Not every digital product needs daily users to succeed. Some products serve occasional needs—tax software used yearly, travel apps used for vacations, or specialized tools used only for certain projects. Even if they don’t use your product frequently, these infrequent consumers might still be valued and have a strong affection for it.
However, there are particular difficulties in keeping up a relationship with infrequent users. When weeks or months go by between visits, how can you remain relevant? How can you ensure that your product’s use is retained? In spite of the distance, how can you maintain a strong connection?
Understanding the Value of Infrequent Users
Before building strategies, recognize why these users matter:
- May pay just as much as frequent users
- Their word-of-mouth recommendations can be powerful
- Often have different needs than power users
- Might become more frequent users as their needs change
- Provide diversity in your user base
Not every product needs daily engagement to provide value. Sometimes, being there exactly when needed—even if rarely—creates the strongest love.
Types of Low-Frequency Users
Different types of infrequent users need different support:
Seasonal Users
These users return during specific times:
- Tax season
- Holiday planning
- Annual budgeting
- School registration periods
- Special events or holidays
Milestone Users
These users appear during life events:
- Job searches
- Moving to new homes
- Planning weddings
- Having children
- Retirement planning
Emergency Users
These users come only when specific problems arise:
- Health concerns
- Car breakdowns
- Home repairs
- Financial emergencies
- Technical problems
Hobby or Project Users
These users visit during specific activities:
- Home renovation projects
- Vacation planning
- Special interest research
- Learning new skills
- Creating special documents
The Challenges of Distance
Long-distance relationships with users face specific obstacles:
Memory Fade
Users forget:
- How to use your product
- Their login information
- What features are available
- Why they chose your product
- Where to find things
Changing Expectations
While they’re away:
- Other products set new standards
- Their needs or devices may change
- New alternatives appear
- Their skills may improve or decline
- Their expectations increase
Weak Habits
Infrequent use means:
- No established usage patterns
- Minimal muscle memory
- Each visit feels like learning again
- No regular triggers to return
- Easy to forget the product exists
Building a Retention Strategy for Long-Distance Relationships
Successfully supporting infrequent users requires a tailored approach:
Create Memorable First Impressions
Since users may not return for months, make the first experience count:
- Focus on core value delivery
- Keep onboarding simple but memorable
- Use distinct visual design that stands out
- Create an emotional connection if possible
- Solve their immediate problem completely
Design for Memory Gaps
Assume users won’t remember how to use your product:
- Use familiar patterns from popular products
- Include subtle reminders and tooltips
- Make help easily accessible
- Use progressive disclosure of features
- Provide quick-start guides for returning users
Use Smart Reengagement
Don’t bombard absent users with random messages. Instead:
- Send timely reminders when your product might be needed
- Personalize outreach based on past usage
- Highlight new features relevant to their specific needs
- Remind them of past successes with your product
- Create seasonal or situational triggers
Communication Strategies That Maintain Connection
How you communicate with distant users matters greatly:
Value-First Contact
Every message should deliver value:
- Useful information related to their needs
- Timely reminders before they need your product
- Educational content that helps with related tasks
- Tools or templates they can use right away
- Solutions to problems they might be having
Permission-Based Outreach
Respect boundaries with absent users:
- Ask how often they want to hear from you
- Offer different communication channels
- Make unsubscribing simple
- Provide clear preference controls
- Honor their choices consistently
Memory Refreshers
Help them remember why they chose you:
- Recap what they accomplished last time
- Save their previous work and settings
- Remind them of your key benefits
- Show their history with your product
- Welcome them back personally
Designing Products for Occasional Users
The product itself needs special design considerations:
Intuitive Reentry Points
Make coming back easy:
- Clear, simple login recovery
- “Welcome back” screens that reorient users
- Recently used features prominently displayed
- Saved states and sessions
- Quick tutorials for returning users
Consistent Core Experience
While evolution is good, maintain stability in:
- Main navigation and layout
- Key workflows and processes
- Terminology and labels
- Brand identity and voice
- Core functionality
Quick Time-to-Value
Help users accomplish tasks quickly:
- Minimize steps to complete core actions
- Remember preferences and settings
