content strategies & best practices for launching a mobile app

SCHOOLING BRANDS ™ 2

THE NEW AGE OF BUYER BEHAVIOR:

HOW THE EVOLVING TECH LANDSCAPE IS FOREVER SHIFTING BRAND INTERACTIONS

AND CONSUMER EXPERIENCES

CONTENT STRATEGIES & BEST PRACTICES

FOR LAUNCHING A MOBILE APP

SCHOOLING BRANDS ™

WHAT THIS “CLASS” WILL COVER

The Mobile App Landscape1

2 Three Content Strategies

3 Best Practices/Actionable Takeaways


MOBILE APP LANDSCAPE

“

”SCHOOLING BRANDS ™


There are more than 1.5MM Apps in Apple App Store

and more than 1.6MM in Google Play

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43% of US smartphone owners use only 4 to 6 apps on average every day

even though they have 40-70 apps installed

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After 24 hours, user engagement drops to 25% after 30 days, it drops to 3.2%

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The top 25 apps can broadly be categorized as Utilities, Social, Entertainment

and retail

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31% of users never allow push notifications 36% sometimes allow

33% always allow


THREE CONTENT STRATEGIESUTILITY | TRANSITORY | POST TRANSACTION RELATIONSHIP


UTILITIARIAN-BASED CONTENT

Due to the sheer amount of content, both user-generated and professionally produced, for brand-funded content to maintain a shelf life beyond our ever-shortening attention spans, content that brands publish should provide utility for the end user. Utilitarian-based content can provide users with financial benefits, timesaving assistance, or quality of life improvement. You can also think about it as providing functional versus emotional benefits.


TRANSITORY CONTENT

Transitory Content is content that can be consumed in transit: on-the-go, during a live experience, and/or out-of-home. Given its consumption environment this content must deviate from traditional content that has previously been consumed in-home, at-work and, primarily, on your desktop or via the comfort of your couch.

Transitory content should be snack-sized (micro), non-linear (plot relying on an independent stand-alone format), portable (transitioned seamlessly from device to device) and on-demand (instantaneously available).


POST TRANSACTION RELATIONSHIP

Increased datapoints and data-access coming from users’ phones and even wearables provide a very unique opportunity for brands to take users relationships to the next level. Brands can now interact with their users on a customized, individualized and personalized level throughout the entire relationship process.

This will enable brands to build more profitable and longer-lasting relationships over time, and further cement themselves as the preferential brand in a particular category.


BEST PRACTICES / ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS


ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS

Pre-Launch MarketingONE

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Your marketing efforts start the moment you begin working on your app.

Seek out potential users as early on in the app creation process as possible.

These should be real app users who can provide quality feedback and eventually become champions of your app.

Your marketing investment should start soft at the beginning, then continue to build, and eventually peak with its arrival in the app stores.

Some pre-launch marketing tactics may include social media, email marketing, blogging, beta tester campaigns, sneak peek content and a website landing page to capture email addresses from prospective users.



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Create a VideoOnce your app is available in market, you’ll want as many people as possible to know it exists, and most importantly what it does.

Video is one of the most expressive and effective ways to show off your app’s interface and capabilities. Consider creating a short animated or live action explainer video that demonstrates its features and functionality.



Host a Launch EventThere is nothing like getting prospective users and promoters of your app in a live environment and in one room all together.

Select a venue that is easy for everyone to get to and be sure to set a date more than just a few weeks out.

Consider finding a location that has TV screens to display your app throughout the event.

Make sure to save time for some informal programming where your founders or creators can say a few words introducing the app and get everyone in the room to take their phones out and download it right away!

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Press, Press and More PressAwareness and credibility are both critical components to launching any new project and it’s no different when you’re launching an app.

Reach out to everyone on your press list. Then make a list of relevant reporters, bloggers and any other partners to let them know about your launch.

Be sure to include information about your app such as screenshots and a few sample Tweets and Facebook posts.

Don’t forget to monitor all social media channels closely so that you can respond to anyone who’s talking about you with a simple “thanks” or retweet when appropriate.

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Put Download Links EverywhereONE

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Just like it says above. Put download links everywhere!

In email signatures, on physical signage, on social media pages, websites, and all of your marketing emails,



Community Management & SupportONE

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There’s no better way to invest your time than on your existing users who are engaging and interacting with you. Make sure to setup a customer support system such as ZenDesk to monitor conversations and organize any needed support tickets.

Best practice would be to get back to all inquires within 24 to 48 hours. If you don’t have the support to handle all of your inquires make sure to set up an auto-responder and let your users know a timeframe when they can expect to receive a response.

Make sure to review your app store feedback and reviews on a regular basis as your users may be leaving helpful tips on what you can do to make their app experience better.



Leverage InfluencersONE

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Influencer marketing has taken off in recent years because digital ad formats are performing poorly and users are able to avoid and/or block them often at will. Influencer marketing or sponsored content (also known as native content), are great ways to make sure your content gets seen by the most relevant of audiences.

Find top social media and digital influencers in your space that already have an audience similar to those you want to attract as users. Make a deal with them to promote your app in a genuine and authentic way in exchange for cash or another form of compensation. Leveraging influencers not only enhances your app’s exposure but it also gets the cool-factor for being associated with the respective influencers.



Pay to PlayWhile earned media is undoubtably the holy grail of marketing, social networks have wised up and begun to require brands to pay up in order to reach their existing fans and followers. Facebook, Twitter and now Instagram all have ad formats specifically designed for acquiring mobile app downloads.

Consider deploying several A/B test campaigns on multiple channels to see which performs best in terms of conversations and then go all in.

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THANK YOU

Thank you for participating in

[L]EARNED MEDIA UNIVERSITYCONTENT STRATEGIES & BEST PRACTICES FOR LAUNCHING A MOBILE APP


[L]EARNED MEDIA

About Us[L]earned Media is a full service creative marketing agency schooling brands since 2012.

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