15 Refreshing Marketing Ideas For Shopify Apps

A new ecommerce mobile app is one of the best ways to drive sales for your Shopify store. Mobile apps convert higher than the mobile web, so generating sales from your app won’t be a problem. But the app will only have success if customers actually download it.

That’s why ecommerce mobile app marketing needs to be a top priority for your Shopify store. 

Whether your app is already complete, in development, or still in the pre-development planning stages, you need to start brainstorming marketing ideas for your Shopify app today. 

Marketing a mobile app for ecommerce isn’t necessarily the same as promoting a traditional product or service. You need to take a unique approach to this process.

I’ve personally overseen the launch for dozens of ecommerce apps. It’s abundantly clear which ecommerce sites were prepared with marketing ideas for their Shopify app. 

After learning from the success and the mistakes of others, I want to pass my knowledge to you. Use this guide to learn how to implement the best mobile app marketing tactics for ecommerce.

1. Build Hype Early

If you wait until launch day to promote your new ecommerce mobile app, it’s too late. You need to start promoting the app as early as possible, even if it’s with something as simple as a “coming soon” page.

Even if you haven’t started development yet, the sooner you can get exposure for your app, the more successful it will be. 

If you review the top reasons why you need an ecommerce mobile app, you’ll quickly learn that mobile commerce is trending upward, and consumers prefer to shop from apps. 

Promoting the app as early as possible builds anticipation in the minds of your customers. This is an age-old psychological marketing strategy. When the app finally launches, they’ll be ready to download it and start shopping immediately. 

Just avoid publicizing a firm launch date until the app is actually complete. So if you’re starting to build your app in March, don’t start running promotions saying the app will be live in June.

Things happen during the development process that are sometimes out of your control. You don’t want to promise an app and not deliver, or worse, rush through development to meet a deadline that results in performance issues. 

2. Leverage Your Website For App Promotion

It sounds simple, but it’s shocking how many websites don’t have a direct download link for their app. Even more surprising, some ecommerce businesses don’t have any mention of their app at all on the website.

You just went through all of the effort to build a mobile commerce app. Don’t let those efforts go to waste by failing to promote it on your biggest platform.

Shopify owners make the mistake of thinking that customers will go to great lengths to find their app. But that’s simply not the case. You need to make this process as easy as possible for them.

Here’s a great example from the H&M website.

mobile app ecommerce marketing

H&M has a global presence. It’s always a good idea to follow the lead of companies that succeeded before you.

The menu on this ecommerce site has a direct link to download the app for both iOS and Android. 

Just saying “we have a mobile app” on your site isn’t enough. It forces customers to take extra steps to search for your Shopify app in the app store. Each additional step reduces your chances of getting a download.

But think about how much traffic your Shopify site gets each day, week, or month. Imagine if just 5% or 10% of that traffic downloaded the app. That’s how you get thousands of downloads at a time.

3. Showcase Your App in Confirmation Emails

You want to promote your app through distribution platforms that have the most exposure. So take advantage of your email list.

The best emails for mobile app promotion are confirmation messages. That’s because confirmation emails outperform every other type of marketing email.

value of receipt emails

As you can see from the graph, a confirmation email has higher open rates, click-through rates, and viewing time. They also generate the highest revenue per email sent. 

These are the type of confirmation messages that should include a promotion for your Shopify app:

  • New subscriber confirmation
  • Order confirmation
  • Shipping confirmation
  • Delivery confirmation

Each app promotion can have a slightly different angle, depending on the content of the message.

For example, “use the app for faster ordering” works well for an order confirmation message. But you could use something like “track shipping status directly in the app” for both shipping and delivery emails.

Here’s another reason why this mobile app ecommerce marketing idea is so useful; you’re targeting customers who are already interested in your brand. These are people who either signed up for email promotions or just purchased something from your Shopify store. This makes them the most likely candidates to download your ecommerce mobile app.

4. Offer an Incentive For Downloads

Why should someone download your new ecommerce app?

No, this is not a rhetorical question. You actually need to tell people why the app will benefit them personally. 

According to our app download and usage statistics page, the average person has between 60 and 90 apps installed on their device. However, 77% of time is spent on just three apps. 75% of apps are used once and then never used again.

Consumers know this. They aren’t going to download another app to clutter their phones unless they are given a good reason. 

