Digital Nudges in Mobile App - The Ultimate Guide in 2024

In this digital era, users are left with several options to select from multiple apps. Additionally, consumers face a challenge connecting with and understanding these apps due to their feature overload.

That’s where digital nudges come into play for users to explore and engage with relevant features based on user actions.

In this blog post, we will explore various scenarios where digital nudges can be applied at different points during the user journey.

What are digital nudges?

Digital nudges engage your users when they’re using the mobile app (digital space), with the right context at the right time. They guide users to the next action point.

What makes these nudges powerful is the ability to target the right user based on either app events or user attributes and at the right time (within 100 ms of an event being triggered).

For instance, when introducing a customer-centric feature, these nudges step in to educate users, enhancing conversions, engagement, and the overall user experience.

Few types of digital nudges include tooltips, coachmarks, spotlights, stories, in-app videos, animations, widgets, etc.

Benefits of digital nudges

1. Simplify user onboarding.
2. Enhance feature adoption with timely, targeted information.
3. Elevate user engagement for repeated usage.
4. Generate increased revenue from existing users.

Explore the different use cases for implementing digital nudges across various stages of the user journey.

Digital nudges for user onboarding

Leveraging digital nudges for user onboarding guides users seamlessly through the initial experience.

These nudges can offer timely tips, interactive tutorials, personalized messages or highlighting value proposition, ensuring users understand the app's features and functionalities effectively and leads to their quick activation.

Flipkart uses coachmarks to onboard new users

The coachmark is used to introduce its new users to the core functionality as the user goes through purchasing for the first time. Highlighting these core features would lead to quick activation and subsequently long-term retention.

Digital nudges for feature adoption

Digital nudges are an effective way to encourage feature adoption and improve user experience.

They can alert users to engage with newly released features. It is also possible to contextually upsell or cross-sell related products and services.

Jar uses spotlight to drive adoption of GoldX

Jar uses a spotlight to introduce users to their newly launched feature, GoldX to improve the adoption of the feature and complete the respective action. This is targeted to the users landing on the homepage on an app launch on how they can save and earn better with GoldX.

Digital nudges for user engagement

Digital nudges are instrumental in elevating user engagement and encouraging repeated app usage.

By leveraging behavioral triggers, nudges can subtly influence user behavior, prompting them to return to the app regularly.

Blinkit uses PiP videos to share new deals

Blinkit introduced engaging PiP videos for new deals, allowing users to interact freely, and enhancing engagement with a dynamic, personalized mobile app experience.

Digital nudges for monetization

Digital nudges are instrumental in driving increased revenue from existing users.

It encourages existing users to make additional purchases, renew subscriptions, and take advantage of exclusive offers, ultimately contributing to a significant boost in revenue.

Tokopedia runs floaters to showcase discounts

Tokopedia, a prominent e-commerce company in Indonesia, has implemented a floater to showcase their deals to the users while the users browse the app. It encourages users to explore offers, leading to higher conversions and increased average purchase orders.

Challenge in building a digital nudge today

Engineering bandwidth is limited

Engineering teams face high demands, managing core product development, bug fixes, infrastructure, and crucial tasks.

Limited bandwidth can delay the digital nudge implementation, affecting in-app engagement initiatives.

Experimenting with multiple flows is a challenge

It's vital to test various digital nudges for their impact on key metrics. For instance, experimenting with a subtle nudge showcasing the "Send Money" feature for new users can reveal its effects.

However, exploring alternative approaches becomes necessary. Yet, time constraints might restrict testing multiple flows.

Plotline helps growth and marketing teams build digital nudges in a no-code manner

With Plotline's in-app engagement platform, you can effortlessly deploy digital nudges in just 15 minutes, without any coding required. Product and growth teams can effortlessly create and publish targeted in-app messages, such as tooltips, coachmarks, stories, in-app videos, animations and more.

Want to see how to create nudges for your app within minutes through Plotline? Check out the interactive demo below. 👇

If you'd like to discover how these digital nudges can boost your activation, adoption, retention, and monetization metrics, start your free trial with us.

Happy Nudging!