On the Go and in the Know: Marketer-friendly Mobile Apps and Strategies to Use
With so many App options, marketers need to plan their strategy carefully and quickly!
Here’s a truly astonishing bit of news: between April 2008 and April 2013, the time Twitter users spent shooting off tweets increased 3,712%, according to global information giant Nielsen. In the past month, alone, 40 million users spent 300 million minutes on Twitter—yes, you read that correctly. 300 million minutes in one month.
It’s not just Twitter that has grown at a blistering pace: Flurry Analytics reports that mobile-app use increased 115% in 2013, with the largest surge in messaging and social apps—203% in that category. Some of the most popular options in this group are Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, KakaoTalk, and LINE. In 2013, users downloaded nearly 103 billion apps. The U.S. consumer spent an average of 2 hours and 38 minutes per day on smartphones and tablets. 80% of that time (2 hours and 7 minutes) was spent inside apps and 20% (31 minutes) was spent on the mobile web.
The global smartphone audience surpassed the 1 billion mark in 2012 and will total 1.75 billion in 2014, according to research by Emarketer
And by 2017, according to a recent Gartner report, mobile apps will be downloaded more than 268 billion times, generating more than $77 billion in revenue. In simple terms, that means that every man, woman and child in the world will have downloaded 37 apps. The sheer numbers of people who use mobile apps now and in the future make the idea of advertising on these platforms irresistible to marketers. The opportunities for brands to reach and engage with customers in a direct way appear virtually limitless.
For marketers, the unknowns are nearly as limitless as the opportunities. But despite the challenges inherent in mobile app marketing, businesses can’t ignore what some in the industry term as the “gateway to mobile devices.” So how do marketers know which mobile messaging apps to invest their energy into?
Marketer-friendly apps and strategies to use
Here’s a look at a few tops mobile apps and why they may be the best option for marketers.
- Tweetbot: Twitter is undeniably one of the most important social media channels. Companies use it constantly. Tweetbot is the Mac app that that manages multiple Twitter accounts. Marketers use it to follow industry influencers on Twitter and engage them to develop a relationship; set pre-defined searches to find conversations to participate in or monitor your brand’s reputation; pre-load updates as they come and save them as drafts for future posting; and create lists of followers to deliver targeted messages to relevant segments.
- Snapchat: Trendsetters love this app. Its disappearing messages give its users a unique and quick way to communicate in a personal way. So how can marketers leverage this idea successfully? Savvy marketers are exploring using Snapchat for sneak movie or product previews, contests, and coupons.
- Glyder is designed specifically for social media promotions. Glyder allows users to select a visually appealing template, add in your company details, change the boilerplate text with your specific offer, and then send to a variety of social media platforms instantaneously. Time is of the essence in the digital age. If you have the ability to send professionally designed promotions to all your social media platforms in less than 30 seconds, you will create real-time value for your business.
- Google Analytics: This app gives instant access to a company’s web analytics, so marketers who are on the road can use the information to stay constantly up-to-date on what’s happening and optimize campaigns.
- BufferApp: Sharing great content is essential for building up your audience on social media. BufferApp allows you to space out the times you share content. That way, your company is front and center to your target audience at perfectly spaced intervals throughout the day.
Which mobile apps are the right ones for your company?
The challenge and the benefits of mobile app marketing
As marketers embrace the growth of mobile apps and learn how to best leverage the new technologies, they have an opportunity to perfect their messaging. Most mobile apps provide only a tiny window to get the message out there: 140 characters with Twitter, 10-second communication with Snapchat. These limitations challenge marketers to narrow down their message to the one key point that is most important.
And its important to keep in mind that as new, fresh, and exciting as mobile apps are, they are just one part of a completely integrated marketing campaign that employs an array of strategies to keep the customer connected and engaged.
What do you think? Which mobile apps do you use to market your brand and/or company? What has been your most successful method of marketing using mobile apps? And why?
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I am continually being astounded at how fast social media is growing and changing. I think marketers need a mobile App that alerts them every time a new marketer-friendly social media app is generated along with the app explanation.Thanks for sharing all that great information….
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Compare that with the technical complexity of using
web-based promotions andd recordkng television commercials, and
business holiday cards you have the right equipment too produce the mail pieces have
been produced.
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– bluehand roulette system – it earns me decent money
everyday, just google it
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I am finding I can’t keep up with any of these LOL. I’m old school and just getting up to speed on facebook and now all my clients have moved over to other social aps!
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After reading this blog, I was overwhelmed by the number of apps that are out there and how more surface every day! More overwhelming are the usage percentages – mind boggling! It’s added a new dimension on how we get our information. I think I’m the cat’s meow with 20 apps on my phone! I love the apps and continually check to see which might apply to my lifestyle.
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A mobile app that explains mobile apps, brilliant Betsy!
I am of the opinion that all social media content and activity should be generated within the client’s website and pushed out to all social media outlets simultaneously and all activity should drive traffic back to the website. The end goal being to bring the social media audience to the website where a much more graphically rich and meaningful exchange can take place and a valuable database can be built over time for content rich communications can be delivered directly to loyal users.
I am pushing hard on all of my clients to invest in responsive websites that are as easy to engage with on a mobile device as they are on a desktop screen and to equip the site with robust blogging and database gathering capabilities.
Facebook and Twitter are much to fluid and their rapidly evolving business models make them risky platforms for reliable ongoing communications. They are basically free but as the old saying goes, “you get what you pay for”. To reach your entire audience, you must now pay to play.
I am not sure how well it would sit with clients to know that they have spent hundreds of hours and thousands of $$ to promote Facebook and Twitter only to discover that their communications are only being sent to a random % of their followers.
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Another observation to consider; The “followers” we are all gathering from Facebook and Twitter are not technically our followers at all. They are the property of the social media sites they reside on. We may, through aggressive marketing and a significant investment of time and $$, garner a million “Likes” for our client’s Facebook page. But we do not own the user data and we are at the mercy of Facebook in our ability to continue reaching those followers at any time in the future. This is why Social Media should be properly viewed as another advertising media only and not a stable and reliable method of building a long term database of loyal users.
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I am finding I can’t keep up with any of these LOL. I’m old school and just getting up to speed on facebook and now all my clients have moved over to other social aps!
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I hear ya! As marketers, all these apps add a whole new dimension to our jobs. And with the proliferation of apps, its hard to keep up with all of them! I like Betsy’s idea, below. An app to announce new apps! I’d download it! 🙂
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Wow! I am continually being astounded at how fast social media is growing and changing. I think marketers need a mobile App that alerts them every time a new marketer-friendly social media app is generated along with the app explanation. I wonder how many hours a week marketers spend exlporing these apps and the marketing possibilities?
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I love your idea for a mobile app that announces and explains mobile apps!
I read an article that talked about how SMS (short message service) marketing through cell phones is becoming more and more common. But unwanted SMS marketing messages run the risk of annoying the recipient. As marketers, we have to provide real value when we reach out to potential customers through their apps. Coupons? Special offers? New info they can’t get anywhere else? We have an opportunity to find creative ways to reach our audience without turning them off.
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