What Are Badges and How Can They Help With User Engagement?

For app developers and marketers in the mobile applications world, user engagement is considered the ultimate goal. The app icon can act as a reminder of an app’s presence; however, real involvement occurs while inside the app.

When it comes to inside the app, there are few things that can be as effective at engaging users as in-app nudges. The nudges may assume different shapes such as tooltips, coach marks, PIP (Picture in Picture) videos, and badges among others.

What Are Badges?

Little, innocuous red symbols known as badges can be placed next to an application's user interface (UI) in the shape of dots, icons, or text labels.

Each of these tags denotes a specific piece of information regarding this user interface element, such as a news flash, an accolade, an innovation, or a new feature.

More specifically, badges are an important tool for apps with a lot of features even though the user interface could seem complex since they instantly notify the user of updates without being overbearing.

Nonetheless, badges are distinct from other in-app nudges. The majority of them don't ask for a response from consumers and don't interrupt them directly. For whatever purpose, they are consequently the perfect choice.

Now, let's explore how badges can be a gamechanger for your app:

Using Badges To Develop Great Products.

New Feature Discovery: Creating new features requires extensive research and money input. When your features have been made available and completed, you must successfully market not just outside the app but even inside it. These bright banners might break up the user flow, however – and this is a good thing. Badges could be ideal for helping users find those other features within the app. They are nonintrusive but increase feature discovery rates by more than 20 percent.
Keep or Delete a Feature Badges helps us make sense of whether we are using a particular feature correctly or not. Product teams may unearth correlations linking user involvement in the feature and key performance metrics using a product analytics platform. This information enables product managers to decide whether to retain or discard a feature.

Why Do Top Companies Use Badges?

This prompts the user to become involved in the app’s other features as top firms use badges to enhance user engagement. Today, we will explore how companies such as Swiggy, Gmail, Instagram, Duolingo, Starbucks, Dream11, and others use badges for greater user engagement.

Swiggy's Recipe for User Engagement: The Power of Badges -

Badges are also employed by Swiggy very well so as to entice customers to look for other things on the app. These badges drive various aspects of user interaction:
- Conversion: Badges like ten-minute delivery icons for Swiggy make people place orders or converge conversion.
- Exploration: The badge New Restaurant Discover prompts customers to try out new restaurants.
- Loyalty: Users often come back for more offers and are rewarded with badges that offer discounts.
- Gamification: The use of streaks, accomplishments, and leveling up rewards turns food delivery into a fun game by Swiggy.
Gmail: Achieving Inbox Zen with Badges -

Badges help in organizing Gmail users and also give them encouragement. These include displaying the number of unread emails through badges especially when using different categories or groups of email. This makes it easy for someone to manage their emails, increases productivity, and keeps one focused on his or her inbox.
Instagram Prompting Users Interactions With New Features Through Badges -

Instagram uses badges in the form of call-to-action buttons to encourage interactivity and promote engagement among its users who wish to access content in the application. Badges alert users to download a new app, verify an account, or check unread. The badge is very effective in improving the users’ interaction with the platform.
Achievement Unlocked: Duolingo's Badge Mastery -

The same is used in Duolingo, an app for learning any language by giving badges to people when they complete a course or reach certain day exercises. This ensures that the user visits the application and interacts with it on an ongoing basis. User engagement, award recognition, and keeping users in the system are other impacts of the badges.
Unlocking Success with Badges: Dream11's Winning Strategy -

Badges are used by India’s leading fantasy gaming app Dream11 reminding its users about reward points, new challenges, and the potential prizes in store. The use of badges also plays a significant role, as they draw players on to stay involved.
Learn from Starbucks to Upsell -

Starbucks employs badging to retain customers while maximizing its profit. Purchases by customers earn stars with customers accessing discounts and special offers. The badges displayed show the various reward packages, which encourage visitors to sample other offerings provided by Starbucks.

Using Badges in Fintech, Fantasy Sports, E-commerce & Hyperlocal Apps -

Badges are not limited to a specific industry. They can be applied creatively in various domains. Let's explore how different sectors can harness badges to achieve their unique goals:

Applications of Badges in Fintech App -

Fintech apps, known for their complex interfaces, can benefit from badges in several ways:

New Feature Launches: Use the “New” badge to attract users to new features.

Feature Discovery: Use badges to emphasize low usage of unexplored features.

KYC Completion: Provide badges with special offers that incentivize user completion of Know Your Customer (KYC) verification.

