It’s been an info-packed 8 weeks, friends, and now you’ve almost earned your Mobile Bad Assery. Let’s take a quick review of what we’ve learned and then a look ahead to what’s next.

Course Review: Understanding and Harnessing the Mobile App Lifecycle

As smartphones and mobile app usage have reached maturity in the U.S. consumer’s world, brands have lagged behind, treating mobile as an afterthought rather than the centerpiece of their entire operations. Mature marketers understand that this has to change. The organizations that will succeed in the future are mobile-first in all things, and marketing results will depend on taking a lifecycle approach. Making the shift requires understanding that mobile is a hybrid of physical and digital, customer experience and business solution. It also demands a commitment to harnessing the daily digital trail through steadfast data collection and analysis in order to optimize every phase of the lifecycle.

The mobile app lifecycle consists of four repeating phases:

1. Strategize: Defining the mobile initiative, setting goals and target audience, and planning ahead for the unique considerations involved in a mobile project.
2. Create: Developing your mobile app or new feature, either in-house or with a third-party development partner (possibly streamlined through licensing).
3. Launch: Preparing your app for launch, going through the review process, optimizing for the app stores and then building an audience through performance marketing.
4. Engage and Monetize: Keeping users engaged with your app and with your brand (particularly via rewards programs and mobile marketing automation) and monetizing your efforts through advertising as well as other tactics.

Next Steps: Rinse and Repeat

Like it says on the old shampoo bottle, it’s not enough to just work your way through the phases of the mobile app lifecycle and stop. There is no finish line. Thanks to the daily digital trail, mobile user data is a rich source of contextual understanding you can use to refine and reframe every move you make—on mobile and across all of your other marketing platforms, even into business operations.

With a mobile app, you have access to:

• What people do when they’re in an app you own
• What other apps they use on the same device
• Which types of content they read, listen to and engage with
• Where they are, in specific latitude / longitude coordinates, thanks to their Wi-Fi connections, check-ins, GPS and app location services
• Precisely where they are within certain physical environments, thanks to sensor technologies (like beacons)

When you run mobile ad campaigns, you can access more insights about your users as well as other target audiences. With a partner like Phunware, you can access even more meaningful user data from the apps we’ve built and those within our ad network, as well as first-party data we collect with help from our platform partners. The Phunware platform touches about one in every ten mobile consumers globally and over 800 million devices and every month. Our platform registers more than 70 types of mobile events, totaling 40 billion mobile user events every month. (Events include opening one of our apps, tapping on an ad, appearing around certain locations, etc.) These insights provide an ever-more detailed picture of your audience as well as your potential target audiences, which you can use to fine-tune every aspect of your marketing game—and even optimize business operations.

Armed with such rich contextual data, you can understand what your users want now, anticipate what they might want next and continue to engage with them on an ever-more meaningful level. And so the lifecycle continues to… well, cycle on.

Deriving revenue from your mobile app is known as app monetization, and it’s not just for game developers and content publishers. Many brands don’t even think about directly monetizing their app—they’re more attuned to using mobile as a channel to drive in-store sales, for example, or as a utilitarian tool for wayfinding or property management. That’s leaving money on the table.

Overview: App Monetization Models and Strategies

1. Pay-to-download (or “Paid”): The straightforward “Pay $X to download this app.”
2. Subscription: The app publisher charges a monthly fee for usage.
3. Free (“Freemium”) with in-app purchases: In this model, the app is free to download but the publisher makes money off of in-app purchases, such as custom gaming levels, exclusive content, etc.
4. Freemium but limited: In this model, the app is free to download but comes with limits, such as only a few game levels or minimal functionality, or with full functionality available for a limited time only. This is a great way to attract users who might be leery of an initial paid download. Hopefully, once they experience your app, they’ll be ready to commit to a paid version.
5. Free to download, with advertising: Exactly what it sounds like.

Tactical Highlight: In-App Advertising

By 2020, revenue from in-app advertising will make up 62% of total app store revenue. Each app has a unique user base that is valuable to advertisers—and the richness of mobile data enables those audiences to be targeted with great precision, enabling strong revenue opportunities for the app publisher. It only makes sense for marketers to leverage their audiences to generate additional revenue stream(s).

