Mobile App marketing

Mobile App marketing matters. The number of apps available to Android users is 2.1 million on Google Play and iPhone users have 2 million available apps on the Apple App Store.

Mobile apps account for nearly half of global internet traffic and are an important channel to consider for businesses seeking to better communicate with customers.

But only 40% of smartphone users browse for apps in app stores. The majority find apps through search, websites, social media, ads, videos, reviews and recommendations.

Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they’ll come. A marketing plan for your Mobile App is as important as its development.

Here are 9 essential rules to follow for Mobile App marketing.

1. App store optimization (ASO)

Both Google Play and Apple’s App Store algorithmically prioritize certain apps in search results based on a variety of ranking factors (ratings, tags, screenshots, app title, download data etc.). However, unlike SEO (which primarily focuses on Google) app store optimization is not a one-size fits all game. The most important ranking factor when it comes to app store optimisation is your app’s title. If you’ve built a train time-checker app, then it’s recommended to use ‘train time checker’ in the title.

You can use Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool (with the device setting on mobile) to identify which terms and phrases are relevant to your app people search for the most on mobile.

2. Social media marketing and advertising

One of the most effective ways of acquiring mobile app installs has been through clever use of Facebook’s advertising platform. Use a combination of page promoted posts & sponsored stories targeted to mobile news feeds. Similarly, promoted tweets are another highly effective way of driving mobile app downloads when set up correctly. Start off with a small budget testing various different keyword segments, and scale up what drives the best cost-per-acquisitions. Reddit advertising is ridiculously cheap. Play around with advertising or contributing on niche social networks, such as Reddit or Quora.

3. Reviews, drive them naturally

Reviews are a huge aspect of app store optimization, as well as an important factor in convincing people to download your app. It’s extremely important that you find an effective way of driving reviews in a way that’s natural and won’t trigger Google or Apple’s spam filters. Offer something cool – be it some free credits or an extended subscription, giving the user something valuable in return for a review is a win-win situation that seems to work well.

4. Microsite with a blog for effective search engine optimization (SEO)

A micro-site opens up a whole host of marketing possibilities. If you’ve built an app that sells concert tickets in London, you could build a micro-site and do some SEO around it. If you ranked #1 for ‘London concert tickets’ you’d drive approximately 8,100 people searching for ‘London Concert Tickets’ to your app per month. If you create a blog on your site, you can find many other relevant keywords for your app and write blogs using these keywords in titles to continuously drive traffic to your site and, for there, to your app.

5. YouTube channel for app instructions

You can also create your own YouTube videos on how to use the app to deal with specific problems. This will help capture people that are looking for solutions to those problems, and convert them into users. Once they see a step-by-step guide on how they can use the application for their needs, they’re so much more likely to give it a try. Remember that even simple apps can be confusing to some people, even with instructions and onboarding. A demonstration is a great way to get customers interested in downloading and using the app.

6. Email marketing

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways of driving traffic, building advocacy, and converting leads to users / customers. Build a newsletter and offer your potential users information that’s useful and valuable to them. They’ll respect you for it and ultimately be more inclined to download your app.

7. Start Mobile App marketing before launch

From the minute the app concepts and designs are complete, you should be thinking of marketing it.  Figure out who your ideal users are, why they should download the app, and how to encourage them. If only 40%
search for apps through the mobile app store and the rest find the apps through YouTube videos, blogs, and tutorials online, among other options; that’s means your missing out on over half the audience you could have if you start Mobile App marketing early.

8. Use Mobile App marketing to engage with potential customers

In order to create the ideal app, it has to be designed to meet your ideal users’ needs. So you should get feedback from your target audience throughout the creation process. Seek out and engage with potential customers during the app creation process. Get feedback from real users through through your microsite, your blog, your YouTube Channel and social media.

9. Get more feedback from customers after launch

Mobile apps in app stores are often ranked on popularity and value, based on ratings. So you definitely want to get customer feedback and more reviews to increase the possibility of more downloads after launch. You should also include contact info in your app descriptions, so customers can reach out with more detailed feedback or questions.

