In today’s modern world, mobile phone is used everywhere, every time. People are either asleep or connected. So as a marketer, if you are not able to turn them into your customers, either you are asleep or don’t know how to connect with them.
Marketing is nothing but the art of communicating intelligently and meaningfully with your target audience. And when it comes to mobile app marketing, it becomes more important for businesses and companies which are running or promoting their business through a mobile application.
2020 was a year of fast learning experiences for mobile app marketers. As people were (and still) bound to remain self-isolated due to lockdown in the covid-19 pandemic, apps became necessary tools for staying up to date and connected with society and the world.
People switched to various mobile apps to focus on their mental and physical health, stay productive in work from home, interact with brands, do their shopping, and stay entertained.
These all are the trends in the mobile world. App owners who want to make their mobile app more effective and result-producing, need to focus on these emerging trends in mobile app marketing to remain one step ahead in the future.
There have been several events in 2020 which have made app marketing more competitive and interesting. Many marketers still consider Chabot, user-generated content (UGC), influencer marketing, omnichannel marketing, rating, and reviews as important areas in mobile app marketing.
But to know what new trends are most likely to evolve in 2021 that help app owners to remain consistent through the future unpredictability, our in-house ASO specialists and app marketers researched on it and created this post.
In this post, you will know about new mobile app marketing trends that could help you decide where you should pay high attention in 2021 so that you can generate maximum ROI from your mobile application.
“Mobile app marketing is not about marketing your app but engaging users intelligently and meaningfully through your mobile app” – Alekh Verma, CEO & Founder, eSearch Logix
TREND #1: The Rise of ‘At-Home’ Category Apps
As per App Annie’s report, mobile users will be spending on ‘at-home’ categories such as online shopping, eLearning, video streaming, up to 1.3 trillion hours on Android apps in 2021. The heavy usage of mobile devices for online shopping during lockdown gave a boost in mobile commerce vs eCommerce.
Consumers became more dependent on mobile apps for online shopping as they find it much easier than walking into a store and make a better buying decision as well. Particularly Grocery shopping apps alone saw a 200% growth in the USA during February and March 2020.
Besides this, the pandemic situation heavily impact the mode of transaction as people had to avoid payment in cash. It gave a jump in the use of mobile payment.
However, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Facebook Pay, and Samsung Pay have been in the market for few years, but after the pandemic hit, consumers were compelled to use apps to make digital payments. In other words, mobile payment apps are booming which has influenced people to adopt a new world of payment.
So as people now using mobile apps that could help them with various needs at home such as virtual fitness classes, online doctor consultation, video conferences, online shopping, mobile payments, and grocery delivery, we expect this ‘at-home’ trend continues to grow.
TREND #2: Apps with Video Streaming and Live Events Will Boom
Going live is a new trend. Last year, people had to stay home alone for a long time like never before, at that time, video chats and online events become the best option for social interaction. eSearch Logix believes the use of live video streaming apps will continue to increase in 2021 even more.
And because of this, video content, live streaming, online events like webinars, and advertising ideas for socializing, building, connections, and sharing experiences should be at the top priority for a mobile app marketing agency.
For example, there are already existing live streaming platforms that have opened up like LinkedIn Virtual Events.
Read: How to Develop a Live Video Streaming App?
TREND #3: Being Good is the Key for App Branding
2020 was a year of big challenges as it affected dramatically all aspects of human life worldwide which created a natural demand for brands to do good things or take humanitarian initiatives. And we saw many brands taking initiatives for people to help in the pandemic situation. Through this act, brands were able to show their empathy and increase their brand awareness.
Therefore, digital marketers should first make sure their brand values match your audience’s demands and communicate them effectively. Moreover, you should try to push your company or brand to take humanitarian initiatives (it is not just branding but proving being a good citizen). And it works seriously because people value who values people.
Trend #4: Video is the Secret of App Success
The power of video is so huge that it has probably the biggest influence on mobile app marketing. There is a big scope to make your app popular with video marketing as it comes with different ways of promoting or advertising features like live story features, video editing, and AR filters.
Staying authentic and close with your app users will remain an important strategy to promote your mobile app because only videos have this special feature.
TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, FaceApp, all these apps have unique features like quick video editing, facial filters that allow people to interact with the app enthusiastically. Many industry experts believe apps like TikTok and Snapchat have proved that video editing apps can change your business.
There is increasing usage in one-to-one videos for personalized interaction for both B2B and B2C marketing and that is why video is expected to become more trendy in 2021.
