60% of mobile applications do not generate more than 1000 downloads per year. This figure is scary to anyone considering creating a mobile app. The first question that comes to mind is why only 40% of applications succeed in exceeding this threshold. Is it so difficult to develop a good product in the mobile market? And finally, why do some applications still generate a lot of downloads?

Indeed, 1000 downloads per year is nothing for some applications. Do you know, for example, myTaxi? This is one of the most popular taxi control applications, launched in 2009 by a Hamburg startup. It has been downloaded 10 million times … It is clear that having a good product would not have sufficed the young shoot to conquer the market. Indeed, myTaxi has invested a lot of resources in 360 ° marketing. We are talking about the hundreds of thousands of euros spent on promoting the application.

What is 360° marketing?

360 ° marketing uses all the online and offline communication vectors. Trademarks identify and exploit in an organized and coherent way all possible resources, be it a social network, a television commercial or a food truck, to reach potential users.
An example of a 360 ° marketing campaign to promote an application

The way myTaxi reaches potential customers is a perfect example of a 360 ° marketing campaign. To better understand this strategy, let’s see how it works from the point of view of a potential user.

The first contact: offline marketing

Our potential user often travels from Madrid to Barcelona in AVE (the Spanish version of the TGV). One day, he lost the keys to his apartment, so he could not leave his house at the scheduled time. It only took a few minutes to find them, but it was already too late to go to the station by subway. So he had to take the taxi. In his neighborhood, it is rare to see an unoccupied taxi, but he managed to catch one to get to the station two minutes before the train leaves. After sitting in his seat, he sees a myTaxi advertisement hanging from the back of the front seat. This one offers 10 euros for the first route ordered through its mobile application.

It is very likely that this is already enough to convince our potential user to download the application and at least to test it (especially if he has undergone a lot of stress before getting on the train!). However, to be sure to get noticed and to enter the consciousness of the potential user, myTaxi also buys advertising space in the stations through which it will pass during its journey. He will be able to see a publicity of myTaxi at the station of Sants and the one to that of Antocha. It is a polite way of insisting and a strategy of a formidable efficiency that allows myTaxi to bring the prospects of the physical world to the digital world. The brand also relies on its users to prospect new customers: following a trip made, the driver offers users discounts for family and friends.

Online marketing

myTaxi also takes advantage of the power of social networks to search for customers. The company has invested, for example, in advertising on Facebook. It goes without saying that a satisfied user of the application will not hesitate to recommend it to his friends. Thus, the brand succeeded in provoking an effect of word-of-mouth. Finally, she does not forget to pamper her clients. They receive regular promotions through the application.

To understand how to properly promote an application, let’s take a look at the story of our potential user who took his train to Madrid. His first contact with the brand was through offline channels. It was a very important step to encourage it to download and try the application. Digital marketing did not really gain importance until after the first use of the app, once a relationship of trust had been established between the customer and the brand.

myTaxi brings us a good example of a 360 ° marketing campaign to promote a mobile app. The case illustrates perfectly how different offline and online channels can be part of a larger marketing strategy. The key to the success of this type of marketing campaigns is the analysis of the behavior of the potential user. Every little information about him is important: where does he work, what are his favorite places, where is he going to lunch? We do not invite you to spy on your potential customers, but with statistics you may already have some ideas on the preferences of your target audience. Finally, do not forget to promote an application not only to make it known, but also to increase its conversion rate.

What budget to properly promote an application?

Many implementers of application projects do not realize the importance of marketing for the success of their project. They invest their entire budget in the development of the application. But, in reality, brands that manage to make themselves known in the mobile application market dedicate a large part of their budget to marketing.

Initially, it is recommended to distribute the budget as follows:

• 30% of the budget for the development of the application,
• 70% of the budget to promote the application.

There is no definite budget that must be provided to properly promote an application. On the other hand, one thing is certain: as long as you want to reach potential new customers, you will have to invest in marketing. This means that these investments should never cease. There are always potential customers on the market. It’s up to you to see if your brand is ready to reach them!

Speaking of the budget and investments … Keep in mind that you do not have to have all the money already ready before launching your project. Many companies approach investors gradually, as their brand grows. Contrary to what one can imagine, investors are reluctant to invest in a project they do not know. This is why they often want to see part of the project already realized before trusting the one who seeks a helping hand to finance it. This means that to start creating an application and to promote it, you will only need a part of the total budget.

Finally, do not forget that it is possible to get noticed even if you have just a very small budget. A startup whose history started in a garage did not have a big budget but a lot of creativity. His potential user was a young man or a young woman who likes to party.

So the startup started organizing parties that you could enter free of charge provided you download the application. Since this does not require much effort, future users did so without worrying … It was already during the party that they began to use the application, in particular to add to their list of knowledge the people they met In the evening. In addition, by later telling their friends the atypical party that they attended, they quickly created a buzz around the application.

to summarize

In the case of mobile applications, one tends to forget that potential customers are flesh and blood. Most marketing app campaigns therefore focus primarily on the digital world. Yet, as the example of myTaxi shows, we must find a way to bring the potential user of the “physical” world to the mobile application.

To promote an effective application, it is important to know the behavior of the potential user. The following questions will help you identify it and where to find it:

• What social networks does it use?
• What mobile apps does it use on a daily basis?
• What web sites does he like to visit?
• Does it follow from the media? What are her favorite bloggers?
• Is he a student? Does it work?
• What is his job ?
• What does he do for entertainment?
• Where is he going to party?
• Are there events which he would never fail?
• How does he spend his weekends?
• What are her leisure activities (fashion, technology, cooking …)?