How to Write Reengagment Content

Our tips on how to write and maintain compelling reengagement content

Alex Scarborough, CEO & Co-Founder

Today, we’re talking about reengagement content. When it comes to this kind of content, our previous push notification and email advice still applies, but reengagement needs a bit of a special touch.

Reengaging players in your game can be challenging. However, it is a necessary and important step for maximizing DAU. In fact, with the right approach, it can sometimes only take a couple of push notifications to get someone back.

The best reengagement content typically does two things:

  1. Focuses on new offerings in your game
  2. Stays away from begging the player to return

Think of it this way: if you’re ready to start sending a player reengagement content, hypothetically you’ve already sent them quite a few pushes with no results. A new approach is needed. 

What you don’t want to do in this stage is start sending more notifications. The problem isn’t that players aren’t seeing the pushes - they just aren’t clicking.

What can you do to increase the chances they click?

A few tips from us here at Teak below:

  • Highlight something new & exciting
    Show the player there is value in returning to the app. Share something about a new aspect of the game or gameplay that would interest or excite them. They haven’t opened the game in a bit - what are they missing out on?
  • Keep the player’s day in mind
    One reason a player hasn’t been reengaging could be the timing of your notifications. It could be you aren’t sending them at the best time for the player. Think of times that are more outside the box, so you meet players when they aren’t expecting it or already inundated with notifications. Maybe they’re glancing down at their phone while taking a quick break from work? Or winding down their evening after doing the dishes? 
  • Don’t overthink it
    The stakes can feel high when getting a player back is on the line. Don’t sweat it too much though - when we overthink, we tend to over explain and get wordy in our writing. This causes confusion for the player. Keep it simple and straightforward.
  • Test and learn, learn and test
    Using our A/B Testing feature, you can push notifications out with slightly different tweaks to text, imagery, headlines, and more. If one thing isn’t working, try something else and measure results against each other. Testing is how we learn, and learnings are how we keep the players playing. 
  • No begging…even if you really want to :)
    Try moving away from “We Miss You! Here’s 50,000 Coins.” Instead, think about it as “We Added 5 New Slot Machines! Try Them Out With 50,000 Coins On Us.” Players are being asked so many things every day from apps - be the app that instead offers them something. A break in their day. A chance to have some fun and relax.

One last note we’d like to call out is that you have to be intentional about revisiting and improving this content. This is especially true when you are employing the A/B testing we discussed above - you want to make sure you are tracking your results and learning what works and what doesn’t.

Since reengagement content tends to be automated, (eg: triggered when a player enters a lapsed audience,) it can be easy to lose track of these campaigns. To stay on top of all this, you should have an external process for checking up on your reengagement content, such as a monthly calendar reminder. When you review your content, ask yourself: is this working? Are players coming back? Is it still relevant? Could we change something? Could we test something differently?

As an extra bonus in today’s email, here are a few phrases we’ve seen work in reengagement content:

  • “Don’t Miss Out On ____”
  • “A New ____ Was Just Added”
  • “We Added New ____”
  • “Good Day? Have Some Spins On Us”
  • “Long Day? Have X Coins On Us”
  • “Tap Now for X Free Coins”
  • “___ Is Happening Now.”

And if you’re looking to engage with Teak, we’ll be at MAU Vegas from April 2-4! Book some time with us to discuss your reengagement content, or anything else you’d like to cover.

That’s it for today - we’ll be back soon with more highlights from our learnings. Anything in particular you’d love to see us cover? Let us know! We are here to help.