How to make your app a must-have

One question many advertisers and publishers are asking is why they should bother with apps when nearly as many consumers are hitting mobile browsers. Speed is the main reason at this point, but the wealth of content is another option brands should consider when looking into apps.

“A lot of app functionality can be encompassed within an advanced mobile browser which will provide equivalent functionality to the app,” said Adam Boyden, President, Conduit. “However, apps have the advantage of offline performance and faster performance. Further, as solutions become available to simplify and unify the creation of apps for publishers, I expect there will be an increase in the number and quality of apps out there and therefore an increase in the level of app popularity.”

So, apps are faster and apps don’t need a 3- or 4G connection, and yet large numbers of consumers purchase and then rapidly delete apps. According to Boyden, these quick buys and deletes are due to a lack of strong content.

“The central challenge currently in the app economy is that too many publishers are thinking mostly about what they want consumers to do with their content and not enough of what is interesting or useful for the consumer,” said Boyden. “For example, a consumer packaged goods company might build an app which just provides information on the product, where you can buy it and the odd coupon. This is fundamentally not very interesting long term to a consumer and will lead to the limited usage you refer to.”

How to avoid the trap of providing content that isn’t technically useful? Adam suggests thinking about content that is added value. For instance, Tide Detergent created an app that helped consumers get tough stains out of their clothing. The app provided directions that weren’t ‘advertising’ Tide, but that were useful – and probably made a few new fans of the brand. Added to that, Tide could advertise to consumers through the app by offering coupons, discount offers, product information and other branded content at the same time they imparted the ‘unbranded’ content.