As people are shifting from desktops to smart phones, businesses are instantaneously thinking about their target audience’s preference for online engagement through Mobile Apps. Determining an application’s success can mean far more than just checking the number of people who downloaded the application to their mobile phone. Since the digital world is continuously changing, the criteria for measuring an application’s success is dynamic and adaptive.

In this world of big data, it’s the marketer with the right metrics who always wins. How can you find accurate numbers to drive a successful mobile marketing campaign? And how can you become a marketing leader within your organisation, in mobile AND all other mediums?

 

Engagement Metrics

Many people have lots of applications on their phones that they rarely use and mostly forget about (unless they have 16GB of storage). The time and duration of use reflect the application’s success in a clear matter. Knowing the time of day when the application is most popular can be very helpful in knowing which advertisements to run at which time, which can prove to be more effective. Therefore, knowing the level of engagement customers have with the application is also very important. Information on how many times per day a customer accesses the application reflects the customer’s level of dependence on it. Additionally, not having frequent engagement by the customer with the application can be an opportunity for enhancing customer experience by determining weaknesses and asking for customer feedback (Adler, 2014).

 

Quality Metrics

Focusing on the customer experience can prove to be pivotal to an application’s success. Therefore, a lot of focus must be given to the automatic incident reports being sent back by the application. Those should include information on the source of the application crashing, in order to be prompt in updating the program or polishing the algorithm for the application. There should also be a certain level of interaction with the customer in the form of pop-up alerts that ask the customer to simply rate the application (Liang et al., 2015)

 

Behavior Metrics

With everything becoming digitalized, it is now important to gather data on which devices interact most with the applications. Is it the iPhone, iPad, AppleWatch, or an android devices that is the most popular device for the application? Now that electronics come in different shapes and forms, screen sizes can also be an important factor to consider when determining an application’s success. Again, this can also hint at the dependence of the customer’s on the application, where they need to have it on more than one device. Additionally, Geographically determining user’s position can allow marketers to determine the application’s popularity across different sectors in the economy as well as amongst different ages. Condensation is educational facilities like schools and college campuses can reflect the app’s popularity in the younger age of the economy. Whilst as usage by other members situated at financial centers and business areas can prove the application’s popularity amongst the services sector (Bellman et al., 2011).

 

Although the video below is specifically about The Google Play Developer Console features, the 10 tips mentioned and highlighted are useful for creating and growing any successful mobile app

 

 

0:25 — Speak your users language, in your app

1:10 — Deliver the right content and features

1:35 — Allow for slow and intermittent data connections

2:09 — Accommodate low end devices and smaller screens

2:29 — Ensure your apps will run older versions of Android

2:44 — Optimize for less phone memory and shorter battery life

3:18 — Consume only the data you need to

3:47 — Reflect local buying habits and cycles

4:13 — Grow your audience with app promotion

4:56 — Engage and support your users locally

 

SoLoMo, a combination of social, local and mobile channels is a marketing trend, which “presents marketers with a powerful opportunity to reach specific customers at the right time and place with the right offer” (Palmer, 2012).

 

Social – Take advantage of customer engagement; for example, when you identify local customers, present them with reasons or rewards to ensure continued engagement on mobile apps and the social media platforms pertaining to them.

Local – Take advantage of knowing your customer’s location; for example, notify customers when they are in locations in which they may find your services useful.

Mobile – Take advantage of your customer being on the go.

 

Just a taste of the dynamic nature of digital marketing and applications. Hope you enjoyed it!