App developers are like book authors. While both may get “published,” the majority finds that in a sea of competition, they have very little chance of being discovered – unless, of course, they have ways to attract and engage potential users/readers.

In this article, our guest author Amanda Sparks compiled a list of essential marketing hacks that can considerably improve your visibility in the app stores and ensure that your users will engage with your app or game even more.

Let’s dive right in, shall we?

1. Remove barriers and improve accessibility

User experience (UX) friction is an essential component of our current digital ecosystem. Every developer should seek to create an experience that doesn’t impede the customer to perform the app’s essential functions. Poor design and conceptual structure can do that.

“Many apps are now totally done with the registration process in its “standard” form, where you’d have to manually fill in your data. This is both time-consuming and pretty much unnecessary, especially on smartphones. Now, the best way to alleviate this hassle is to register users via their social media accounts.” 

— Jenna Carr, Head of Marketing at Resumes Centre.

signup_boosting

Here’s a straightforward example of how apps can leverage social media to help customers log in or register accounts much quicker. People typically have a single personal verified email addresses, which they use across the board.

Now imagine the opposite scenario. Instead of simply tapping “Connect with Facebook,” you’d have to provide a host of data about yourself manually.

Discover 5 more UX hacks that help app developers attract new users.

2. Personalization via push notifications

Personalization is arguably one of the most critical optimization processes you can apply to your digital content, especially when it comes to push notifications. An average person goes through 150-200 mobile moments a day.

The reason personalization is such a valuable asset to any app or digital service is that it engages our users. By using the right degree of personalization, businesses can tap into the senses of immediacy, urgency, and relevancy.

However, app developers should use push notifications carefully, since they may easily become annoying, which can dissuade their users from allowing push notifications or using the app in general. 

There is also a broad spectrum of push messages that app developers should experiment, they differ in the type of event that has triggered by. Here are a few examples:

• Geolocation-based push notifications engage users when they are moving in an area where in-store discounts are available. These are especially useful for retail businesses that have multiple stores across the city. However, there are other very creative ways you can leverage your user’s location. Here’s how Duo Lingo does it:

• Transactional push notifications are most often confirmation messages that are designed to provide the user with essential data about a transaction they’ve just performed. These are fairly common in bank apps, trading platforms, and E-commerce apps.
• Event-triggered messaging — these are the messages your app Transactional messaging will show up on your users’ screens on their birthdays when you’re having special promotions or any other special event.

All of these will provide your customers with valuable input and will considerably stimulate their engagement with the app.

3. Every app needs a website

A landing page is an essential component of a successful app because it serves a broad spectrum of functions that improve the user’s experience with your software. Landing pages can serve as knowledge bases for essential data about your app, best practices, and even advanced tutorials.

“A site can also serve as a brand outlet, which can establish your brand identity, improve your SEO and discoverability, and also communicate your values through the content you publish.” 

— Evan McCoy, SEO specialist at Canada Writers.

A great example of an app’s website that serves as informational support and represents the app’s functionality and brand design is Keeply. Their website is a very clever representation of the app’s functionality and has an enticing call to action that motivates visitors to try their app.

4. Interaction is imperative

Engagement is at its core a form of communication. By engaging and interacting with your brand, your customers are either approving or disapproving of your actions. From another perspective, it's our responsibility to assure the user that their opinion is taken into account and that it matters to you.

James Daily, head of the content department at Flashessay.com explains: “Encourage your users to leave feedback and reviews and acknowledge that you’ve received their message by responding to their criticism or compliments. When rolling out updates, mention that you’ve made specific adjustments because customers have inquired for them.”

Here’s a good example of how Skyscanner employees respond to reviews.

Find the right response strategy for your customer support team.

5. Enlist influencers and reviewers

It’s been a few years since the influencer paradigm has become one of the fastest growing marketing mediums out there. More importantly, influencer marketing is among the channels that have the highest engagement rates across a wide range of niches, which results, which makes it a very efficient medium.

Creating a team of micro-influencers, which you’ll regularly collaborate with will increase the level of trust particular sections of your demographic have for your brand. There is still an important aspect you need to figure out — how do you select the right influencers for your team?

The right way of approaching this is by starting small, just like with most things in life. Invest small amounts of money into collaborations with various influencers and see how things work out with each of them. However, it’s essential to systematize and quantify the data you get out of these experiments. Keep a tab on their audience, niches, engagement rates, and so forth. This way you’ll be able to calculate the ROI and establish which influencer can ensure a fruitful collaboration.

Find out how and where to start communication with influencers and journalists

6. In-app referrals

Service providers and product developers must ensure that they have a good referral system in place, in order to reward the customers that promote their brand. This is a great way to show that you appreciate their publicity and by doing so, you can stimulate their engagement even more.

Generally speaking, referral programs benefit both businesses and referrers. We strongly recommend investing some time and effort into creating a referral program that will take into account your users’ contributions in an advanced manner, which will allow your users to see their referral status on a dashboard and track various metrics. As a result, this will stimulate your clientele to suggest your service or product to even more friends and family.

Uber has interesting referral programs. If you refer a friend to the app, they’ll get their first Uber ride for free. The same goes for UberEATS, where users get a discount on their first order if they registered via referral code.

7. Create an intro video for your landing page

Humans are visual creatures. We can process a whole lot more data via images, compared to spoken or written words. Marketing specialists have known this for a very long time and have been exploring the benefits of video content on landing pages for quite a while.

Respectively, video content increases the amount of data a potential customer receives about your brand, which considerably increases the number of people that will engage and interact with your product. On a side note, marketing specialists are also very well aware of the benefits of including employees in videos. This humanizes the brand and makes it much more trustworthy. In effect, this will also considerably increase customer engagement.

Here are a few sites that have successfully integrated videos in their landing pages and increased their conversions:

• Pacemaker
• Mylo

8. Publish Press Releases through PR outlet

While it may seem like a mere formality, writing a professional press release remains imperative. You can either take care of this in-house if you have a professional writer in your staff. Similarly, such projects can be delegated to niche specialists on different resources like Best Writers Canada, EssaySupply, and Onlinewritersrating.

Here are a few platforms where you can publish your app’s press release:

• PRlog
• Newswire Today
• PR.com
• Online PR Media

Conclusion

Marketing your app to the masses is a very complicated process that has many ins and out. By making use of the above-mentioned steps, you’ll most definitely be able to grow customer engagement and make your interaction with your users more meaningful.