Alerts: Employ badges to notify customers on updates, for instance, new messages or incomplete tasks.

Offers and Discounts: Inform the users of any ongoing promoting offer for conversion purposes.

Utilizing Badges by Fantasy Sports Apps -

Fantasy sports apps can employ badges for gamification and increasing referrals:

Gamification: Organize gamers using badges to make them enjoy while taking part.
in contests.

Referral Rewards: Give award badges to those, who have successfully referred a new user to the app.

Points and Prizes: Show achievement badges and display point charts that are converted into awards.

Badges in E-commerce Apps -

E-commerce apps can harness badges for better product discovery and sales:

New Arrivals: Promote the awareness of newly arriving products.

Flash Sales: Time-specific sales should be marked with badges.

Special Discounts: Notify of special deals for specific groups.

Membership Rewards: Loyalty card badges for members of the elite club.

The Power of Badges in Hyperlocal Apps -

Hyperlocal apps that connect users with local services can improve user engagement:

Service Availability: Use badges to show service availability for the user’s location.

Ratings and Reviews: Ask for ratings from users who have used our products.

Local Events: Advertise local events such as festivals and gatherings with the help of a badge.

Booking Alerts: Remind users of their next bookings/appointments!

Metrics to Watch When Using Badges -

To ensure the effectiveness of badges in your app, keep an eye on the following key performance indicators (KPIs):

Feature Discovery Rate: Calculate the percentage of users that find new features via badge.

Feature Adoption Rate: Record new usage figures for any new users who find the feature via badges.

Engagement Rate: Check how much users interact with badges and their respective components.

Retention Rate: Note how badges lead to a higher frequency of users revisiting the app.

Conversion Rate: Monitor how many users convert when they interact with a badge & complete an action.

Gamification Metrics: Track Progress, Achievements, and Rewards for Gamified Apps.

Referral Rate: Monitor the number of Users who have referred someone and received a reward.

Revenue Metrics: Assess the influence of badges on revenues, such as upselling and cross-selling.

A/B Testing Your Badge Strategies

It is worth bearing in mind that there is no badge of the same kind. Badges will affect people’s behavior differently. Create an optimal badge strategy by performing A/B testing on different badge types, locations, and messaging. Analyze which badges elicit the most user engagement and conversions.

Here's a simplified process to conduct A/B testing for badges:

Hypothesis: Decide on your hypotheses for the badge change. For instance, “Another way to increase user engagement is by adding a badge to highlight a new feature.”
Variable Selection: Indicate the ones to test including – badge, design, location, content, and signal for triggering conditions.
Segmentation: For the A/B test, group your users! Make certain that the sample sizes will be enough to prove the hypothesis.
Testing Period: Test the badge variations in your app over a defined period of time, including tracking of all user interactions.
Data Analysis: Following the test period, scrutinize the data and choose the best badge variation depending on previously established benchmark KPIs.
Implementation: Winning Badges for Your App.
Iterate: Keep perfecting your approach to badges as users keep behaving differently.

Methods for Badge Effect Evaluation -

So once you have initiated your badge strategy, the need for constant measuring and evaluating is very important. It involves tracking the KPIs and analyzing user behavior to determine whether badges are increasing user engagement and app success.

Here's how you can assess the impact of your badge strategies:

Regular KPI Monitoring: Always monitor the vital metrics associated with your badges including discoverability, activity rates, and churn rate. Analyze your users with analytics tools.
User Feedback: Ask for feedback from users about the badge. It can be done by means of surveys, in-app messages, and also user reviews. Watch for both good and bad feedback so that changes can be made if needed.
A/B Testing: Keep doing A/B testing on badges so as to optimize their design, placement, and messaging that maximizes impact. Improve by using data-driven insights.
User Behavior Analysis: Examine user behavior in the app to see how badges affect interaction. Examine a pattern like how badges cause more features to be used or converted at a higher rate.
Iterate and Refine: Use the data and insights gathered to improve upon your badge strategies. Adapt in order to be more in line with user expectations and application objectives.

Conclusion

Badges can help boost user activity and involvement in your app. Badges will help enhance feature discovery, increase user interactions, and promote app retention.

Maximize the effectiveness of a badge through A/B testing, continuous measurement of their performance, and iterating with regard to a strategy. Using the right approach badges can help make the most effective app for the user.

The best-performing badges should always have users in mind and meet the specific objectives of your application. This will make your users stay engaged because they will always get what they want at the end of the day.