The first thing you need to think is whether you are in need of a mobile app or not. The peculiarity of a mobile app in view of a student is that he doesn’t download for a one-time use. If you are not a provider of video tutorials, webinars, LMS, exam updates, newsletters or any other notifications its better not to go for mobile app development and promotion. This makes it clear that only the online/distance mode education providers are really in need of a mobile app development and promotion.
Sometimes colleges develop mobile apps even if they are not into distance mode of education but this is just for the purpose of branding. In such cases its better not to promote because even if you promote it may not bring in an immediate business.
I will explain my experiences with the mobile app development and promotions of Asia’s No.1 online MBA training institute. I will also explain its features, benefits and disadvantages.Also, I will cover the bad experiences I faced during the mobile app promotion.
Guidelines for app promotion
The app should be developed both for Android and iPhone applications. While developing the app, it should be taken care to include all the important features and also not to make messy. Important features in the sense an enquiry form, course details, news and updates link, link to daily webinar/newsletter etc. The application size should be less so that it loads fast on any mobile. The most important feature is that the important links in the mobile application should be opened to the user only after they submit their details.
Promote app download via organic search
It is better to obtain organic downloads for the mobile apps in the internet without any promotions. The mobile app should be easily visible on the official website page to enable maximum downloads. Paid Ad campaign with Google Search will give not give many quality app downloads. There are many agencies who promise to give you many downloads, but please do not trust them.
The enquiries generated from mobile apps generally have very high quality. What I understood from my 15 years of digital marketing expertise is that most quality leads are generated through mobile apps which was downloaded organically (organic search, official website and not through any other paid promotions).
The conversion rate received from the leads generated through other medium (paid search platforms of google, yahoo, affiliates etc) was less than 5%. But the conversion rate of the leads generated through mobile apps was more than 10% which makes the picture clear.
