Email Marketing for Apps – Tips & Strategies

General

Tim Green 25 January 2024

Email marketing has long been one of the most effective ways to promote and put your business on the map. This is mainly due to its versatility across almost every industry and audience, and its proven effectiveness in engagement and conversion rates.

But how effective is email marketing for apps? And how can it be utilized to create effective and successful campaigns?

In this article, we’ll answer both of these questions and offer advice on how to leverage email marketing to promote awareness and drive app downloads. 

The Importance of Email Marketing for Apps

Email marketing has always been an essential tool in the marketer’s arsenal.

• At its core, email marketing helps businesses of all sizes reach new audiences, increase customer retention, and promote brand awareness. Arguably, the main benefit email marketing brings to the table is its directness in reaching customers. 

This direct communication channel establishes a mutually beneficial relationship with recipients. Users who have subscribed to email lists receive important updates and information, often about products or services they are already interested in. 

This existing interest makes email marketing a particularly effective method for app promotion. When users receive an email about your app, they’re more likely to engage with it as it comes from a trusted source.

The Benefits of Email Marketing for Mobile Apps

Let’s dive a little deeper into the advantages email marketing provides for advertising mobile apps:

• Targeted Audience Reach: Email allows for precise targeting. Your app’s promotional campaigns will reach an audience that has shown a previous interest in your content, bypassing the challenges of social media algorithms.

• Personalization and Segmentation: Email marketing excels in its ability to customize messages. This is crucial for apps, as you can address different segments of your audience, such as new, active, or lapsed users, with tailored communication.

• Cost-Effectiveness: This method is especially beneficial for app owners on tight budgets. There are many free email marketing tools that enable reaching a large audience without the hefty price tag associated with other marketing channels.

• Measurable Results: The effectiveness of email campaigns can be tracked through metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. These insights are invaluable for refining app marketing strategies.

• Re-engagement: Email is an effective tool for re-engaging users who have downloaded the app but haven’t used it recently. Through updates, new features, or special offers, you can rekindle their interest.

• Thought Leadership & Brand Visibility: Establishing your app as a category leader is crucial to stay ahead. Alongside competition from other apps, you also face rivals in similar services. Email marketing is an effective strategy to showcase expertise and engage users with valuable insights. Help users address challenges your app solves or offers meaningful benefits.

Before You Create Your Mobile App Email Campaign

Before you begin creating your email marketing app campaign, you need to do two things: set your targets and identify your target audience.

Without targets and clear goals, what do you base your success on? How will it be measured? Before you send any campaigns, you need to think about your email strategy. 

• Each email you send should have its own goal. 

For example, your first email might introduce people to the app and get them to download it. 

The second may be to encourage user engagement by highlighting key features or offering exclusive promotions. Subsequent emails could focus on user retention, seeking feedback, and announcing updates.

• By setting specific goals for each email, you create a structured and purposeful marketing mobile app campaign that guides users through different stages of their app experience. 

Identifying your target audience is equally crucial. Understand their preferences, behaviors, and pain points to tailor your emails effectively. 

• Whether targeting new users or nurturing existing ones, align your content with the audience’s needs and interests. 

This strategic approach enhances the overall effectiveness of your email marketing campaign, increasing the likelihood of achieving your desired outcomes. 

Crafting a Successful Email Marketing Plan for Your Mobile App

Once you have identified your target audience and set initial goals, the next step is preparing your app’s email marketing plan. 

Let’s get started.

1. First, Select an Email Marketing Service

The good news is that the are plenty of helpful email marketing solutions that can help promote awareness around your app. The key is finding one that is easy to use and meets your needs and requirements.

Some things you might want to look for in an email marketing tool or platform include:

• Audience segmentation
• Customer support
• Security
• Automation
• Ease of use

Whether you’re a B2B or B2C company, Moburst’s email marketing service provides an all-encompassing solution to boost your email marketing ROI: From conception and design to content, automation, and mobile app optimization.

Sure, we might be slightly biased, but our extensive experience makes email marketing for mobile apps a breeze. Plus, we provide a complete email newsletter service to ensure you’re always at the forefront of your target audience’s mind.

2. Create Your Email List

Having a targeted email list before you launch your app is crucial to ensure you’re reaching the right people with all your important announcements and updates. If you’ve already launched your app, fret not, you can always create and optimize your email list based on user feedback and engagement.

