What is user engagement and why is it so necessary?

We all know that satisfying the customer is the best way to boost your business. User engagement is a checkpoint which tells you if your users find your product useful. Whenever you want to try out a new feature, check how it impacts your user engagement.

What user engagement is not?

User engagement is not equal to usage. A social media related SaaS product may have users logging in every day. Whereas a budgeting tool might receive users once or twice a month. This does not indicate that the budgeting tool has low user engagement. Measurement of user engagement is subjective. That is why it is important to know what industry you’re in before serving the users.

Hence, user engagement is all about providing value to your customers.

Aka ensuring customer satisfaction.

There are some basic and useful strategies that ensures user engagement for all Saas products out there. Choose what works for your brand to fuel its growth.

1. First impression and Onboarding.

   Simple yet smart first impressions catches the eye. Your first impression could be the cover page of your website or your advertising campaign. Once user is attracted by that, onboarding is your way to go. Successful onboarding gets your user on board for a long run. 55% of people say they've returned a product because they didn't understand how to use it. Hence onboarding is all about making user aware of your product.

   Onboarding can be done by making a checklist of things that the user needs to perform. It includes signing up, giving a tour and collecting information. Each product adapts a different kind of checklist. But to summarize, a good onboarding experience is simple, reflects your product, tracks progress and acts as a pioneer to user engagement. For more detailed tips, check out our onboarding article here {INSERT LINK}

2. Don’t rush.

   You might have a loads of features to serve your audience. But going slow and gradually exposing the features is a key. Don’t overload the customers as soon as they visit you. Remember that this phase is not about attracting but providing quality. Your customer has already visited you which means you have done a good job attracting them. Now focus on steady growth. Here, the use of step wise checklist works well. It is also necessary to notify any new features to the users.

3. Message schedules and push notifications.

   Regular communication in the form of scheduled messages/emails or push notifications helps to level up. Push notifications however used less in desktop when compared to mobile apps, leads to a daily increase of 25% of website traffic. In product messaging works as well. Humans have an attention span of 8 seconds hence in product messages and pop-ups are great ways to keep that attention up. These well written messages and microcopy encourages user to take actions thereby increasing user engagement.

4. Personalization

   An excellent use of data analytics is to provide personalization. Triggering emails based on in-app behaviour to solving their concerns helps build brand loyalty.

   Such personalized content even motivates user to respond better and helps them provide a better service. Personalization is not only regarding content but also regarding your brand. Display customer experiences on your website and put up faces. This allows your target audience to feel familiar and build trust.

5. Deliver value

   Delivering value is the supreme goal that leads toward user engagement. 46% of U.S. consumers said they’re more likely to switch providers than they were 10 years ago. Hence, providing value becomes the sustaining base for your business. Let’s see how you can deliver value to fuel growth.

   Make sure to keep these points in mind while delivering value to your product.

   1. Customer care services
   2. Informative content
   3. Remove features that don’t engage users.
   4. Keep updating, don’t go obsolete.
   5. Make simple, specific and relevant content
   6. Be responsive

6. Role of social media and feedback

   Be it B2B or B2C, being active on social media leads to online consumer engagement. Social media is a boost for all kinds of business. Optimizing features helps the business to get more audience and expand. But posting regularly and engaging with your users online is a great way to increase engagement of the users thereby fueling your business.

   Another fool proof way to ensure audience engagement is to collect feedbacks. It is really easy to collect feedbacks on social media platforms due to its diverse features. However, adding feedback forms at the end of your mails helps you to know what your audience wants.

   Remember that user engagement is different for everyone. Now that you know all about how to increase user engagement for your product, it’s time to try it practically and see what works for you.