As the mobile trend continues to thrive without showing signs of slowing down, one industry has been on the rise in recent years: mobile app development.
What are mobile apps?
Application software designed to run on mobile devices, mobile applications or mobile apps is very common nowadays even for non-tech-savvy people. Mobile applications are generally small individual software units, with limited functions and often serve to provide users with similar services obtained from computers.
Types of mobile apps
- Social media applications
Considered to be the most popular mobile applications nowadays, these types of mobile apps have been a part of our daily lives. With 3.8 billion people using social networking sites daily and constantly checking for updates, social media apps have been provided with ease and convenience unlike when you visit the web page version.
- Games Mobile applications
If people aren’t on social media, they may be looking for apps to entertain themselves. One of the largest and most competitive niches in this technological development is the gaming and entertainment category.
Gaming apps have been a favorite category for developers because, like social media applications, people tend to access them multiple times in a week, if not every day, and they are often referred to as “addictive.”
- Utility mobile applications
Applications that are usually found pre-installed in some devices usually perform a single function. Examples of this category are calculator, flashlight, alarm, reminder, and weather.
- Mobile applications for lifestyles
The advent of mobile devices has not only influenced the way people communicate but has also had a huge impact on their lifestyle. People use their phones and mobile apps to search for the song that best suits their mood, the restaurant they want to dine at, the fitness goals they want to achieve, or the hotel they want for their next destination.
These apps have carved out a large chunk of the mobile app market as it has grown strong in recent years helping many people define their lifestyle.
- Mobile applications for information/news
People going mobile have turned to mobile news and information applications to get the data they’re looking for and still stay up to date on the latest news.
What is mobile app marketing?
Developing a mobile application is one thing, making it known and downloading it to the public is another thing. Mobile application marketing is the process by which you create marketing campaigns for your developed applications to reach target consumers. More than just people discovering and downloading your app, this process also involves the total experience of your users as they interact with your app.
In delivering your product to your desired audience, you need several strategies to ensure its success and profitability.
Strategies for marketing your mobile apps
When you plan to develop an app or if you are already in the process of developing one, it is important to identify and identify who will build your app. If you don’t know who is likely to use it and who can benefit from its use, your mobile application will not be efficient and obviously will not provide you with the profit you expect from it.
Be clear with your target audience. Study and find out their demographics. Get to know them better and understand the people who will pay for your developed application. Know their lifestyle, spending behavior, hobbies, interests, and other factors that can help your app adapt to them. While some apps, like social media apps, may appeal to everyone, most aren’t, and that could include yours.
- Research your competitors
Your application cannot be marked as a copy of an existing one as this would negatively affect your strategies. While knowing your target audience is important, understanding your competitor is critical and will give you an edge in staying relevant and original.
Know your unique value proposition, the identity of your competitors, their online presence and their pricing. Study how their marketing strategies work so you can properly create and establish your plan.
- App Store Optimization (ASO)
With over 5 million apps available for download in mobile application stores, the competition is tough. You need to make your application visible to your target market and rank it high in search results.
To achieve this, you need to do an App Store Optimization (ASO), or the process of improving your mobile app store visibility and click-through rate. This is the same way you optimize your site to appear in search engines and get people to click on it.
Since ASO is the SEO when it comes to mobile applications, their only difference is the ranking factors. The ranking of mobile apps in app stores is directly determined by the number of downloads, and people searching for a particular application usually only check the first five results. That’s why it’s important to optimize your app in these markets.
Plan your title carefully and work on your description. Make your store page effective and eye-catching. Your icon should be eye-catching and pleasant. Make sure your strengths and benefits are visible as these are factors that make customers stay and purchase or move on to the next app.
- Social media advertising
People are on social media and we have statistics to prove it. Almost 45% of the world’s population is present on social media channels and the figure is growing day by day. Promoting on these platforms can have a huge effect on the visibility of your application.
Conduct targeted advertising on social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to improve your online visibility.
- Collaborate with influencers
Many brands and companies have leveraged this strategy and achieved amazing results that have helped their name, products and services become visible and stand out from the competition.
In addition to being a cheaper alternative to other forms of advertising, working with influencers who have one thousand to ten thousand followers can help you directly promote your app to their followers.
Final thoughts
Mobile application marketing is an important factor in making your app stand out among the competition. As thousands of applications are developed and launched on the app markets every month, adopting these strategies will help you get ahead of the competition.
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