A Business’s Guide To Boosting Product Engagement

As a Software as a Service (SaaS) manufacturer, you already know that customers want products that meet their demands. That’s why you offer them the best product features to increase sales. However, as you continuously modify your offers, many users might need help figuring out how they work. It means that they need to see the value of those new features. It’s a surefire way to boost customer churn, affecting your revenue. And this is where boosting product engagement comes in.  

What Is Product Engagement? 

Product engagement measures how much time users spend on your website and apps. It also tells whether they return to using them again or not. It provides insights into what features they like, including the ones they don’t. This way, you can identify ways to improve user experience (UX) to get more users returning more often.  

Benefits Of Higher Product Engagement 

When product engagement is high, you might receive these four advantages, such as:  

• Higher Competitive Edge  
• Met Customer Needs  
• Increased Brand Loyalty  
• Raised Sales And Market Share  

It means you can sell more and develop better relationships with consumers, which helps boost your company’s productivity.  

How To Measure Product Engagement? 

Now, how do you calculate product engagement? Here’s a guide to doing so: 

• Interpret The Patterns In Your Product Analytics 

Product analytics show you patterns of user behavior on your website, including the following details: 

• The number of users who are visiting your website 
• How much time do they spend on it 
• How many pages do they view? How often do they check it?

These patterns tell about the visitors’ interest and interactions with your pages. For instance, 78% of users spend most of their time on product pages. This indicates that they’re interested in what you offer. Thus, prioritize these areas of your site as it generates engagement. 

Using product analytics software to interpret these patterns is also helpful. That way, you can determine which parts of the site are most popular with users and why some lose interest. 

• Figure Out Bottlenecks 

As you collect analytics, you’ll notice the areas where active users have issues with product engagement. You might learn that users stop using your products at the second stage of your onboarding. Or maybe you added a new feature, but only 3% of your consumers use it after purchase.  

In that case, determine which of these problems is causing lower engagement. It can be the least used or even the most used but misused. These abnormalities affect user retention and the overall UX.  

• Write A Hypotheses 

Reviewing analytics is one thing. But what makes you increase user engagement is a well-defined end goal. It means you’ll use those issues as your basis for testing features that might help you achieve your goals. So, before anything else, sit down and write down what you want out of the product.  

For example, you want users to stay on your website longer. In which case, how can we get users to visit more pages? Getting more people to sign up would be your target metric. The point is that writing out a hypothesis provides a concrete structure that helps define your end goal.

• Plan Your Objectives For Product Modification 

Since you already have the metrics, you can start making improvements. It’s where you create a plan for your product engagement goals. If you want to increase user retention, the onboarding process can be your primary focus. And if you want to improve the sales lead conversion rate, you’ll need to prioritize the user experience of your website or app.  

Identifying objectives creates a direction as you work on your product’s usability and experience.  

7 Strategies For Increasing Product Engagement 

Now that you have a goal in mind, consider these seven tactics to increase your business’s product engagement: 

1. Encourage Customer Feedback 

One thing about customers is that their preferences vary, and their interests are ever-changing. As such, it’s good to use their feedback about their experience with the product. Here are tips you can follow:  

• Ask For Requests: You can ask for their request in case they prefer additional features. These include built-in integrations, fast loading time, and a well-designed user interface (UI). They might even want data privacy and protection assurance as you ask for their confidential information.  
• Ask For Recommendations: Consider asking for recommendations about certain features to be removed. They might not want unnecessary notifications, insistent permissions, or intrusive ads. Eliminating these features reduce design clutter while saving maintenance costs.  
• Gather Opinions: Collect their opinion about the onboarding experience. For instance, new users need help navigating the app because of the lack of a walkthrough. Or maybe the initial welcome screen doesn’t provide enough information about what to expect later.  

Sometimes, all you need is to listen to the users. It gives you valuable insights into which parts of your app need enhancement. And if you address these concerns, consumers know you care about their experience and demands, boosting your competitive edge and subscriptions.  

2. Compose a Compelling Copy 

Your first point of contact in an ad is your product copy. With an engaging copy, prospects are likely to continue the process. Your modals and tooltips may be too long, which disrupts the rest of the user interface (UI). Users leave your app without converting or learning about your offer. 