Do these rules for Mobile App marketing make sense to you? If your thinking of developing a Mobile App for your business, do you need a Mobile App marketing plan?

Affiliate marketing is an advertising model where companies (merchants) pays commissions to third-party publishers (affiliates) who generate leads or sales by featuring the company’s products and services on their websites or blogs.

Affiliate marketing has been a proven business model since 1994, just four years after the origination of the internet. It is one of the only marketing channels and forms of  commerce where no money is exchanged until mutually agreed-upon results are achieved. One can be either a merchant or affiliate with very little, if any, investment.

It is relatively easy to begin. Merchants and Affiliates sign up at reputable affiliate marketing sites such as Commission Junction (CJ), Clickbank, Ratkuten, PeerFly, ShareASale, Wide Markets and Amazon Associates to name some of the top sites. After completing the sign up process, code or text links are provided for the merchant and affiliates to put on their websites identifying any actions that come from their relationship.

Is it worth it? Here are 22 affiliate marketing cold, hard yet amazing facts.

1. 90% of traffic and conversions to affiliate merchants’ programs are driven by 10% of affiliates.
2. Over 80% of brands have affiliate programs.
3. 78% of CMOs admit affiliate marketing is their least mastered area of digital marketing.
4. 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a social media reference.
5. 67% of affiliates come from North America (US and Canada).
6. 66%% of affiliate programs fall in into 4 categories: Fashion (23%), Sports and Outdoors (18%), Health & Beauty (14%) and Travel (11%)
7. Nearly 50% of affiliate related traffic originates from a mobile device.
8. 55.5% of affiliates work from home.
9. 48% of affiliates make under $20,000 a year; 20% make $20,000-$50,000 a year; 6% make $50,000-$100,000 a year; 6% make $100,000-$150,000 a year and 3% make $150,000+ a year.
10. 40% of marketers say affiliate marketing is their most desired digital marketing skill.
11. 38% of marketers call affiliate marketing one of their top customer acquisition methods.
12. More than 30% of affiliate-related sales originate from a mobile device.
13. 16.6% annual growth is expected through 2021.
14. 15% to 30% of all online sales are generated by affiliate programs.
15. 10% to 15% conversion rate for pay-per-call affiliate campaigns vs 2% to 3% for online affiliate campaigns.
16. 10% of Amazon’s sales are estimated to come from affiliates.
17. 7.5% of total digital spend for retailers goes to affiliate marketing.
18. $5 billion in revenue was generated last year in the US by affiliate marketing.
19. $5 billion in revenue was generated last year in the US by affiliate marketing.
20. 600 million products are promoted online by affiliate programs.
21. Over 2,000,000 affiliates were on Amazon as early as 2008.
22. 1,000,000+ affiliate accounts are registered on ShareASale.

Do these facts convince you affiliate marketing is worth it? Is your business interested?

Better online reviews are now a key consideration for every organization, brand, doctor, lawyer, contractor, caterer, hotelier, restaurant owner and human resource department. And for good reason:

• 84% of patients use reviews to evaluate physicians
• 81% of females would not visit a restaurant which reports cleanliness issues from a review
• 76% of travelers said they would pay more for a hotel with a higher review score
• 72% of consumers say that positive reviews make them more likely to trust a local business
• 60% of job seekers would not apply to a company with a one-star rating
• 5%-9% increase in revenue for every additional star a business gets

The facts show better online review influence our buying decisions and impact revenue for every kind of business. But any business is not above getting a negative review and figuring out how to deal with it. Some even resort to writing their own positive reviews. Do they work? Hardly.

• Over 30% of users assume reviews are fake if there are no negative reviews
• 27% of people trust online reviews only if they believe they are authentic
• 20% of online reviews on Yelp are fake

How does a business get better online review authentically? Jessica Leone, an unapologetic word nerd, bookworm and Florida Gators football fan, let us know in an infographic she created, How to Get More Positive Reviews (and Deal with the Negative).