Monetary incentives usually get the job done. You could offer something along the lines of 20% off the first purchase using the app. If you really want to make sure the app continues getting used, consider extending that discount for the first 30 days after installation. 

Target has a dedicated landing page on its ecommerce site to promote the app. 

all in one place

The page highlights some of the top features of the app, which gives users even more of an incentive to download it. Any feature, benefit, or advantage that adds value or makes the customer’s life easier needs to be mentioned when you’re marketing your Shopify mobile app. 

5. Look For Guest Posting Opportunities

Does your Shopify site have a blog? If so, you’re already on the right track to increase the exposure for your brand and app.

But only publishing blogs on your website limits the exposure to an audience that already knows who you are. While you can still use your blog for mobile app ecommerce marketing, the readers likely know about it already. 

Guest blogging allows you to increase the exposure of your app to an entirely new audience. You just need to find the right opportunities. 

Use Google search strings as a resource for finding these opportunities.

  • “Keyword” + “write for us”
  • “Keyword” + “guest blog”
  • “Keyword” + “guest post guidelines”

These are just a few examples of what you can search for. The benefits of guest blogging are tremendous and will help you drive Shopify sales with a mobile app.

Just make sure it’s not overly promotional. Most websites allow guest authors to include a handful of links to their website and other pages. So rather than promoting your app directly, simply include a download link embedded within the content. 

6. Use Influencer Marketing to Your Advantage

Influencer marketing and guest blogging have similar benefits, in the sense that you’re getting exposed to a new audience. The difference between the two is that you’ll likely have to pay for an influencer to promote your app.

With that said, this mobile app ecommerce marketing strategy delivers strong results and high returns.

According to a recent study, 28% of online marketing managers named influencer marketing the fastest-growing customer acquisition strategy. 

online customer acquisition

As you can see from the graph, this response ranked first on the list. Furthermore, 67% of brands say they plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets in the next 12 months. 

The reason why influencer marketing is so effective is because consumers trust these people.

You don’t need to work with professional athletes, singers, or famous actors to have success with this strategy. Instead, you can partner micro-influencers with a strong reach within your niche. This is also much more cost-effective.

Check out these statistics about the rates for micro-influencers:

  • Instagram post — 84% charge less than $250
  • Facebook post — 90% charge less than $250
  • Blog post — 87% charge less than $500
  • Twitter post — 90% charge less than $150

These rates are very reasonable. In some instances, you could develop influencer relationships without having to pay for anything. Try offering free merchandise in exchange for a post about your ecommerce mobile app. 

7. Use SEO Best Practices

We live in a world that’s completely driven by SEO. Every marketing campaign, including mobile app ecommerce marketing promotions, needs to be developed with SEO in mind.

Earlier I explained the importance of using your website as a promotional tool for your Shopify app. That strategy is useless if people aren’t actually visiting your site. 

93% of all website experiences start with a search engine. 

Take a moment to put yourself in the shoes of a current or prospective app user. If you want to do something online, where do you find it? Personally, I rarely go directly to a website. I almost always start with a Google search.

If you can apply SEO best practices to your app landing page and top-performing pages promoting your new ecommerce mobile app, it will drive traffic to those pages. As a result, this traffic increase will ultimately boost your Shopify app downloads as well. 

8. Create an In-App Referral Program

One of my favorite ways to market an ecommerce app is by letting your existing app users do all of the work for you. All you need to do is set up a referral program and let the rest take care of itself.

The best in-app referral programs are simple and straightforward. 

Using the “give $20, get $20” model is an excellent example of how to set this up. Allow app users to invite their friends to download the app in exchange for $20 per referral. The referred user gets $20 off of their first purchase, and the customer who referred them gets a $20 account credit once that transaction happens.

This mobile app ecommerce marketing strategy gives your current users an incentive to invite as many people as possible. If just five of their friends make a purchase, they can get $100 in credits. 

Another reason why I love this strategy is because referred customers are the best types of customers to have. 

referred customers

Furthermore, everyone trusts a referral. 92% of consumers say they trust a recommendation that comes from someone they know. 

If my friend, sibling, coworker, or cousin sends me a referral to download an app, I’ll probably download it. Other people have the same mentality. 

