Users have signed up, but almost 50% don't use the app. What are we doing wrong?
Yesterday with my co-worker, we have looked at the analytics and have seen terrible statistics - almost 50% of our users didn't add any project after they created the account.
That's looks so weird. We've tried to segment those users by source traffic, but it seems random.
We have simple registration and a little bit more complicated adding a project. To add the project, you have to go by three steps, but only one is necessary.
What do you think about that?
Did you reach out to both the users who created a project and those who didn't?
They're probably a better source of inspiration than the people on IH.
Yes, we did. So far, only one has responded. That user said that he doesn't have a website yet, so he can't add any project.
When you say you did reach out - do you mean you just emailed them?
If so, pick up the phone and call them. And keep calling them until you get an answer (or they tell you to F off)
Easiest way to solve this is to require credit card during the trial sign up process but that's probably less than ideal (or lots of folks don't like it) - that's what we do and now everyone takes out trial seriously (we have no intention of switching it back)
I am wondering if we don't have some huge UX issue.
Yes and no. I see down below that you don't have any email marketing. So they're signing up and getting zero follow up, of course they're not taking the action you want ;-)
The good news here is you have a lot of things you can do to change this! Better onboarding, an actual email sequence, talking to your users (calling them)
Do things that don't scale
It's pretty common that people sign up without taking immediate action.
Have you tried to send a drip email campaign, e.g. send a reminder to add a project after 1,3,7 days?
For now, not, but I think we have to do it. It's a fantastic cue.
People often sign up to free things with no intention of fully using them. Probably, more productive to talk to the users that are engaging. Find out what they like and how they can be better served. These will be the customers that use and tell others about your product.
I added a website to the main CTA on your homepage.
I was required to sign up.
I signed up expecting the SEO results from the web address I entered to be presented to me.
Instead I’ve to add it again as a project with a bunch of extra details that could be intimidating for people who don’t understand scope or limiting page crawling.
My suggestion would be to just create the project for me, using the address provided and with defaults that I can change.
Hi Mikey, that's great advice. We will do it! Thanks!
Based on what you're saying here and in some of your replies to other comments, the main issue is probably that you don't have any onboarding efforts in place.
At a minimum, you should have a series of emails to spur action and guide users toward realizing the value of the product. You can also build in things like surveys and on-screen tutorials.
When developing your messaging strategy, try to identify why people are signing up in the first place, where they are dropping off and/or what obstacles stand in their way, what the AHA moment is, and how you can add urgency.
Be sure to keep it simple. Focus on just one thing at a time in your outreach messages. Try to get people to take actions that will provide quick wins for them if possible.
Best of luck.
Thank you, that is what we will do!
Definitely start with speaking to users. Also built a report in analytics on the user journey - you have the beginning and final number, but what about what happens between?
I just went through the signup flow. There are 3 stages, perhaps it's the second or 3rd stage that people drop off?
This will inform you on where users are dropping off and then you can take it from there.
Yep, we'll remove one of these not necessary steps. Thanks for the recommendation!
As someone mentionned in the comments, screen recording can give you some insights on what's happening, but you should probably just reach out and ask.
Thanks! What screen recording tool do you recomend?
Hotjar is pretty cool and they have a generous free plan
Understand your visitors' intent. In addition to speaking with people directly, you could capture user intent when they first come into the system.
You don't know whether they're there to have a look around or seriously use the product. You could have a page or modal which addresses this, with options like:
I want to start a project [which takes them to your help or walkthrough and begins an immediate active nurture campaign]
I'm just exploring [which lets them do that, but puts them in an info nurture campaign a little bit later]
You think the setup is easy?
How about from your user perspective? do you think they've all information ready?
I'm building a little free tool to help you with this question - https://ilikeiwish.co/ - it helps you ask two simple questions:
Based on a method develop by Stanford Uni + IDEO.
If you use it, would love some feedback! Good luck
I'd suggest adding FullStory to your site. It'll make screen recordings so you can see what happens after they created their account.
You'll learn a lot by just watching every session.
https://www.fullstory.com/
Screen recording says what they did in your software. But it don't tell why they did it in first place.
Screen recording can give you clues to make your guess work bit better
Have you put together an onboarding campaign? If not, this is probably the biggest issue that you have. If you say there are 3 ways to add a project you need to highlight this in-app when they sign up. Or show a quick intro video on getting started and always have that for new sign-ups.
As much as we love shiny things, we love shiny things that do something for us with very little effort and maximum reward. Learning new tech or a process is the last thing any of us want to go through, especially when there are some many options out there.
Agree. But, don't you think that we have three steps to add a project and adding an extra one, like onboarding - won't that work against us?
This could be true but we are visual learners and seeing someone do X and the result is Y before they do it can be enough to push them ahead.
That being said, when I sign up for SEO tools, I rarely add a project first if ever to be honest. I will always jump into the keyword research and domain checking tools to see what information I will get.
I've used Raven Tools, Moz, SEMRush, SerpStat, Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, Wordtracker and plenty of others but I cannot think of them. I can tell you that within the first few days or first week I probably won't add my websites until I have confirmed the competitor research provides me with worthwhile results.
Is it possible to test the other tools you provide before adding a project? Adding a project takes time to build up the metrics so how does a user get immediate benefit from the platform? I am going by the 2 screenshots here and it looks like you need to add a project first.
Are you charging up from or free trial?
It is a 14-day free trial without cc
Free trial without CC = low engagement. Not much more engaged than people giving you an email address.
Charge up front and offer a x day refund. You'll get rid of the window shoppers and people will be more compelled to at least try your app after signing up.