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How to Increase User Engagement with These Easy Tricks

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Spencer Coon

March 2, 2018

Every product development team has gone through the pain of trying to figure out how to increase user engagement and to explore and interact with your product more. You put in all the work of building a product that meets the needs and demands of your users, but your updates and new features seem to go unnoticed.

Increasing user engagement is the most important metric for a new app or site:

Your initial users are your biggest potential advocates. Getting them to market your product puts you in front of better leads than paid ads ever could. Their support and engagement is vital to strong organic growth and long term success. The problem is your initial product is not complete. You’re adding features and making changes as you go. Building a strong relationship with users and finding the best ways to communicate with them in a way that keeps their attention. Many companies have done a fantastic job. Here are a few methods you can copy that won’t require a product overhaul.

Generate genuine user engagement with Beamer

Beamer is a simple, no-code way to inform your users about new features and updates right within the interface of your app. It’s a changelog that more interactive and effective than sending emails, messages, or an annoying chat bot. Your users have one central location where they can find updates and information on new features they’ve been waiting for. Your emails and messages don’t go ignored. Beamer doesn’t require any coding; your marketing team can handle and manage it. Anyone can create a visual, interesting update for users. Teams using Beamer have seen 10x more engagement from users. Beamer also gives you useful analytics on what your users are responding to the best for better direction.

increase user engagement with an easy to use changelog

Keep emails for only the really important things

We all have an annoying company we regretting giving our email who pops up in our inbox way too often. When you do nothing but send “engaging” emails to your users that don’t contain any real information they would be interested in, they will eventually ignore them or ask you to stop sending them. You’ve missed out on an avenue to reach your users when you do have something that will really engage them. Save email for big news and sending emails that actually provide real value to your users. This will position you as more of a ally and helpful resource your users like hearing from rather than another annoying automated company. An example of a few company that do a great job are Hubspot and freecodecamp.

Make it clear customer feedback is heard

It strongly reinforces your users trust in your company when you are genuinely interested in what they want to see happen with your product. Gathering customer opinion and then bringing it to reality will create loyal users who know you are working to meet their needs. Beamer has a feedback and reactions feature that allows users to send in their reactions to new features and updates shared through Beamer. Users can rate with simple smiley face symbols and leave comments, much like they’re used to with Facebook posts. As a product manager you get really simple, clear customer data to make smarter decisions. It’s easier to get feedback while they’re using your product rather than rely on emails that make your users take extra steps. Frequently asking customers for their opinion and then announcing upcoming changes lets users know their feedback matters and they can rely on your team to deliver, instead of another company.

analytics with feedback and reactions on Beamer

Communicate visually with GIFs for increased user engagement

Tweets, emails, messages, almost anything with a visual element is more likely to grab the attention necessary. Adding something visual to your updates and messages on all platforms with users is a really easy way to increase engagement. Cloud App allows you to create moving GIFs to include in messages. It’s a great way to showcase new features by showing users how they work, where to find them, or what to expect with your updates. It’s not just a description that will go unread. Upload GIFs and photos to your Beamer updates so you can actually show users what’s new.

communicate visually with GIFs for better user engagement

Be an advocate for your user’s success

We’re definitely in a new era of relationship marketing where what your company is to users goes far beyond your product alone. The most successful companies have built up customer loyalty by acting as an advocate for their customers’ success. They provide value far beyond just the product by way of helpful content and resources. Users know they can count on these companies for expert help. Hubspot’s Hubspot academy, a collection of marketing and sales resources, is a great example along with Coschedule’s Headline Analyzer. Additionally, this gets users back to the website and have more faith in your product as a real asset to their work.

hubspot academy

Improving user engagement doesn’t always need to include a design overhaul or programming help. Often companies need to focus their efforts on how they’re reaching users and building a trusted image. Drastically improve your ability to reach your users and see 10x more user engagement by trying out Beamer for free.

Spencer Coon

Co-founder

Spencer is an entrepreneur, analyst, climber, skier and adventurer based in Boulder, CO.

This article is about Customer Engagement + customer feedback + Product Management + User Engagement + User Feedback

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“Beamer is the perfect tool for SaaS companies to engage users and reduce churn. Beamer has helped us achieve huge improvements in click through rates, reductions in churn and increased upselling.”

Benny Waelput

Go-to-Market Marketeer

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