Users will accept and even welcome ads in all types of apps, if those ads are tailored to be relevant to them and designed to be non-disruptive to the user experience. It’s even better if those ads add value by connecting users with rewards or exclusive content (as in sponsored gameplay integrations). Not all monetization platforms offer cutting-edge formats, so it’s important to seek out partners that offer a diverse and compelling mix.

In fact, success with in-app advertising relies heavily on having a quality monetization partner. Data sharing (and data revenue sharing) are crucial, as are brand advertiser relationships that align with the app’s UX and audience. Careful matchmaking between app, advertiser and audience is necessary to maximize revenue while protecting the user experience.

Though we’re separating the two to provide a thorough overview of each, Engagement and Monetization are interwoven initiatives. Both focus on sustaining an audience for your app, then deriving value from that audience. Ideally, your mobile engagement efforts support your mobile monetization efforts and vice versa.

This week’s lesson is about keeping users engaged with your app and connecting with them via direct communications.

Best Practice: Ensure Mobile App Stickiness

User retention is often viewed as something you can build into the app—the idea is often referred to as “stickiness,” meaning a quality of being irresistible or at least consistently useful and attractive to users. While there are best practices for creating user-friendly or habit-forming apps, stickiness must be proactively maintained over time. The most basic approach to user retention involves keeping the app relevant with fresh content, design and features as appropriate.

Next-level tactics for user retention (or “stickiness”) include:

• Rewards programs. Mobile game developers have pioneered the use of rewards to keep users coming back for more, and of course retailers have been using customer loyalty programs to do the same thing in their stores. The same principles apply to any kind of app: Rewards can give users compelling incentives for habitual behaviors, which in turn can be leveraged to help you achieve your business goals. This is where user data and analytics can be particularly valuable. For example, if 80% of users who visit your app three days in a row ultimately end up paying for premium content, you might offer a reward that can be unlocked on the third sequential day of app usage.
• Retargeting. With retargeting, marketers leverage third-party data to show display advertising to users based on websites they have visited, apps they use, searches they have performed, their inferred interests, etc. Mobile retargeting requires a sophisticated advertising or monetization partner with access to user data across a wide spectrum of other apps and the expertise to leverage that data to reach the desired audience.

Best Practice: Mobile Marketing Automation

Push notifications and in-app messaging are most brands’ primary means of communicating directly with individual users. Push, in particular, is a great way to reach out to users when they are not in your app. It can extend your mobile presence into their real-world context and daily lives (and vice versa—the location and contextual data available through your app can and should inform future in-app experiences you launch).

Mobile marketing automation tools empower marketers to tailor push notifications for different users and specific goals. Those goals could be app-specific (driving repeat app usage, making an in-app purchase) or broader—such as incentivizing an in-store sale with a mobile promotional offer or letting residents know they have a giant stack of boxes waiting in the property mail center.

Mobile marketing automation is also known as “location-based marketing,” because it enables marketers to harness the location technologies built into every smartphone to send the right message to the right consumer in the right context. Although the experience for the end user is the same, there are two main types of mobile marketing automation campaigns:

• Geo-fencing involves drawing a GPS-based virtual boundary (or “geo-fence”) around a large area of interest, such as your store or office location, a competitor location, a stadium, a whole ZIP code, etc.). Actions can be triggered off of users crossing that virtual boundary, such as sending a promotional push notification or registering a data point.
• Proximity- or beacon-based campaigns operate similarly, but processes are triggered by users coming within range of a beacon (a small piece of hardware that emits Bluetooth signals) instead of by users crossing a virtual boundary. For example, you might trigger a push notification offering a last-minute deal on certain store items when a user walks past a beacon placed in the relevant department.

As with other marketing automation efforts, it’s a good idea to leverage all the user data can you obtain to segment and target effectively—and then test and optimize continually. In most cases, brands work with an expert mobile marketing automation partner who can connect them with rich contextual user data as well as campaign development tools.

As with any product or campaign launch, a mobile app launch requires cycles of review, revision and approval to get everything ready for the launch date. Mobile, however, presents some additional hurdles you should account for in the planning process, including the unique tactical moves critical for building an app audience.

