Can you possibly imagine to sell a new product without marketing it first? The same is true for your Shopify Mobile App. If you are developing a new Shopify mobile app and not having plans for promoting it, then you literally running the risk of losing the app to the competition.Today there are more than 2 million apps on App Store alone. This means that you cannot leverage your Shopify mobile app as a virtual store for your clients unless you have a dedicated Shopify mobile app marketing strategy.
Further, mobile app install ads are important part of your app marketing strategy. Launching your Shopify mobile app is as important as mobile app development. Launching gives your Shopify mobile app the necessary support to survive the competition. Your mobile app needs a proper mobile app marketing strategy to bring your app in the eyes of your customers.
According to Jaiden Vu, Founder, and CEO of Vantura Cosmetics – It is not the best product that wins but the best-known one that wins.
Building an eCommerce mobile app is just the first step towards your mobile commerce success journey. The next step and undoubtedly an important one is designing a Mobile App Marketing Strategy.
Also read: 3 Reasons why Social Media Marketing is necessary for eCommerce
What is Mobile App Marketing?
Mobile App Marketing or Mobile App Promotion is a marketing strategy that is used for reaching the targeted audiences at different stages of the conversion funnel. Mobile app marketing begins with introducing your Shopify mobile app to customers. It follows by prompting them to install it.
Through the easy sign-in process, you encourage them to complete the registration process and finally keep them engaged by sending push-notifications.The whole idea behind mobile app marketing is to give voice to your app and keep your users engaged. It’s necessary to create enough hype around your app that people cannot just can’t avoid it.
App promotion is not limited to selling the unique features of the app. It extends to spreading the word about the benefits that the app offers to the users.
Why is App Marketing Important?
Every business desires to grow its audience base, revenues, and sales. If you want your product to be popular among the users, its marketing is very important, and the same in the case of Mobile apps. Suppose you owned an amazing app with outstanding features and functionalities.
But what’s the next? How will you showcase your product and its features to its users?
The answer for this question is marketing, you need an efficient marketing strategy to reach your targeted audiences, in order to tell people about your offerings. So the app marketing lets you connect with your users through their entire life cycle i.e. from when they initially heard about your app, to when they become your loyal and regular customer.
Why do I need a Shopify Mobile App Marketing Strategy?
There are four basic reasons why you need a Mobile App Marketing Strategy for your Shopify Store:
- For driving mobile app installs
- To keep your users engaged
- For retaining your customers
- For launching new products
Driving mobile app installs for your Shopify mobile app is the biggest challenge that you face. And, it is obvious. There are more than 1000 app submissions daily on the App Store alone. Add to this, the fact that most of the users use not more than 3 apps on a daily basis.
The chances of your app standing out are very little without a solid mobile app marketing strategy.
The other problem that mobile app developers face is that they lose app users over time. Studies suggest that nearly 80% of users never use the app after the first few days of use. So, even if you have enough app downloads, you cannot expect to convert them without keeping them continuously engaged. Cart abandonment is major trouble for online retailers. According to eCommerce personalization expert, Barilliance mobile phones have an 85% shopping cart abandonment rate. This means you will lose a whopping 85% of your customers if you don’t have a marketing strategy.
What are some top Shopify Mobile App Marketing Strategies?
Thanks to Digital Marketing, Shopify sellers today have a number of tools for promoting their e-commerce mobile app. Listed below are some ways through which you can promote your Shopify mobile app:
- Google Mobile App Install Ads
- Facebook Mobile App Install Ads
- Deep Linking
- Deferred Deep Linking
- FB Remarketing Ads with Deep Links
- Content Marketing
- App Store Optimization
- Social Media Optimization
- Shopify Store Optimization
- Influencer Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Blogging
- Free Trials , offers and giveaways
- App reviews and ratings
- Video Marketing
In many ways, the marketing tools/techniques that promote your app build upon your existing customers and help attract new ones.
Google Mobile App Install
Mobile app install ads are meant to drive bulk app installs within a short period. Mobile app install ads are a powerful medium to introduce your app and prompt people to download it. Users can download the app directly from the Ad itself.
Also read: 8 eCommerce holiday dates you should not miss for your business!
You can promote your mobile app through Google’s mobile app install ads. Your mobile app install ads appear on Google Play, Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, and Display Networks. Whenever a user will search Google, or Play Store, or YouTube with your targeted keywords, your mobile app install ads will appear on the page. The user will be prompted to check the app. Also, you can track the number of mobile app install over time and the origin of their installs.
Facebook Mobile App Install Ads
Deep Linking
Ever heard of the term? Never. No problem, but I am sure you have used it earlier. So, let’s begin by getting to know – What is deep linking?Deep Linking is a technology through which the user is directly taken to the page within the app in which he is interested, rather than taking him to the homepage of the app. A deep link appears in the form of a unique URL. The URL takes the user to the product page within the app from where he can make the purchase, thereby maintaining his interest throughout. Deep linking iOS and android devices is an effective tool for boosting conversion rates. It offers customers what they need by making the least efforts, giving the best shopping experience ever.
