Despite the over-populated and disorganized app stores of today, growth of app usage and exploration has not slowed. After an incredible holiday season for smartphone and tablet sales, Flurry Analytics expects app downloads to break a billion/week on a regular basis in early 2012.
Marketers should be scrambling to develop or improve their app strategies, but the rising bar of quality makes it tougher than ever to stand out. Google and Apple haven't exactly made it easy to master the app discovery model, but solving the puzzle can position marketers to win big.
Brands that earn a spot on someone's mobile device possibly secure the most valuable piece of marketing real estate available. Consumers keep smartphones within arm's reach 24/7, literally: 61 percent of people sleep next to their phones, 75 percent their phones in the bathroom, 20 percent would rather lose their wallets than their phones, and 33 percent would rather give up sex. Ten percent have used them during sex!
This 24/7 use enables marketers to build relationships like never before by impacting, enhancing and influencing daily behaviors on consumers' most trusted and adored assets.
Before driving downloads, marketers should consider these six tips to take app experiences to new heights.
1. Keep Apps Fresh
Sadly, many marketers think they get it right just by having an app. They check that box and move on. During a quick survey of 20 branded apps on iOS, only five of them had been updated in the last six months.
Too many brands treat apps like campaigns, not even attempting to sustain engagement with the users they spent so much time and money reaching. Twenty-six percent of apps downloaded are used only once, and 95 percent of free apps never get used again after the first 30 days.




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