Pitfalls in Mobile Apps Marketing

by

Karun Thapa

Background

• NCELL App Camp ideas

– Saw couple of hundred app ideas during the app camp

– The number of app camp participation was quite exciting

– Most of the presented ideas were very generic in nature

Background

• App Development looks lucrative and it is lucrative

– Out of 7 billion world population

• 1.75 billion smartphones have already penetrated the market in 2014 (Source: eMarketer)

• Growth of 25% in 2014

Background

• Apps: everybody’s doing it, so why shouldn’t I?

• Before Developing and Marketing Mobile Apps

– Consider: Marketing pitfalls to avoid

Background

• NCELL App Camp ideas

– Why were most of the ideas very generic in nature?

PITFALLS DURING DEVELOPMENT

Not investing in market research• Requirement Analysis and Identification of apps

– Nepal Loadshedding App

– Nepali Patro App

– English Nepali Dictionary

PITFALLS DURING DEVELOPMENT

Not Analyzing the Competition• Look for similar apps

• Features they have and you plan to have

• Look at user reviews of your competitors

PITFALLS DURING DEVELOPMENT

Not considering Feedback during development• Beta Testing

• Testing in-house and request beta testers to test your app

PITFALLS DURING DEVELOPMENT

Not getting Marketing involved soon enough• While in development, marketing team must study and prepare marketing

plan and strategy

PITFALLS DURING DEVELOPMENT• Identify the USP of your app

• Branding your App

• Outreach plan (who and when) and create a press kit

• Inform the user about the development process

• Create a promotional channel list

PITFALLS DURING DEVELOPMENT

Not Planning the app release date in advance • Create a development calendar

• Create a marketing calendar

– Synchronize the both to a RELEASE date

APP POST-LAUNCH PITFALLS

APP POST-LAUNCH PITFALLS

Not focusing on user engagement and retention • After investing money to get Users download your apps

– Consider engaging them with your app and retain them

– This is one of the most challenging task of any app

APP POST-LAUNCH PITFALLS

Not checking out the Analytics of the Apps• DAU and MAU (Daily/Monthly Active Users)

• Retention Rate – Daily, Weekly and Monthly retention rates

• ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) >> ARPU = Total Revenue/Total Active Users

APP POST-LAUNCH PITFALLS

Not Paying Attention to Customer Support• You may have milllions of users

• Treat every user with care and importance

• Word of mouth is the best publicity and neglecting users may be harmful

• Respond to customers directly in Google play store

APP POST-LAUNCH PITFALLS

Pushing too many Messages to the User• Do not bug your users too much with “Push Not”-ification

• Push Messaging is great to ENGAGE Customers, but may not RETAIN them

• Plan or push notification carefully and let them turn off easily

APP POST-LAUNCH PITFALLS

Not Personalizing marketing or support communication• Instead of Dear User, USE Dear John or Dear Doe etc.

• This needs to be taken care of while mass-mailing for marketing, too

APP POST-LAUNCH PITFALLS

Not providing incentives to share or like • Provide incentives to the users to share or like your app on social networks

• Provide incentives to provide their review or positive feedback

• Incentives can be points, money or free gifts or your free apps – anything that makes your user feel special.

APP POST-LAUNCH PITFALLS

Not Updating your app• Listen to the customers and users update UI or add features

• UPDATE THE APPS regularly

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE !

Q & A SESSION