Help Customers and Prospects Engage with Your Business Through Mobile App Marketing

These days, many big companies have apps, and many smaller businesses are jumping on the bandwagon. Especially if you belong to the old guard, you may think of apps as confusing pieces of technology unnecessary to your marketing effort, but the truth is, any business can benefit from an app.

Before we move on, let’s clear up a common point of confusion for many business owners. Mobile app marketing is a term that can be interpreted in one of two ways. On the on hand, you can market your products and services through a mobile app, because when customers use it to engage more deeply with your business, they’re more likely to purchase. On the other hand, mobile app marketing means marketing the app, which you’ll have to do if you want customers to find and use it. But first, let’s talk about why you should have one in the first place

Apps Build a Stronger Connection

Apps allow customers to engage with you in a way that is easier for them. The information in an app is pared down to the bare essentials, allowing them to do what they really want more easily. Plus, apps work better in low-reception spots, where mobile websites tend to chug along. Apps help you because in an app, you have the customer on a platform that is solely yours. They are less likely to click away to a new web page or get distracted when they have to physically leave the app to do so.

Give Reasons to Engage… and Stay Engaged

According to KissMetrics, 90 percent of users who download an app no longer use it six months later. Business owners commonly misunderstand the word marketing to mean “Get them to use it,” but really marketing should mean “Get them to keep using it,” because only a marketing plan that takes into account the longevity of your relationship with the app user really has a shot at keeping them around and turning their lukewarm interest into a sale (let alone a long-term relationship resulting in repeat business).

In order to keep customers engaged, so that they are more likely to build a business relationship with you, you have to single out what interests them. This means limiting your site to the smallest functional skeleton, and adding aspects back in if customers miss them. (Often they won’t.) Choose essentials, like shopping or tracking stats, and leave everything else out.

Don’t Hide Your App

Last but not least, it’s important to understand that your app must be accessible. Many business owners mistakenly assume that because customers would like a deeper connection with a business, they will move mountains to search out more ways to engage, but they won’t. As customers, we count on businesses to come to us, and that means making your app blindingly obvious and appealing.

There are a few ways to do this. For one thing, you should make it apparent on your website that you have a mobile app. Use the app store logo to really highlight the app, otherwise consumers may just ignore what amounts to one more link in a sea of information. Also, you can employ a pop-up on your mobile website page that asks the user if they’d prefer to browse in your app. Often users will switch for the sake of convenience, speed and a dedicated space in which to engage with you.