The mobile industry is still booming. Downloads are on the rise and CPMs are down, but if you want to keep those users for the long term, you need a plan. Every brand in the world knows they need a mobile strategy, as consumers increasingly turn to mobile to help them with every aspect of their daily lives.

With virtually all the time consumers spend on their phones spent in-app, app marketing is a vital piece of the picture. Especially when you consider there are around 3 million apps available on Google Play, and another 2 million in the Apple App Store, competing for people’s attention.

Deciding how to market an app can be a daunting process. There are so many apps with different marketing strategies, all experiencing varying levels of success. Competition is fierce, as you probably already know, and over 68% of mobile app companies have a long-term, fully documented app marketing strategy.

Now, more than ever, it’s important to keep your skills and making new connections, with industry marketers and advertising professional such as yourself.

At the Mobile & App Marketing Webinar, on October 8, 2020 | 9:00 am – 11:00 am (UK time) we’re going to address the era of privacy after the changes of Apple to campaign tracking and attribution. What are marketers to do and how should we all prepare for these new limitations in order to succeed.

Register here (Yes! It’s totally free)

If you are out there looking for the fifth or sixth week of the month, you are not alone. Talk to any professional in today’s busy-driven environment, and they’ll likely have a story of how they rushed to work in the morning, struggled to keep up with their inbox, or came home too exhausted to spend time with friends or play with their kids.

For marketers operating in a constantly changing landscape, often serving audiences and teams in multiple time zones, it feels harder and harder to keep up with the clock and deliver powerful results for management along the way.
But it does not have to be this way. There are practical strategies you can implement to take back control on both your time and ROI.

Understand Your Core Audience and its Needs

The number one-way marketers can save time and improve results is to get back to the basics, and really get to know the people we serve or want to attract. The better we understand them, the better we will be at tailoring experiences to their preferences and goals, which means the less time we will spend on content, channels and campaigns that don’t work.

According to the 2019 Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs B2C report, marketers use a wide variety of tools to learn about what their audiences need to convert and thrive. These tools include social media listening, website analytics, keyword research, database analysis, primary research, sales team feedback, secondary research, and customer conversations and panels. You do not need to use all of them. Choose the ones that make the most sense for you.

Source: 2019 Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs Report

Of course, to make sure you get the most impact for your audience and bottom line while saving as much time as you can, track your activities and measure results. This way, you keep your audience’s responses to your efforts top of mind and adjust as you go to serve everyone better.

We know all this can sound overwhelming at first. We have been there too. But once you implement a few strategic processes and tools, it makes your work life easier. Let’s dig deeper into that.

Get Ahead of Your Marketing Schedule

Chances are, you ran into this time waster once or twice. You know your company hasn’t published a blog post, Instagram story or LinkedIn status update, and you start researching for ideas. You invest time in one that seems great, only to find disturbing information, doubt yourself or get objections from team members, and start the process all over again.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

The ad campaign keeps waiting for you to find a freelance designer. The email copy you approved yesterday has not been incorporated into your autoresponder.

And that’s before we even mention the word inbox.

When we’re behind, it’s easy to feel so overwhelmed, we might as well take an hour-long coffee break. There’s no way we can get any of it done anyway, right?

It’s very human.

Yet if you use that coffee break, or another dedicated time slot, to take control of your schedule, your day to day life could become easier.

How?

If you publish content on a regular basis, get yourself a Trello board or an Excel spreadsheet, where everyone on the team can throw ideas into a collaborative space when they come up spontaneously, and provide feedback on a regular basis, instead of spending too much time coming up with a good idea when they’re stressed to hit “publish.”

To help you out, here’s how the team at CoSchedule, a platform that helps marketers stay organized, does it:

Even better? Create an editorial calendar and start producing content in advance. Creating a calendar can make it easier to come up with strategic ideas, such as aligning content with National Coffee Day, product launches and the step by step process you want your audience to go through this year, to continuously grow educated enough to buy from you.