Here is a brief summary how to get more positive reviews and deal with the negative.

1. HAVE A CLEAR CALL-TO-ACTION ON YOUR SITE: Make it easy for people to see and go to where they can write a review.
2. SAY THANK YOU: A simple thank you page to customers with a request they leave a review goes a long way.
3. SEND A PERSONALIZE TEXT OR EMAIL: Ask if they will leave a review when your business and their experiences are still fresh.
4. SOCIAL MEDIA IS YOUR FRIEND: Use a display plug-in to share social media reviews.
5. FACE-TO-FACE: Asking in person for a review is 7X more effective than asking by email.
6. TALK TO VENDORS: For B2B industries, ask vendors and suppliers. 7 out of 10 people will leave a review if they are asked.
7. CONSIDER AN INCENTIVE: Zappos Rewards Program gives members 100 points toward products for leaving a review.
8. TIMING IS EVERYTHING: Ask consumers to leave a review when they are likely to be at their happiest. American Express found a happy customer will tell 9 other people about their experience.
9. SEND A FOLLOW UP: 20% to 25% of Esty purchases result in a review because they send a follow up email or text.
10. ALWAYS RESPOND: Whether positive or negative, respond to reviews. Harvard Business Review found hotels that respond receive 12% more reviews and their ratings increase.
11. REACH OUT TO A NEGATIVE REVIEWER DIRECTLY: 78% of consumers who receive a response believe the business cares about them.
12. SPREAD POSITIVE REVIEWS: Share and promote reviews on your website and social networks.

Here is the infographic.

Are these ways useful to you to get better online reviews?

Wikipedia page for a company increases recognition and notability. It adds credibility to any business.

A Wikipedia page is a web page on world’s best known encyclopedia created, edited and updated by volunteers. It contains over 4,500,000 articles in English, but there are many more in 280 languages.

10,000 articles are read each day and 500 million people read it every month. But Wikipedia has no formal editors or formal peer review process. A Wikipedia page is not for every business or organization.

Should your company have a Wikipedia page? Here are 8 Pros and Cons.

PROS

1. INCREASES CUSTOMER CONSIDERATION:  Because Wikipedia is a third-party, public website, information on your Wikipedia page may be more valuable to a potential customer than some of the information on your website.
2. RAISES SEARCH ENGINE PRESENCE AND RANK: A Wikipedia page has high authority and usually a top rank for a brand or business name. A link from Wikipedia to your website is a valuable link.
3. ESTABLISHES OWNERSHIP: If you think someone might create a Wikipedia page about your company that reflect a bias, then don’t let that happen and be the one to create it, first. Although you can’t control what other might say on it, at least it is yours to direct and attempt to keep correct.
4. CONTROLS INFORMATION: Each edit or update of wiki information is recorded in the wiki software. If wrong information is edited, the software can easily revert the changes to the previous version.
5. IS TIMELY: Information is updated online so you don’t have to wait for a particular publisher to update the information.
6. PROVIDES REFERENCES: Wikipedia page contains references for all documents linked to the wiki information. This increases recognition and notability.
7. IS FREE: There are no cost to create a Wikipedia page and no licensing or subscription costs required for installing institutional wiki.
8. HAS FLEXIBILITY: The program has no any predetermined structure, it can be used for a variety of applications.

