Top 5 tips to engage via branded apps

bizreport.com

Branded apps are one way businesses can stay in touch with their shoppers, but maintaining engagement through those apps can be hard. Here are our top five tips.

by Kristina Knight

First, create an app that users will love.

"Apps now account for 52% of all time spent with digital media, including desktop and the mobile web, but consumers delete more than 70% of the apps they install within 30 days," said Dennis Mink, Vice President of Marketing, Liftoff. "To keep consumers engaged, offer fresh content or interactivity that your target market will genuinely appreciate, and keep your content fresh to sustain higher rates of engagement and frequency of use. To avoid deletion, optimize the user experience so it's easy to navigate and use. If you've got less than a four star rating in the app stores, fix the design of your app and release a new version as quickly as possible."

Second, use promotions to encourage engagement.

"People love promotions and opportunities to score a great deal, especially on mobile. Create mobile specific promotions that only mobile users can participate in, gamify your promotions to drive engagement. For example, require consumers to post photos of themselves interacting with your brand, go in store to score a mobile exclusive deal, or get their friends involved to earn an even bigger reward," said Mink.

Third, incorporate social hooks into your app.

"Across all age segments, people spend the most time in social networking, entertainment and messaging apps," said Mink. "Add social elements to foster engagement both amongst your consumers and directly with your brand and make your mobile content easily sharable across the major social networks."

Fourth, run app install reengagement ads.

"App install ads are a great way to boost engagement among customers who already downloaded an app. Instead of asking the user to download an app, a reengagement ad prompts the user to open the app," said Mink. "App install reengagement ads have very strong performance including high click thru rates and a clear ROI. They are offered by all the major mobile platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Google, smaller ad platforms, and Liftoff Mobile, of course."

Fifth, use push notifications to bring people back to the app.

" When done right, push notifications are an incredibly effective way to get consumers back to your app. Similar to email marketing, whenever possible, give your mobile users the option to customize their push notification settings so they receive only what they want to receive," said Mink. "Make sure to create a push notification strategy that aligns with the purpose of your app. For example, a snowboarding company might send notifications providing an update on local snow conditions. Or a shoe company with a running app might send a daily notification with an update on steps walked that day.