This, too, is about putting your effort into what can generate the biggest impact, and saving time on what cannot. Producing content in advance gives you the peace of mind that you’re not running out of time, and helps you develop ongoing processes that ultimately streamline your work and make it faster.

Make More Use of the Content You Already Have

Have a game plan to repurpose the content you produce. Chances are you already have stats, quotes, images, and little nuggets of storytelling in your longer-form content you can repurpose for social media. Or you’ve given 20 tips on Instagram about a topic over time and can now combine them into one blog post.

SheIn, for example, presents clothing items in multiple ways on the same site, displaying them in different order under different categories. Women looking for workwear might find certain blouses by casually searching for blouses…

… other attire by searching for “urban elegance” under “Trendy 2019″…

… and completely different suggestions under “What to Wear to the Office?” under “Explore.”

Source: SheIn

All these options could be relevant to the same woman yet might not be discoverable without repurposing product photoshoots.

And since we’re talking about workwear, let’s talk about other choices you make for work.

Make Strategic Choices About Your Team

It’s likely that, at some point, you will need to hire an in-house team member or bring in a freelancer, a consultant or a software provider.

When you spend your marketing time on social, carve out time to get to know experienced professionals and leading tools in your industry. Connect with people who already know and love your audience ahead of time, so that, once a need comes up, it’ll be easier to reach out to a person you already trust, instead of researching tens of websites of new faces.

Bringing in people who specialize in your industry means it will take you less time to train them and to see results.

That said, consistently investing in the education and professional growth of people who are already on your team can also help your schedule stay sane as your marketing operations grow.

First, professionals who are on top of industry trends and skills can be more agile as needs change. Second, according to Training Industry, “personal and professional development is an important focus area for modern employees when seeking employment, as well as for deciding to stay with their current employer.” In other words, consistently investing in your team equals less time spent on recruiting and training new folks.

Showing your teammates, you care about them and sharing a costume with them also helps, of course.

Unify the Platforms and Tools You Use

Now that you have got your strategy and your team figured out, let’s go back to the whole “being everywhere and doing all the things” situation we tapped into earlier.

First, you do not need to be everywhere. That is a very easy way to waste time. Get clear on your goals, get clear on your audience’s needs, and test everything out. A strategy and a channel need to prove their efficiency for you to continue to invest in them.

However, as demands increase and platforms multiply on the daily, many of us do need to show up in a lot of places. That is basically how our company got created in the first place. You might know that our company was created by merging two companies, Zoomd and Moblin. But back in the day, Moblin was a performance agency. We served a bunch of big brands, including Coca Cola, Always, Ikea and… even ICQ. Yes, that’s how far back we go. And as you might imagine, we were swamped. We had to check so many platforms and ad networks for each client. It was thrilling, but exhausting.

So we built our own unified platform that combines over 600 ad networks into one simple dashboard, and when we offered it to clients, they managed to save 70% of their campaign work time thanks to that. Not to mention that, as a bonus, they’re also the new favorites with their finance people. If you want to make your accountant’s day, send her one invoice instead of the 600 she used to get.

But on a more serious note, you do not actually need to go all out and build your own software. The MarTech world is only getting better, and there are plenty of unifying options for marketers. There are platforms that let you handle all your campaign creative in one place. There are social media management tools that spare you from logging into 10 platforms every day and getting lost in a sea of hashtags. There are team management tools that combine email-like communication with task management and collaboration.

And those are just a few examples.

How Marketers Can Maximize Their Time-Saving Efforts and Set Themselves to Success

As you see, there are many ways to get underneath that mountain called your to-do list and make a bigger impact. We highly recommend not overwhelming yourself by trying to explore all of them at once, as sometimes you need to invest some time upfront – say, when onboarding a new tool or getting your team used to list down content ideas – in order to save time down the line. Start with one or two strategies, master them, then add more.

What are the important takeaways when attending professional conferences?