For those of you who are in a position where you’re comfortable giving away store credit for a download, it’s a great way to get downloads from people who will actually buy something from your new Shopify mobile app. 

9. Improve Discovery with ASO (App Store Optimization)

In addition to SEO, you also need to prioritize ASO. 

You want to make sure that your app is easily discoverable when a user searches for relevant keywords on the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. 

While app store optimization isn’t the most exciting mobile app ecommerce marketing strategy, it’s a necessity. 

ASO best practices vary, depending on whether or not your app is available on iOS or Android. Let’s say you’ve previously built a Shopify app for Apple users, and now you’re thinking of developing one for Android. Don’t assume that those same ASO tactics will work on the Google Play Store.

I could write for days on how to implement proper ASO techniques for mobile app ecommerce marketing. But it will be easier (for both of us) if you check out these helpful guides instead:

Remember, you can always subscribe to the BuildFire blog to be the first to know when we release helpful guides for your ecommerce mobile app.

10. Run a Contest or Giveaway Promotion

Contests, giveaways, and other promotions are a great way to get people excited about downloading your Shopify app. That’s why it’s one of my favorite app marketing ideas for ecommerce.

This relates back to one of our previous ideas about giving people an incentive to download the app. But a giveaway has additional benefits, which is why it deserves its own mention.

I’d recommend a “download, share, and win” promotion via social media. Instagram is the best place to run a contest since engagement rates are so high compared to regular posts. 

instagram engagement

 

Here’s how it works.

To participate, users need to download your app, share it on their profile, and tag your company for a chance to win whatever you’re giving away. You can choose the parameters for the prize and how many winners you’re going to select.

Always include a deadline in these types of promotions. This creates a sense of urgency and gets people to start participating immediately. 

In addition to the initial users who download the app to participate in the promotion, other people will also be exposed to your Shopify app as well. Anyone who follows users participating will see the post. It’s essentially free marketing for your ecommerce app. 

I love this strategy because it combines the advantages of offering incentives, influencer marketing, and referrals into one campaign. 

11. Leverage Free Distribution Platforms

This piggybacks off of my last point. It’s always going to be in your best interest to find as many free app marketing ideas as possible. 

User acquisition doesn’t need to cost a fortune. Just enhance your presence on popular social media channels. Hopefully, you already have a profile set up on the following platforms:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Twitter

Research your target audience to see what platforms they’re using the most. That’s what you should be prioritizing. 

If your Shopify app sells products intended for younger generations, you can even consider setting up accounts on Snapchat and TikTok. I definitely missed the boat on those platforms (I’m getting old). But if my customers were on there, I’d make sure to use them as promotional channels for my Shopify app.

12. Facebook Ads

While free app marketing is obviously ideal, there’s nothing wrong with paying for ads if it’s in your budget. This is especially true for Shopify store owners who don’t have a strong presence on social media yet.

If you have a new ecommerce app and haven’t established your brand name, you’ll be pretty limited in terms of social media reach with a few hundred or a few thousand followers.

I prefer using Facebook ads because it gives you the opportunity to target certain people. It’s the best way to reach your audience.

Facebook even has specific ad campaign objectives for driving app installs.

facebook ads

The steps are simple:

  • Pick an objective
  • Choose your audience
  • Decide where your ad is run (can be on Instagram too)
  • Choose a format
  • Set your budget

You’ll get detailed reports to measure the results of your ads as well. This is the perfect way to know if your campaigns are actually driving app downloads. 

13. Geofencing PPC with Google Ads

For those of you who have physical brick-and-mortar store locations, in addition to your Shopify site and ecommerce app, geofencing with Google PPC is definitely something you should consider.

This Google Ads tool allows you to target customers in a specific area. This can be based on neighborhoods, zip codes, or areas near your store.

So if a customer walks by your shop or into one of your stores, it will trigger an ad for them when they visit a website in the Google advertising network. 

You can take advantage of this app marketing idea, even if you don’t have a physical store presence. 

For example, let’s say your Shopify mobile app sells bathing suits, shorts, sandals, and other warm-weather apparel. It wouldn’t make sense to run ads targeting people in New York City or Chicago during the winter. But southern California, Miami, and Hawaii are perfect locations to target year-round.

14. Create a Customer Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs encourage your existing customers to spend more money. 

