1. Planning your mobile campaign

Marketing of mobile services can be done through an almost endless combination of paid, owned, and earned media. There are literally thousands of marketing tools, services and channels that offer opportunities to promote apps and mobile websites. All the choices make it difficult to pick and choose, but if you get it right mobile marketing can provide amazing return of investment.

Paid Media

Paid media includes all the display media seen on websites, apps, posters, e-mail messages as well as TV Commercials, Radio and more. When it comes to paid digital media you usually have the option to pay-per-view/display (CPM) or pay-per-performance (CPC). The choice for each case depends on how attractive your content is. If your ads and channels have high clickthrough rates, per-pay-view will be more efficient; otherwise pay-per-performance is a safer bet as you will know exactly how money is being spent for engagement. If you have time and resources, the best way is to experiment.

Ad networks usually distinguish between blind and premium networks. Blind means that advertisers can target a specific audience or content category but have no control over where the ads are displayed. Premium networks on the other hand, can give advertisers the choice of targeting specific sites There are hundreds of app and mobile ad services available but based on our experience the most reliable and resource efficient ones today are Facebook, Google Admob and Tapjoy, outlined below. All three offer pay-per-app install, which means that you can easily plan and forecast the budget for a certain number of app downloads. Other great ad networks include Adfonic, Millennial Media, Apple iAds, InMobi, Buzzcity, Greystripe, Jumptap and more. For a good overview of the mobile ad networks visit MobiThinking.com.

The key differentiator of Facebook is Sponsored App promotion Tapjoy is another premium app promotion network offering several great targeting methods including Pay-per-Install and Pay-per-engagement. With the Pay-perengagement option you only pay once a user has performed a specific action, e.g. opted in for push notifications. However, skeptics believe that the user incentive model for accepting advertisement in exchange for virtual rewards will result in less loyal users than other ad networks.

The key differentiator of Facebook is Sponsored App promotion With Google Admob campaigns, you create ads and choose which apps and mobile websites you want the ad to appear in, as well as the target audience. You can also run house ads, which are ads that appear in your own app encouraging users to share their activity. Spooky House Studios, a development studio recently acquired by Zynga, experienced a 250% increase in new users after making use of Google’s cross promotion and house ads.

According to Econsultancy, the text-ad campaign accumulated 11.9 million impressions and a 500% increase in downloads. We recommend Google Admob as part of the mix for most campaigns. colorsnap, a color matching app by paint company sherman-williams. in 2009, after a $15,000 ad buy, the app landed on the top 25 most popular list in the app store. Google is the indisputable No. 1 player in mobile. Not only is it great for targeting a specific target audience but the ads embedded into newsfeeds can also display which friends already use the app, providing users with social proof that the app has value. Facebook app promotion is a premium mobile ad service in terms of cost, but you get what you pay for - which are high quality users that actually perform actions in the app.

Another type of paid media is above the line promotion. This is media that steps out of the computer and breaks into the outside world through ads on the television, radio, and other forms of traditional media. It gets your brand message out, but should be combined with below-the-line personalized advertising so that users can relate to the brand message. In March, chat-app Line’s CEO, Jeanie Han told TechCrunch she was putting more focus on above-the-line advertising with commercials, radio, and more. By May, Line had 150 million users, a third of which had been obtained in the past 3 months.

This includes ads in magazines, newspapers, and more. These kinds of display ads generally work better with some sort of interaction for engagement. ColorSnap, mentioned above, now has a print ad in a well-targeted magazine (Food Network) that encourages users to color match items in the image with a QR code linking to a mobile site that features not only a download link but also a product search and store locator. By adding an SMS call-to-action to a simple newspaper ad, Ford saw a 15.4% lead conversion. Leading mobile marking company Hipcricket’s CMO said it was the most exciting thing he’s seen in mobile. In 2012, Marks and Spencer installed a special interactive billboard in London’s Waterloo station for Valentines’ Day to increase multichannel sales. When an app was downloaded and opened, the user could view the model in the ad come to life in the app. The campaign seems to have been effective, as M&S reported an 18% increase in multichannel sales that year.

