Appboy and Apptimize Host Spotify, Instapaper, Hopscotch at #engage NYC

Last week, Appboy co-hosted our #engage Meetup with Apptimize to focus attention on mobile growth and explore real-life experiences related to mobile acquisition, engagement and retention. Our expert panel included: Miles Lennon, Product Area Lead at Spotify; Brian Donohue, CEO of Instapaper; Samantha John, Co-Founder of Hopscotch; Miles Lennon, Product Area Lead at Spotify and Dave Wisdom, Solutions Consulting at Appboy.

In case you missed out on the panel discussion (and the pizza and beer!) here are three key takeaways from our speakers:

Retention is Hard For EveryoneAcquisition and the difficulty companies have retaining their customers was a major focus of the panel. To combat lapsing users, panelists recommended incorporating multiple messaging channels to reach the right customers in the right way, focus on testing segments to increase conversions and onboarding new customers in a timely, effective manner in order to help ritualize their app behavior.

Engaged Customers Create a Ripple EffectA central theme of the evening was the value customers can add as brand ambassadors. Both Spotify and Instapaper view customers brought in by word of mouth as the most valuable segment of their audiences – according to Miles Lennon, about 80% of Spotify customers are drawn in by word of mouth and those customers require less onboarding to become engaged with the app and have higher retention rates than other customers. Reinforcing the important role played by active, engaged customers in supporting future acquisition and retention, Samantha John told attendees that engagement rates increase for first-time Hopscotch customers when they’re inspired by games that previous customers have created.

#engage Meetup Attendees

Personalization is Key to EngagementIf you’re not investing in personalization, you’re making it harder to retain the valuable customers you acquire. Lennon urged attendees to focus on improving 0.1% at a time and to use all of the data available to you to tailor each customer’s experience. Brian Donohue warned that there is a “fine line between being engaging and being annoying,” and argued that app quality has a bigger impact on retention than customer outreach. All four panelists agreed that customers expect their experience to be the same across all channels and that ensuring a seamless customer journey is paramount.

Many thanks to Apptimize for co-hosting this meetup, and a special shotout to Spotify, Instapaper and Hopscotch for spending the evening with us. See you next time!