Optimizing user conversion funnel
When companies try to grow their business, they often fall for the same assumption: “We need more users.” Their infatuation with growth at any price can become costly if they don’t consider how new users move through the onboarding funnel, engage, and convert. Using data to identify and remove friction points in the user experience helps product and marketing teams build a strong bond with their customers and foster relationships that last.
When our team at Fueled was tasked with developing a growth strategy for Apartner, a dating platform, we started with laying the foundation for data collection and user analytics. This case study outlines how we used Mixpanel to optimize each stage of the customer lifecycle: from improving onboarding to scaling acquisition and boosting re-engagement.
Identifying the major friction points in onboarding
Upon launch, Apartner quickly amassed over two thousand sign-ups. But when the team looked into the data in Mixpanel, they noticed that not all of these users were completing the onboarding that they needed in order to start receiving matches. Though the site had successfully captured their initial interest, a handful of users were dropping off before ever getting a chance to set up a date with a potential match.
Once a user signs up for Apartner, the immediate next step is for them to verify their email address. Email verification ensures authenticity and security, especially when many competitors struggle with managing ingenuine profiles.
Although most of the registered users were authentic, moving away from the site to verify their email proved to be a significant point of friction in the flow. Using Mixpanel, we identified the disparity between sign-ups and subscriptions; many would create profiles but never make it to the latter portion of the onboarding process. This bottleneck also stopped users from completing their profile questionnaire, which collects data the platform needs to match users based on dating preferences. Without verifying their email, they’d never get to the questionnaire, and thus, never get matches.
Optimizing onboarding flow
Because of this drop-off, we focused our immediate efforts on changing this flow so that users could get to the questionnaire more quickly. Ultimately, we decided that, for all new users, the email verification would now come after the user completed their questionnaire.
Re-engaging existing users
To increase engagement and reduce churn for existing users, we used Mixpanel Messaging to encourage users to take the next step in the flow, whether it was verifying their account or completing the questionnaire. The Funnels report made it very easy to identify and select users that were stuck in the bottleneck, and to target them with personalized email campaigns within Mixpanel.
These highly targeted follow-up emails worked. More users began to complete the onboarding process and started to connect with matches. With Mixpanel campaign analytics, we could we how many users received the email, opened it, and converted on the intended marketing goal.
Using Mixpanel to boost growth, activation, and retention
Apartner is continuing to grow and acquire new users. Mixpanel helps us on the acquisition side, too: we use the Cohorts report to determine which demographics are ideal for targeting, and invest in ads that would specifically cater to those users.
But the real focus is on user activation and retention. Through user analytics, our team is working to solve other noticeable gaps in the user funnel, such as profile questionnaire completion and paid subscription conversions. We are experimenting with moving the paywall, adjusting designs, and optimizing subscription pricing. In Mixpanel’s Funnels, Cohorts, and Messaging tools, Apartner has found its perfect match for generating better insights from data—and for building a better dating experience for its users.