This past month was full of excitement and an interesting workload for our teams. At this time, at the end of the year, or even more- end of a decade, we look back at ourselves, examining our performance and how to make it better in the decade to come. Luckily for that, we attended some big international conferences, each with its own agenda, looking for ways to upscale our existing efforts and grow from knowledge and experience.

The first summit was Employer Brand Leadership by TheMarker Labels and Xtra mile, intended to teach us both HR and Marketing people the values of investing in the people who make the company work, preform and alive. The key takeaway from that event was to first understand your current employees and work environment. What is the DNA and values that we each hold looking at our day to day work? How can the company grow using its people’s best qualities? While it’s was mostly for HR officials, marketing has everything to do with it, and with the success of the company bringing new people that will fit into the company DNA. In today’s digital era, the recruitment process doesn’t start with an interview, it starts from the first time the person is exposed to the position online and starting to investigate the company website, social pages, articles across the web and Glassdoor information.

Later on, we had the privilege of attending the App Promotion Summit in Berlin, meeting app owners and developers from across Europe, looking for innovating technologies helping apps perform better, reaching new audiences and maximizing marketing budgets.
With more than 2.47 million android apps and 2.2 million iOS apps worldwide, having more than 6,100 apps register to the App Store and Play Store daily, this competition is fierce, and everyone wants to make it to the top of the listings. This might the biggest summit among the app industry closing the year, so as expected it was a big conference with the best of the industry.

It doesn’t matter which conference you’re planning to attend in 2020, here are some key tips that are important to remember when planning your event schedule for the next year.

Don’t simply RSVP, plan!

We get tones of invites throughout the year. Some are more relevant than others to our day-to-day work, and some are important because of the people we know are going to be there. Traveling for a two days conference to the Pacific coast sounds like a blast, but at the end of the day will it return its investment?
Make sure to choose those really important ones, and plan ahead by researching the event, including the speakers and sponsors. Don’t waste precious time during the event itself trying to understand where to go and which panel to attend.

Look around you and start mingling. People just like you are attending as well, and you can learn a lot for them by simply asking why they chose this panel or session.

Get inspired: This is the time for you to get as much information and tools as possible. These events are expensive and take precious time from your daily tasks. But once there, devote your full attention and get as much as possible. Those panels and lectures we’re tailor-made for that event; they are full of knowledge that can benefit you and the company for the short and long term- depending on how you chew on that data and use it. Every now and then you need a break from your desk and your office. Get inspired and inspire others.

Limitless Networking: Of course, every event offers networking opportunities. Meeting face to face is essential for truly authenticate a relationship that was starting to build over email correspondence. Meeting someone you’ve been talking to for a long time, and now meeting in person, makes this “work” relationship more validated. With the help of the mobile and social apps you can get instantly connected to your peers from all over the world, especially to better manage your time during this one-day conference. Furthermore, since the event targets Senior growth practitioners, you interact with a group of people who share the same problems as you do on a daily basis: how to streamline app user campaigns on a global level, how to unify your loyal users across multiple media channels, what are the different strategies other companies are using, and how to best leverage those success stories for our own success.

It is FUN: The event and the networking don’t stop after conference hours. The after-parties organized by the sponsors will give you a range of options — from cocktail lounges with live music to exploring the nightlife of hosting city or country.

With user acquisition being a major cost for most m-commerce apps, here are some helpful tips to get you into the end of the year, holiday season.

As the holiday season is approaching (it’s never too early to start preparing), tens of thousands of businesses begin to prepare for their busiest time of the year. If you run an eCommerce business or you are a developer of an eCommerce mobile app, chances are you’re already planning a creative campaign to attract more customers during the busy holiday season.

Although it is true that the upcoming holiday, Nov-Dec season provides a huge opportunity to increase sales, it is crucial to prepare in advance and establish a well-defined strategy to approach their audience in a timely and effective manner. While successful campaigns have turned some mobile apps into million-dollar businesses, misread market analysis or poorly constructed strategies can lead to a waste of money and a missed opportunity for app owners and retailers.

