If you haven’t started thinking about theholidays yet – consider this your first warning. Your air conditioning unitmight still be blowing out cold air on its maximum setting but that’s nothingcompared to the chills you’ll get if you miss out on the biggest app marketingopportunity of the year. The holidays are coming.
The holidays aren’t just a greatopportunity to close Q4 with a bang. Get your app marketing strategy right overthe next few months and you’ll be reaping rewards long into 2020 and even beyond.
Millionsof New Devices
According to the research firm Gartner,more than 408 million smartphones found their way into the hands of consumersin the fourth quarter of 2018 — and it’s worth remembering that many analystsconsidered 2018 to be a bad year for new device sales.
While many smartphone manufacturers (OEMs)perhaps didn’t sell as many high-end devices as they would have liked, thefinal quarter of year belonged to entry-level and mid-priced devices,suggesting a lot of smartphones found their way into the world as gifts.
While the big brands jostled for marketdominance, with Samsung, Apple, and Huawei (owning a respective 18%, 17%, 15%of the Q4 2018 market share), it’s clear there was one big winner in the battlefor hearts and minds in the smartphone ecosystem – the Android operatingsystem.
With a 76% global share of the market,targeting Android users should be the number one priority for any app developeror marketer and the holidays present the perfect opportunity for them to make asizeable land grab.
FurtherReading: AppleBrand Loyalty Declines in Favor of Android Devices.
UnboxingYour Apps
Pre-loading your apps on specific devicesor networks presents the perfect opportunity to position them on devices at themoment of maximum engagement – the unboxing.
By preloading your app it almost becomes anintegral part of, what for many users will be their most gratefully receivedgift of the year. This creates the perception of trust — something that can beincredibly hard-won in other routes to market. In a market where engagement isoften the only metric that really counts, trust is everything.
Note: The rigorous testing conducted by Digital Turbine and our partnerOEMs and mobile networks, guarantees that only the most reliable and secure appsmake their way onto devices.
It’s also worth remembering that more thanhalf of all smartphone owners will never download a single app from an appmarketplace like Google Play. With this in mind, pre-loading your app might beyour one and only opportunity to reach many millions of smartphone owners overthe lifetime of their device.
FurtherReading: AppDistribution: Alternative Routes to Market for Android Developers.
CompetitiveGifting
In any competitive app market, success isalways based on delivering the right app to the right person at the right time.If your app works for a particular user, why would they even bother searchingfor and downloading a competitive app?
This approach works well for many DigitalTurbine clients who rely on pre-loading to position their apps in front of areceptive audience while they focus on providing the best quality experiencefor their users.
For service-based apps (think news,weather, music, food delivery, transport, eCommerce) where there might be verylittle to differentiate between services, pre-loading might be your single mostcompelling competitive advantage.
FurtherReading: DigitalTurbine’s Secret Sauce: Reaching New Users at Scale.
MarketingYour Entire App Portfolio with SingleTap™ Installs
By combining your pre-loading strategy withDigital Turbine’s SingleTap™solution, a single pre-loaded app can create multiple opportunities todrive engagement across your entire portfolio of apps.
SingleTap™ allows app developers to promote alternative apps via appnotifications and in-app banners, as well as links in emails, social mediaposts, blog posts, and other online content while enabling users to downloadthe promoted app with a single tap. This creates a frictionless app installexperience and promotes greater engagement opportunities.
Further Reading: Top Game Developer Enjoys 7x Lift in Conversion Rates with SingleTap™ Installs.
TheHolidays Wait For Nobody
While the holidays might seem a long wayoff, pre-loaded app inventory is already being snapped-up across populardevices and geographies. We are already anticipating limited availability onpopular Samsung devices including the recently released Galaxy Note 10.
However, successful app marketing is allabout targeting, and therefore may or may not always be about the latestrelease devices. The app marketing team at Digital Turbine are experts atmatching the perfect device with the perfect app to ensure maximum exposure.This includes access to highly specialized devices and platforms where again,inventory is likely to be limited.
FurtherReading: DigitalTurbine and Razer – Getting Serious About Gaming.
Don’t wait for the holiday season tokick-in before getting serious about your app marketing strategy. Speak to oneof our app marketing experts today to ensure you hit this festive seasonrunning.
