Eight Tips to Market Your App on Black Friday

It’s almost that time of the year again. The holiday season is about to begin and with it, the shopping bonanza will commence too. Consumers all across the world will be on the lookout for good deals across all mediums. With COVID showing no sign of slowing its ravage anytime soon, holidaymakers will be turning to various apps to search for gifts to present their loved ones and for themselves. 

The pandemic has forced a lot of businesses to shift to online mode in the past two years. Apps have become one of the biggest marketing tools at the moment. Whether you own a yoga enterprise or a beverage company, your online presence has become one of the biggest factors to determine the success of your business. 

Now that we are standing at the end of the year and the holiday season is fast approaching, this is the best time to promote your apps. This will go a long way to increase your appeal among online shoppers. App owners who can manage to pull this off just right can look forward to engaging a new set of loyal customer bases.

But to do so, you must first make sure that your app reaches people and can grab their attention. For that, you will need some cool marketing tricks.

What is Black Friday?

It is technically the Friday following Thanksgiving. Since 1952, the day following Thanksgiving has been considered as the beginning of the Christmas Shopping Season for the people of the USA. The stores too have jumped into this frenzy by offering huge sales (sometimes as much as 90%) to lure more customers. As a result, this day has gone on to become the biggest shopping day annually in the country. 

Through the years the day has become a shopping festival of sorts with people turning out in huge numbers. This is a day the whole country looks forward to. Businesses, especially corporate giants have tried to spread this event throughout the world. Although not so successful in all parts of the world, this day has gained immense popularity in England and Canada. 

Why should you promote your app on Black Friday?

With Covid forcing everyone to seek shelter at their home, the already flourishing app market has exploded. Mobile applications have played a huge role in facilitating social distancing to a large extent. Easier access to necessary products to keeping in touch with loved ones-apps has been the magic medium. There is an app for everything nowadays. It is of little wonder then that there were 2.95 million apps available for download in the Google Play store in 2020. Apple store saw 1.96 million apps ready to be downloaded in the first quarter of 2020, an increase 0f 7.53% from the previous quarter. By 2023, mobile apps are expected to generate more than $935 billion in revenue. As far as users are concerned, well 88% of mobile time is spent on apps.

But it is not enough to just develop the app. Once you have created the app of your choice, it is necessary to make sure that more and more people are made aware of it. And for those business owners with an already popular app at hand, it is important to ensure that it continues to thrive and not lose out to emerging competitors. This is where app marketing comes in. And there is no better time to promote an app than the holiday season. Not only are people eagerly looking for the best deals, but they will have more time on their hands to do so. If you have a day earmarked in your culture for shopping, then there is no reason why your business should not benefit from it.

Black Friday is slowly witnessing a paradigm shift from the real to the virtual world. As one of the biggest marketing events in the world, it is the right time for your mobile apps to encash on this holiday season.

Eight best app marketing tips for Black Friday

Here are some of the best Black Friday app marketing ideas-

1. Run app store ads

This is one of the best ways to boost your app’s presence and visibility during the festive season or otherwise. According to analytics firm AppAnnie’s recent report, 2019 saw a record 204 billion apps during the year 2019 across all app stores. This means the number of app store visitors is even more. So here you have one of the biggest platforms to market your app. 

When you pay to rank instead of organic ranking, it puts your app right where a huge audience of potential users may be looking for it — conveniently at the top of search results. The holiday season promises even more traffic at the app store than otherwise means this is the best chance to run app store ads.

 2. App store promotional texts 

The Promotional Text section of an iOS app page contains quick information about the app. This can include short pitches or taglines, but the common goal is to inform users about app promotions and changes. The Promotional Text’s conversion value makes it a useful tool for App Store Optimization.

This can be a great way to market your app to Apple users.

3. Social media promotions

It has become a golden rule for all online and offline businesses nowadays. If you are seeking visibility, social media is the place to be. Apart from marketing your apps, social media gives you a detailed insight into your customer base. Through careful study of your followers, you can learn about their interests, hobbies, demographics, when they’re most active, and more so that you can finetune your marketing campaign accordingly.

In the days approaching D-day, being active on social media becomes more important. You can regularly inform your potential customer about the activities planned for the big day, discounts, and promo codes being offered. Social media platforms are also a great medium to run ad campaigns to enhance traffic on your app.

4. Create a specific campaign for the holiday

An interesting and well-informed message can go a long way in capturing the audience’s attention. The more relevant your message is, the better. It is better if you come up with a specific campaign strategy that is designed exclusively to cater to the holiday crowd. A few things to keep in mind while ideating your ad campaign-

• Your ad campaign should be creative and original
•  Customize the campaign such that they give a clear idea about your brand
• If you have the budget collaborate with influential people to promote your app
• Use video marketing wisely
• Maintain consistency
• Rotate between different creative ads to avoid boring people

5. Start promotion before the actual date

The timing of the promotion is as important as the campaign itself. If you start your campaign early on, this will give you a head start over your competitors and help people acclimatize to your app. Beginning promotions early on will ensure that you are on your potential customers’ radar although the actual offers might start from the day itself. Make sure to start running your ad campaigns long before the festival day approaches, but not long enough that people grow tired of waiting.

