Twiddling your thumbs thinking what sort of app marketing tactics could get your apps those coveted, credible, cutting-edge downloads this year?
Um… Don’t you sweat! Because it’s pretty straightforward. Your app marketing checklist of the previous year might have covered a majority of them. Yes, we are talking about beacons, deep linking, app indexing, you name it. So, might as well, continue with your existing endeavours.
But then, if you haven’t adopted them so far, do include them in your 2016 app marketing to-do list, if you are really, really keen on taking the competition head-on.
Here go the 7 app marketing trends that are gonna catch fire in 2016.
#1. Beacon Technology
Going by Gartner’s 2014 reports, app marketers will be harnessing the power of Beacons even in 2016.
Apparently, it’s the retail sector that’s gonna adopt this technology full-on, what with nearly 85% adoption predicted in 2016. In fact, this sector, in conjunction with beacons, is expected to generate over a whopping $4 billion worth of retail sales this year.
Well, what makes Beacons so endearing to the app marketers is the fact it’s not only cost-effective but easy to adopt as well. And, more importantly, helps connect with customers, increases scope for app engagement and thereby improves the bottom line.
#2. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
From sci-fi films to the real world, the leap has been colossal for both augmented and virtual reality. In fact, the total addressable market (TAM) is expected to touch $150B by 2020 in both the AR and VR category.
It’s being predicted that marketers are going to employ this technology in good numbers this year. Take, for instance, Jaguar Land Rover offers some really nice virtual reality experience to its customers. It’s life-size high-resolution images give users a 360-degree interior and exterior view of the luxury vehicle, which also includes opening doors and starting the ignition.
AR technology will be more commonplace in the healthcare industry, even for detecting veins in patients. It was recently reported by AccuVein that almost 40% of IVs miss the vein on the first stick, and sadly, the percentage only grows when the children and the elderly are accounted for. Accuvein leverages augmented reality in the form of a handheld scanner, which when projected over skin shows nurses and doctors where the veins are exactly in the patient’s bodies. As per the latest stats, the instrument has been tried on over 10 million patients.
#3. App Indexing
You can’t ignore app indexing at any cost if you really wish to make a living out of developing apps this year, and the forthcoming years. Because it’s only through App indexing you could get your apps swim high in the app store search results. Or else, be sure, it would sink without a trace, given that only those apps that implement app indexing rank higher in the search results. Needless to say, be it search engine optimizers, marketers, webmasters or app developers, anyone and everyone involved with the app making and marketing process should understand the ins and outs of app indexing and how to get it optimized for this type of search.
#4. Deep Linking
Granted, the deep-linking concept was a 2015 thing, given that app devs had taken a shine to deep linking like never before. But then, look at it this way. The year 2016 would be seeing more standardized and better deep linking infrastructure, which could help users connect with the app ecosystem better.
#5. Content Personalization
According to the book, “Loyalty Myths,” it costs five times more to acquire a customer than to retain a customer.
So, keeping this perspective in mind, it could be a nice idea if you could just go ahead and pamper existing customers with personalized messages, be it in terms of in-app messages, push notifications, or emails at peak engagement times.
But as it turns out, app marketers have to dedicate 50% of their time producing content for such purposes. So, the best way out, which could free the marketers from this tedious, time-consuming job, is to automate the messaging part. This would save them from some unwarranted headache and all, and at the same time delivers personalization at the required scale.
#6. Momentary Mobile Marketing
Momentary marketing or Ephemeral marketing… the concept hadn’t rung a bell for marketers for quite some time, thanks to the fleeting nature of these ads. But then Snapchat happened. Suddenly, blink-and-you-miss-it ads become the singsong of the marketers. The Snapchat ads brought in a certain sense of urgency, given that, in principle, they disappeared in thin air, without a vestige of evidence, which all the more ensured that the users consumed the ads in a fraction of seconds. That’s the catch. Ensuring users eye the ads within the stipulated time period.
For your information, today Snapchat is riding the ephemeral marketing wave with over 100M users, sharing over 400M photos each day. Partly the popularity of the ads could be credited to quality content, crafted as per the target’s taste using the Discover channel and partly because Snapchat has slashed ad costs significantly to tempt advertisers.
#7. Ad Blockers
Apple’s introducing ad blocking to iOS in September broke many publishers and advertisers’ hearts. But, at the other end, the users rejoiced. In fact, today over 198 million people globally run ad blockers each month as per the latest reports by anti-ad blocking firm PageFair, and Apple’s support was more of an icing on the cake.
But then, obviously, things haven’t boded well with the publishers and the advertisers. In fact, the big advertisers will be moving heaven and earth to turn the tables by paying big sums to Ad block plus to get themselves whitelisted.
So, as the year rolls on, it would be an interesting development to watch. What’s being said right now is that ad blockers might work for websites, but not apps, given they are a different ball game altogether. Apps have to be filtered through a proxy, which possibly might slow down the processing speed of apps. But then, come to think of it, ain’t the websites doing all the heavy lifting, given that they are already lumbered with popups, popunders, creatives and more.
Images: ”Apps concept image with technology icons and copyspace /Shutterstock.com“
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