App developers are a busy bunch. They have an earth shattering app to build, finish the details of the UI and UX, ensure scalable backend services, make sure that the core functionality works without issues and so on… In all this chaos, one thing that usually gets ignored is the users of the app.
Based on our experience, here are some must do tasks for your users.
Your users are usually at one of the following three stages
- They are evaluating your app and want to decide whether it is worth downloading or using it. Let us call them “Potential Users”
- They have made a decision are have downloaded or started using your app. Let us call them “New Users”
- They have been using it for sometime now. Let us call them “Old Users”
All these three users have different needs and you need address them separately. We highly recommend the online marketing automation tools of Online Marketing Wizard because it automates all these tasks. The free plan will usually be enough for you.
Let us look at each user one by one.
Potential Users
These users usually look at your marketing materials (app store link, landing page of your SaaS etc) and now start to compare your product with similar products.
What they need to know
They need to be convinced that your product actually solves their problem. They might also be interested in knowing how your product is better/faster/cheaper than competition and what risks are there in using it.
What you can do about it
- You need to segment your users. The way you talk to a mother of two children and a teenager would be different. So why should you have a single landing page for all users.
- You need to show case the key features and benefits of your product.
- You need to show the experiences of your existing users
- Give a risk free way to check out your product without actually signing up or using your product.
Automating this
Online Marketing Wizard makes it very easy to automate a lot of these things:
- You can create different landing pages for different segments of users. Each landing page can talk about the pain point of the user in detail and show specifically how your product solves their problem.
- You can create a sequence of scheduled emails that will be delivered to your users. Each email talking in detail about the benefits of your product. You can create multiple campaigns for different segments of users so that you address each user group separately.
- You can create User Manuals, Video Tutorials and FAQs to give your users an idea of your product. The manual and video tutorials gives the users a risk free way to checkout your product
New Users
What they need to know
New users are the brave souls who have taken the plunge and have started using your product.
They need a lot of hand holding and guidance, a place to get in touch with you and ask you questions related to using your product.
It is very important to manage these kinds of users because they are prone to quitting your product during the first few weeks.
What you can do about it
- You need to give your users some means to get in touch with you. Emails, Skype, Social Media and phones are the simplest to implement but they are a nightmare to support (Imagine getting a call at 3 AM)
- You need a robust customer support system
- You need to guide your users pro-actively and introduce them to all the features of your product and also tell them how to use it
Automating this
Online Marketing Wizard was designed for a situation like this.
- You can configure scheduled emails that informs the users about the features of the product and how to use them. So every day (or every week or whatever your configure), your users get an email with tips and tricks about your product
- You can create User Manuals, FAQs, Issue Trackers and Video Tutorials. These are preferred over direct email/phone/social media support because every question/issue asked is available at your own knowledge base and new users facing similar issues can refer to older issues and help themselves. They do not have to wait for your response. Also other users can respond to user queries and take the load off your shoulders
- These emails (either the scheduled ones or the responses to the issues they raised or questions they asked) usually tend to pull the user back to your product. We have observed an increase in user retention using these techniques.
Old Users
What they need to know
Old users are the ones who have been using your app for quite sometime. They usually have issues and they want to change the product to make it suit their needs.
This is a huge opportunity because it helps you prioritise your development tasks. You know which feature you want to work on and which issue you want to solve.
Using emails or social media for issue reporting and tracking is not a good idea because all the issues and feature requests get scattered all over the place and you have no way to systematically organize them.
What you can do about it
- You need to give the users a way to request for new features.
- They should be able to see which features have been requested and show their support for the features by voting for the ones they want first
- They should be able to report issues
- They should be able to vote for issues that are important for them
Automating this
Online Marketing Wizard has readymade tools for these kinds of users
- You can add all the features that you are planning in the “Feature Request” section of your product and let the users vote for the features they want first.
- Users can also add new feature requests so that they know what your users want
- Users can view all public issues and vote for the issues that is irritating them the most. So you can prioritize your development time.
Conclusion
Online Marketing Wizard is a must have free tool in the arsenal of all app developers. You can create one account and manage multiple products there. For each product you can run multiple campaigns, create user manuals, faqs, issue tracker, feature request etc. These are somethings that you have to configure just once and then it takes over.
Right now Online Marketing Wizard is in closed beta. If you are an app developer who has limited time to support your users, you must signup for an early invite by clicking here.