Advice: Growing Your User Network and Keeping it Active
For quick background, I published a secure messaging app where it allows users to verify who they are connecting with and then be able to have encrypted message exchanges that get deleted after a given session.
It's taken me a few pivots to get there, but I'm wondering if anyone out there is willing to share advice on how they marketed to help grow the user base and keep it active.
My wife and close friends use the app from time to time and I actually enjoy opening it up to send things that I don't want kept on my phone.
I have a paid version ($0.99 per month) allows you to make connections to users that also have the app. Verify with them. Then be able to initiate secure messages.
The free version of the app that allows users to verify and accept and respond to messages, but they can't initiate messages or add new connections, just receive.
So far, I'm up to about 40ish users, but only a small subset have actively made connections and use the app.