By integrating a loyalty program into your Shopify app, it becomes an indirect promotion of the app and its benefits. Here’s why.

For a customer to receive rewards, they must be logged into their customer profile. But this is a hassle when shopping from a computer or mobile device. The customer will either check out as a guest or just ignore the loyalty benefits. 

The app will make it easier for users to track and receive the benefits associated with the program. They’ll know exactly how many rewards they’ve earned for the month, year, or given time frame.

15. Encourage and Promote App Reviews

App reviews and ratings can impact ASO, which is something that we previously talked about. But beyond app store optimization, you can highlight the top app reviews on your website and social media platforms. 

Think of it the same way as a product review or testimonial on your Shopify site. Those reviews motivate people to buy. Well, an app review will persuade people to download. 

The only way that this works is if you’re getting app reviews in the first place. Most people won’t go out of their way to write a review unless they had a really good or really poor experience. But 90% of users will fall somewhere in the middle.

So it’s up to you to find ways to encourage Shopify app reviews. Incentives and popups are usually enough to get the job done.

Conclusion

Mobile marketing for ecommerce is crucial to the success of your app. 

Coming up with creative marketing ideas for a Shopify app is the best way to get your name out there and drive downloads. Otherwise, nobody will know that your app even exists. 

I realize that implementing 15 tactics for your new ecommerce mobile app might be a bit overwhelming. But you don’t need to use all of these at once. You can pick and choose which strategies to start with based on the status of your app.

A Shopify app that’s still in development will need a different marketing approach than an ecommerce app that launched two years ago.

Regardless of your situation, make sure you subscribe to the BuildFire blog. We’ll provide all of the tips, tricks, and ecommerce app tools you need to make sure your Shopify app is successful.

8 Reasons Why Your Agency Should Become a White Label Mobile App Reseller

The mobile app industry is rapidly evolving. You could argue that the popularity and penetration of mobile apps in our daily lives are growing faster than the Internet. As a result, the demand for mobile apps is seemingly at an all-time high.

This is especially true for businesses both large and small. In fact, 42% of small businesses currently have a mobile app. An additional 30% of small business owners plan to build an app in the future. 

Young business owners are early adopters. 55% of Millennial business owners already have an app for their small business, that’s 13% higher than the overall average.

As an agency, you can use this information to your advantage.

You already have clients that you’re managing and consulting with. So why not add some value to your services and make some extra money on top of it?

If your current and prospective clients want a mobile app, they might as well get it from you instead of looking elsewhere. Becoming a white label mobile app reseller is a great opportunity for you to gain a competitive advantage over other agencies while offering all services under one roof. 

We’ll talk about all of this in greater detail as we continue through this guide. 

For those of you who are on the fence about adding white label reseller services to your agency, I’ll explain the top reasons why this is a great idea. 

1. High Demand For Mobile Apps

Businesses want to invest in mobile apps. As I mentioned earlier, more than half of the small business owners who don’t have a mobile app plan to develop one.

They’ve recognized the trends with mobile app usage among their customer base. Launching a mobile app is the only way to deliver an excellent mobile experience to those customers.

But business apps go far and beyond just appeasing customers. There are so many businesses out there that need an app for internal uses as well. Companies can use mobile apps to improve HR inefficiencies or enhance communication with deskless workers. 

The possibilities are endless. So even if a current client of yours already has an app for their customers, they still might be in the market for an internal business solution.

According to Google Trends, the search term for “mobile app development” is at an all-time high.

Mobile App development google trends

As you can see from the graph, the global interest in this topic has been trending upward at a steady pace for the last decade. There has also been a sharp rise in search popularity over the past two years.

Think about that for a second. 

Honestly, I was blown away when I saw this. How long have mobile apps been around for?

The Apple App Store officially launched back in 2008. There were just over 500 apps available at this time. That’s the most modern version of mobile apps as we know them today. 

All of us have been using mobile apps on a daily basis in the smartphone era. But people are still searching for app development on Google, today, more than ever before. 

This means that the demand and need for app development solutions still haven’t reached its full potential. There is no sign of this trend slowing down in the near future, and you’ll see more proof of this as we continue through this guide.

Let’s get back to your clients and their needs. Here’s a look at the top reasons why small businesses are building mobile apps. 

