Mobile App Marketing Strategies, Stages, Trends, & More

Mobile App Marketing Strategies, Stages, Trends, & More

Today, Mobile Apps are the name of the game. While creating a mobile app is easy in 2023, most of you will agree with us, making an app successful is the most difficult. Mobile app marketing is one of the big reasons why.

Marketing for apps is the way to reach the target audience and reach them. But this is also a concept a lot of people are not familiar with.

If you are someone who wants to create an app or already have a platform you want to market, this blog is for you. It’s a complete mobile app marketing guide.

Here, we shall be discussing anything and everything related to app marketing including strategies, KPIs, case studies, and more.

What is Mobile App Marketing Exactly?

Marketing is not an alien concept. Most of us are already familiar with the concept of marketing.

Mobile app marketing refers to the process of making the mobile application known to the target audience. In simpler words, the entire concept revolves around making the mobile app visible and easier to find.

There are a lot of things that go into mobile app marketing. And it’s just as important as mobile app monetization or the development itself.

However, there are many who still aren’t all that keen on mobile app marketing, and think it’s just a waste of money.

But is it really? Let’s find out.

Importance of Mobile App Marketing

Is mobile app marketing really important? Well, app marketing is as important as mobile app development.

Here’s how:

Smartphones are everyone’s everyday carry. You have one, your friend has one, and so does 80% of the world’s population.

And it’s no secret that mobile phones are all about mobile apps. People have at least 20 – 30 apps on their phones.

You see, there are more than 1.85 million apps for iOS users and 2.56 million apps for Android users. Adding to it, the app store alone gets thousands of app submissions from new apps every month.

Via app monetization, these platforms are making billions in revenue as a whole.

This is one of the big reasons why a lot of business wants to develop a mobile app.

In fact, more than 65% of small businesses and pretty much all large corporations already have a mobile application.

Point is, developing a mobile app isn’t enough. If you want it to be successful, you need to reach your end-users and deliver value to them.

You can create the best mobile app in the world but if you can’t reach your mobile app users, it’s useless.

However, with the right app marketing strategy and mobile app marketing, you can reach these users and make millions in revenue.

This is why mobile app marketing is so important.

KPIs You Should Know About Before We Start

KPIs or key performance indicators are an important element that allows you to understand the performance of the mobile app in marketing and landscape.

• Active users: The number of users who are currently using your app
• Cost per acquisition (CPA): The cost to acquire a new user
• Cost per install (CPI): The cost to acquire a new install of your app
• Cost per mille (CPM): The cost per thousand impressions of your app’s ad
• Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of users who click on your app’s ad
• Conversion rate: The percentage of users who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter
• Retention rate: The percentage of users who continue to use your app after a certain period of time
• Churn: The rate at which users stop using your app

Mobile App Marketing Strategies

Before you start mobile app marketing, it’s a good idea to learn about marketing strategies for apps.

That’s why in this section of the blog, we shall be discussing some of the top marketing strategy for mobile apps.

These are, as mentioned below.

• A Website For Mobile App

The first thing you need to do is contact website developers and create a website for mobile apps.

Why? the answer is simple. Though most people are using mobile phones, the web is still a go-to place for most people to look for things.

In fact, the majority of the world’s population is on the internet. Moreover, it is also easier to market a website for the app than the app itself. In order to do so, you need to make an SEO-friendly website.

• App Store Optimization

App Store Optimization is crucial for mobile app growth.

In fact, this is one of the best app marketing practices. You see, whether you develop an android app or iOS one, there’s still scope for app store optimization.

Both Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store allow businesses to market their apps in different ways.

In a way, App store optimization is much similar to SEO entirely based on keywords and user search. When done right, an app store marketing strategy can pay off quite well.

• Social Media Marketing

Well, this is not a concept that you will introduction to.

Social media is one of the megatrends of our time and almost everyone has a social media account already.

Therefore, you have first-hand experience with how brands market their products on the platforms.

As such, social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, etc allow both free and paid forms of marketing. The latter is known as PPC.

