9 Product Engagement Mistakes in SaaS

Ever wondered why your users don't engage actively with your product? It could be because you're making some common product engagement mistakes that drive your users away from your solution.

In this article, we'll share the nine most common mistakes that are costing you product engagement and how you can fix it.

What is product engagement?

Product engagement measures how well your users are engaging or interacting with your product.

It can be logging into your product, creating a new item, inviting new team members to join, etc.

Product engagement metrics typically include depth, breadth, and frequency of engagement over time.

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Most common product engagement mistakes

1. Not collecting data on new users

Assuming all your users are the same is a proven way to decrease your product engagement. Because different users use your products for different reasons according to their work.

So, you need to collect the required data of each of your new users to offer them a personalized guidance and onboarding experience.

How to collect data from new customers and personalize communication with users

Here's how to collect new user’s data:

• Once your users sign up, send them an in-app notification or redirect them to a new interface. Encourage them to share their job roles and their goals with your product. 
• You can make this process even easier for them by creating a welcome screen that greets the new user and collects the required data in the signup flow.

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2. Not optimizing the first-time user experience (FTUE)

To a great extent, the first-time user experience determines whether your user will engage with your product or not.

Because an unpersonalized and confusing experience will leave your users wondering whether your product can solve their problem or not— resulting in eventual churn.

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How to drive user engagement with a personalized first-time user experience

Here's how you can optimize the first-time user experience:

• Customize your user's further onboarding experience based on the data you collect in the signup flow.
• Trigger a checklist of the steps your user needs to take to complete their onboarding or any particular task.

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3. Using long product tours that confuse users

Long and non-skippable tutorials meant to walk users through all the product features in one go aren't going to help increase your product engagement. 

If you force your users to do anything they're not interested in, they'll leave your product without having a second thought.

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How to replace product tours and drive customer engagement from the start

Here’s how to avoid using long product tours that confuse users:

• Replace the long product tutorials with interactive walk-throughs tailored to each of your product features.
• Make the walk-through optional so that it doesn't annoy those users who already know how to use your product.
• Give your users the option to come back to the walk-through as not every user would like to watch them the first time they sign up.

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4. Not guiding users to discover relevant features

You're mistaken if you think your work is done after providing your users with the interactive walk-through.

You need to guide your users to discover the features they should know about.

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How to drive feature discovery with in-app guidance

Here it is:

• Start using banners to guide users to relevant features and mention any critical point about the same.
• Don't misunderstand banners with a walk-through as a banner will help your users discover the relevant features according to their needs. A walk-through will teach them how to use that particular feature.

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5. Using too many in-app engagement prompts

Guidance is essential to your new users, but that should be relevant to their needs.

If you keep sending messages and notifications that don't even apply to them and their needs, they might get pissed off and stop using your product.

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How to avoid cluttering the product UI with engagement prompts

So, here's how to avoid sending too many in-app engagements prompts:

• Leverage the power of segmentation to ensure you're sending the right message to the right user at the right time.
• Use the data that you've already collected from your users to ace your segmentation game.

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6. Not announcing new features and product updates

Not making an announcement and expecting your users to discover the feature releases and product updates themselves might negatively impact them and cause an increment in your product churn rate.

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How to announce new features and updates the right way

Here's what you should do to announce new features and updates —

• Make an announcement about feature releases and product updates either through in-app notification or email.
• If you've taken your user's feedback to improve your product, send them a personalized email to know whether they are satisfied with the update or not.

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7. Not collecting user feedback (or acting on it)

To understand what your users think of your product, whether they are getting value from it, and what are the points you need to make improvements on, you need to collect your user's feedback.

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And, if you're not doing it, you're going in the wrong direction.

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How to continuously collect customer feedback in-app

Here's how to do it:

• Collect your user's feedback— social media monitoring, NPS, surveys, email marketing, and interviews; many options are available.
• Analyze, organize, and apply the feedback.
• Once done with improving your product, follow up with your users to understand what's working for them and where you need to improve.

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8. Not using the right UX microcopy

A compelling microcopy is essential to engage and persuade your user, but it can be a disaster for your product engagement if done wrong.

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And, if you're using lengthy microcopy with lots of CTA's here and there, it will confuse your users.

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How to write great microcopy that drives engagement

Follow this to write an excellent copy:

• Keep your copy short.
• Be very clear with your messaging.
• Mention only one CTA at a time to avoid any confusion.

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9. Failing to provide proper in-app support

Even if you provide in-app support, your users still need to wait for their solution as your support team will not be available 24/7. 

And this hurts your product engagement.

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How to offer efficient in-app self-service support

Here's what you can do to provide proper in-app support:

• Create a resource center with all the necessary guides and video tutorials.
• Provide contact details of your support team or include a live chat feature.

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Conclusion

If you're not getting the desired engagement on your product, it doesn't mean you've built a useless one; it could also mean you're making one of the mistakes discussed above.

So, if you're struggling with your product engagement, make sure to check whether you're making the discussed mistakes and apply the solutions to fix the same.

Use Successeve to gather your data, segment your users and act accordingly. 

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