Deferred Deep Linking
Also read: 7 Tips To Develop a Successful Marketing Strategy
Deferred Deep Linking is a great way for boosting your app downloads. When a user sees an ad on their Facebook or Google Search page, in which he is interested he is taken directly to the app store from where he can download the app
FB Remarketing Ads with Deep Links
Remarketing or Retargeting Ads target those customers that have shown interest in your product but left the cart without making a purchase. Through remarketing ads, you remind the customers of their leftover deal or the season discount they will be missing. This prompts them to complete the transaction. FB Remarketing Ads lets you create personalized ads on the Facebook page for products that were seen earlier by your customers. By clicking them, the customers are directly taken to the product page within the app from where they can complete the purchase.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a brilliant tool for promoting your brand new Shopify mobile app and driving mobile app installs. Not only your mobile app but with content marketing, you are also able to promote your brand.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and brings in 3x more leads.
It’s very important that you create a buzz around your Shopify Android/ iOS app. While doing so, most of the vendors end up sending a wrong or distorted message through their article. Many of them are not aware of the industry standards or the buyer persona they are targeting. MageNative helps you create valuable and interesting content for your app that is relevant, engaging and updated. Publish your Press Releases (PR) on relevant platforms that specifically target your intended audience.
App Store Optimization
When there are 1000s of apps on Play Store and App Store, you cannot expect that your app will be installed the moment you launch it. You need to make your app discoverable on the Play/ App Store. App Store Optimization (ASO) is the process through which you improve the ranking of your app to make it discoverable upon search. Ultimately, the goal is driving more mobile app installs.
- Relevancy of the content
- Indexation
- App Quality
MageNative strives to improve your app’s impression in the eyes of search engines. It provides the most relevant content description for your app, on the basis of targeted keywords. You can completely rely on the company’s indexation services that ensure that your app is discoverable on the search engines. It designs that conform to industry standards and redefines app designs and technology
Social Media Optimization
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn have tremendous reach and coverage. MageNative helps you tap the vast potential of social media by creating and optimizing the accounts of your store on social media platforms.
Also read: What Facebook Marketing Strategies are Best for your Online Business?
Here content relevancy and quality is the key to gaining visibility. We do this by analyzing the important keywords that are most searched over social media and putting them in the right places in your content. Also, your social media accounts are optimized with engaging videos and beautiful images.
Shopify Store Optimization
- Suggest site improvement measures
- Provide relevant keywords
- Analyze your competitor’s strength
- Suggest links for your site
- Content marketing
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing, where an organization pays influencers for the branding of their products or services. Influencers are the people on social media platforms like facebook, twitter , youtube or instagram with huge fan followings.
Influencer marketing can increase your reach with a large audience base, and also helps in brand awareness for existing customers. So the influencers enable the brands to present their products or services in an approachable, interesting and fresh manner. Subsequently, it wins over customers with its authenticity and originality.
Email marketing
Email marketing gives a unique way to reach your customers with direct marketing. Email marketing lets you reach a large number of audiences through commercial messages and personalised emails. Thus it would be very beneficial for any business including mobile app development organizations to increase customer reach with the help of Email marketing.
Affiliate Marketing
The affiliate marketing is the process in which an affiliate earns a commission for another company’s or person’s products. So here affiliate will work for you, in order to earn more commission , affiliate marketer put all his efforts in selling your product. Affiliate Marketing for Mobile applications is quite popular these days, as affiliate schemes and partners are persistently working to get new potential revenue opportunities to promote and sell.
Apps affiliate programs follow a similar model as other kinds of affiliate plans do. i.e. you join with a plan, concur upon a commission structure , give marketing materials and links to your accomplices to utilize. Then offer promotions and incentives to encourage affiliate partners to work with you, and to assist them with selling your items.
So this means that whenever you have convinced an affiliate to register to promote your app, an affiliate does the groundwork i.e promotion of your product through different channels. And if they are successful in their approach you can pay them a commission for their work.
Blogging
Providing relevant and useful content to your visitors, can help engage visitors to your website. Blogging regularly about your niche/product/business/industry can increase your search keyphrases. A well crafted content can demonstrate your brand as an industry leader. So a blogging is also a must for mobile app marketing , and helps increase brand awareness of the product.
Free Trials , offers and giveaways
This could be very helpful in attracting and engaging visitors to your brand. Offering special offers and giveaways attract more and more customers to purchase your product. Offering free app trials can be very helpful in building trust and credibility among the customers. It lets your customers to experience your product and decide whether it’s worth their investment. Also it helps you to collect the quality leads that are relevant to your business.
App reviews and ratings
Getting happy customers to review or rate your app could be the most effective mobile app marketing strategy. Rating and reviewing requests can cater you with valuable words about your app. This could help other viewers to trust your app, and also help you to make changes and up-gradations that your existing customers want to see.
Video marketing
Another most effective strategy to market your app is video marketing as video is easy to consume, memorable and most widely accessible content. By making use of video content you can more effectively and efficiently deliver what you want to show your audience. You can use Educational videos(like tutorial , explainer etc.) , Product videos or testimonial videos to showcase your offerings and to help your customers.
Conclusion
So simply developing a mobile app for your business doesn’t mean you become a successful businessman in the online marketplace. You need to promote your business as well to let the people know about your offerings. So to make your app and its features popular among the general public , there is a need for powerful mobile app marketing strategies that could help your app reach a large number of audience.
Use an app with in-built marketing features