作者：Thorsten BleichShare

成功在线游戏平台就像台平滑的机器，所有部件都协同运作。产品设计需吸引用户眼球，营销活动需有所瞄准，而IT技术需超越难以避免的漏洞。但若你无法留住玩家，所有这些都不再重要。

用户留存率的重要性时常被忽略，因为很多营销者并不重视强大注册过程。但是关注点击转换率并不是整个过程的终结点。想要获悉点击价值，就得追踪玩家终身价值，看看他们是否真的能够带来营收，或者他们随后便退出，这只是个无效数据。留住玩家就像填充游泳池。想象若是通过漏洞水桶填充游泳池，你装多少水，水桶就漏多少水。总之，这是个无效之策。

水桶 from pd.7ye.net

本质上看，运作不够关注用户留存率的网站亦是如此。你的网站或许每天能获得1000位新注册用户，但若用户从不回访，那么你就是不断浪费营销资源获取新用户。你需要关注用户价值。若回访率高，那么用户价值就得到提高，就能够平衡你的获取成本。若用户支付更多费用，你就能够在其他用户身上投入更多，瞄准高质量的非奖励流量（游戏邦注：这些群体更有潜力转换成付费用户）。若用户不回访网站，不进行消费，那么你瞄准的就是廉价、不相关的奖励性流量，这些用户无法带来可观营收（本质上说，你拿到的是个漏洞的水桶）。以下是我们总结的留住用户，最大化用户价值的技巧：

1. 令人信服的产品。产品是你留住用户最强大的工具。你需要确保其令人耳目一新，具有独特、有趣的内容，能够留住用户。记住，用户生厌的时刻就是他们退出的时候。

2. 交流。确保产品和用户之间的交流渠道保持畅通，但要注意同用户之间的沟通方式。以前你或许只是发送通知邮件。但如今用户抵制垃圾信件，这些邮件最终只会留在垃信箱里。试着通过消息和通知方式在产品中融入直接交流。你同时也要直接发送相关折扣和特价信息至他们的邮箱（游戏邦注：但注意不要让他们变成垃圾信件）。

3. 赠送物品。在线游戏的一大美妙之处是产品一旦生成就能够零成本反复再生。所以分享你的爱心，通过发送礼物让用户明白你对他们的重视。

4. 好友更新。关注社区用户需求，调动他们的兴趣，促使他们参与至产品中。让他们获悉好友的活动动态，告知他们如何完善自己的网页。

5. Facebook。应用未来定会主导互联网，所以为了增加你同用户之间的联系，入驻Facebook吧！让更新内容能够显示在Facebook消息动态中，这样你的产品就能覆盖更多用户。你就能够在维护现有用户留存率的同时获得新流量。

游戏邦注：原文发布于2010年4月12日，文章叙述以当时为背景。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

User Retention – How To Keep Your Customers

By Thorsten BleichShare

A successful online gaming platform is like a well-oiled machine, with everything working in synergy. The design of your product needs to appeal to your audience; your marketing efforts need to be targeted, and your IT needs to be one step ahead of the bugs that inevitably crop up. But none of this matters if you can’t retain your users.

The importance of user retention is often overlooked, as many marketers don’t look past the almighty registration process. However, following a click through to a conversion is not the end of the process. To evaluate whether that click was worth it, you need to track that user’s lifetime value to see if they actually monetize, or if they just log-out and become another wasted statistic. Retaining users is much like filling a swimming pool. Now, imagine trying to  fill that swimming pool with a leaky bucket. As you fill up your bucket, the same amount of water is leaking out the bottom. In short, it’s not very effective.

Running an online gaming website without a strong focus on retaining users is essentially the same thing. Your site might get 1000 new registrations per day, but if those users don’t return, you’re constantly wasting your marketing resources to get new ones. You need to focus on the ‘value’ of your users. When there is a high return rate, the value per user increases and should balance out your acquisition costs. When a user pays more, you can pay more for  other users – and target quality non-incentivized traffic that has a higher potential to convert into paying users. When your users don’t return to your site, and they don’t monetize – you have to settle for cheap, irrelevant, incentivized traffic that probably won’t monetize very well either (essentially, you’re  picking up that leaky bucket again). We have summarized a few techniques and ideas that will help you retain your uses and get the most value from them:

1. Convincing product. Your product is the most powerful tool you have to retain your users. You need to ensure that it looks amazing and has unique, interesting content to keep the  user engaged. Remember, the minute your users get bored, is the minute they start tuning out!

2. Communication. Ensure that the communication channel between your product and your users is constantly flowing – but be smart about the way you contact them. Once upon a time, you’d simply send out a newsletter and that would be it. But today’s users are spamsavvy and these emails often end up in the junk mail folder. Try to incorporate direct communication into your product through messages and notifications. You should also send relevant discounts and special offers directly to their email inbox, but be careful not to spam them.

3. Giveaways. One of the beautiful things about online gaming is that once an object is produced, it costs nothing to reproduce over and over again. So share the love, and show your users how much you value them by sending regular gifts.

4. Friend updates. Tuning into the community needs of your users awakens their interest and gives them a reason to be engaged with your product. Keep them updated on their friend’s activities and suggest how they can grow their network.

5. Facebook. Apps are set to rule the internet, so to increase your relevance with your users – get integrated! Enable updates to be seen on Facebook newsfeeds so that your product is exposed to an extended audience as well. This will help you to drive in new traffic, while keeping your existing users engaged with your product.（Source：socialgamesobserver）