The following tips will help you build a solid Q4 mCommerce strategy so your business can maximize its sales potential this season.

Keep the Key Dates in Mind (2022 update)

While Christmas and New Year are especially famous for their preceding shopping sprees, there are a few other days in which online sales reach record numbers. Although some of these dates are busy mostly in the United States, they represent a great opportunity for app owners and other online business owners:

• October 31st — Halloween Day marks the beginning of the holiday season and is one of the busiest days for online purchases all around the world.
• November 11th — Single’s Day or Double 11 – is a shopping holiday popular among young Chinese people that celebrate their pride in being single. What started as a local holiday quickly expanded to singles worldwide celebrating big promotions on Chinese e-commerce sites mostly.
• November 25th — The “Black Friday” following Thanksgiving in the United States is the busiest shopping day in the country since 2005.
• November 28th – Cyber Monday – Perhaps the most important date for app developers, as this “Cyber Monday” is considered the busiest day of the year for online sales.
• December 18 – Super Saturday, as the name suggests this is the Saturday before Christmas and that’s when people tend to do their last-minute shopping. AKA “Panic Saturday”

Give Away Freebies and Discount Codes

It should come as no surprise that during the busiest period of the year for both online and traditional business competition gets fierce. Freebies and giveaways are great strategies to attract new customers and reinforce brand loyalty among existing ones. All advertisers are out there trying to fight for those engaging users. Kids get a higher allowance as gifts during this time- and that’s when they want to spend it- on new games- or upgrading existing ones.

Use technology in your favor and make sure to publish any special deals or discounts extensively across all social media platforms. While special deals are always effective, publishing them in advance can help you stay ahead of the competition even before the end of the year approaches.

Time to Get Creative

If you are planning to attract new customers, you need to put creativity at work and produce innovative marketing campaigns. Although it is true that Q4 is a great time for mobile apps, you must consider that your competition will also try to take advantage of it.

Go beyond the regular marketing tactics and don’t be afraid of innovation. Gaining attention is key in these times, so following the common patterns is hardly a good idea. Plan ahead and brainstorm all ideas regardless of how crazy they might seem.

We know that coming up with ground-breaking marketing campaigns is much easier said than done. If the nature of your app is suitable for it, don’t be afraid of adding a little holiday-themed fun to your apps and sites: snowflakes, Santa hats, and Christmas trees are a great way to start.

Prepare for Traffic Peaks

Just like any other eCommerce business, app developers must prepare to see a significantly higher number of downloads and user activity during peak holiday seasons. Weeks spent in the development of effective campaigns can become useless if you are not technologically prepared to deal with a sudden increase in the number of new users.

Keep in mind that the mobile app is only a part of a larger business which commonly includes support websites and sometimes even phone helplines. Make sure to have everything ready for these secondary components to escalate as your app’s downloads keep growing.

Update Your App For The Latest devices and Operating Systems

Just as application developers, large mobile phone manufacturers commonly release their new products before Q4. Your job is to gather as much information as possible on the product specifications of these devices and optimize your app to run smoothly in them.

If you are planning to optimize your app before the holidays, make sure to do so at the right time, as virtual stores such as Google Play or the Apple App Store have special holiday categories where you can be featured.

Spend Your Budget Wisely

If you are considering paying for an advertising campaign on a social media platform or a traditional media outlet, it is important to have a clear image of your target market and be a realist about the goals you want to achieve. While a Facebook campaign might work well for some specific applications, the investment might not be worth it for others.

Take into consideration that many of your competitors will also engage in paid advertising campaigns, and try to think about alternative ways to reach your potential customers. Go wide as possible, your target audience isn’t just in one place, they have multiple apps being used daily, use several social media outlets (are you in the TikTok game?) and don’t forget to measure everything that you do. The only way to go up is to learn from the things that work best.

Have a happy m-commerce holiday 🙂