Launch Process Hurdle: App Store Review

By and large, consumers in the US acquire their apps via the App Store or Google Play (though Amazon does have an App Store for Android and Fire TV). Both Apple and Google require review prior to publishing an app to the store, and each one has different guidelines to keep in mind. Here they are for reference:

• App Store Pre-Review Checklist
• App Store Review Guidelines
• Google Play Developer Content Policy
• Android Developer Launch Checklist

Apple’s registration fees are higher and its review process takes more time. That said, Apple provides much more detailed guidelines for developers and at least a decent chance of getting promoted and achieving higher visibility than a new app on the Google Play Store.

The reality is, as of August 2017, roughly 53% of US smartphone users were on Android and 44% were on iOS devices (eMarketer.com). The vast majority of mobile apps created should be launched on both platforms.

App Promotion Hurdle: Breaking Through

According to the App Annie 2016 Retrospective, annual downloads reached over 90 billion last year, an increase of more than 13 billion across the App Store and Google Play. But here’s some tough love from the comScore 2017 US Mobile App Report:

• Just over half of all smartphone users don’t download ANY new apps in a month.
• The older the demographic segment, the less excitement consumers have about new apps (70% of those 18-34 say are “always looking for new and interesting apps,” vs. 37% of those 35-54 and only 22% of those over 55.

To break through user fatigue and apathy, your app needs a strong value proposition and a clear strategy for spreading the word with existing audiences via your website, social media handles, brick-and-mortar stores and any other traditional marketing channels that have worked in the past. You’ll also need to get savvy about some tactical moves that are unique to the app marketing arena.

Tactical Move: App Store Optimization

App store optimization is essentially SEO for apps, and sophisticated ASO strategies abound. Just like with SEO, ASO is about finding the most relevant keywords and balancing their relevance against the amount of competition for them. App titles and descriptions matter—even app icon design matters. App size is also a concern for many users, who may hesitate to download your app if it’s going to hog storage on their device. In fact, iOS users can’t download apps larger than 100MB if they’re not connected to Wi-Fi.

In a very real sense, app store optimization has a lifecycle all its own, with the most successful developers continually testing out different options, evaluating the results and tweaking their strategies. Think of the app store as a marketing channel and plan for it accordingly.

Tactical Move: Performance Marketing

In the 2017 comScore report mentioned above, US smartphone users were asked about where and how they discover new apps. It found users have relied year over year on mobile advertising as a source for app discovery. They consistently find, check out and download new apps while they’re playing or browsing on mobile. They cited other channels for app discovery (app store searches, word of mouth and traditional advertising), but less often and with less consistency.

Mobile ad campaigns that focus on delivering app installs are known as performance marketing (or simply user acquisition) campaigns. Here’s why performance marketing works so well for user acquisition:

• Users are already in a mobile environment, so they’re more likely to download a mobile app. For maximum effectiveness, install campaigns should target apps and mobile websites your desired audience is most likely to use.
• User acquisition campaigns can be highly cost-effective. There are several different performance advertising models available through a variety of partners. Each can result in new installs, but a CPI (cost per install) model is perfect if mobile user acquisition is your goal. Under a CPI agreement, you are charged a fixed or bid rate for your ad only when someone installs your app after clicking from the ad. It’s a very cost-effective way to increase your install base.
• Analytics, which can be added to your app via SDK, enable you to optimize your campaigns based on very granular metrics. For example, if you work with multiple ad partners, data can reveal that advertising on Network A delivers users who only open your app once or twice, while Network B delivers users who not only use your app every day but also spend money on in-app purchases.

Note: You’re not just looking for any downloads here. The goal is always to convert targets with the highest lifetime value (LTV)—prospects who will not only install your app but continue to deliver value over time. Brands in different verticals will define this value in many ways, but is generally understood to be a combination of retention (app usage over time), utilization (reaching a certain threshold of in-app behaviors) and spending money via subscription or in-app purchases. Finding and reaching high-LTV users requires testing and optimization of your performance marketing strategies and, most likely, a very strong partner. When campaigns are carefully tuned and optimized for high-LTV users, performance marketing offers the most bang for your buck and the highest potential for ROI among all audience building tactics.