• Influencer Marketing

2023 is the time of influencers.

People are no longer trusting any random brands. But who they do trust is the large array of influencers they follow through different channels.

This is not a free marketing option but rather a paid one.

You will be paying the influencers to promote your product to their audience base. Sometimes this can be quite fruitful. And in today’s time, this is quite a prevalent mobile app marketing strategy.

• Email Marketing

Email marketing for mobile applications can do magic when done right.

This is probably one of the oldest forms of marketing that you can come across. And yes, this is very successful.

There is various example of email marketing making an average campaign a superstar one. Therefore, this is a mobile app advertising strategy that you should definitely consider.

• Market Through Media

Market the app through media. And yes, it’s different from social media.

You see, there are various forms of media. This includes blogging websites, PRs, newsletters, and whatnot.

Therefore, it’s highly recommended that you reach out to websites like Forbes. Yes, you can do that. In most cases, this won’t cost you much and you can generate quite a brand image from this.

• User Retention Campaign

This is one of the most important parts of a Mobile app marketing campaign.

You see, once you have the user on your platform or once they learn about the app, you have to retain them.

It is the most cost-effective out of all the strategies we have discussed as it virtually costs you nothing.

A user retention campaign can include various tactics, such as personalized push notifications, in-app rewards, and exclusive content

So, these were some of the top mobile app marketing strategies. And with this out of the way, let’s see how you can start marketing your app.

How Do I Start An App Marketing?

It’s time to answer the big question.

“How Do I Start An App Marketing?”

Well, mobile app marketing is a complex process. So, to make it easier, we have divided it into different steps.

So, let’s look at the mobile app marketing process and the strategies that you should choose. The steps are, as mentioned below.

Step 1: Find The Target Audience

The very first thing you need to do is find the target audience.

We can’t stress this enough, the target audience is the most important part of the entire mobile app marketing scene.

Why is Finding the Right Target Audience Important?

Knowing the target audience helps businesses understand who their potential clients are, what services they are looking for, their likes dislikes, trends in the consumer group, and so on.

All of these allow businesses to create marketing strategies, product strategies, and the product itself based on the needs of their target users.

So, how do you find the target audience? Here’s the process.

How To Find Target Audience?

Here’s the process to find a target audience.

1. Define your product or service
2. Identify the benefits of your product/service
3. Identify your current customers
4. Conduct market research
5. Analyze your competition
6. Create buyer personas

One of the most important parts of this entire process is mobile app market research. Let’s discuss this in detail.

Step 2: Create Mobile App Marketing Plan

It’s time to create a mobile app marketing plan. Creating a plan for marketing is just as important as plan for mobile app development.

The reason is that the marketing plan for the application is what drives everything. So, how do you create a plan? Well, one of the most important things that you need to do is choose an application marketing strategy.

However, you should understand the point that you don’t just choose one of the app marketing strategies.

Rather, different strategies are implemented at different stages, as you will see in the section below.

Step 3: Start Mobile App Marketing

It’s time to apply the mobile app marketing plan.

As such, marketing for apps can be divided into 3 different stages. And here we shall be discussing all of these stages in detail.

1. Awareness Stage

During this stage, the goal is to create awareness of your app among your target audience.

This can be achieved through various paid and organic marketing activities, such as social media advertising, content marketing, and influencer outreach.

2. Acquisition Stage

Once people are aware of your app, the next step is to acquire new users.

This can be done through various acquisition channels, such as paid advertising, app store optimization, and referral marketing.

3. Retention Stage

Finally, it’s important to retain your users and keep them engaged with your app.

This can be achieved through various retention strategies, such as push notifications, email marketing, and in-app messaging.

With this said, let’s look at the last one.

Step 4: Track, Analyse, & Optimize

This is the last stage of the mobile app marketing strategy.

In this process, all you need to do is track the performance of the app in the market, analyze trends, and then optimize everything the same.

And this is how you start mobile app marketing. With this out of the way, let’s look at the Trends in mobile app marketing.