6. Promo codes, rewards, and giveaways

Depending on the genre of your app, you can enlist different incentives for your userbase. E-commerce platforms usually offer large discounts, giveaways,s, and cashback during this time of the year. Subscription-based platforms like Spotify and Netflix usually go for slashing the subscription price. If you are a gaming app owner, you can design reward programs specifically keeping the holiday season in mind. Promo codes for paid apps as well as in-app purchases are another tried-and-tested way to create a buzz.

It won’t be wrong to say that until you are offering some concession, consumers will not find any reason to download or visit your app.

7. Build Campaign for all devices

Consumers in the United States are adopting smart devices at an incredible rate. The average American now owns a smartphone, a tablet, or, in most cases, both! To ensure that your campaign reaches as many people as possible, make sure it is optimized for all devices. If it isn’t, the rest of your campaign and promotion investments will have a limited impact.

8. In-app marketing

Any message or marketing campaign that is designed to be displayed to your clients while they are within and actively using your app is known as in-app marketing. Businesses can utilize in-app marketing to engage, retain, and upsell customers to new items using real-time and personalized messages. There are five types of in-app marketing available-

• In-app notifications
• Tooltips
• Splash pages
• In-app messages
• Modals

With a great in-app marketing strategy, you can keep your users happy, engaged, and more likely to be retained beyond Black Friday.

Country-wise popularity of Black Friday

With globalization, no festival is exclusive to any culture anymore. Every major festival is celebrated throughout the world. Then it would be a little pessimistic to think that a major shopping festival offering lucrative discounts, will be left behind. In the past few years, Black Friday has become more and more relevant on a global scale. 

Today out of the world’s 195 countries, an estimated 50-60% “celebrate” the day in some way or the other. In Europe, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany top the list of Black Friday celebrants. Central and South American countries too have joined in the revelry for the past 4-5 years. This event is slowly gaining popularity in previously untouched markets like China and South-East Asia.

Consumer interest too is consistently increasing every year. When we compare YoY global searches (2019 vs. 2020), we see that interest in the discount period has increased by 14%. In countries where Black Friday has traditionally played a significant role within the retail space, the growth numbers are even higher, with Brazil, Australia, and the US leading the way.

If we focus exclusively on the app market, a market analysis of how popular the word “Black Friday” is across various app stores shows that China has topped the list leaving the USA behind. Other countries with interest in this keyword include- Brazil, France, the UK, etc.

What app owners can expect this season?

From 2017 to 2019, shopping on Black Friday increased from 174.6 million to 189.6 million. Then pandemic affected business adversely and the number dropped to 186.4 million in 2020. It is interesting to note that at the same time, the number of online shoppers has reached the 100 million mark. This is an 8% increase over the last year. The app and business owners can expect equal if not an increased frenzy this year of online shopping. The fear of crowd and health issues combined with the lure of better offers online will attract many customers online. 

Last year’s trend of online shopping over an in-person event will continue this Black Friday Share on X

Businesses of all sizes and from all spheres can be expected to participate in this year’s sales. With proper marketing, business owners can expect-

• To woo many new customers their way with the proper promotional offers and discount
• A better conversion rate of your app
• Ensure that the new customers become regular users

Customers couldn’t even be calmed by the pandemic, as they spent an estimated $14.13 billion on Black Friday weekend 2020 (up from $11.9 billion in 2019). Internet sales are expected to climb by over 20% on 2021 Black Friday, hitting $17 billion, according to experts. When it comes to finding the best discounts, this will likely be the best day of the year for Americans shopping both in-store and online.

Which medium to use for promotion?

1.8 billion people visit Facebook each day, and there are 22 billion visits each month. The US is the biggest market by far, with around 23% of all Facebook visits coming from America.

Paid search is perfect for engaging your potential customers on Black Friday. But building that buzz means leveraging the power of social media.

You can get new followers and subscribers, boost your brand’s visibility, and even earn pre-sales with a strong social media campaign. So, what’s the ideal social media platform for your campaign? The following is a list of the finest platforms for promoting your app:

As visible in the list, Facebook leads the ranking followed by YouTube, Instagram, Qzone, Weibo, and Twitter. With a detailed market study, you can find the medium best suited for marketing your app.

Final words

Although Singles Day and Cyber Monday are posing fierce competition, Black Friday continues to thrive at least as far as the USA is concerned. In keeping with the festive spirit, people continue to look forward to this day. There is no better time of the year than this to promote your app and make sure that it becomes the next big thing.

How Idea Usher can help you hit the jackpot this Black Friday?

Idea Usher has a long history of helping both newly launched and established brands expand in an organic manner. With trouble-free analytical tools at your disposal at an affordable price, we at Idea Usher will create a digital brand strategy that will engage your potential customer base, nurture a two-way customer relation all in a personalized manner. 

Contact our digital marketing expert now.

FAQ

1. When should I begin marketing my app?

Ideally, the promotion should start at least a week before the event.

2. When is Black Friday 2021?

Black Friday this year will be on Friday, November 26th, 2021.

3. What digital marketing services does Idea Usher provide?

Idea Usher provides a plethora of digital marketing services to promote brands including SEO, social media marketing, pay-per-click, conversion rate optimization, web development, email marketing, and lead recovery.