How a community makes an app successful (and why you need one)
Whether it be eCommerce where 88% of users dropping out before buying anything, mHealth, where apps experience a disappointing 4% user retention after 30 days, or banking, which retains a larger but still small 10% of its users.
So how do apps use communities to increase user retention?
Let’s find out how a community can affect app success and learn from 3 great gamification examples on how to grow your community:
- The untold science behind communities
- How do mobile apps benefit from communities?
- Here’s how gamification helps you build a loyal community
- 3 gamification examples that created successful communities
- Recap
The untold science behind communities
Behavioral research finds that users tend to install new apps due to extrinsically motivating factors, such as getting rewards or praise. However, to create long-term mobile app engagement, you need intrinsic motivation as well. A great way to increase intrinsic motivation is to play on the human desire for relatedness and social connectivity.
In 2020, out of all app categories, social apps attracted the most weekly engagement. This is no coincidence; research is clear that communities create an engaging and satisfying user experience.
One of the most well-known scientific studies on how it works is ‘the need to belong’. In this paper, social psychologists Baumeister and Leary describe what makes relatedness so motivating. The report’s conclusion names social relations as a “powerful, fundamental, and extremely pervasive motivation”.
In addition, the study writes that forming social attachments “produces positive emotions”. In other words, intrinsic motivation! The use of social levers has been used in many gamification examples before. Together they work in synergy to keep users engaged and motivated by enabling a joyful experience!
To sum up, a community makes for a rewarding experience by providing the need to belong, which motivates users to keep the app. Improving intrinsic motivation through the community has clear benefits – a modest jump of 5% in user retention can boost profits by as much as 25-95%!
How do mobile apps benefit from communities?
An app community has proven benefits to solve both of those problems and more:
- A near 300% jump in user retention. An in-app community maximizes user retention metrics by 2.7x. Users are motivated to return due to a sense of belonging.
- User acquisition costs can be slashed by 90%. It’s 5x cheaper to retain a customer than it is to acquire one.
- Customer data is plentiful. Increased interaction and active time on the platform will inform your perception of user behavior, improving your app.
- Increase in customer lifetime value. Get more out of your users!
Here’s how gamification helps you build a loyal community
New to gamification? Catch up to speed with our ‘What is Gamification’ page!
That being said, here are 3 things to keep in mind when using gamification for app communities:
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Don’t fall prey to the overjustification effect.
Satisfying community interaction is intrinsically motivating. That is to say, the action itself is enjoyable, and requires no encouragement from the app. If you reward users with extrinsic motivators such as prizes and trophies for something they are already intrinsically motivated for, you will be ‘overjustifying’ the action. This either does nothing or worse, a great deal of damage to customer motivation!
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Rewards should be personal and acknowledge contributions.
In creating a community, don’t think of a reward as a transaction. Instead, rewards should be personal and given in context to what the user’s actions meant to the community, such as helping others. This makes users feel like they belong!
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What works for one community may not work for another.
Games are highly social-specific, and they depend on the demography of your userbase. To have a successful gamification strategy, visualize how your gamification features serve your particular community and its aims.
To top it off, a growing community leads to the rise of influential and highly active members of the group, who can strengthen the network further and bring in new users. In short, a successful community becomes resilient and will stick around!
Building a community is already hard enough… That’s why we made gamification easy! Learn more about our app gamification software.
3 gamification examples that created successful communities
Below are 3 gamification examples to learn from.
How Kazyr’s esports community gives users more autonomy
The Kayzr community is driven by a shared passion for esports and gaming. A great intrinsic motivator to start with. However, a wide range of game elements like leveling systems, leaderboards, and badge rewards ensure users keep interacting with the community.
Nike Run Club’s uses competition as a positive feedback loop
Research confirms that feeling part of a larger community leads to long-term mobile app engagement. The running app does everything in its power to keep users interacting with one another. Not only do users have a social feed, but there are also plenty of opportunities to team up and form an exercise group. Maybe that’s why they call it the Nike Running Club?
Barclaycard Ring Mastercard – a ‘team’ credit card that brings users together
Members of the ring were awarded according to their participation in an online forum and the provided feedback they gave to each other. They worked as a team and learn about things like financial management, while also having an accountability partner. For instance, if the community of card-holders met a target, such as staying under a credit borrowing limit, they would all receive rewards.
To sum up, fostering a community is one of the most important steps in creating a long-lasting app. As well as the boost to user retention metrics, users are 4x more likely to refer others if they feel they belong to the community. When done right, social interaction among users is both a powerful and affordable strategy at any app’s disposal!
Recap
How do in-app communities work?
4 reasons mobile apps need communities
- A near 300% jump in user retention.
- Customer acquisition costs can shrink by 90%!
- Customer data increases, as user interaction grows.
- Loyal customers lead to an increase in customer lifetime value.
Where does gamification come in?
As a result, you will see the rise of influential and highly active group members, who can strengthen the network further. In short, successful communities are resilient!
What successful gamification examples are there?
Nike Run Club’s challenges among users lead to long-term mobile app engagement, by giving users the confidence and support network to exercise.
Barclaycard Ring was a team credit card where users worked together to meet targets and earn rewards. In ‘gaming’ together, users improved the health of their finances!
To sum up, fostering a community is one of the most important steps in creating a long-lasting app. As well as the boost to user retention metrics, users are 4x more likely to refer others if they feel they belong to the community. When done right, social interaction among users is both a powerful and affordable tool at any app’s disposal!