Retention is more important than acquisition. Especially subscription models require you to keep your customers happy.

Low retention makes all other growth hacks meaningless. Leaky buckets don't need more water, they need fixing.

Lower the barriers to see value. Provide meaningful value in a way that requires as little work as possible for the customer.

Intuit noticed that sticky users were those that used
direct deposit service to send payrolls.
At the time, doing bank account routing was tedious
with most partners, the process took 3 days. They
found a new parner that could do instant routing
and saw huge increase in retention rates.
They also made it so that the employee sets up their
own direct deposit config, employees are the ones that
are more interested in getting paid after all.

Find out what makes customers stay.

Mint found out that users that make the pie chart of
their spending were much likely to come back more
frequently. They changed onboarding so that
linking a bank account happens as soon as possible
so they can show the pie chart.

Gamification can help increase retention.

Duolingo:
They took a lot of inspiration from mobile games.
Categorized challenges for read, speak and listen.
Instant feedback, show which were right and how to improve.
Day streak count motivates to stay on track.
Hearts are lost by incorrect answers.
Bite-sized interactions, learn instead of play for 3min.

Offer training for inactive users so they see the value. This also improves your relationship with them so you better understand why they leave when they do.

Sources

• The Growth Handbook, Intercom