Dwell is a nice word to use; can you imagine if the phrase used to describe the time customers spent in the same position, area or stage of a process in an app or on a website was called lurk time? Slightly creepy and more than a little bit stalker-like. But I digress!

In the world of apps, user retention is the most commonly talked about issue. In other words, someone downloading an app and opening it more than once before deleting it, which happens A LOT. However marketers and CRM managers are becoming much savvier in this regard, and although almost instant app deletion is still prevalent, it is getting better.

But what about dwell time?

Once the hurdle of retention has been overcome this really is the next pain point. Is awesome content visible to users and keeping them engaged, or are they just opening the app, having a ganders and then pootling off?

To avoid unnecessary pootling, we have put together a few pointers on key things to consider:

Content

This is the chance to show off what you do and give people an insight into your brand. When creating content for your app, ask yourself:

Is it relevant?
Is it exciting?
Is it engaging?

If the answer is yes to all three, congratulations! If not, well it’s not the end of the world. A little refinement never hurt anyone and it can only be good for your brand.

Interaction

When a user opens your app, what happens? Do you start engaging with them or leave them to their own devices? The whole in-app experience can sometimes be fairly impersonal, with little or no interaction.

However, this is not difficult to achieve if you consider using triggers to fully automate the interaction process. Because these triggers are based on events that happen within the app in real time, you as a brand can start reactively marketing and engaging with your users.

For example, send a rich message to an in app inbox, after the user has been on a page for a specific period of time directing them to a great offer, or send a thank you message to the inbox after they have registered. You can even get snazzy using third party triggers which can be based around, well, pretty much anything.

Simple things like this help to improve user experience, and the user’s journey with you as a brand. More importantly however, they will ultimately increase in-app dwell time.

 

By Paul Putman, CEO of Donky. 

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