Billboards and posters are great for awareness, but if used alone, have a low conversion rate for downloads. Poster advertising has generated good ROI for many brands and is popular in public transportation when it is context-smart. This type of display advertising usually includes QR codes, SMS shortcodes and links to the mobile website to drive engagement. Qualcomm Mobile created a campaign called the Best Bus Stop Ever, which included a poster that displayed a completely relatable bus shelter question, i.e. “Bored?” or “Seen it all?” and a mobile web URL. When people visited the site and pressed a button, they would get a surprise ride in a horse carriage, or even a bus full of puppies! The Youtube video quickly garnered 2 million views in just a couple of days, and organic visits to Qualcomm’s website grew by 28%, proving the campaign effective for awareness, engagement, and increasing traffic. Another good example of outdoor advertising that drove engagement is the IBM & Ogilvy France Smarter Cities ‘Smart’ billboards that might double as, say, a rain shelter. A rainy day would provide perfect context for interaction. The display ads drove 50,000 unique page views to the URL provided in just a couple of days, but over months have made the campaign go viral and spread massive awareness to IBM’s Smarter Cities project.

This is probably the most expensive way of purely driving downloads but very efficient in driving large scale brand awareness. Generally TV adverts cannot be justified to promote a mobile app on its own but they can be a very efficient media when used for cross-promotions, for example when an airline promotes the new app in addition to new destinations or a loyalty program. There are several ways to go about TV commercials:

• You can work out a co-marketing arrangement with a mobile manufacturer and have your app open in the phone during the ad, like how Angry Birds has shown up in numerous smartphone commercials. This is the most common way mobile apps are featured on television.
• Another option is to run your own television campaign. King, the maker of Candy Crush, took this route and became the first developer to advertise its game independently on TV. It appears that the first Candy Crush commercials began popping up more and more in March, the same month it became the most popular game on Facebook. Also, according to App Annie, the game’s download rank soared from the month of March onwards. Brands such as Geico and Hotels.com have also had their own TV commercials for apps. After Line put a commercial on air in Singapore, its iTunes rating in the country soared to #3 in overall apps, staying in the top 10 for nearly a month!
• Use Shazam to recognize the audio of the app which then triggers an app or mobile website to load.

Owned Media

This category consists of all the websites, apps, mobile sites, Facebook pages and blogs that your brand owns and manages. If you succeed in attracting your target audience to your own properties then this will be the most sustainable solution in the long run.

Every app needs a mobile website and every website needs a mobile friendly version of the site. If your website is already a destination for customers like many service brands (airlines, restaurant booking sites, etc) then this is the place to start promoting your apps as well. Otherwise, you need a basic mobile website to ensure that there is a place for customers to find your app through search engines, blogs, etc. The most successful mobile app websites usually include interactivity to get users engaged. According to web info company Alexa.com, since Instagram provided app content consumption (but not the whole app experience) on its website, its global site rank increased about 30 places.

If you already have one, this is a great way to promote your app via e-mail. Wunderlist, which was app of the week in over 100 countries in 2011, has a newsletter that not only updates users on upcoming features, company news, but also unfinished tasks in the app.

Leverage your existing page or create a new page on Facebook, Google +, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Get users to talk- wish them a happy Friday, or ask them questions about the app. Candy Crush has a whopping 34 million likes on Facebook and constantly asks its users to share photos of them playing the app. This has become more difficult since Facebook changed the algorithms for how frequently the content is displayed in the news feed but it can still be efficient if executed well.

On Slideshare it’s all about making presentations that are informational or entertaining. LinkedIn, Salesforce, and many other companies and brands make use of Slideshare to deliver valuable content to their users. A great example is TEDx, a content based program that presents independently organized TED events, or “ideas worth spreading”. Its channel consists of presentations on different topics from various speakers. TED reports having 800 million views total outside of YouTube.

Videos can be helpful for numerous reasons. If your video is really awesome it could spread like wild fire and help your message reach a much wider target audience, otherwise, it can be used to demonstrate and educate users about your service. Videos could even bring viewers into the gameplay, like Limbo and Mimpi does, or humorously deliver the context in which your app would be used, like Facebook Home did. What’s great about online video promotion is that with some good art direction, you can guide the way you want your app to be perceived by users. Look at the app Paper by FiftyThree, a beautifully done app promotion video that got 1.7 million plays on Vimeo and became app of the year in 2012, or Jotly, an app that didn’t exist until its original parody video was so successful that its studio had to make it into a real app.