As a marketer, you’re already familiar with building a strategy for a marketing initiative. Certain fundamental questions help you define the project objectives, scope, etc. In mobile, those basic questions remain the same, but the answers often look a bit different than they do for more traditional channels. Let’s explore.

Consideration: Does your digital / mobile team have the right skillsets?

All mobile app strategies should be native-first—built with code native to the device they’re intended to run on (iOS, Android, etc.). Consumers now expect “authentically mobile” experiences. They want the kinds of unique features and capabilities that are only possible with native code. So-called “write once, run anywhere” code sounds promising, but only native code can consistently deliver the kinds of rich experiences that consumers expect.

However, developing for Android and iOS requires specific tools. The average Android developer can’t just switch over to iOS without additional training or study, and a traditional web coder is unlikely to have the skills for mobile.

Obviously, if your organization is in mobile game development or a related field, you’ve probably already got the dev skills needed. That said, if your plans include emerging mobile capabilities (such as Voice) or specific audience needs (such as accessibility for users who are blind or visually impaired) you may at least want to talk to your team to see if there’s a skills gap that might be most effectively addressed via outsourcing, rather than attempting to staff up or train up in a big hurry.

Consideration: Does your digital/virtual team have the bandwidth?

In many organizations, the digital team is responsible for the website, advertising, social initiatives and more. If your team has the skills but not the time to achieve your mobile objectives within your goal launch window, you’re better off working with a third-party provider.

Workaround: Licensing app components or pre-built apps

Mobile apps are often built with one or more pre-built modular components (known as SDKs or “software development kits” for the non-developers among us). As a result, many organizations license SDKs to save time and money on an in-house development effort. In fact, you can license complete app solutions, which can be customized with your branding and specific content. Licensing is often the fastest and most budget-friendly approach, offering proven performance right off the shelf. Plus, if you choose the right partner, they don’t look pre-built at all.

Net Takeaway: How to Decide

Develop in-house if BOTH of the following are true:

• Your digital team has the necessary skills and experience
• Your digital team has the bandwidth to deliver on schedule

License an SDK if BOTH of the following are true:

• You simply need to add specific functionality to an existing app
• Your digital team has the skills and bandwidth to integrate the SDK on schedule (OR you have the budget for an outside partner to do the integration work)

License a pre-built app If BOTH of the following are true:

• The licensable app meets your mobile strategy needs, budget, timeline and quality expectations
• The app can be branded according to your standards

Work with a custom app development partner if ANY OR ALL of the following are true:

• Your mobile strategy necessitates unique skillsets not found on your in-house team
• Your launch window requires a team that can get to work quickly and focus entirely on your initiative
• You want a completely customized solution, with all of the bells and whistles—plus the ability to support future use cases
• You want an expert partner that can support you across the entire mobile app lifecycle

As a marketer, you’re already familiar with building a strategy for a marketing initiative. Certain fundamental questions help you define the project objectives, scope, etc. In mobile, those basic questions remain the same, but the answers often look a bit different than they do for more traditional channels. Let’s explore.

Project Definition: What are we doing?

Obviously, you’re building (or enhancing) a mobile app. But you have some choices. The experience you build may be geared for content consumption (news, entertainment), utility (weather, wayfinding), commerce (hotel, retail) or gaming. It may be a hybrid of those things. But keep in mind that brands often go wrong by trying to be everything to everybody.

A note about devices: Most mobile experiences are designed for smartphones (iOS and Android), but you may also want to consider tablet, smartwatch or TV extensions of your mobile application. It’s important to make these decisions in the Strategy phase because device operating systems will dictate other decisions down the road.

Objectives and Target Audience: Why are we doing it, and who’s it for?

For a new mobile project, you may start off with very broad objectives and target audience(s).

Examples of mobile objectives include:

• Boost revenue
• Improve customer experience
• Supplement online sales with mobile
• Create companion app for live in-venue experiences
• Streamline patient and visitor flow in a hospital
• Enable residents to manage property amenities via mobile

Examples of target audiences include:

• Shoppers
• Residents
• Fans and live event attendees
• Viewers
• Patients

While goals and target audiences like these are fine to start, it will help you to be as specific as possible. Just like with any other marketing effort, mobile objectives are more actionable and measurable when they are clearly defined.

