Dive Brief:
- Mobile experience management firm Apptimize conducted research on mobile apps and found that marketers aren’t taking full advantage of their company apps with 32% reporting never or only rarely running marketing campaigns on their apps. Just 29% reported running campaigns occasionally.
- Another issue Apptimize uncovered is that app stagnation is real. Only 32% of those surveyed reported releasing new versions or updates on an at least bi-weekly basis, although 36% of respondents said they generate 50% or more of their revenue from their mobile apps.
- One reason for this app stagnation as the research reports is that 55% of non-developer respondents said it took weeks for a request to get into the hands of live app users and 27% said it took months.
Dive Insight:
Are marketers leaving money on the table by not utilizing their own apps? According to Nancy Hua, CEO of Apptimize, the reason might be tied to a lack of resources and technical know-how.
She told Marketing Dive that one-third of respondents to the research had said that they weren't running campaigns on company apps because "it is technically too hard or they don't have the resources to do so." Hua said time-sensitivity is another factor.
She explained that turning on or off campaigns through traditional methods required an app store redeployment, and given that most companies only release once a month or less, "maintaining timely and seasonal content doesn't become a part of the mobile strategy. This is a missed opportunity -- delivering relevant content in the context and time that the user is browsing is core to engagement."
Hua had previously told Marketing Dive that a mistake many marketers make with their company apps is focusing on gaining users after launch rather than improving the app based on user feedback, analytics and testing app elements. This mistake is something Apptimize’s new research found is still an issue for mobile marketers, and something Hua found surprising in the results.
Apps aren't being updated frequently, despite it being very important strategically, and so traditional marketing tactics aren't being used.
"There's a huge opportunity to bring mobile strategy execution in line with its importance to the business," she said.