Why small business build mobile apps

Attracting new customers, gaining a competitive advantage, and increasing sales are the top three responses. 

Do these reasons look familiar? What are the selling points at your agency?

I’m willing to bet that you sign new clients based on your promise to help them with these three factors. Essentially, the benefits of mobile apps are synonymous with your agency’s value proposition. 

2. Inexpensive Entry to Market

Like any business venture, the cost is obviously something that needs to be taken into consideration before you make any decisions. You’ll need to weigh the cost of your investment against the potential risks and profits. 

How much will it cost you? What can you expect to get in return?

But unlike other business opportunities, you don’t need to invest huge sums of cash to become a mobile app reseller. The cost structure for a white label app is very friendly for the reseller agency.

In most instances, you’ll pay a monthly fee for the app building services. Then you can upcharge your clients whatever price you see fit to meet your desired margins. 

Once you start onboarding clients there is a huge potential for growth. 

In addition to the inexpensive costs, becoming a white label app reseller can deliver massive ROI for your agency. No matter how you set up your pricing structure, there will be plenty of room for profits. 

For example, you could bundle mobile app development to be a standard feature with your existing agency services. By nature, this will increase the base prices of your packages. Alternatively, you can offer app development plans as an add-on or supplemental feature for your clients. 

Either way, you’re offering a service that your clients have a need for. So it’s a win-win for both of you. 

3. It’s Easy to be a Reseller

Basically, anyone can become a mobile app reseller. 

You don’t need to learn how to code or anything like that. App building platforms, like BuildFire, allow you to build an app from scratch without any experience. 

Already owning an agency gives you even more of an advantage. Your business structure is already set up. So all you have to do is add a service, as opposed to starting a new business from the ground up.

Plus, if you have multiple clients that are in the same space or industry as each other, there’s a good chance that they will need similar apps. So you can basically offer the same app to more than one client, just branded differently for their needs.

Find a reseller program that allows you to clone your existing apps. With just one or two clicks, you can have a brand new app ready to sell to another client without doing any extra work.

You’ll just need to change the logos, color schemes, and branding. You could always make other minor changes based on the client’s requests.

For example, let’s say your agency specializes in marketing consulting for law firms. An app for one law firm probably won’t be very different from another. So you won’t have to change much to sell it to multiple clients.

With less time and resources required to build additional apps, your returns can be massive.

Depending on the reseller program you choose, you can set it up to be completely hands-off instead. Rather than building the apps yourself, you can just focus on selling the clients the software. Then your agency clients can build, edit, and manage their apps through your own branded dashboard. 

You may not charge as much for this type of package, but it’s much less work on your end. The best reseller programs give you the option to do both.

So your agency can build and sell apps, just sell the software or a combination of the two. This will largely depend on the wants, needs, and budget of your clients. 

I’d recommend working with a reseller platform that will be there to help you through each step of the journey. If you’re building apps on your own and run into a problem or get stuck, it’s nice to know that a customer support representative will be there to help you out.

The best reseller programs will also offer extensive guides for how to use their platform.

White label reseller tutorials

Here at BuildFire, we have 33 tutorials just for white label resellers. 

The step-by-step guides cover everything from getting started to user onboarding and sales. We include in-depth videos and screenshots to walk you through the process of using our system. 

So when you’re shopping around for a potential reseller program to choose for your agency, this is definitely a top feature that you should be looking for. 

That way you’re not just left to figure out everything on your own without any help or resources. 

4. You Can Offer Affordable Apps to Your Clients

Becoming an app reseller only makes sense if your agency can actually sell app services to clients. So you’ll need to do some research here.

Take a moment to look at your current and prospective clients. Why don’t they have an app right now?

If you ask them directly, it’s unlikely that their response will be, “I don’t need one.”

Business owners understand the importance of mobile adoption. We talked about this earlier. So there are other reasons holding them back. According to a recent study, these are the biggest perceived barriers for small business mobile apps.  

Perceived barriers

As you can see from this graph, more than one in five small business owners believe that building an app is too expensive for them. 

But reseller programs allow your agency to make mobile app creation affordable for your clients.

All you need to do is charge an initial set up fee based on the complexity of the app, then bill a recurring monthly fee for managing the app and software. 

Aside from the price, look at the other barriers on the graph above that are preventing business owners from creating a mobile app.

