Best Practices for Increasing Mobile App User Retention & Engagement: An Interview with Shieny Aprilia of Agate International
The mobile app industry is huge and app market is growing much faster than you think. For mobile game marketing specifically, there is still more room to grow. Recently we had the chance to interview Shieny of Agate International, an expert in mobile games to tell us her best insights.
Shieny Aprilia is a VP of Enterprise Business, Agate International. She has over 5 years of experience in the game industry as a game programmer, game producer, and now as a game consultant. Since 2009, she’s been leading the company from its inception until becoming one of the largest in the South-East Asia region. As a game consultant, she has various experience helping companies to improve marketing and communication impact through fun experience and game design.
Here are our seven questions and her winning answers,
1. What tips do you have for indie game developers, given your vast experience?
Have business mindset from day one you start your company! Many indie game developers trapped by only focusing on developing the game they have always wanted to develop. They are very enthusiastic at the beginnings because they are very passionate about the project, but when things start to go wrong, e.g. team member go for other opportunities that give more financial benefit, project is delayed because of miss-planning, final product is not sold as many as expected; they don’t have backup plan and run out of money, and then they are giving up to look for jobs that can support them financially.
Business mindset will drive you to develop a proper business plan, track financial status and manage everything (including human resources) professionally.
2. What is the key for game app developers to improve user retention?
Market research and lots of experimentation. Market research will give you lots of ideas of what interest user to stick to your game. And lots of experiment will give insights on what works best to retain users.
3. While developing a new game, what do you think is that one element that is often overlooked by game developers?
A feasibility study that includes
- High-level product concept
- Unique value proposition
- Go-to-market strategy
- Financial feasibility (cost vs revenue)
4. What are the key trends that will drive the Mobile game industry in upcoming years?
- Online multiplayer
- Augmented Reality
- Instant games (HTML5 microgames)
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5. What do you think is the biggest misconception that game developers have when it comes to marketing?
A good game will sell itself. This misconception makes many developers only invest in product development with almost zero marketing budget.
6. What suggestions would you offer to Game Developers to improve the LTV of their users?
- Build user community.
- Listen to user’s feedback.
7. What do you think the future of game development will look like? Do you see any significant impact of Blockchain technology in mobile games?
I think games are starting to give more impact on people’s lives, not only for entertainment. For example, games affect how people interact with each other, games are becoming an alternative learning tool, etc.
Blockchain could impact on how the game economy looks like, games could have its own currency that leads to more engagement for users.
8. What are the factors that make up a successful game app?
- Meta game
- Monetization strategy,
- Theme
- Go-to-market strategy