Trends in Mobile App Marketing

Trends are what drive successful mobile apps and successful mobile app marketing.

So, what are some trends that you should look forward to when creating your own mobile app advertising strategy?

These are, as mentioned below:

Gamification

This is a trend that you can see in almost every industry 3.0 solution and there’s a good reason why.

User response to gamification has always been amazing. Therefore, embedding this in your solution when you create a mobile app and market it, can make all the difference.

Personalization

Personalization is the buzzword of mobile app marketing.

It is predicted that in the future, personalization will become even more critical to the success of mobile apps.

Users want to feel like the app was designed specifically for them, and personalized content is the way to achieve this.

Video Marketing

It is always easier to see than read. Plus, with the increasing use of video-based apps like TikTok, video content is becoming the trend.

This includes short-form content like Reels on Instagram and what we see on TikTok itself. Even on platforms like YouTube, this 10-second to 1-minute content has much higher engagement.

Therefore, this is something you can consider for your mobile app marketing.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to have a significant impact on mobile app marketing in the future.

AI-powered chatbots can be used to provide personalized support to users, and AI algorithms can be used to analyze user data to provide personalized recommendations.

Moreover, it is predicted that AI will power social media marketing trends. Therefore, this is something that you should definitely consider.

Out-Of-Home (OOH) advertising With QR

Ever since the pandemic, the use of QR codes is skyrocketing. And with more than 94 Million users, this trend will grow.

With this OHH mobile app marketing is much easier. As we have seen with a lot of brands. Moreover, the user is only predicted to grow much larger in the coming years.

Mobile Augmented Reality For App Marketing

With the introduction of the metaverse, AR technology is trending once again.

And yes, it is one of the best ways to market your mobile app in 2023 at least. With this, you can peak the interest of users and capture them.

Therefore, this is a marketing strategy that you should definitely.

Mobile App Marketing Case Studies

Well, before we end the blog and you start mobile app marketing, it’s a good idea to learn from the best.

Here’s a case study of some of the well-known apps and what they did to become popular. These are, as mentioned below.

Headspace – 70 Million Users | $100 Million Revenue

There are a lot of people who want to develop meditation apps like calm and headspace.

Well, there’s a good reason behind it. The platform we call headspace is just so well-marketed. But how did they do it?

Well, headspace focused its mobile app marketing strategy around influencer marketing.

Here, they partnered with influencers on Instagram to produce sponsored content. This way, the platform reach a new audience and gained millions of downloads.

Airbnb – 150 Million Users | $4.7 Billion Revenue

Who doesn’t know about the world-famous accommodation app like AirBnb?

Well, this platform has more than 150 million users today and generates upwards of 4.7 billion dollars.

When it comes to marketing strategy they mainly focused on social media advertising. In addition to this, they also invested in Facebook and Instagram ads.

The platform targeted users who were interested in travel. Their marketing strategy was super successful, making them market-leading today.

LYFT – 30 Million Users | $3.6 Billion Revenue

Ride Sharing App Like LYFT is growing popular among users.

So, how did this one manage to become a market leader? Here’s how:

They used referral marketing to drive user acquisition. Here, they also offered heavy discounts to the users if they shared the app with a friend.

Apart from this, they also used the following strategies.

• Creating partnerships with local businesses and events to increase brand visibility
• Offering unique features such as “Round Up and Donate” to appeal to socially conscious users

Conclusion

Mobile app marketing is the key to making your app known to the users and generating revenue through it. Regardless of your app type, industry, or exact features, with the right app marketing strategy you can drive traffic to your platform and retain them. And with this, we have come to the end of our blog.

FAQ

Niketan Sharma

Niketan Sharma is the CTO of Nimble AppGenie, a prominent website and mobile app development company in the USA that is delivering excellence with a commitment to boosting business growth & maximizing customer satisfaction. He is a highly motivated individual who helps SMEs and startups grow in this dynamic market with the latest technology and innovation.