For example:

• Generate $X,000 in revenue by Y date
• Drive X% additional sales directly attributable to mobile in the first six months after launch
• Attract and retain X,000 users within three months of launch

Clearly defining your target audience(s) will also boost your chances of success. According to the comScore 2017 U.S. Mobile App Report, mobile app usage dominates digital time spent across all demographics from age 18 up to 64—only those over 65 spend more digital time on another platform (in the case of seniors, that’s desktop). But not all of those mobile users are likely to help you achieve your goals.

More specific target audience definitions might look like this:

• Customer loyalty program members 18-35 with a high affinity for mobile shopping
• Live event attendees who have opted in to receive event emails
• Hospital patients and visitors in the labor and delivery department, diabetes care and cardiology

Timeline and Budget: How fast and how much?

Just like your objectives and target audience, you can start with a loose timeline and budget and get more defined as you go. At the very least, begin with a goal launch window and a budget ceiling.

Detailed Scope: What features and capabilities do we need?

Any mobile app consists of a set of user-facing features and the background capabilities that enable them. It’s important to define the features and capabilities you want your app to have during the Strategy phase because they will affect your budget and timeline—and may have larger implications that should be considered before you proceed.

Features should support the planned use cases for your app and will vary depending on your objectives. Typically, a branded app for a mixed-use development might include a store and restaurant directory, property-wide wayfinding and resident services such as package delivery handling and valet requests. On the other hand, a media and entertainment app might offer multiple live video streams, exclusive fan content and upcoming schedule information. Games generally consist of how-to-play content and one or two core loops, plus monetization opportunities such as in-app purchasing, advertising, etc.

The feature opportunities are as varied as mobile technologies themselves and some will even require additional physical infrastructure or outside content sources. For example, indoor wayfinding might dictate a beacon installation within all areas to be mapped, while live-streaming video usually requires integration with multiple streaming vendors. Outlining these wants and needs now is crucial to your success.

The additional technologies that make up the backbone of your app should not be overlooked. You’ll need some form of content management system and a way to communicate with users (such as SMS or push notifications). Plus, as with most other digital properties, you’ll want to plan for analytics and reporting, and eventually some form of monetization.

Team: Who are the stakeholders and worker bees?

Brand marketers will likely have a core team consisting of marketing / customer experience, creative, media and digital / virtual staff members. Developers and publishers might have one or more product teams made up of product managers and engineering, plus in-house user acquisition and (potentially) branding and marketing. All mobile initiative teams should also incorporate data science and legal stakeholders, and expect to incorporate additional team members as you move through the lifecycle. (For example, accounting might get involved once you start talking about monetization, and facilities could get involved if there are physical infrastructure considerations related to your mobile experience.) In a very real sense, everybody at your organization should be on the mobile team.

Approval process: Who gets to weigh in and when?

What approvals are necessary at which stages of the project? Who has the final say on the project? Create a general outline at this stage, then adjust as your process becomes more defined.

Iteration: What goes around comes around

As your mobile efforts mature, you are likely to move on to enhancing your mobile app with additional features and capabilities. At some point, you may have to build an entirely new app to replace the first one. Each time you begin another initiative, you end up back at Phase 1: Strategy—and it’s a good idea to revisit all of the considerations above.

The Kleiner Perkins 2017 Internet Trends report presented by tech expert / legend Mary Meeker synthesized data from disparate sources to expose some very interesting underlying trends. The report shows that mobile represents 28% of media consumption time, yet only 21% of advertising spending in the U.S. This amounts to a roughly $16 billion opportunity gap.

Brands are missing the chance to connect with consumers where they spend a great deal of their time—and publishers and app developers are missing out on a huge chunk of ad revenue. To close the opportunity gap, mobile strategies (and budgets) need to mature quickly.

Strategic shift: Mobile is now front and center.

In the early days of mobile applications, it was possible to treat mobile as an isolated tactic and channel. Before mobile use was ubiquitous and any brands understood how to make mobile data actionable, you could get away with treating mobile as another marketing avenue like PPC or direct mail.

