Tips for successful Christmas app marketing
There are several blogs that have been produced over the years that provide you with knowledge and best practices about app marketing over the holiday season.
Since our goal at Appily App Builder is to assist you in growing your business, we've compiled the most significant and up-to-date app marketing advice for you, rather than making you go through hundreds of blogs.
Get ready for heavy traffic
Both traditional and online retailers often see more customers over the holidays. Undoubtedly, this is a fantastic opportunity to boost sales, but it also presents risks to your company. Gaining from the holiday season requires taking steps to ensure that your app is prepared and can function under increased traffic.
There are four major areas to focus on with the App:
Make sure the API calls between the App and your eCommerce system have enough bandwidth. During rush hour, a 5-lane roadway is preferable to a 2-lane. Considerations include adding more API connections or caching API calls.
Make an effort to ensure that your customers are using the most recent app version. You don't want outdated problems to resurface during the holiday season, so bug fixes and updates are implemented by updating a new version.
Check that your website server has enough processing power to handle the increasing traffic since it might significantly slow down your website and app.
Finally, although it may seem silly to mention it, avoid making any technical updates to your website or app in the months of November and December. Avoid breaking Murphy's Law with a "just a quick update" and having your website or app goes offline for an extended period of time during the busiest time of the year.
Track app performance and take action!
Watch your app's performance closely while the pressure is on. Weekly or daily performance reviews are conducted, and makers and breakers are addressed. To improve your campaigns, strategies, and conversion rates during the holiday season, it is important to closely monitor the effects of the increase in traffic.
The Appily App Builder dashboard provides information on the expansion (or contraction) of your user base downloads and installs.
Promote your app using marketing and ads
A sizable share of revenues over the holidays will come from new clients. Most shoppers who are seeking for fantastic gifts when they go gift-shopping won't be particularly devoted to any particular shops or brands (with ideally a great deal on it).
Ads are everywhere, therefore it would be foolish not to take use of them. You may advertise your app by running app install advertising on social media and search engines as one creative method to employ ads. You could increase downloads and traffic to your app by doing this.
Potential consumers are more likely to purchase at new stores, channels, and applications, especially in the weeks leading up to the festive season (when more than half of sales come from new customers). You may attract a ton of new consumers by pairing a profitable promotion with an exclusive mobile-only offer. These customers can then be reached out to further via push notifications in the future.
The final and most crucial tactic to increase downloads and retain (new) users are marketing via social and other channels. Make sure your app is prominently displayed everywhere, starting with your website's header and footer, promotional materials' QR codes, your newsletter, and both digital and paper receipts.
Utilize affiliates and/or influencers
Using influencers and/or affiliates to promote your brand is a very efficient use of your advertising budget. In the current market, the proper influencer or affiliate can advertise your shop to highly niche audiences that number in the thousands.
Affiliates receive financial incentives (they are essentially re-sellers) and sales promotions/materials, whereas influencers are compensated for their promotion of a cause, good, or service. This is the main distinction between an influencer and an affiliate.
Using influencer marketing is optional. But right now is a fantastic moment to team up a Christmas launch event with a celebrity that shares your beliefs, hobbies, and target market. One-time influencer/affiliate initiatives tend to be uninspired. However, over time, 5 to 10 well-targeted channels that take part in an event or a promotion might simply keep the enthusiasm high for current users while also drawing in a steady stream of new consumers.
This not only gives you a large audience for very little work, but it also enables you to reach specialized populations who would not be reachable through conventional advertising and marketing.
Push messaging will help you win the battle for attention
The capability of your app to transmit a message straight to the pockets and eyes of your users is its most potent and effective tool.
Don't be reluctant to share with them when you are making fantastic sales and have a lot to offer. Your consumers will be barraged from all directions throughout the Christmas season since it is a competition for their attention. Even if having direct access to them is excellent, if you don't take use of it, you could still lose out to more widespread advertising.
Don't forget to add last-minute calls-to-action for sales, new product releases, mobile exclusives, and anything else you are offering during the holiday season. You can schedule push messages in advance with Appily App Builder. The necessity to regularly encourage opting in to push messages is crucial to keep in mind. The opt-in is automatic for Android, while the user must actively approve push notifications for iOS. According to our data, the overall opt-in rate among iOS users is around 20–30% without marketing, while 60–80% may be achieved with active advertising. There is therefore plenty to gain from this!
Identify yourself
There are billions of app users who don't know the individuals who bring their mobile experiences to life. The majority of you likely have an "About us" page on the app, but there are many ways you can personalize it and give your customers a better sense of the people behind the company.
People purchase from people, and having human faces doesn't simply enhance conversion on items (on average by 16%). Enabling your consumers to associate a business with a person (rather than just a visage) with ambitions and dreams has had a positive impact on customer retention in general. Of course, the percentages vary greatly, but on the low end, studies show an increase of roughly 5-6%, while on the high end, some businesses saw a retention rate rise of over 15%!
send a happy holidays message to all your users
Of all, there is more to Christmas and New Year's than merely buying and selling things. Wish folks a merry Christmas and use your app as another platform to showcase your brand's warmth and personality in addition to advertising messaging.
Thank them for their time (and business) over the Christmas season by sending push messages, creating visuals and photographs that reveal the people behind the company, and being kind.
Next Steps:
Observer beyond Christmas. Christmas marks the conclusion of the conventional retail-focused holiday season, but the potential for app marketers continues. For weeks to come, smartphones and tablets that were unwrapped over the holidays will still be considered "new." According to the statistics, download activity in January is steadily rising above that of December.
While it may be tempting to be at the top of the charts on Christmas morning, it may be worthwhile to make a push in the early first quarter in order to benefit from rising usage without facing intense competition.
Ready to build your App for the holiday season with Appily App Builder?
