Why getting your app marketing right is crucial to digital transformation

This article is part of our Opinions section.

The past few years have taught us an awful lot when it comes to digital transformation. Businesses scrambled to adapt to remote work environments and we had a surge in online activity. This crash course highlighted a crucial truth: digital transformation isn’t optional – it’s a matter of survival. Companies that lagged behind in digitising their offerings faced immense challenges, and many didn’t make it. 

Even for those who embraced digitalisation, a critical piece often gets overlooked: the power of a well-designed and well-marketed mobile app. 

Apps can be game-changers

The pandemic lockdowns exposed a stark digital divide. Organisations with user-friendly, well-marketed apps thrived, while those with bare-bones offerings or none at all struggled. In 2024, the landscape is even more competitive.

Think of your app as your direct line to customers, a virtual storefront, and a treasure trove of valuable data. According to Statista, worldwide spending on digital transformation reached a staggering $2.15 trillion in 2023, with a projected growth of $3.9 trillion by 2027. In this crowded digital space, an exceptional app can be the deciding factor for customer engagement and brand loyalty. When the world went into lockdown it became the number one source of engagement and sales for many organisations.

It is therefore surprising that businesses often treat their app as simply an extension of their website or as a basic marketing channel. A great app is the cherry on top of the digitalisation sundae.

What makes a great app?

So what makes a great app? User experience (UX) reigns supreme. Simplicity and intuitive design are key. Consumers have zero tolerance for slow or clunky interfaces and according to a study, 70% of users will abandon a mobile app if it takes more than three seconds to load. 

The other important thing is leveraging data and insights to personalise interactions and offer tailored services. Forget standalone apps – true integration is the key.

But here’s the catch: purpose is paramount. Don’t fall into the trap of creating an app just because “everyone has one”. Identify a gap in your current digital experience and use the app to bridge it. What unique value can it offer that your website or social media channels can’t? The best apps are built around user needs, providing information, functionality, and marketing messages specifically tailored for the app experience.

The information users demand, the functionality they need and the marketing communications that will engage them vary markedly from websites, social or in-store channels. 

This is a very quick overview of some of the main factors that need to be considered when designing the app. There are plenty of more in-depth analysis pieces online that go into best practices around app development, however, it brings me to my central point. As good as your app could be, it will count for nothing and do little to support digital transformation if your customers do not know that it exists. 

Building a great app is not enough: importance of app marketing

App marketing is seldom thought of as part of the digitalisation journey. Nevertheless, if absent or poorly executed, it can represent a single point of failure for a lot of businesses.

Think about it this way: if you’re a business operating predominantly from online sales, how well do you think you would fare if users could not find your website? They would Google words similar to your offering and your business wouldn’t appear on the first page. Maybe if it did appear, the short description put people off clicking. Perhaps the logo, name or branding that is displayed has little resemblance to what they expect from your company. All of this happens to even the biggest companies in app stores. Why? Because they do not engage in even the most basic app store optimisation. 

Start by using the most relevant and searchable keywords in the name and description of your app. A little research here can go a long way to identifying which words these should be. No less important is including high-quality creatives that represent your app. A low-resolution or poorly chosen image can raise red flags for customers. So too can badly written supporting copy. The goal is to get the customer excited but also summarise the app in such a way that they know exactly what they are getting. 

Promoting your app

Next, how will you promote your app? In the same way, traditional, paid-for, social and PR communications are all used to enhance the visibility of a brand and its website, an app requires its own tailored marketing campaign. How you market your app must be considered as a separate (yet consistent) part of the wider marketing strategy.

There are of course specialist tech platforms that can do a lot of the heavy lifting. However, as the app market is so competitive, for the app to get visibility it needs a reasonable marketing budget. This is why it’s critical to consider the costs associated with your app in the wider context of digital transformation. If you have already spent hundreds of thousands or millions of euros, pounds and dollars on building the infrastructure, websites and expertise needed to be digitally transformed, it would be a huge false economy to restrict the relatively modest marketing budget required to make your app a success. Clever and efficient use of ASO technology and other marketing platforms will ensure that you have a good ROI on your spending. 

Think of digital transformation as a chain. A single weak link can compromise the entire system. Your app may not be the most obvious piece, but it can be one of the most impactful. By investing in a user-centric app and a strategic marketing campaign, you unlock a powerful tool to acquire new customers, retain existing ones, and elevate your overall business offering. In the ever-evolving digital landscape, a well-crafted app is no longer a luxury – it’s the secret weapon that propels your business towards success.

Related reading

• Is the future of marketing the metaverse, GenAI or something else?
• How to make your app stand out in today’s digital world
• How can small app developers compete with big businesses?