Earned Media

One of the most powerful types of media is the kind that you get through recommendations, public relations, sharing, organic search traffic, and news articles. It’s promotion that occurs either because your product is good, or because someone was looking for it, not simply because you paid for it. The best type of marketing is word of mouth; having real people talk about how great your app is provides credibility. This is called earned media and according to research by Nielson, 77% of consumers are more likely to buy a product they learned about through friends or family. Besides the reasoned list above, earned media is also especially attractive because this type of advertising is FREE! That being said free is never really entirely free due to the effort needed. Nevertheless, earned media does offer some great ways to help you drive traffic to your app:

Sell your app on independent app stores like Amazon, Samsung, Mobango, Mobile9, Getjar, etc. The more places you make your app available, the greater the likelihood it will be discovered. A huge advantage is that independent app stores have more specific users so you are able to target markets that are more engaged in what the store has to provide. They also offer different kinds of benefits to developers that decide to sell in their stores, such as the option to sell your app as a white label, or a better revenue split than 70% / 30%.

Submit your app to websites that have review-specific sections, such as appadvice.com, appstorm.net, 148apps, and MacWorld. This may be a bit difficult as these websites get numerous submissions, but these sites can provide good exposure for your app. There are also numerous blogs that generate a lot of traffic you can leverage. Try reaching out to these bloggers and ask them to review your app; this was Snapchat’s strategy- the creators’ first choice blogger was Nicole James, a writer for Fuse.tv. She wrote about Snapchat’s first release as Picaboo on her personal blog in September 2011, around the same time the app’s ranks began to climb according to AppAnnie. com. Now, Snapchat is an $800 million company and one of the top apps.

If paid media is not an option, you can always try to contact journalists and bloggers (the terms are rather fuzzy these days) to cover your app through interviews or other types of public relations. Many news sites that cover tech, such as Mashable, Techcrunch, BusinessInsider and Entrepreneur, have contact info that allow you to submit your app’s pitch. If they like it, they’ll write about it for free. Mashable and Techcrunch offer online forms as well as tips on writing your application. Another option is to get interviewed. Several startups, such as Snapchat and Instagram, have been interviewed and had those interviews published on websites such as BBC News. Alternatively, invent a solution as huge as Twitter, like Jack Dorsey did, and you can have an entire segment on CBS News’ 60 Minutes.

Enable and encourage users to share your application and site with other users. Facebook Open Graph is a great way to give your app more exposure by allowing users to share their app activity on their timeline with deep links to your app’s website. The links will encourage the user to use or even install the app.

SEO is a combination of using keywords that are most effective in driving traffic to your app and promoting your app through other channels. You only get 100 characters for app keywords in the app store, so make sure that they are easily searched and that there isn’t too much competition for your chosen words. Check https://appstorerankings.net for insights on your app’s keywords. The website shows your keywords’ rankings, how difficult it is to find your app with each individual keyword, and much more.

This is difficult as only a selective few get featured in app stores, but many apps that have been featured saw a huge number of new downloads after being featured. Keep in mind that app stores like to feature apps that help their brand and its customers, so when trying to get your app featured you may be asked to make some changes. Loverly, a bridal service app, was featured in Apple’s app store upon launch, but was asked to make numerous User Interface and User Experience changes with Apple’s development relations team before getting published on the feature list.

2. Execution

Planning your campaign and finding the perfect marketing channel mix is not enough, in the end it’s all about execution. To ensure execution hit home, figure out who your target audience is and how to speak to them. No matter how little or how much content you produce it must be of quality. This includes copy for advertisements, beautiful images and rapid testing to optimize your campaign and reach as many people as possible. The first thing users will see about your app is your content and how it’s presented. Visuals are the first context clues that give your brand a personality and tells users what to expect within your app.

When designing your mobile app’s website, keep in mind that people are visiting the site to get more information about the app. There are reviews in the app store, but users like to see the product for themselves before committing to a download. Here’s how to make a good impression:

• Love at First Site: Beautiful aesthetics alone are not enough to make the user want to download your app, but how you present your app and its features says a lot about your brand. Is it boring? Expensive? Stylish? It’s all about packaging and this does not only apply to your actual product (the app) but any and all visual elements including videos, banners, and websites.
• Context: Through visuals you can show the context of your app. For example,
• Content: Let the user know what your app is, why they need it, and how to use it. How easily you communicate this to the user is a part of how they judge the aesthetics of your site.

Of course, it can’t just be about appearance. What ultimately drives user retention and engagement is content. What is said and how it is said is very important. Instagram has over 22 million followers on Twitter and constantly posts short news statements linking to longer articles. They were featured on Nestivity’s 2013 list of top 25 most engaged brands with an average user engagement of about 300 retweets or favorites. Here are some tips for talking to your users:

• Become a content creator: Let your app’s page have a voice. Try not to reiterate things that have already been said on the webiverse many times-differentiate!
• When writing, appear human: Engage with the users and respond to them. Furthermore, sign your responses with a name.
• Try not to attach every post with a call to action: It’s not necessary to beg your users to talk to you. It’ll happen naturally if you create a brand image that people want to interact with.
• tart a conversation with your users: Ask them questions; build brand-customer relationships. Depending on what you ask, this could also help you figure out what your users need and want.

