Retention
Retention is a key metric pertaining to the frequency that users return to use your service. It’s also important to understand what makes them come back.
Contents
Issues
- How do you re-engage users that are not active?
- How do you increase engagement for those that are active?
- What are the retention methods you need to know about?
Related Topics
Cohort Analysis
30/10/10
Engagement
Active/Inactive users
Key Quotes
“According to the Harvard Business Review the average American business loses 50% of its customers every five years with two-thirds of them citing inadequate customer care as their primary reason for leaving. Additionally, 91% of small businesses do nothing to retain their existing clients.” – From the Kapow blog
“Startups spend gobs of time and money on user acquisition and then they just let those hard-earned new users slip through the cracks by failing to engage them and carry on with proper retention tactics. You might have happier usersif you spent nearly as much time on user retention as you spent on that fancy user invite module that comes up before the user has even tried out your service.” – From Paul Statamiou
“Identify one or two metrics that separates successful and engaged users from unsuccessful and inactive users.” – Fred Wilson
Example Retention Goals
(from Startup Metrics for Pirates)
- 1-3+ visits per month
- 20% open rate / 2% CTR
- Long customer life cycle / Low decay
- Identify fanatics and cheerleaders
Retention Tips
- Automated Emails
- RSS/New feeds
- Widgets/Embed
Metrics
- Source
- Quantity
- Conversions
- Visitor Loyalty
- Session Length
- Spend / visit
- Actions / visit
Tools
Kiss Metrics, MixPanel, Woopra, Qualaroo, Customer.io, Google Analytics.
References
1. Retention, AVC
2. Startup Idea: User Retention as a Service, Paul Stamatiou
3. The Power of Customer Retention Infographic, Kapow
4. 30/10/10, AVC
5. Implementing a “Metrics for Pirates” Dashboard, Totango
6. Startup Metrics for Pirates, Dave McClure
