App market complexity presents challenges not only for consumers faced with limitless choices, but also for app marketers competing for the valuable attention of potential customers. Mobile spend now accounts for 14.1% of all digital advertising spend – nearly double the 7.2% for the same period last year and the app economy is booming! The App Store is predicted to have 435 thousand new app releases this year, the Google Play Store is multiplying and new players such as Amazon are making their mark. In order to cut through the maze you need data, and more importantly, you need to know what it tells you about the effectiveness of your marketing channels.
Apps for your business are an important component of most digital marketing and brand management strategies. The obvious benefits of push notifications, integration with contact lists, and location data speak for themselves. Not only a powerful marketing tool, apps also allow limitless e-commerce possibilities. Whether it’s a new item of clothing, a taxi ride, or groceries delivered right to your door, making a purchase is as simple as a swipe of the touchscreen.
In answer to the age-old question, ‘Have you made it as simple as possible for your customers to purchase your product?’ A well-designed app delivers simplicity in spades. Your potential customers just have to find your app, download it, use it loyally and spend money through it. Simple, right? Think again.
Remember, anyone can design an app and hawk it on a small patch of the increasingly crowded playing field. This means fierce competition for every microsecond of a potential customer’s attention span. And if the smorgasbord of available marketing channels isn’t enough, anything in the digital marketing world that isn’t 24/7 and highly personalized simply doesn’t cut it. You need to market your app in a way that your target audience finds it and uses it in the way you want them to use it - again and again. And there’s the catch. Big (and small) data must become your friend.
So, how should you spend your valuable time, energy and money on your app marketing strategy to cut through and get ROI?
1. A simple, solid strategy With market complexity it is easy to get carried away. Go back to the basics - marketing 101 and build on solid research. Basing decisions on actual rather than projected numbers is key. Define your niche, and know both your target customers and competitors well. Free tools such as www.apptrace.com will give you stats on your competition, and help you define their market position so you can clearly identify your opportunities. Collect big data on your current customers and refine your mobile campaign, choosing your channels by demographics. The cornerstone of your campaign will be your creativity.
2. What effect do your marketing efforts have? You need data and not just any data. Download tracking and in-app analytics are vital to understanding where your most valuable customers are coming from. It is not enough to gather information without knowing the story it is trying to tell you. The right analytics allow to you to build a holistic picture of the user life cycle, starting with which marketing channel they found your app through, to how long they remain users, and how valuable they are for your business. Whatever your objective, whether it is direct sales, generating leads through in-app sign ups or exposure to in-app advertising, it is critical to be able to match the users who are doing exactly what you want, with the marketing channel they found and downloaded your app through. Don’t end up like a marketer I know who spent almost 10€ acquisition per user for a 50c return. Not smart.
3. Stay flexible during the campaign Respond to what your data tells you. Don’t be afraid to use creative over conventional, cheap and cheerful over high cost (or vice versa) if a particular marketing channel is kicking goals. Your Facebook or Twitter advertising campaign for your clothing label app may yield thousands of app downloads, with low usage rates and minimal sales, whereas a well placed QR code at a fashion show may result in less than a hundred app downloads with high sale conversion rates and strong customer loyalty. Or the opposite may be true. Alternatively, you may find that expensive advertising options, such app store banner ads, do in fact produce the highest spending, most loyal customers, so the ongoing expenditure can be justified with objective data. Without smart analytics you would only know that your app has been downloaded and you have made some money. With useful analytics you can be bold and confidently optimize your marketing campaign.
App marketing possibilities in the digital environment have exploded to the point that the choices facing digital marketers appear to be infinite. The days of planning your banner ad dimensions or email campaign list are gone forever. Yes, the market is complex and that complexity is increasing exponentially. With sound knowledge of your niche, data that tells you a story and the flexibility to respond to it, you can track your most loyal and profitable customers and get the best bang for your advertising buck.
By Christian Henschel, CEO and Co-Founder of adeven.
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