In the digital age, apps gain ground over websites. Today, users prefer doing their research on mobile devices and businesses are faced with a new challenge — engaging and reaching their audience in the most convenient way.

While app development is the first step to engaging with a wider audience, marketing this app is the next in line in importance. Developing a great app for your online shop or even business has a good potential for return on investment. Of course, the app has to be masterfully developed by a team with deep knowledge and skill. But neglecting to aggressively market the app might neutralize all the efforts of your development team.

If entrepreneurs don’t think about presenting their app in the most appealing package for their audience, how do they think people will become aware of it? To thrive in highly competitive markets and sectors (and there are more than 8 million apps in Google Play and 2.2 million apps in the Apple Store), business owners need to leverage their marketing strategies to profit from the apps developed.

Below are some strategies that have proven to be highly efficient when looking to market a new app.

Leverage Machine Learning

Machine learning shows great potential in terms of marketing and it is changing the way marketers think about advertising apps. Machine learning will do for app marketing what it does best for everything else: streamline data, offer access to valuable user insights and engage users differently, based on their personal preferences and online behaviors.

Your team of developers will help you learn more about using machine learning in the most efficient way. But as a ground rule, you should remember that machine learning is offering valuable insights and data only if the data you feed it is relevant. But when implemented successfully, this technology should help you with the following.

• Data mining – a big advantage offered by machine learning is the ease with which it analyses high volumes of data points in real time and allows business owners and app developers to make informed and optimized decisions. In the app marketing process, this will offer ease and boost the team’s ability to tailor better advertising methods.
• Customer value – ML technology allows businesses to identify valuable customers with ease. Not all customers are equally important to your enterprise and discerning between them is rather difficult when machine learning is not implemented. This technology allows you to look for customers where you haven’t looked for before. Searches and in-app purchases are, for instance, great indicators that can help you scale your app.  
• Personalization – feeding the right message to the right consumer is a good way to make your app known globally. Machine learning allows marketers to develop personalized ads and advertising messages with more ease. Marketers today gamble on personalized experiences in the marketing process and consumer journey. And according to Google, more than 80% of leading marketers today agree that, in the near future, machine learning will play a key role in personalized advertising.

Implement Proper Onboarding

It has been proven previously that poor onboarding strategies boost the app abandonment rates. Creating a positive first interaction of the user with your app grows in importance by the day. Positive first interactions improve engagement rates and nurse continuous user engagement. According to this study, 24% of app users abandon the app after first use. According to the same study, more than 60% of app visitors, visit the app 11 or more times, if the app offers a true onboarding experience.

Presenting users with a welcome screen and then with several other screens that familiarize them with the app and its functions seems to be a facile way to boost user engagement and get the word out about your app. Enterprise application development and integration developers will be able to create a seamless onboarding experience for your users that will guarantee their return. Educating and helping users interact with the app at its full potential increases user engagement.

Use Rich Push Notifications

When working on an app, your team should always have future marketing strategies in mind. Developing rich push notifications that include everything from image, video, and text seems to also boost engagement rates. These notifications promote in-app interactions and engage users that are not currently using your app.

Besides, as an enterprise, you should know that users opting-in their push notifications show higher potential and are seen as higher-value users. This demographic seems to also engage with apps more frequently. Push notifications show long-term user retention. According to a series of studies, users who opt-in push notifications are more likely to return to using the app within 30 days.

So when trying to reduce app abandonment, push notifications seem to work wonderfully.

In-App Messaging Matters as Well

Rich in-app experiences seem to be tailored around in-app messaging as well. The best way developers and marketers can handle this, is by creating personalized messages for each user and enforcing a quality in-app experience for them. Delivering content based on user preference becomes easier when in-app messaging strategies are implemented. This creates a seamless experience for the user and a gradual growth from the initial session to their conversion. User retention rates seem to also grow when personalized in-app messaging is implemented.

Take Advantage of Geolocation

Location tech seems to enforce better app marketing capabilities. User location can now be leveraged in unique ways. This technology allows targeting conversion-ready users and delivering the right message at the right time. Similar technologies seem to also close the gap between the brand releasing the app and the app itself.

When you are working on your new app it’s important to remember that while development is a crucial first step, marketing your future product and getting it to the hands of their end-users is equally important.  And these five strategies we’ve mentioned above should come in handy when marketing your brand-new product.