Skip to main content
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Mobile apps are everywhere. There are apps for increasing your brand awareness, ridding you of boredom, and expanding your brain power, not to mention pretty much every function, industry, professional goal, personal hobby, and overall interest in between. There are a lot of reasons to create a branded app, but there are also a lot of errors being made along the way. If you’re a mobile app marketer, beware of the 5 biggest mistakes you simply can’t afford to make.

Pretending Apps are Websites

This mistake generally starts in the design process, when someone silly perpetuates the dangerous misconception that mobile apps are only websites that shrunk a bit in the wash. In reality, apps are related to websites but a different animal altogether, sort of like horses and zebras. Apps need to be formatted for a smaller screen, contain content meant to be read on the go, and contain information and perks not available on desktop versions.

Not Being Personal Enough

People are spending an average of 30 hours per month playing and working within the framework of a mobile app. That’s arguably more time than they’re spending with friends, but what do you know about your app users? Probably not enough. Mobile app users crave a personalized experience tailored to their unique likes, dislikes, and quirks. By encouraging users to create a profile and fill out information regarding their geographic location, favorite brands, age, birthday, and so on, you have the data you need to establish and build a very valuable connection.

Being Entirely Too Personal

Yes, it can often seem like you can’t do anything right when you’re marketing your mobile app, and successful marketing is not unlike walking a tightrope coated in coconut oil, but the key to winning over the purchasing public is ferreting out that ever-elusive middle ground. You need personal information, but you have to be careful not to overstep at the same time. One survey of 15,000 mobile users found that 72 percent didn’t like having to offer up personal information just to use an app. You can try to ask certain questions, but making answers mandatory in return for using the app might not be so smart.

Disregarding Mobile Marketing Automation

Mobile marketing automation is a many-splendored thing: it’s there when you can’t be, it turns automated interactions into communication that is somehow increasingly personal, and it frees you up to do the things only you can do. Sounds idyllic, right? So why aren’t more people using it? If it’s a case of simply not knowing how to incorporate it, read up on the basics and then start with some in-app push notifications:

  • Remind users who haven’t opened your app for awhile to come back and visit
  • Encourage in-app m-commerce by encouraging users to purchase items lingering in their virtual shopping cart
  • Ask for feedback via in-app surveys or pop-ups directing users to third-party review sites such as Yelp, OpenTable or Google

Assuming That if You Build It, They Will Come

If it was that easy, wouldn’t everyone be sitting on top of the app-made fortune? Apptentive says that 90 percent of the people who choose to download your app will stop using it within just 6 months. What will you do in those 180 days to avoid becoming a part of that statistic?

An impressive 83 percent of B2B marketers surveyed said they believed mobile apps to be an integral part of their content marketing strategy. Those in the know recognize the power of the mobile movement; your business may depend on quickly you heed the call. Avoid the nasty mistakes above, and you might just be the lucky few for whom mobile app greatness is ultimately achieved.

Oleksiy Kuryliak

Founder of Rioks. Marketing Strategist & Auditor. Advising startups and enterprises on digital transformation, marketing operations and go-to-market strategies.

Leave a Reply