4 tactics for app marketers to weather tough times

Source © Kaspars Grinvalds 123rf With the current economic climate, app marketers are under pressure to deliver results

The key is to focus on precision and highly-effective campaigns that deliver value to the core audience.It's quite a challenging task to accomplish considering that global consumer in-app spending decreased by 4.8% year-over-year in Q3 2022.

To sustain the economy, marketers need to redirect their attention toward maintaining relationships with their key audiences and investing in the channels that provide the highest returns.

4 tactics for app marketers

To weather the tough times, here are four tactics for app marketers to consider this year:

Focus on the most important element of app marketing: the user

Developing a deep understanding of core audiences is a valuable investment for app marketers.

This requires analysing user personas to identify crucial characteristics like challenges, goals, preferences, and demographics, which must be supported by hard data. Although app marketers may have a general idea of these characteristics, it is essential to review and refine them continuously as apps evolve.

User personas are dynamic, and app marketers must remain in touch with their core audience's habits and expectations. Therefore, gathering feedback and data from app users is crucial. This information can help identify pain points in the user experience or reveal user interests that can guide the next app feature.

By evaluating user personas, app marketers can design strategies that deliver the most significant value to their target audience. For instance, in the education industry, it could mean providing up-to-date course materials, while for entertainment apps, it could mean offering fresh content that aligns with user interests. The goal is to determine what core audiences value the most and make it easily accessible to them.

Invest in building an in-depth knowledge

This should be of your core audience, assess their user personas, and identify key characteristics. App marketers should not limit themselves to one channel as audiences are not confined to using just one. Diversifying the channel mix is crucial for reaching users effectively and connecting with them through email marketing, social media platforms, and the app itself. Furthermore, broadening the channel mix presents new opportunities.

For instance, South Africans spend approximately 10 hours a day on apps and social media. App marketers must not overlook the potential of platforms that attract this level of user attention, making it essential for them to test it as part of their channel mix.

TikTok has seen a significant increase in ad spend as marketers take advantage of its affordability compared to competitors like Meta's Facebook, providing app marketers with a strong potential to do more with less.

By exploring different channels and how they can work together, app marketers can engage their users at every stage of the funnel, driving installs, increasing retention rates, and cultivating loyalty.



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Embrace the cross-channel approach

As app marketers broaden their cross-channel strategies, it is essential to strike a balance between promoting their app and delivering value beyond it. In today's online landscape, apps can learn from media companies and focus on building not just a user base, but a fanbase as well.

To achieve this, app marketers should create, manage, and share content that resonates with their audiences on the channels where they are most active.

Diversify the channel mix

This will allow you to reach your audience more effectively.

By consistently using these tactics, app marketers can cultivate a devoted community of app evangelists who have a strong connection with their favourite apps and are likely to recommend them to others. This approach helps with both user acquisition and retention and proves to be a cost-effective way of amplifying app marketers' efforts.