These days, mobile apps can no longer be an afterthought or a bolt-on to other platforms and strategies. Any mobile initiatives must be developed for mobile as a unique platform with unique capabilities. What’s more, your brand strategy should be fully integrated around your mobile app. With your app as the digital hub of your brand, you can seamlessly incorporate all of the systems you use to engage, manage and monetize your customers.

Strategic shift: Mobile success now requires a lifecycle approach.

As you start putting mobile first and at the center of your marketing organization, you must also mature your approach to each initiative. Rather than being another project with a start and end date, every mobile initiative has a four-stage lifecycle that continually repeats. By understanding and planning to address each phase of this lifecycle, you’ll be in a stronger position to ensure maximum impact and return on investment (ROI).

The four phases of the mobile app lifecycle are:

• Strategize: In Phase 1, you define the amazing mobile experience you want to deliver to users and what it will take to get there.
• Create: In Phase 2, you bring your app to life.
• Launch: In Phase 3, you deliver your app to the marketplace and start building an audience.
• Engage and Monetize: In Phase 4, you work to keep users actively engaged with your app and generate revenue from your mobile efforts.

Importantly, this lifecycle does not end. As you move through each phase, you collect data on your audience and your efforts. You can use this data to refine your strategies, inform the next things you’ll create (new features, another app, design tweaks, etc.), shape your launch approach and fine-tune your efforts to engage and monetize. The process is always iterate, gather data, optimize, repeat.

Essential idea: Mobile is a both physical and digital, customer experience and business solution.

The hybrid nature of the mobile app lifecycle makes it unique. A smartphone is a digital device, but it moves through the physical world and includes highly specific geographic location technologies that apps can leverage. At the same time, an app can serve both users and the business. While your app is providing entertainment, wayfinding, shopping, etc. to users, it can also deliver business value such as third-party monetization, process optimization, user data collection and even real-world outcomes like increased store foot traffic or doctor appointment compliance.

Essential idea: Mobile data is an unprecedented resource for marketers and business.

It’s no secret that mobile use is immersed in the very personal context of the user’s daily life. People carry their phones wherever they go and interact with apps throughout the day. Each of these interactions results in a data point—complete with location—brands can use to improve and tailor the mobile experience.

What’s significant is how this daily digital trail can be leveraged far beyond the mobile channel. In addition to shaping the mobile experience, the insights to be gained via the daily digital trail can (and should) shape your overall marketing strategy, media investments, operations planning and even real estate decisions.

Welcome to the Phunware MBA Program

Most of us have smartphones and live our lives immersed in mobile apps. The comScore 2017 U.S. Mobile App Report spells it out very clearly—mobile apps drive 57% of all U.S. digital time spent. In fact, half of that time (50% of the total) is spent on smartphone apps. It’s a whole new world for marketers, even digital and mobile natives, as mobile continues to transform every aspect of business and consumer life.

At Phunware, we’ve got first-hand experience in how that transformation started and how it continues to evolve. The MBA Program synthesizes what we’ve learned about the mobile-first revolution into 8 bite-sized lessons designed to help marketers understand, embrace, and harness mobile for their own strategies.

Subject matter covered in the Phunware MBA Program:

• The mobile app lifecycle—what it is and why you should care
• Mobile strategy considerations
• Options for mobile app development
• Launch tactics and best practices
• User engagement and mobile marketing automation
• Monetization strategies, including in-app advertising

What to expect:

• New lessons will be posted each week, and all MBA candidates will be notified via email. (Exception: the post due to go out on the Monday before Thanksgiving will be released on the Friday before, in case you’ve got travel plans.)
• At the end of each post, there’ll be an opportunity to interact—just a one-question quiz (multiple choice or true / false) to let us know you’ve completed that week’s lesson. You must complete all eight weeks of lessons to receive your MBA.
• Throughout the MBA Program, candidates will unlock achievements and receive exclusive supplemental content to enhance their learning.
• At the end of the eight-week course, candidates who have completed all coursework will receive their MBA certificate, social / email badges and a really cool t-shirt to make all their colleagues super jealous.