Marketing your mobile app

How to market a successful mobile app?

The opportunity of mobile apps

It’s a fact that people browse more now on mobile apps than on websites. The opportunity to market your business with a mobile app is unmatched by other digital platforms if you get it right. At The Digital Department, our platform provides you with a wonderful tool, so make the most of it.

Your mobile App should be the center of your marketing

The advantages
Very few marketing media get your business:
• Within one touch of your customer.
• Open up a free line of communication with them through geo-messaging.
• Running a mobile app takes more thought than time, and this suits many business owners.

 The Function of a Mobile App

This is not an absolute and depends on the business, but think of it this way. A website is your showcase to the world to attract new customers. Your app is how to hang on to them and increase the frequency at which they do business with you. Make yourself fun and easy to do business with.

 How to market your mobile app with TDD? Step by Step.

The value proposition: Make sure your app has at least one major draw for people to download it. This can vary with different businesses.
Examples:
Restaurants: Loyalty program, offers, table booking.
Music Venues: The event guide may be key.
Retailer: Purchase rewards, vouchers, and product catalogues of new listings.
Events: Keeping people informed during the event.
Beauty Salon: Showcasing your work or scheduling a booking.
TDD can guide you, as we know what has been working for our clients and also across the industry.

 On-Premise Promotion:

The best way to get people to download your app is by your staff or by promoting on-premises. Key on-premises tools:
• Staff: Get them to constantly remind customers. If you have a loyalty program, the staff should ask the customer every time they are in the program.
• Business cards: These can be very effective as people go home with them in their pockets, and many download them at home.
• In-store visibility: Staff shirts, posters, tent cards, whatever suits your business.

Incentive to download

Offer an incentive for customers to download by having a voucher in the app for them. This could be a free glass of wine in a restaurant, a discount off purchases for a retailer, or upselling another product at a discount. Maybe also limit something to the app. For example, a client limited the sale of tickets through the app, so people were forced to download it to get the tickets.

Get your customers to market your app with rewards sharing.

TDD has introduced a fantastic new feature where if an app user gets whatever number of people you set it at to download the app a they are rewarded with a voucher on their phone. So, say customer X shares your app by text to friends, on Facebook or Twitter, and say 5 people download it, then a voucher will appear on their phone. This is a fantastic way to drive downloads virally.

Loyalty programs

This is a key feature for many consumer businesses. We have a client that is a lunchtime casual restaurant with one outlet, and they have about 800 people using their app. Their loyalty card is used 450 times a week, which shows the huge effect it has had in bringing customers back.

Real Time Phone Vouchers

These can be incredibly powerful at attracting people back to your business when used in conjunction with geo-messaging. Upload a great offer or incentive for your customers, and then message them to tell them about it. Set out a weekly or monthly plan of the offers you want to make.

Geo Messages

While not to be overused, with the right messages at the right time, it is an amazing opportunity to inform customers at any moment you choose of anything you want.

Market your app’s key features and build its reputation.

Like anything, your marketing keeps your features visible and consistently reminds people of them. Whatever the features that add value to your customers, keep reminding them on your other marketing platforms. For example, keep promoting the vouchers on the app on social media, or that your event calendar is on the app. People don’t always download on the first time they see so keep reminding them of the value in it.

Have great content to engage your audience.

Your app is not just a loyalty and voucher tool but a unique opportunity to engage your customers with great content. We can see with some clients that their blogs perform 5-10 times better in an app than on their website. So keep your app interesting and fun to have, and it is an amazing brand-building tool.

The Digital Department will always work with our clients to guide them in the best way to use their app, as if this tool is used correctly, it can be your most powerful marketing weapon.

See the key features for each sector and think about how best you can use them.