How to recall old users and improve retention rate?

As a product develops over time, it accumulates more and more users, and lost users often account for a high proportion. Recalling lost users has become one of the important means of user growth operations .

Regular routine recalls and irregular non-routine recalls

In terms of frequency, user recall can be divided into regular recall and irregular recall . Regular recall is often recent and regular recall. For example, when the user has been inactive for more than 3 days, 7 days, 14 days and 28 days, you can send a message to the user to remind him to check back often.

Extraordinary recalls are common in recalling users in extraordinary times, and are often targeted at users who have been lost for a long time. For example, e-commerce websites will send messages to most users during their shopping festivals, reminding them to check out their products. Some listed companies also like to send messages at the end of the quarter to attract users to return and achieve the goal of completing KPIs.

The user value of recall messages is the core

What kind of messages are sent to users is the key to improving the recall rate. Generally speaking, messages sent to users contain valuable temptations such as functional upgrades, friend interactions, exciting content, discounts, etc., which can undoubtedly attract users' attention.

Functional upgrades attract users to return through freshness and tool value. For tool products that help people solve problems, this is of course the core value for users. For example, a highly requested feature is finally available or a bug in a feature has been fixed.

If it is a social product, interactive messages from friends are also a good way to attract users to return. Social products are often very good at this type of thing. For example, a stranger dating app tells you that there are several people nearby who have a crush on you, so you can go online and see who they are. Or maybe the goddess you follow just posted a status about being heartbroken.

If it is a content-based product, such as short videos or video apps, exciting content is undoubtedly the best means of recall. Of course, this is limited to pure content products, and can also include new products on e-commerce websites.

For e-commerce websites, discounts are undoubtedly the most appealing. That’s why when Double 11 comes, you will be bombarded with messages from various stores where you have bought things on Tmall , telling you how many discounts and offers there are, in an attempt to lure you back.

Although there are many recall methods, it is necessary to weigh the cost and efficiency comprehensively.

Having good content is half the battle. Next, you need to use some means of reaching out to users to let them know this information. If users really churn, there are actually very few means to reach them. Currently, the commonly used means of contact for Internet companies include push , SMS, email and advertising.

The push method is suitable for when the user has not completely deleted your app and said goodbye. Whether an enterprise can send push to users depends on whether the user has turned off the message push of your app. If the message push of your company's app is turned off, you need to take a detour and use a third-party app to invoke it. Many large company apps will improve the push of push messages through some mutual stay-alive cooperation. Some third-party push service providers also provide similar services, but companies often need to pay some fees. Compared with SMS, push is a free or low-cost method after all.

When users have completely uninstalled the app, text messages become one of the main methods to recall long-lost users. On the mobile Internet , the proportion of users registering or linking their mobile phones with their mobile phone numbers is increasing, so mobile phone numbers have become a good means of recall. The price of sending a text message is often just a few cents, but the conversion rate of text messages is often extremely low, resulting in many APPs having to spend several dollars, or even more than ten dollars, to recall an old user through text messages, and the cost is constantly rising. In addition to doing more segmentation and precise recall of users, a good way to optimize SMS recall efficiency is to eliminate user samples with invalid historical recalls. Men and women who have been heartbroken all know that they should give up after repeated requests for reconciliation have failed, but many companies are foolish enough not to know this. After sending text messages several times last year without success, they continue to send them in vain this year. Apart from causing user disgust and complaints, as well as high text message bills, the companies have no real benefits.

As most users rely less and less on email, except for those who use email frequently, the role of email in user recall has become less and less. This is often seen in user recall of e-commerce and enterprise applications.

Although advertising is also a means of recalling old users, the cost of recalling old users through advertising is basically the same as acquiring a new user. This is why advertising is so inefficient. Recalling old users through advertising is often extremely inefficient. Improving the efficiency of advertising recall often involves DMP or data docking, which is not a good idea for companies that focus on data security.

If you no longer love your ex, the strategies you use are often ineffective. Be prepared for a low recall rate.

Just like in life, if users no longer use your app, it must be that the product can no longer meet user needs. If users already have a substitute, your recall is most likely futile. If the user has not found a substitute and there is still demand for the product, there is a certain probability of a recall, but the recall rate will definitely not be very high. If users no longer have demand, then these recall efforts are in vain.

It is better to be more sincere and ignore the deceptive routines that remain .

The low probability of recall is not the worst thing. The worst thing is that the recalled users are unlikely to retain the product.

The reason for the low retention rate of recalled users is often that the value of the message conveyed is significantly different from the user's expectations and actual product experience.

To make the retention rate problem even worse, some companies, in order to meet their company's KPIs, blindly pursue recall rates and resort to various forms of deception. For example, a dating app tells you that there are several girls in your address book who have a crush on you, but when you excitedly check, you find that there is not a single one; a shopping app tells you that there are great deals today, but when you check, you find that it is all scams. This is similar to when you are in a relationship and you try to get back together with your ex, you keep regretting your past behavior, saying that you have become better and stronger, and you promise all kinds of good things in the future. Your ex is actually persuaded, but after a few days of getting along, you realize that it is difficult to change a person's nature, and all the vows you made were just tricks.

Users are fools, but they cannot be fools forever. If your users create a recall peak as shown in the following figure, they will be lost forever the next day; if your subsequent recall conversion rate is getting worse and worse, in addition to reflecting on the product, you also need to reflect on your company's ethics and values.

The author of this article @199it compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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