Alternatively, keeping your copy direct shows visitors how they benefit from the continuous subscription to your services. For instance, you’re selling a video-on-demand (VOD) streaming platform. If so, tell prospects the benefits of subscribing to your app. Highlight features like offline viewing capabilities and unlimited access to movies. In addition, consider indicating that they can access their favorite television shows on any device.

With a concise copy, leads won’t have to read lengthy paragraphs. It means you’re going straight to the point, which speeds up their purchasing decision.

3. Develop A Flawless Onboarding Experience 

As you already know, SaaS onboarding is about guiding new users as they learn about the product. During this period, you provide instructions about the ins and outs of the software and why it’s valuable for them.   

Thus, onboarding impacts revenue and loyalty. With a compelling experience, your customers will likely be satisfied with their subscription and more likely to return. Who knows? They might even recommend the SaaS product to their peers, increasing sales. The following are tips for building a seamless onboarding to improve engagement:  

• Use Segmentation: By studying why groups of clients prefer using your products, use segmentation based on location, seniority, device, account age, and in-app behavior.  
• Establish A Frictionless Signup Process: It can be done through a third-party app like an e-mail platform. It also includes enabling autocomplete to eliminate the need for typing. Most importantly, reduce the number of questions you ask them.  
• Offer Additional Help: You can link to tutorials or interactive guides to help the users explore the app while prompting them with calls-to-action (CTAs), leading to a sale.   
• Shorten Product Tours: Walkthroughs help you show all the features users want to see. But long ones lead to an exhausting experience with the product due to information overload, affecting retention. So, consider shortening your software tours to three to six minutes to avoid overwhelming the customers.  

With a smooth SaaS onboarding process, you’re quickly helping the users get familiar with your product. It means they can enjoy the software or app fast, leading to an extended subscription.  

4. Communicate With Your Users 

Some SaaS products sell on their own with their competitive features. However, many likely need a little push with promotions to drive prospects to the sale. What better way to do this than live conversations with your sales representatives? This team is the initial interactions of leads with your brand, and they either leave a satisfying or negative impression. 

To ensure that your sales reps are all adequate, equip them with the resources and knowledge about the product’s value proposition. It includes providing training programs where they can learn more about the app’s features. It makes it easier for them to better explain to the prospects why your product benefits them.  

5. Invest In Exceptional Customer Support  

In any industry, customer support is vital to keeping clients happy. It includes a help desk staff answering questions about the product and its pricing before the customers proceed to a sale. Support continues once the reps successfully persuade the leads to the purchasing decision. Most new users will need guidance navigating the app to better use its features.  

Thus, you’ll want to ensure that your customer success teams frequently initiate conversations with users. They’ll learn about what the clients prefer in the products so you can improve them. Just ensure this team has proper documentation management for collecting and storing feedback. Then, use it to improve your app or site to make it resonate with customers.

6. Offer A Freemium Version 

Many consumers are reluctant with their purchasing decision as they can’t see the value of paying for a product. It affects subscriptions, upgrades, and your brand’s market share.  

The solution? Why not give them a taste of a free version of your app? This way, users can try out your products before committing to buying them. However, refrain from giving away all features. You’ll want them to get used to the primary benefits of the product first.

For instance: users on a free trial can access unlimited ad-free movies on one device for a month online. If they subscribe, they can enjoy additional features like using the same account for three devices offline. When they see the value in what you offer, you prompt them to purchase it.  

To make this even more successful, send reminders in their e-mails about the expiration date of their access. It gives them time to consider the subscription before they lose access.  

7. Announce The Latest Features 

Once you modify the product’s features, you’ll want the users to know it. This is especially important for the ones who requested it. For example, you may have added biometrics authentication or enabled more payment methods. Unfortunately, these won’t be effective if the customers don’t know them.  

Announcing the latest features is essential. You can do this through in-app walkthroughs, social media updates, and website ads. In doing so, the users can discover the new add-ons and can enjoy them.  

Summing It Up 

Engagement is essential in every SaaS product. By addressing it, subscribers will likely renew or recommend the service to others. As such, focusing on it should be a priority for any SaaS company. A few steps include providing 24/7 customer support even after a successful sale and offering trial access to give the user a taste of the app’s best features. Most importantly, listen to your consumers to learn about their preferences and dislikes. You’ll know what best triggers their sale or subscription, leading to higher product engagement.