Apps are changing the world. They went from non-existent before the smartphone revolution to being inseparable from daily life. There are almost three million apps available in the Google Play Store. And it’s estimated that mobile apps will create about $190 billion in total revenue through purchases and advertising by 2020.
Apps come in myriad forms and serve a host of purposes—from fitness tracking to entertainment. Subscription-based apps are now proving to be some of the most useful for users and lucrative for creators. Here are a few approaches that can improve marketing of subscription-based apps.
Consistently Release New Content
The basis of subscription-based apps is simple. People pay a subscription fee in order to have access to content or a service provided by an app. The Economist is one such app that utilizes a subscription model. Users get one free piece of content every day. However, for full access, they must pay the fee. This is a great way for news or content-based apps to generate revenue from consumers.
But people will only subscribe if you can demonstrate that the content or service is worth the monthly fee. For creators, this means continually developing and releasing novel content. Your newest, most relevant content should take center stage of your app marketing strategy.
Build a Stellar Product
No one wants to use a clunky app, or one that doesn’t seem to offer an obviously useful service. This is especially true when people are paying for it. Spotify is pretty much the gold standard of subscription apps. The app offers a free, ad-based version, as well as a premium, ad-free one. Over 70 million people are subscribed to one of Spotify’s premium platforms. This is largely because the Spotify service offers a coveted product in a user-friendly package. Often the most effective marketing strategy is to just build something that consumers will use and then share with their friends.
Go for Quality of Users over Quantity
It’s great if you have a lot of people installing your app. But pure install rate is not necessarily a good metric for measuring the effectiveness of your app or your marketing strategy. Especially for subscription apps, it’s important to attract users that are going to stick around for a while. The cost of marketing an app increases if you’re experiencing a lot of churn from attracting the wrong users. This is why it’s a much better strategy to target highly specific groups when setting up marketing campaigns for your app. Serving dynamic ads to target lookalike groups will help here.
Know How to Retarget
Retargeting can be one of the most effective ways to market a subscription-based app. Essentially, retargeting is a way for marketers to advertise to specific people who have already installed a mobile app. Since these people already showed enough interest to initially install the app, they will be more likely to convert by signing up for a subscription—provided you advertise accordingly. Serving personalized and timely ads in the hours, days and weeks following the initial installation is key to drumming up reengagement.
Be Balanced with Notifications
You want people to stay engaged with your app after they install it. If they find it to be legitimately useful, there’s a chance they will then pay for a subscription. You can accomplish this by sending notifications regarding new content or updates to the product.
This can, however, get out of hand and actually hurt your chances of gaining subscribers. People don’t want to be bombarded with notifications. This might actually encourage some users to uninstall simply because they don’t want to see a huge mass of updates from one source. It’s important to use some finesse when sending push notifications.
Subscription-based apps are reinventing how people interact with their phones. Consider these marketing techniques when promoting your own product.