Half of the small business owners without an app say they haven’t built one because they don’t know-how. An additional 23% says they don’t have time to build a mobile app. 

As a reseller agency, you can eliminate both of those barriers immediately with your services.

You’re consulting with a client that doesn’t know how to build an app; no problem—you can build it for them. One of your clients doesn’t have time to manage an app? No problem—you’ll manage it for them.  

All of this just means more money in your pocket for the added services. We’ve already discussed how easy it is to build, edit, manage, and maintain an app. So this won’t be an issue for you as a reseller. 

5. The Mobile App Industry is Still Growing

It’s not too late to join the party. There is plenty of room for mobile app resellers in this industry.

Earlier I explained that the demand for mobile apps is currently at an all-time high. But that doesn’t mean that we’ve reached the peak just yet. 

The demand and growth for mobile apps are still on the rise. I don’t see any signs of this slowing down in the foreseeable future.

Just look at the trends for mobile app revenues worldwide. 

mobile app revenue growth

From 2014 to present, mobile app revenue has more than quadrupled. App revenue has more than doubled between 2016 and 2019 as well.

Now, look at the growth projections moving forward. We’re on pace to see app revenue doubling again within the next 4 years.

That’s because apps are penetrating every industry. Smartphone usage is growing worldwide. Ecommerce mobile trends are on the rise. 

Users are spending more and more time each day on their smartphones. The vast majority of that time is spent using apps.

There is an app for virtually anything. This means that the demand for mobile apps will still be here in the coming years. 

As I said earlier, even if one of your clients already has a mobile app, they still might be in the market for another one. A retail store and eCommerce site might have an app for driving mobile sales. But they might also want an internal app for their HR department. 

You can potentially sell more than one mobile app to the same client. 

The opportunities for your agency signing new clients for app development is endless. In addition to signing new clients, you’ll also continue to get recurring revenue from your existing clients for maintaining their mobile app services.

6. You Can Measure Your Success

One of the most challenging parts of entering a new market or starting a new venture is figuring out if your choices are paying off.

Did you make the right decision? Are you making wrong moves? How can you avoid bad decisions moving forward?

With an app reseller program, your mobile app KPIs are obvious and easy to track.

For example, let’s say your building an eCommerce app for one of your small business clients. You can look at metrics like downloads, conversions, and cart abandonment rates.

Did their gross revenue increase after the app launch? 

It’s not a guessing game. You’ll be able to see real numbers if the app is working or not. 

These metrics will be slightly different if you’re building an app for something like internal business communication. You’ll need to get more feedback from your clients and their employees.

This feedback will be directly related to the user experience. Based on what your clients say, you’ll be able to make changes and improve your apps over time.

Your first app won’t be perfect. Your second app won’t be perfect either. But I guarantee that you’ll get better as you continue. You just need to figure out what works and what doesn’t. 

Even for an internal business app, you can track metrics related to how much money the app is saving your clients. Things like less paper, fewer office supplies, and improved productivity will boost their profit margins. 

By measuring your success, it gives you the opportunity to make any adjustments to your pricing structure for your reseller program. 

I’m not saying you should change your rates for an existing client. You wouldn’t want to go against numbers that you already agreed upon. But you can always increase your rates moving forward if it makes sense for new clients. 

7. Easy Branding

A white label reseller program means you’re not actually building a mobile app development system. Leave that to the professionals.

You’re basically just taking a platform that’s already set up and slapping your name on it.

Admin control panel

So when a client logs in to their administrative dashboard, they’ll see your name, logo, and everything else associated with your brand. 

This is super easy to do. The reseller tools provided by the app builder make it possible for you to manage all of this. Basically, you’ll be given templates to make your own. The branding process is as easy as it gets. 

Overall, this will make your agency look very professional from the perspective of your clients. 

Managing all of your customers is simple as well. Both you and your clients will have access to individual customer control panels. This is where the app building process takes place. 

8. Adds Value to Services

White label reselling means that your services become more valuable. You instantly become more appealing to prospective clients.

As an agency, you know how challenging it can be to sign a new client.

There are lots of agencies out there offering similar services. It’s tough to stand out in a highly competitive space if you’re just doing the same thing as everyone else. 

But being a mobile app reseller can become your differentiation strategy. 

