When any app marketer or developer spends money on a promotional campaign, they pretty much want instantaneous results. And regardless of the medium they promote their product or service on, that’s pretty much what they get. They also know that when they cease spending money, that campaign will almost certainly grind to a halt and any engagement will stop. This is because most digital marketing strategies are like kitchen faucets. You can control the flow of water (leads, sales, etc.) but once it’s turned off, there is no more water.As such, most digital campaigns don’t have a shelf life beyond the availability of your marketing budget and therefore have no momentum going beyond that initial spend. Once a campaign has finished, unless you’ve done a really good job and embedded your particular brand into your target audience’s memory, there is no clearly visible reference point to guide potential users/customers/clients back to your app. As much as the digital environment replicates and replaces more traditional media – there is no flicking back to that advert you once saw in a magazine that now resides under your coffee table.
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Building a memorable brand for your app is incredibly difficult when you consider the marketing real estate you have to play with – essentially a small icon and approximately 12 characters of text. Then consider this tiny creative element has to compete with millions of other applications in an eco-system increasing by 2,500 new apps every day. Do you have the budget and creative energy to maintain your current marketing trajectory?Building Momentum There is, however, a digital marketing strategy that can guarantee those instantaneous results that marketers and developers crave, and continue to offer engagement beyond the initial campaign spend. What’s more, its shelf life goes far beyond those dusty old magazines you’ve been meaning to recycle for months now.Digital Turbine has analyzed activation data relating to pre-loaded apps across our network over a six month period and discovered that engagement continues long after the initial campaign.
Our data showed a 30 percent discovery rate within the first week following a pre-loading campaign. This increased to 41 percent in the first month, 47 percent in the second month, 49 percent after three months, steadily growing to an impressive 54 percent after six months. And there is nothing to suggest that this figure will not continue to rise over the lifespan of the device on which the app is pre-loaded.
Further Reading: Preloaded Apps Deliver Credibility, Security and Engagement
Extended Shelf Life
There are a number of reasons why pre-loaded apps continue to deliver results for marketers and developers long after the initial campaign launch.First and foremost is the device lifespan. People tend to keep hold of their devices for around two-years and as the costs of premium devices rise, along with the increasing growth of the “open market” where devices aren’t tied to a contract, this is expected to rise.It is not unrealistic to expect a user to start engaging with an app several months after unboxing a new device, perhaps during a moment of downtime or as and when the need to use it arises.
For example: You might not normally engage with a ride sharing app like Uber or Lyft in your home city if you have access to a car. However, if you travel on business or take a vacation, these apps suddenly become very attractive.Secondly, there is the influence of other campaigns and word-of-mouth marketing. A positive news story or a recommendation from a friend could inspire a user to engage with the app they’ve seen on their smartphone numerous times since unboxing the device.If you think about it, placing your app on the home screen of a device which the average American looks at 48 times per day (that’s 17,520 times a year) might just be the most prominent form of marketing you can buy.
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Any marketing campaign is only as good as the product or service it is promoting. No amount of cash will secure the long term prospects of an app which doesn’t meet its users’ expectations. Therefore, it is vitally important to remember that no marketing channel can guarantee success beyond the initial discovery and engagement. The rest is up to you.
Start Building Momentum Today
Would you like to see your app marketing strategies deliver more momentum? Talk to an advisor at Digital Turbine about how pre-loading can help your target audience discover your apps now and into the foreseeable future.