- Offer templates and shortcuts
- Provide smart defaults
- Surface contextual help at decision points
Reengagement Tactics That Work
When it’s time to bring users back, try these approaches:
Timely Triggers
Reach out when your product is likely needed:
- Seasonal events (tax season, holidays)
- Industry deadlines or changes
- Weather events for relevant products
- Life milestones they’ve shared
- Regular maintenance reminders
Progress Updates
Show users what’s happened in their absence:
- How their investments or data have changed
- New features that solve problems they had
- Community growth or activity
- Improvements based on their past feedback
- Industry changes relevant to them
Personalized Reintroductions
Don’t treat returning users like strangers:
- Reference their past activities
- Acknowledge the time away without judgment
- Highlight features relevant to their previous usage
- Offer a quick tour of important changes
- Provide a personalized “welcome back” path
Setting Expectations for Distance
Be honest about the relationship you’re building:
Clarify the Intended Frequency
Help users understand how often they should return:
- Set clear expectations during onboarding
- Frame infrequent use as normal and expected
- Don’t make users feel guilty for absence
- Explain the value of periodic engagement
- Design features around realistic usage patterns
Create Natural Return Rhythms
Build in reasons to return at appropriate intervals:
- Annual reviews or reports
- Seasonal updates or features
- Regular maintenance reminders
- Milestone celebrations
- Periodic check-ins with clear value
Measuring Success with Infrequent Users
Traditional engagement metrics don’t work for distant relationships. Instead, measure:
Return Rate
Not how often users return, but whether they return when needed:
- Do seasonal users come back each season?
- Do users return for the same task next time?
- When the need arises again, do they choose you?
- What percentage of occasional users return vs. find alternatives?
- How many users return after 3, 6, or 12 months?
Success Per Visit
Make each rare visit count:
- Task completion rates
- Time to accomplish goals
- Help requests per session
- User satisfaction after visits
- Recommendation likelihood after use
Relationship Strength
Measure the quality of the connection:
- How users speak about your product during absence
- Whether they recommend you to others
- If they explore new features when they return
- Whether they update when prompted
- How they respond to outreach
Learning from Relationship Maintenance Masters
Some companies excel at maintaining connections with infrequent users:
TurboTax
The tax software:
- Imports last year’s data automatically
- Sends timely reminders as tax season approaches
- Offers year-round financial tools to provide value between tax seasons
- Provides clear summaries of tax law changes since last year
- Makes returning feel like continuing rather than starting over
The inspiration platform:
- Maintains saved boards indefinitely
- Sends personalized content based on past interests
- Makes the experience identical across long absences
- Provides seasonal content aligned with likely projects
- Welcomes returning users with relevant new content
Airbnb
The travel service:
- Remembers search preferences across long gaps
- Sends inspiration during typical vacation planning periods
- Makes booking as easy for occasional as frequent travelers
- Preserves history and reviews indefinitely
- Offers guidance that acknowledges user experience level
The Unique Value Proposition for Distant Users
Highlight what makes your product perfect for occasional use:
Reliability Over Time
Promise that you’ll be there when needed:
- Stable platform that doesn’t constantly change
- Data preserved between visits
- Compatibility with older devices
- Consistent interface across versions
- Reliable service when the moment arrives
Effortless Returns
Make coming back painless:
- Easy account recovery
- Quick refresher tutorials
- Seamless continuation of previous work
- Simple password systems or alternatives
- Strong security that doesn’t create obstacles
Complete Solutions
For occasional needs, users want comprehensive tools:
- All-in-one functionality
- No missing pieces when they need it
- Everything needed for the task at hand
- Self-contained processes
- No dependencies on other products
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Embracing the Distance
The most successful products for occasional users don’t fight the distance—they embrace it:
- Accept that some valuable relationships don’t need daily interaction
- Design specifically for memory gaps and infrequent use
- Make each visit so good that users remember you when the need arises again
- Provide value between visits without demanding attention
- Celebrate returns rather than punishing absences
By mastering these strategies, your digital product can build lasting love with users, even when they’re not around every day. Sometimes the strongest relationships are the ones that pick up right where they left off, no matter how much time has passed