CONS

1. ANYONE CAN EDITS: Anyone can add and edit Wikipedia entries, so information could be incorrect or deliberately false.
2. LACK OF CONFIDENTIALITY: It is difficult to access user rights. Confidential information can get to the wrong persons since anybody can edit the information in Wikipedia.
3. MONITOR FOR ACCURACY: Because of the first couple of cons, you’re going to have to regularly be examining your Wikipedia page for accuracy.
4. NEGATIVE TESTIMONY: People who had bad experiences may come and talk about the negative sides of your business, and the editing staff is going to take a long, hard look at what’s going on if they see you deleting every bad thing someone else says
5. MAY NOT GET A UNIQUE COMPANY PAGE: An editor may decide that your content would be better if merged into an article on similar businesses, rather than giving you a unique place on the web. This is a risk especially if you are a small business or start-up.
6. NOT ALL ACHIEVEMENTS ARE NOTEWORTHY: A Wikipedia page cannot be promotional. If your company has just achieved a million dollars in sales, that’s not especially noteworthy for Wikipedia. If your company is a medical device that has saved a million lives, that’s a more relevant achievement.
7. CITATIONS MATTER: Generally speaking, topics with multiple independent citations are considered worth having a unique page. Try for a minimum of four. The more you have, the better. The quality of the citations also matters. A small mention in your local newspaper is not a noteworthy citation. Exposure in a major national magazine might be.
8. PAYMENTS MUST BE DISCLOSED: If you paid someone to create a company Wikipedia page, this has to be disclosed.

Is your company considering a Wikipedia page? Do these Pros and Cons help?

The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer. – Peter Drucker

Based on Peter Drucker’s wisdom, customer loyalty is one of a company’s most important assets. That goes for any company. Even, or especially, Amazon.

How loyal are Amazon’s customers? Here are 30 astonishing facts about Amazon customer loyalty.

1. 95% of Prime members say they would “definitely” or “probably” renew their memberships.
2. 94% of Survey Monkey’s audience say they’ve heard of Amazon Prime and 70% have used Amazon Prime.
3. 95% of Amazon users always or sometimes read full product descriptions before purchasing.
4. Almost 90% of Amazon customers say they would not consider purchasing a product with less than 3 stars.
5. 85% of Prime shoppers visit Amazon at least once a week or more, that number drops to 56 percent for non-Prime members going to Amazon at least once a week.
6. Nearly 80% of Amazon customers say they trust Amazon’s shipping more than packages shipped by a third-party seller to show Amazon customer loyalty.
7. 75% of people who shop on Amazon use the Amazon search box.
8. 69% of Whole Foods shoppers are Prime members to show Amazon customer loyalty with this acquistion.
9. 65% of Amazon shoppers rank price as the most important factor, above faster shipping, free shipping and better product assortment.
10. 63% of Amazon customers are Prime members to prove Amazon customer loyalty.
11. 60% of Amazon customers say they wouldn’t consider purchasing items with less than a 4 ½ star rating.
12. 59% of shoppers across 27 countries bought items on Amazon.com last year.
13. 54% of people who buy on Amazon always read the full product description.
14. 51% of Amazon customers come to the site to compare prices.
15. 46% of Prime members say they buy on Amazon at least once a week.
16. 44% of Amazon customers say they will always check prices on Amazon before purchasing on another site as a demonstration of their Amazon customer loyalty.
17. 43% of all online sales come from Amazon.
18. 43% say they would pay $10 or more for delivery within an hour while 32% would pay $10 or more for same-day shipping.
19. 33% of Amazon users come to the site ready to buy
20. 31% of Prime members go to amazon.com daily.
21. 30% of Prime members said they ordered products weekly on Amazon in 2016, which grew to 46% in 2017.
22. 24% of Amazon’s North American retail revenues can be attributed to consumers who first tried to buy an item at stores but found their local stores out-of-stock.
23. 22% of Amazon users are now more likely to purchase their groceries via the giant marketplace, because of the Whole Foods acquisition, and 37% will consider it.
24. 7.5% of Seattle’s working age population are Amazon employees.
25. 13% of people who are not Prime member buy from Amazon weekly.
26. 1.6 million packages are shipped every day from Amazon.
27. 45,000 robots roam Amazon’s floors.
28. #8 most reputable firm in U.S. and #18 in the world.
29. Amazon is more valuable than all brick and mortar retailers combined.
30. Amazon Prime offer discounts to everyone on government assistance.

Do these facts convince you of Amazon customer loyalty? Does your business need to improve its customer loyalty?