Friday, September 14, 2018

Mobile Application Marketing

5 MOBILE APP MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Does Your Business need a Mobile App?

If you think that mobile apps are solely for big name brands like Walmart and Bank of America, you are wrong. More and more small and midsize businesses are following the mobile trend, understanding that an effective mobile strategy involves more than just a mobile-friendly website (Forbes, 2017).   In fact, these days you’ll notice that many small businesses you interact with in your everyday life have their own dedicated mobile app — be it the corner coffee shop or the beauty spa downtown. These companies are ahead of the game when it comes to taking their marketing to the next level. And they are doing it the right way! Do you know why? The digital era demands everything mobile-optimized and for this reason, companies are investing a huge share. Not because every company is investing in mobile app development, makes it necessary for you to invest in it to gain a competitive edge. It is because people want it – it includes everyone from your customers to everyone around you. Have a look at some of the statistics presented by IQVIS to know how important mobile application development for your business is.
  • By 2020, global mobile app downloads will reach 284 billion
  • Google Play will top 166 billion by 2020, and iOS will reach 35.2 billion.
  • Non-game app downloads will exceed $182 billion in 2020, accounting for a quarter of all app store downloads
  • Digital radio and photos now generate 96% of their total engagement from mobile devices
  • Total mobile engagement on social has grown 55% in the past year
  • Mobile ads perform 4-5 times better than online ads
  • 62% of smartphone users are “ok with 15-30 second ads” in exchange for video content

How Small Businesses Benefit from Mobile Apps

According to Smallbiztrends, a recent survey showed that 62 percent of the businesses asked already had mobile apps or were in the process of building one. Of those, 20 percent used their apps purely for branding purposes, 30 percent have revenue generating apps and 50 percent use them for support and engagement. Even businesses that you wouldn’t have thought would benefit from an app are proving critics wrong by producing innovative and engaging apps. For example, an independent pet food supplier could have an app that encourages users to upload comical photographs of their pets for a chance to win a prize. A product for new mothers could build a community of local mums and arrange meet-ups. A realtor could create an app that compares local house prices now to five years ago. The possibilities really are endless. All it takes is a little imagination to devise a system that consumers will enjoy engaging with. Similarly, in essence to Clutch.co, the amount of small businesses with mobile apps is set to experience a huge jump over the next year. Currently, 42% of small businesses have built a mobile app. However, two-thirds (67%) of SMBs plan to have an app built by the end of 2017, a whopping 50% expected margin of increase over the course of the year.  
  This evidence of small businesses’ increased interest in building a mobile application represents a fairly significant departure from just a year ago. The 2016 Mobile App Survey indicated that 54% of SMBs were either unlikely to build, or were unsure about building, a mobile app in the future. Compare that to this year’s data: only 35% of SMBs in this year’s survey don’t plan on having a mobile app built by the end of 2017.

You have a Mobile App, what’s the Next Step?

Mobile application marketing is an important stage for your business as a whole, and success of mobile app in particular. You have to first understand that your main focus has to be the end-users of your app. You are essentially dealing with people and so, you will have to study their mobile behavior and understand the same, before embarking on a particular marketing strategy. According to App Partner , before jumping into tactics, you need to nail the basics of app marketing ー prioritization and efficiency. Dwight Eisenhower  created what’s known as “The Eisenhower Box” to stay efficient and focus on what’s most critical. We recommend that you write any tactics you want to use into one of these four boxes so you can prioritize what’s important, because as an entrepreneur time is your most precious resource.  
  Clearbridge Mobile defines a Go-To-Market strategy as one of the successful mobile app marketing strategies nowadays. First of all, what is a go-to-market strategy? A thorough strategy will answer these questions: Who is your target audience, and how do you relate to them?
  1. How do you provide everyday value to your audience?
  2. How do you transition from initial point of contact with a customer to fulfilling brand commitment?
All the major elements that guide your business strategy (sales, pricing, marketing, branding, competitive research, consumer profiling, and distribution) form the foundation for a go-to-market action plan. This plan will define the most effective way to reach a target audience and establish a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Market the Experience, not the App

In the past, when companies made apps for the sake of having an app for their customers to use, it was more acceptable to market the app itself. That is no longer true because you aren’t trying to sell audiences on the app itself anymore. Instead, you are selling them on the experience your app provides. And, more importantly, how that experience is uniquely different and superior to any other experience they’ve previously had on mobile. This is not a new concept, by any means. Today’s consumers look for the simplest experiences offered by brands In fact, 86% of consumers are more likely to purchase when they are not overwhelmed with confusing information. Keep that in mind when you are writing your store descriptions. Market how the app will simplify users lives, not every little thing the app can do. The strategy of marketing the experience rather than the mobile app has caused customer experience to become a front-running issue of businesses across nearly every industry. Don’t market your app—that’s simply is not enough anymore. You have to focus on the experiences that are only possible with your app.

Any other Tips? Yes!

App Store optimization (ASO)

Both Google Play and Apple’s App Store algorithmically prioritize certain apps in search results based on a variety of ranking factors (ratings, tags, screenshots, app title, download data etc.). The goal of ASO is to drive more traffic to your app’s page in the app store, so searchers can take a specific action: downloading your app. Also, the ASO process requires a crucial understanding of your target customer base, including the keywords your potential customers are using to find apps similar to yours. When you learn more about which keywords are being used, you will have a better understanding of the language of your potential customers – a crucial piece of any marketing plan – and you can home in on your keyword choices.  
  The most important ranking factor when it comes to app store optimization is your app’s title. If you’ve built a train time-checker app, then it’s recommended to use ‘train time checker’ in the title. You can use Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool (with the device setting on mobile) to identify which terms / phrases relevant to your app people search for the most on mobile. The CEO of MobileDevHQ, Ian Sefferman has mentioned that: “ASO is having dramatic effects on our client apps. For those who put the time in to understand, iterate, and test, we’ve seen many apps increase their downloads by a factor of 2x-10x, and an increase of revenue by a similar, or bigger, rate due to the increase in engagement of users earned by ASO. ASO is not a simple process, and you might not see the impact overnight, but if you’re willing to invest in it, the outcome can be incredibly worthwhile.”

Conclusion

Mobile application marketing is the science of reaching your targeted audience and let them know your app, and what the most important is to make them like it! Market-to-go strategy can serve as the basis for your mobile app marketing, where the core idea lies in the understanding your audience. Having complete information about your customers, you may proceed to App Store Optimization, where the thought-out keywords research is the key to your success! Also, as the ‘assisting’ tools, you may also use Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Marketing to promote your business mobile app! Would you want Blueninja.io help you with the development of a great mobile application for your business? Give us a call anytime! The highly-qualified team of Blueninja.io provides an unforgettable experience for businesses and their clients through innovative digital solutions. Website design & Mobile Development, Web Application Development services, E-commerce web systems, Progressive Web Applications Development, SEO, Google Adwords and Social Media Marketing are just a small part of a wide service portfolio, opening doors to enormous opportunities for your business success. Stay connected with Blueninja.io and be the first who will read our next article! With creativity in heart, with an idea in mind!

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