Code is the building blocks of our digital world. Coding used to be an essential skill only for jobs related to computer sciences, but today even professionals in industries like banking and media benefit from understanding the basics of coding and programming.
With more and more professionals understanding the importance of coding, there’s been a huge demand for courses. Educational curricula that help professionals learn to program at their own pace are very popular, especially during the pandemic. The ability to be certified is a bonus, helping the learners with increased opportunities to grow in their careers.
ProgrammingHub is an e-learning company focused on teaching coding in an interactive and fun way. Their mission is to empower coding enthusiasts with research-backed learning techniques and provide certificates that assist them with finding employment. The app is available for both Android and iOS.
Launched in 2016, ProgrammingHub now has a user base of over 22 million users globally. To understand how they boosted their subscription ROI using CleverTap, we spoke to Tito Idicula, Co-founder, and Anubha Tiwari, Digital Marketing Manager.
Boosting Their Subscription Rates 
Need for an All-in-One Platform 
Start-Up-Friendly Pricing Freemium apps usually see greater downloads but struggle with engagement and revenue. As a freemium app whose revenue model is subscription-driven, ProgrammingHub needed to boost subscriptions.
ProgrammingHub’s launch strategy was to go mobile-first. They wanted a marketing automation solution that was optimized for mobile apps. They also needed a tool that was capable of providing the triad of real-time analytics, powerful segmentation, and cross-channel messaging.
As a bootstrapped startup, they wanted a solution that would offer pricing that was flexible to their needs and provide them the best ROI — one which would lower their total cost of ownership (TCO).
After evaluating many point solutions which offered analytical and engagement capabilities separately, Idicula decided to choose CleverTap to be their single source of truth. CleverTap helps ProgrammingHub create consistent brand experiences across various user touchpoints, resulting in stronger relationships with their users.
Previously, the team used a free solution to gain insights about user actions, but the lack of advanced analytics led Tiwari to explore CleverTap’s suite of analytical tools. The integration of engagement tools and analytics allows her to gain a deeper understanding of user behavior.
Using funnels, she easily understands the user flow and any friction points encountered by users across various stages of their lifecycle. “Funnels provide us with valuable information on ways to improve the user experience, which in the long run has helped us to improve our conversion rates,” she says.
ProgrammingHub uses session analytics to track all the actions performed by a user within a session. Additionally, trends help them to compare user actions to identify how they engage with the app. Some of the key events tracked and compared by Tiwari include installations, courses enrolled, topic completed, courses completed, purchases made, and uninstalls.
Initially, a large percentage of ProgrammingHub users who installed the app would explore the app and drop off without enrolling for a course. This resulted in an enrollment rate of only 30%.
To switch things up, Tiwari created an enrollment journey using push notifications. “The journey we created to nudge users to enroll post the first app install has been hugely successful for us. We’ve seen our enrollment rates double in a very short period,” she adds.
If a user doesn’t enroll in any courses after a couple of days, ProgrammingHub deploys another journey where discounts are offered, enticing the user to sign up for a subscription. Post course completion, they also have a journey to encourage users to share their certification with employers and colleagues.
Personalization, when done right, has the potential to boost engagement, conversions, and customer retention. By personalizing their campaigns around user properties, ProgrammingHub has seen an impressive increase in campaign CTRs. In addition, personalization helps them to make their campaigns more contextual and relevant to their target audience.
New user journeys have helped ProgrammingHub double its enrollment rate. Since integrating with CleverTap, they have seen a 10-15% boost in subscription ROI.
Tito Idicula Co-Founder 
Anubha Tiwari Digital Marketing Manager The next step for ProgrammingHub includes expanding across geographies and diversifying its offerings with more educational apps. Tito also has plans to integrate the app with the website and expand ProgrammingHub’s user base. Recently, a pilot of the web app was launched. Being ProgrammingHub’s single source of truth has been a gratifying experience, and we’re excited to be a part of their success story.