3. Measure Impact & Optimize

Finally, you need to use solutions that will allow you to track and analyze your traffic to optimize it for the next campaign. A very important step to measuring results is setting objectives and from those, creating key performance indicators (KPIs) to track. Translate what you want into something measurable. For example, if your objective is to build up your brand, KPIs could be the amount of Facebook likes, video views, and app downloads you received through your promotion. This way you will have solid results from your marketing that you can use to improve the campaign. For instance, if you have two banners with different phrasing, you can test both and see which receives more clicks to understand what works and what doesn’t. There are several tools that you can use to do this:

• Google Mobile Analytics: Google Mobile Analytics not only shows where your app’s traffic comes from but how your app is used. The platform offers numerous analysis reports and features that allow you to understand and predict where your mobile app, advertisement, and website’s traffic is coming from – helping you figure out the best way to attract users and keep them.
• Kiss Metrics: Unlike Google Analytics, Kiss Metrics tells you more about your customer by tracking and identifying users to build a history on their behavior over time. It assigns a random ID to any unidentified user and if this user becomes a customer (i.e. registers via form), the system pairs the ID with a name or email address. You get historical data on the new customers’ previous visits, making it easier to understand who your target audience should be by seeing how users become customers. Then, you can tweak your campaign accordingly. Magnus suggests insights from Telenor Sobazar (I do not know what this is)
• Mixpanel: Mixpanel provides very detailed reports about the activity in your app and provides “data points”, like tracking credits, for you to keep track of them. Similar to a pay-per-install program, Mixpanel charges by the range of data points you want. The data gets as specific as how many paying customers are Swiss, came from a Google ad, and haven’t logged in for a month. You can see exactly who to target and how to target them.

Marketing Pitfalls

Brands and developers want to spread the word about their brand and app and make people love it as much as they do. However, marketers can easily annoy customers with anything from not reaching out enough (which according to Gartner can lead to a 15% churn rate in existing users) to over-promotion (48% unfollow on Twitter because of too much self-promotion). When there’s a will, there’s a way, and when there’s a way, there’s a way to do it wrong. Here’s how:

1. Half-baked Call To Actions

Many applications get people interested but don’t make it convenient to download. Some ads only provide a url address that do not even have a mobile web version. GoWallet had this problem- it featured a display in grocery stores that didn’t include any sort of QR code, only a link to a site that was full-version and much too slow. Be sure to have at least a landing page that is mobile-friendly and includes an app download link.

2. Holding Your Users Hostage

Let your ads be optional. Papa Johns had trouble with customers receiving spam texts without an opt-in option, resulting in a 250 million dollar lawsuit - make sure to immediately remove a user from your mailing list if they request to stop receiving newsletters or SMS messages. It’s always sad to see a friend go but in the end it’s better for your brand image to set them free.

3. One-time Effort

If you want high user retention, make sure to update your app’s content and continuously work on your marketing campaign. According to a survey by Chadwick Martin Bailey, 56% of users unsubscribe to emailing lists because the content was no longer relevant; i.e., ads get old really quickly, so don’t forget to freshen up your promotional efforts and track results. After measuring your promotion results, use the data to tailor your campaign in order to optimize; this is especially important if you’re making a long term investment. Sherman-Williams is a good role model; they have been connecting with their customers through the ColorSnap app since 2009 and still, in 2013, have not stopped marketing their app. For your app to grow it needs nourishment, after all, most of an app’s growth comes after the first promotion when it lands a spot in an app store because according to Nielson, over 60% of smartphone users discover apps through the store.

There are endless possibilities when it comes to promoting your mobile application. The best way to approach all your options is to figure out who your audience is, what they need, and how to reach them. With this information you can brew the right communication mix and maximize your campaign. After plotting a marketing strategy, dedicate time, energy, and budget to the execution. You can forget about the hype if what you are producing is not quality content. Finally, when everything is in motion you can track the commotion. Driving traffic to your app won’t be easy, but your marketing campaign will be much more effective if given proper success criteria and metrics. Just spending money on promotions and ads won’t cut it. The key is to be prepared and have a solid plan down regarding what channels you’re going to reach, what you’re going to say, and how you’re going to see if it’s working. Once again, it’s very important to have a well thought out strategy.

GOOD LUCK!