An increasingly popular channel of digital marketing is mobile apps as they offer companies greater accessibility and provide consumers with useful information and content pertaining to the brand. The emergence of the smartphone generation has coincided with the exponential growth in the number of apps available to download. The app market is a highly competitive environment with 2.2 million apps on the App Store and 2.7 million on Google Play (Vaidos, 2017), thus, it’s important for a mobile app to be able to stand out and grab users’ attention. With this in mind, the following blog aims to provide a helpful guide on methods that can be used to effectively market a mobile phone app.

 

  Ensure App is Useful

 Regardless of how much money is spent on a marketing campaign and how well it’s marketed, if a mobile app doesn’t address any basic consumer needs such as providing information or entertainment, people aren’t going to be interested in downloading the app. Looking at the consumer decision making process, the first stage involves need recognition where essentially the consumer is triggered by a stimulus, either internal or external, leading them to identify a specific need in order to satisfy their desire (Du Plessis, Strydom and Jooste, 2012). If an app’s features fail to appeal, it is highly unlikely that targeted consumers will feel the need to download it as it won’t evoke any desire.

Having a useful app means consumers who download the app are likely to make positive recommendations to others, eventually spreading through word of mouth. Subsequently, not only will this help to facilitate marketing efforts, it should also lead to greater conversion rates (Kapadia, 2015).

It isn’t easy to make an app that is useful, if you would like to check out some examples of useful apps, simply click here.

                           

Social Media Platforms

Social media is a very useful marketing tool for advertising a mobile app as social platforms provide access to millions of users at relatively little expense. It allows for online communities to be identified and targeted based on shared interests and common features, therefore making it easier to reach a specific target market (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). Facebook advertising, for example, is an extremely useful tool in terms of being able to tailor an ad campaign and make sure it is viewed by the desired audience.

It must be noted that there is no guarantee of higher conversion rates as it can be difficult standing out on platforms like Facebook with the news feed filled with posts and ads. Although, the main aim of social media advertising generally is to attract attention and get the content shared (Kaser, 2012), thus, while downloads may not significantly increase straight away, the amassed attention could eventually lead to greater download numbers (Matchcraft, 2015).

                                                  

App Store Optimisation

 App Store Optimization (ASO) is one of the most effective ways of drawing attention to an app with notable features including the name of the app, associative keywords, descriptions and accompanying media. Using a specific algorithm, the app stores subsequently rank apps based on the aforementioned features, determining the level of exposure and how easy they are for consumers to find. This means it’s important to focus on app optimisation through fine tuning (Cailean, 2015).

According to Cailean (2015), keyword optimization is an extremely important aspect of ASO as these are the words that help consumers identify specific apps. In terms of choosing keywords, it can be difficult to find the right balance as words that are too common will make it harder for the app to stand out while words that are uncommon aren’t likely to be searched by consumers. Therefore, it is vital that careful consideration is given to choosing a name for an app and the keywords associated with it.

For a comprehensive guide to effective ASO, simply click here.

 

  Integrate QR Codes

Scannable QR codes are an extremely useful marketing tool as they are free to obtain and can be attached to almost anything ranging from cereal boxes to e-mails, allowing brands to reach consumers both online and offline. Essentially, QR codes offer consumers a quick way of performing an action with a mobile device often linking them directly to an app’s landing page or the various app stores, ultimately facilitating the pre-download process (Winter, 2011).

There are a number of creative ways in which QR codes can be used, one notable example by AXA is available to watch below.

 

 

These are just a few methods that could be employed to help market an app, there are many other effective marketing tools that are available such as blogs and app review websites.

For more useful ideas on how to effectively market a mobile app, simply click here.

 

 

 

 References

Cailean, I. (2015). Extensive Guide to App Store Optimization (ASO) in 2015. [online] Available at: https://www.trademob.com/app-store-optimization-guide-apple/ [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017].

Du Plessis, P., Strydom, J. and Jooste, C. (2012). Marketing management. Cape Town: Juta.

Kapadia, A. (2015). 40+ Word-of-Mouth Marketing Statistics That You Should Know. [online] Available at: https://www.getambassador.com/blog/word-of-mouth-marketing-statistics [Accessed 14 Apr. 2017].

Kaser, K. (2012). Advertising and sales promotion. Cengage Learning.

Mangold, W. and Faulds, D. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52(4), pp.357-365.

Matchcraft (2015) 5 benefits that Facebook advertising can bring to your business | MatchCraft | premier digital marketing platform. Available at: https://www.matchcraft.com/5-benefits-facebook-advertising/ [Accessed: 14 Apr. 2017].

Vaidos, A. (2017). Google Play Store vs Apple’s App Store – A Comparison. [online] Available at: http://news.softpedia.com/news/google-play-store-vs-apple-s-app-store-a-comparison-512601.shtml [Accessed 10 Apr. 2017].

Winter, M. (2011). Scan me. Napa, CA: Westsong Publishing