While mobile apps may be well received by the general public, simply having one isn’t enough to consider it a success — your mobile app marketing must put a few best practices into action:
- Focus on the quality of your technology and design
- Stay focused on an overarching goal
- Listen to users
We spoke with David Galownia, CEO of Slingshot, a software and app development company with expertise in strategy and design, about the aforementioned steps and how you can implement them in your mobile app marketing campaigns.
Here’s what you need to know:
Focus on the quality of your technology and design
Building an app that’s destined to perform well doesn’t happen overnight. It takes countless hours of preparation around consumer research, user experience and user interface design (UX/UI), and marketplace analysis.
Even after that, your app is only as great as the amount of effort you put into it. In other words, if you want your app to do well you have to focus on refinement.
“It’s important to always be improving your app; if you’ve got an app that’s getting engagement, continue to talk to your users. That way you can see how to improve your app further. Improving doesn’t always mean new features; sometimes it’s taking what you already have and refining or cleaning those up,” Galownia said. “You’ll also want to stay on top of external changes. This can include app store policy updates or new devices and their sizes.”
The functionality of those feature changes will also determine how your users feel about them. Staying on top of what’s new and fresh has its perks with users, but you don’t want to create in-app issues either. Users have high expectations, and you need to make sure your app is easy to understand and not too complicated.
Of course, to offer the most seamless experience possible, always test these features beforehand.
“Keeping bugs low will help to continue satisfaction; testing on new versions and working to handle anything that arises,” Galownia said. “Another thing to check is crash reports, since developers have access to this data. This way you can ensure that your bugs and issues are minimal.”
Stay focused on an overarching goal
When you created your app, you likely had an overarching goal that you wanted to reach. Maybe it was to generate more sales or shorten the time it takes to connect with consumers. Either way, no matter how long it’s been since the app’s debut, you want to keep that main goal in mind at all times. It’ll greatly determine what strategy is best for your brand.
“Something to keep in mind when it comes to what’s best for your app is to think about the main goal of your app. Some app’s main goal is to keep users engaged as long as possible, but others try to quickly get users to complete a singular task. For the latter, building an efficient system is going to be the most effective,” said Galownia.
Listen to users
No matter the specifics of your goal, any user-facing app relies strongly on one component: the users themselves.
Galownia says you should always directly talk to users. This way, you’ll see first hand how they experience your product. Can they get done what they need to? Do they enjoy your app? If there are any pain points you can work to solve them; you can also highlight the parts of your app that bring about the greatest customer satisfaction.
“Communication is so important. If you’re communicating, you’re listening to your users. Are you paying attention to negative reviews? You should be communicating directly through review replies, as well as indirectly via updates,” said Galownia. “For the updates, you should be investigating what negative comments can efficiently be fixed. This lets you know if there’s something your app can be better at.”
Since mobile apps can change so rapidly and extensively, staying updated in the space is important. What makes sense on a mobile app is expanding with each passing day. Being that apps are so user-centric, your consumers can help you figure out what features would work best.
“Things in tech change rapidly. So realize despite all effort, if you’re disconnected from your users’ needs, nothing else will matter,” said Galownia. “An important tone to make is that just because something is trending doesn’t mean you should utilize it. If it’s not what’s best for your users or app, don’t implement it.”
Beyond all the ins and outs of mobile app marketing, three concepts should be top of mind when discussing this tool: how it works, where you focus to make sure it works and how consumers respond to it. If you have these three things those down pact, your mobile app marketing is sure to thrive.