Not everyone out there is doing this. So if a prospective client is deciding between your agency and a few other options, you’ll definitely stand out among the competition for this unique value that you’re offering. 

Ultimately, this makes the lives of your clients much easier too.

They don’t want to take the time to research and meet with an app developer. They already spent enough time trying to find an agency to help with other needs. Your agency can essentially become a one-stop-shop for everything a client needs. 

Continue handling your existing services, whatever that may be. Some of you might specialize in website management, conversion rate optimization, web design, marketing, SEO, or a combination of these things.

Now you can add mobile app development to this list of services.

This will widen your reach, and help you focus on specific audiences who can afford your services. If a client is willing and able to pay for a mobile app, it’s usually safe to say they have room in their budget for other agency services as well. 

At the end of the day, you’ll be able to charge more for your services, make higher profit margins, and keep your clients happy at the same time. It’s a win-win for everyone. 

Conclusion

The mobile app industry is booming. 

We’re living in a time where all mobile trends are at an all-time high. There is no sign of these slowing down in the near future. 

As a result, the demand for mobile apps is higher than ever before.

Businesses need mobile apps. Your agency is in an opportunistic position to provide your current and prospective customers with mobile solutions.

The best way to do this is by becoming a white-label mobile app reseller. 

For those of you who want to take advantage of this opportunity, you need to find an app builder that offers white-label platforms for resellers. Here at BuildFire, we have the mobile app reseller program that you’ve been looking for. 

Our services are agency friendly. We’ll give you the power to scale as you grow.

Your clients can even sign up to build an app through an automated free trial and sales process, which gives them a chance to try the platform out without having to spend any money.

When the apps are built, you don’t have to worry about getting them into the app stores. BuildFire takes care of publishing for you and your clients. 

6 Mobile App Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid At All Costs (And What To Do Instead)

When you’re building an app, marketing mistakes can cost you big time.

How?

Well, your pre-launch marketing will determine the overall opinion and popularity of your app when it launches, which can dictate how many people decide to download it. And even after your app is launched, you need to continue marketing in it a way that entices people to download it. Otherwise, you could see a sales slump and a bad overall return on your investment.

Don’t let that happen. Instead, take a look at the following 6 mobile marketing mistakes you should avoid at all costs, and you’ll learn what you should do instead to successfully market your app.

 

1. Not setting the right expectations for your app

You’ve probably heard the saying “under-promise and over-deliver.” That definitely applies when you’re marketing an app.

Think about it – if you market your app as the greatest in the world but can’t back up your claims, you’ll disappoint the people who download it. That means they might end up leaving negative reviews like this:

app-reviews

…Ouch.

That being said, don’t sell yourself short. Talk about the benefits of your app and highlight its unique selling points, but don’t exaggerate. That way, your customers know exactly what they’re getting when they download your app.

You may also want to include screenshots of your app, like Whatsapp does:

whatsapp

Doing so allows people who are interested your app to see exactly what it looks like and how it is used before they commit to downloading it.

 

2. Failing to optimize your app for the app store

You’ve probably heard of SEO (search engine optimization), but have you heard of ASO (app store optimization)?

If not, it’s time to start learning. Take a look at this data and you’ll see why:

app-discovery

That’s right – most people discover apps simply from browsing the app store. So, if you haven’t optimized your app in a way that allows it to be found easily, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out on lots of sales.

Now, before you start optimizing your app, make sure you have a deep understanding of your target audience and how they’re likely to search when looking for apps similar to yours. After all, if you optimize for the wrong key words, you won’t see the results you’re looking for.

Once you’ve chosen the best key words, here are a few ASO steps you’ll want to take:

  • Place the key word with the most search traffic in the app title. Make sure you perform extensive research to determine the best key word before you do this. You don’t want to have to change the title later because that will make your app more difficult for people to find.
  • Market your brand and app. The total number of times your app has been downloaded will affect its ranking in the app store, so prioritize marketing and make sure you’re building a strong social media presence.
  • Try to get good reviews for your app. Add an app review plugin to your app to automatically ask people for reviews. (I’ll talk more in-depth about this later in this post.)

Tip: Use the tools listed here for help deciding on app key words, improving your app search ranking, and more.

