Online stores can benefit from having a mobile app by increasing customer engagement and loyalty. A mobile app can provide a more personalized and convenient shopping experience for customers, and also allow for push notifications and special offers to be sent directly to their device. Additionally, a mobile app can give online stores access to valuable customer data and analytics, which can be used to improve the overall customer experience and inform marketing and sales strategies. Furthermore, mobile apps can also help increase sales by providing an easy and convenient way for customers to make purchases on the go, and can also help increase brand awareness and customer retention.Google’s and Apple’s app stores are carrying millions of apps and the market continues to grow. As the capabilities of mobile devices improve, more and more technologies find their way to app configuration. Competition has become fierce, the market is crowded and borderless – that is, apps no longer have to compete with just a limited number of local competitors. Local application manufacturers and distributors are facing competition from millions of apps on Apple’s and Google’s stores.
And that’s not all – if you’ve been able to convince potential users to download your app to their mobile device, bear in mind that the most difficult part is getting them to stay with you. 26% of those who downloaded your app will open it once and never come back. Potential customers will give you one single chance to convince them that your app brings them real value. That means, as we have said here about digital marketing in general, you need to know your customers, their needs, their desires and what triggers will work for them – which should happen as early as the development phase of the application!!!!! Only then can you continue to define the exact segment (micro-clustering) and tackle the activity of promoting the application to them.
An equally important move is, of course, the need to convince your potential customers to make real use of the app at a reasonable frequency that will justify the whole thing, in terms of both business and marketing.
If you succeed in the three essential steps of persuading enough people to download and use your app – your reward could be significant – being part of the daily life of your potential user / consumer.
But, as you can see, the road is long. After all, remember that the average American downloads an average of 80 apps throughout his device lifetime (a little more than two years) but uses only 13 – including basic ones such as email, weather, social, etc. In other words, the empty space on the shelf is quite limited.
The way to promote your app goes through three solutions: organic promotion, media promotion, and content promotion.
How do I promote my store’s app? Organic promotion – ASO – Appstore Optimization
Begin with a written brief containing the following lists:
A list of the app’s function – which primary category does the app belong to, and which subcategory.
Choose key words – track the words that are relevant to the category. This is done by studying the competitors and using a database of companies that specialize in creating such lists.
What to do with these key words? Best to combine 3-5 key words in the title, as well as in the first paragraph of the product description on the store. The list of relevant words should be updated and refreshed once every two weeks.
Do not forget to include a list of detailed app’s features as well as links to all of the brand’s digital assets – site, social, etc.
Media Promotion
One click installation.
This is the term that should guide you through all your activities on the relevant media – including brand own media (branches, social sites etc.)
Content Promotion
– Guerrilla activity in relevant networks and forums.
- Collaborate with relevant bloggers. From our experience, it is best to work with small and focused bloggers – they do a better (and cheaper) job for brands and app owners.
- Testimonials – real users’ experiences do a great job for app owners.
- The next step – after we’ve convinced enough people to download our app and use it, our first goal is to convince them to return and become regular users.
How do we get the user to come back and share our app with their friends and do the promoting work for us?
– The most important thing is to produce relevant, up-to-date, engaging content and turn users to our brand promoters, sharing it with their friends.
– Unique content and unique value (or one that looks like it) for a specific group, will generate an incentive with the group members to share with their friends.
– Gamification – turning some of your content into a competitive game does a great job in creating a trigger for sharing, especially if the game has a competitors’ table. There is no need for prizes but there is a need for a sense of advancement and victory.