Our app marketers at eSearch Logix rely on creative video content because it easily attracts an audience in few seconds. To know how we do it successfully, read our blog:
Apart from this, 5G will empower app owners to provide a more engaging and richer app user experience which might have been unavailable due to bandwidth and internet speed limitations. Best app marketing agency in India suggests 5G capabilities will help businesses to advertise mobile app in various ways such as:
- High-speed data delivery
- 4K video streaming
- HD augmented reality
- HD virtual reality
Trend #5: Augmented Reality is the New Power of Mobile App
As we said the purpose of app marketing is not to market your app but to give meaningful content to the audience through your mobile app that inspires them to buy your products or services. No matter you invest in PPC campaigns, App Store Optimization, SEO, or other methods, people make their decision to use any product even your app when they have trust.
That is why the concept of ‘try before you buy’ is taking a spark in the eCommerce industry because companies know when consumers have trust in a product they don’t think much to purchase or invest in it.
And augmented reality has emerged in the past few years dramatically so as it became a new power of the mobile app. AR app has the power to boost your sales by enhancing your app use engagement rate. AR enables the app to interact with users that gives them a more personalized app experience.
Major brands find AR as the influential feature that is why they are investing in start-ups that work on innovations to try makeup, hairstyles, clothing, home furnishing, and jewelry inside the apps.
Top Android application development companies in India suggest augmented reality as a key influential factor to market your mobile application. For example, Nike Fit, IKEA Place, Google Lens, Sephora, YouCam Makeup, are apps of the world’s iconic brands, and these all are empowered with augmented reality features.
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TREND #6: The Rise of Social Media Commerce
Social media platforms are turning into social media commerce. Before buying any product, people generally read reviews and feedback from other customers to make a better buying decision. And social media channels are the best options when it comes to reliable feedback.
This trend has given birth to social media commerce which has been evolving gradually. But it gets a booster when the big players jumped into it last year like Facebook Shops (May 2020), TikTok Partnering with Shopify (Oct 2020), and Instagram Shop tab (Nov 2020).
In addition to this, the popular messaging app WhatsApp includes a shopping button through which users can directly access the catalog. All these big social media apps will continue to boost social media commerce in the upcoming years and 2021 is just the acceleration phase.
TREND #7: Emergence of Super Apps
This trend is most popular in Asian countries. In Europe and the USA, consumers prefer using one app for specific tasks like one app for social media, second app for money transfers, third app for ordering food, etc. In India and China, the concept of Super Apps or one-app-fits-all model is popular such as Paytm, Reliance Jio, PhonePe, WeChat, etc.
These super apps are redefining the app user experience because it doesn’t only create better user engagement but also optimizes the app owners’ marketing and sales costs.
According to research by Morgan Stanley, super apps are likely to dominate also in the rest of Southeast Asia, with a projected revenue opportunity of $23 billion by 2025. So if your target audience is from Asia countries, app owners should pay attention to this type of app.
TREND #8: Less User-Level Tracking
Data regulations like IDFA and GDPR restrict the freedom of businesses to collect the under data. As marketers always want to understand their consumer behavior through collecting information via forms, subscriptions, etc., there is an increased restriction on gathering information at user level.
Users are always concerned about their privacy and data and some major incidents in privacy policy have demanded businesses to care for user’s personal information more seriously than ever.
These laws in data collection create pressure on app marketers to get data in different ways especially for eCommerce stores as they heavily rely on the advantages of eCommerce app analytics. This trend will compel marketers and app owners to find new ways to get the needed answers about their potential customers.
Conclusion: App Marketer Needs To Be a Smart Marketer
If we summarize this overview of mobile app marketing trends 2021, it is clear that today’s app marketers have more options with some challenges to promote their app.
It only requires sharp understanding of user behavior and intelligent implementation of strategy which is based on the latest data. Simply invest in your own audience through community, social, email, web, and you will see your app getting more attention on the Internet.
Thomas Petit, a world-renowned mobile marketing thought-leader said at the App Promotion Summit 2020 that an app UA manager is expected to be creative storyteller and data analyst. They should pay attention to planning and implementing omnichannel and cross-functional while doing organic and paid UA both, don’t rely solely on paid marketing plans.
If your mobile app is also struggling to get a good number of downloads or high user engagement, it would be a better idea to start with auditing your app marketing first. Through this way, you will know the lope holes and understand what new steps need to be taken to promote your app successfully.
So what you think, what will be the role of an app marketer in 2021?
Share your valuable thoughts in the below comment box and let our audience know something useful from you.
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