3. Failing to drive mobile app reviews

Regardless of what kind of app you’re creating, you’ll probably find that you’ve got lots of competitors. One way to make your target audience choose you over the competition is to get lots of good reviews.

Why?

Because social proof plays a huge role in app purchasing decisions, and high ratings will give your app a better ranking in the app store.

Bottom line: the more positive reviews you can get for your app, the better.

Now, you’re probably wondering how you can encourage users to review your app. One of the easiest ways is to use an app review plugin like Appirater. When you do, users will be prompted to review your app, like this:

app-review

A word of warning: avoid giving users incentives for positive reviews – Apple has started to remove apps that do this.

 

4. Not creating a microsite for your app

A microsite is a web page or group of web pages that exists independently from your main company web site. Typically, microsites are used to promote one specific product or service.

You don’t have to create a microsite to promote your mobile app, but doing so could definitely help your overall mobile marketing strategy. Plus, if you decide to pitch your app to blogs and other media outlets, your microsite can help them quickly understand what your app does and why people would want to use it.

Take a look at this microsite developed to advertise the Shyp app:

shyp-app

Visit the site here, and you’ll notice several things:

  • The design is simple and draws attention to the main benefits of the app.
  • The page includes links to the Shyp social media accounts so people who are interested in it can connect with the brand.
  • The green “sign up” button is immediately visible above the fold when the site loads, making it easy for people who are interested in the app to sign up quickly.

Pretty effective, if you ask me.

When creating your microsite, you should follow Shyp’s example and use a simple, intuitive design that makes it easy for potential customers to connect with your brand and sign up to use your app.

Here are a few things you may also want to include in your microsite:

  • A video that advertises your app
  • Plenty of information about what the app does and how it works
  • App screenshots
  • App store download links

Remember, your microsite design should be easy to use and your copy should be broken up with plenty of white space and images – no one wants to spend time trying to figure out a difficult site or reading giant walls of text.

 

5. Failing to use social networks to promote your app

You’re probably already using social media to connect with your target audience, but have you considered creating a separate social media marketing strategy for your app?

If not, you should. Here are a few tips for promoting your app on social media:

  • Give people an incentive to connect with you and download your app. For example, if your app is a game, you could offer extra lives/levels. Think about which in-app purchases you could temporarily give away for free to get people to download your app or follow one of your social media pages.
  • Write in a human voice in all of your social media posts. When you’re writing, consider your target audience and use a tone that you think will attract them. Whatever you do, avoid writing in a robotic tone – no one wants to read something written that way.
  • Schedule your social media posts to save time. Posting to social media can be time-consuming, so it’s best to automate using Hootsuite or a similar tool.

You can also use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram ads to spread the word about your app. Figure out which social network is most popular with your ideal customers, and spend most of your time creating ads for that social network.

 

The harsh truth is that not many people will care about your app when it has just been released. That’s largely because your app probably won’t have been talked about by credible bloggers and news outlets.

The obvious solution? Reach out to editors to see if they’d be willing to feature your app in a post/article.

But you can’t just email an editor on a whim and expect them to be thrilled about featuring your app. You’ve got to take specific steps while pitching your app if you want to increase your likelihood of hearing back from them, including:

  • Get to the point quickly. Editors are busy people, so try to keep your email as brief as possible without excluding necessary information.
  • Give them a reason to want to work with you. For example, if you have built a following of people who are eagerly anticipating your app release date (if it hasn’t been released yet), let the editor know.
  • Give them a sneak peek of your app. If you’re still beta testing your app, send the editor the beta version so they can take a firsthand look at how it works.
  • Avoid being overly sales-y. No one likes to be sold to. While you should talk about what makes your app awesome, also try to focus on making a real connection with the editor. After all, editors are people too!

And, if possible, try to get a referral. Think about your network – if someone you know could introduce you to the editor you’re emailing, you’re much more likely to see positive results from your email.

In Conclusion

When you’re creating an app, make sure your app idea is marketable to begin with – otherwise, the tips I’ve outlined here may not help you.

On top of that, your app should offer the user something that retains value for a long time to keep them from deleting it within a few months. Apptentive data shows that over 90% of people who download an app delete it within 6 months, so really think about the value of your app before you spend lots of time and money developing and marketing it.

Have you made any of these app marketing mistakes in the past? Share in the comments section!