Building a Better Link Between Email Marketing and Branded Apps

1.8K

Key takeaways

• Mobile matters: 53% of emails are opened on a mobile device and there are over 2.5 billion email users worldwide, so connecting email and apps is essential for modern outreach.
• Use your existing email list to jump‑start app adoption: send a clear launch announcement with a download link, mobile screenshots and a summary of what to expect.
• Keep app mentions regular but subtle: include download links or brief nods in newsletters without overwhelming subscribers.
• Leverage in‑app profile data to update consumer profiles and improve email content direction, timing and frequency.
• Use in‑app behavioural signals (clicks, favourites, cart data, social plug‑ins) to tailor email subject matter and stay aligned with audience trends.
• If you don’t yet have an app, treat these tactics as planning guidance so you can apply them once your branded app launches.

Introduction

With every day that passes, the world is becoming a more mobile-friendly place. In fact, it’s fairly safe to say that being hip and relevant isn’t a good idea to get around to eventually, it’s vital to the health of your email operation. And what better way is there to stay in touch on this front than with a marketed message approach that interacts favorably with your branded app? Regardless of whether you’re working off of an Apple or an Android, now’s the time to build a better link between these two heavily overlapping portions of your outreach operations.

Does Mobile Really Matter?

Of course, there’s probably plenty of people out there reading this that think the notion of email marketing and the world of mobile apps having anything in common – let alone being a powerful duo – is pure nonsense. However, as Small Business Trends’ Megan Totka points out, with over 2.5 billion email users spanning the globe and 53 percent of all emails being opened on a mobile device, staying relevant and in touch on the small screen is a crucial undertaking for any modern brand looking to make a splash with its targeted customers.

Laying the Foundation

Unfortunately, despite the fact that there’s plenty of potential in this shared space, that doesn’t always mean that it’s a walk in the park when it comes to actually succeeding on both of these fronts. If you want to make the most out of the outreach allocated to your email marketing operations and branded app promotion, Annum Munir of Business 2 Community explains that it all starts with the simple stuff; specially leveraging your email contact list into an instant app following.

By firing off a simple, straightforward announcement or briefing of the launch of this program to the inboxes of these individuals, you can generate a massive amount of interest in your app and help get it off the ground in a hurry. Sure, not everyone who clicks on this message will immediately try out your app, but offering up a download link, a few mobile-friendly screenshots of the app in action, and a breakdown of just what to expect once they sign up for access to this program can help entice a significant portion of these email followers to give your brand’s app a try.

From here, keeping the mentions in your weekly newsletter or related content fresh and consistent can help keep the discussion surrounding your app relevant, as well as help capture downloads from the newer members of your contact list. Naturally, you’ll want to keep moving forward with your current email marketing operations and avoid going overboard with your app promotion, but slipping in a download link or nod toward the app from time to time is perfectly agreeable and highly recommended.

Going Above and Beyond

As Munir goes on to note, if you’re really looking to go above and beyond with the connection between your email audience and marketed app, there’s two very unique and powerful ways to utilize the lessons learned from in-app activity – leveraging profile data and dissecting in-app behavioral activity.

Much like a “Big Data” set or survey filed out on your brand’s website, profile data offers up access to raw facts and figures related to your audience. This information in turn can help refine and update your consumer profile, as well as give you a better idea of just what kind of people make up the majority of your inbox following. When paired up with the data you already have on hand, this injection of fresh insight can boost your ability to enhance content direction, timing, and email frequency in a major way.

Additionally, in-app activity serves a similar purpose in terms of your overall approach to content subject matter and how you generate these offerings. To help you get a handle on this idea, Munir suggests thinking of it from the angle of staying relevant with the latest trends within your audience. By following in-app clicks, favorites, cart data, and social plug-in interactions, your brand can garner a firm understanding of just what’s going on in the minds of these mobile users.

Obviously if you’re not quite ready to build this connection – or you haven’t launched a branded app just yet – this discussion falls under the “theoretical” category for the moment. However, whenever you’re ready to give these customers what they want in the form of a useful, value-driven app, you’ll have all the tools you need on hand to make the most of this process and enhance your email marketing campaign all at the same time.

FAQ