform

Trust is your platform’s currency. If users are continuously subjected to scam attempts, or are actually scammed, their trust for your platform plummets, and they’ll go elsewhere. Most likely sharing their bad experience with their friends and family too

This can happen to any platform—from a start-up in its first year, to the biggest social networks in the entire world. Recent statistics have shown that Facebook and Instagram lost users as a result of fake news and scam content.

So how can you stop scammers from dwindling your user base? You need a scam detection solution.

Use the power of AI to stop scammers in their tracks

Themis's scam detection solution uses machine learning and behavioral analytics to detect suspicious activity on your platform and stop scammers from causing irreparable damage.

Our technology continually monitors user behavior across your entire platform. If scammers have managed to find their way onto your platform, we spot the tell-tale signals, joining the dots to find potential offenders and giving you the insight to take action and minimise their threat.

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