• A great way to begin creating your email list is to collect your audience’s email addresses and contact info through a newsletter signup form on your website. 

Signup forms are simple to create and platforms like WordPress and Squarespace provide widgets or pre-built templates designed to easily collect email addresses.

Once your customers land on your website, a pop-up saying ‘Subscribe to our newsletter’ can persuade them to enter their contact details. From here, you can email them updates about your app or any other relevant information they might find useful.

Be sure that your pop-up includes a clear CTA (call-to-action), a clear headline (subscribe to our newsletter), and the required form fields to make it easy for them to input their contact details.

If you can, try to include some benefits they’ll receive once they sign up. For example, they could receive a discount upon downloading your app or when they order something through your app.

3. Double-down on Email Design & Layout

There’s nothing worse than receiving an email that’s lacking in the design department.

• Invest some time and effort into aligning your email with your brand’s personality. 

Customers will appreciate the consistency through different marketing channels as it instills trust, highlights professionalism, and empowers your marketing message.

There are some great email design platforms to choose from (Canva offers free ones), or you can design yours from scratch by using the email platform of your choice or utilizing an expert email marketing design service. 

Be sure to include the following in your email design:

• Compelling email copy: Ensure that your emails are in tune with your brand’s language; otherwise, they can fall flat and fail to resonate with your target audience. With that said, make sure you keep it clear and concise. Blocks of text in an email are tough to read and might deter users from reaching that all-important CTA button.

• Aesthetically pleasing visuals: Adding images related to your app, such as screenshots and app preview videos, is crucial to providing an instant visual prompt. For example, if you’re promoting a fitness app, having imagery of people exercising using your app or drinking protein shakes after enjoying a workout will make what’s being offered clearer to users.

• A clear CTA: Your call-to-action should tell your audience exactly what you want them to do. That might be to subscribe to your newsletter or download your app.

• An unsubscribe option: Including an unsubscribe button or link is not only a legal requirement but also a recommended practice. By providing this option, you ensure that your audience can easily opt out of receiving emails from you whenever they choose. 

P.S., if your brand is targeting the European market, it’s crucial to make sure your email marketing efforts are GDPR compliant. 

The key is to ensure that everything from the font and down to the images you’re using is consistent and aligned with your brand. 

4. Include Links to Your App 

Once your app is ready to launch, you’re going to want to give people a link to download it or find out more information about it. 

This is known as a launch campaign. It involves sending an email to your email list alerting them that your app is now live and encouraging them to download it (including an incentive such as a discount or special offer, if possible). 

Each time you email your customers with something relating to your app, whether it’s a patch update, new features, exclusive offers, or something else, be sure to include both download links and interlinks to the app itself.

Don’t be afraid to include app download links across other marketing channels, too, such as your newsletter, pop-ups on your website, social media platforms, and even QR codes on printed advertisements.

5. Monitor Your Campaign’s Performance

Analyzing how your campaign is doing is crucial to identifying what worked and what didn’t. From here, you can tailor future campaigns based on data gathered from audience feedback as well as analytics programs. 

Looking at metrics like open rates, conversions, click-throughs, bounce rates, and open rates will help you learn more about what your audience does and doesn’t like. A/B testing is great for discovering the effectiveness of your campaigns and optimizing them for a better conversion rate. 

Experiment with subject lines, email copy, and your CTAs to discover your users’ preferences. From here, you can further refine your campaigns to meet the needs and requirements of your audience. 

Conclusion 

Email marketing is one of the best ways to put your app on the map. Not only does email allow you to communicate with your customers directly, but it can also help you reach a wider audience.

By implementing the above strategies and enlisting the help of an expert email marketing service, you can create more awareness around your app, increase engagement and downloads, and keep your readers updated on any news about your app.

The key is to formulate a mobile marketing strategy from the start and monitor its effectiveness as it continues. Don’t be afraid to adapt and change things if something isn’t working. 

To help with this, take a look at our article on 5 Common Mobile Marketing Mistakes & How to Avoid Them.

Tim Green

Tim Green is passionate about marketing and technology and currently enjoys writing content within the Fintech & SaaS industries, having specialized in cybersecurity for much of his career. Tim frequently contributes to leading industry publications to share and expand his knowledge and skills with the wider community.

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