THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO
Mobile App Marketing Guide
Written by Logan Merrick
CHAPTER 1:
GET CRYSTAL CLEAR ON YOUR USER
When does marketing start?
Contrary to what most people believe, marketing starts before the creation of the product. Most people will come up with an idea, flesh it out, build the product and then start marketing.
The problem with that is that the app user (from now will be referred to as the customer) then has to shape their expectations around the existing product.
Doesn’t it make sense to first understand the expectations of the customer then build the product accordingly? Out of these two approaches, which do you think will yield a better result?
“Success is not delivering features; success is learning how to solve a customer’s problem.” – Scott Cook, Intuit >tweet<
Understanding the customer comes first…
Where do you begin?
Marketing and business in general starts with identifying a problem.
Chances are that you’re reading this right now because you have an app idea. And your app idea most likely derived from a problem that you had or saw in the marketplace.
Your mind went into overdrive and created this idea – the solution.
But before we jump into building that idea I suggest we study the problem.
“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” -Albert Einstein >tweet<
Marketing is all about identifying the problem and learning about it. Follow the process and answer the questions below. I’ve provided examples below each question to guide you.
The sample is based on a made up product which is a solution to a real problem.
1.1 What is the problem?
Describe the problem at high level. Remember, in marketing, problems are experienced by PEOPLE, so make sure the problem you describe is explained from a real person’s point of view.
E.g. 50% of people in the western world moves home once per year after the age of 22 years. In addition to moving furniture, the mover also has to update all the relevant services they are subscribed to (Tax Office, bank, insurance company, etc.) of their new address. Updating these entities of your new address is both time consuming and tedious.
1.2 How does it happen?
What’s the step-by-step process that leads to the problem? Identify the individual steps. This is process is a deep dive into the problem. When you are the well versed in the problem you can tailor the perfect solution.
E.g.
1) The customer moves house.
2) The customer calls each of the entities to update the details.
3) Each entity is extremely good at hiding their contact number on their website (as they prefer people to use the ‘help section’ on their website before getting to the customer service representative. The customer spends 5 minutes looking for the number on the website. Customers spend an average of 20 minutes per call selecting the right options over the phone. The customer will make an average of 2 phone calls before finding the right service. 95% of phone services are automated and/or voice controlled.
4) The customer service representative asks for 100 points of identification prior to updating the details on record.
The customer spends an average of 20 minutes per phone call and makes 5 phone calls every time they move.
1.3 When does it happen?
What makes the problem happen? When are people experiencing it? How frequent would they need this service? E.g. In addition to updating their details everytime they move, they will also need to update their details if they:
1.4 Who’s experiencing the problem?
Let’s get to know this person a little better. I suggest you start with asking yourself:
Who is experiencing this problem? E.g. Australian’s, New Zealanders, Canadians, American’s and Brits aged 22 years and above.
After that we can begin to dig down into:
Who will actually do something about this problem and adopt the solution? E.g. Responsible adults aged 25 years and above. Define responsible; home owner, business owner, working class professional, married, etc.
This is purely guess work at this stage. We will need dig down and spend some time researching these people further once we launch our product. Much of a marketer’s job is (a) making educated assumptions, (b) testing assumption, (c) learning from these tests, and then (d) refining the structure, strategy or tactics to suit.
Based on the information you have gathered so far you need to create a User Persona.
1.5 Why is that a problem?
A problem is only a problem if someone is experiencing pain because of it. Describe the pain created by the problem and what could happen if the problem isn’t solved.
E.g. Customers dread the experience because it’s tedious, time-consuming and downright irritating. 57% of Australian’s will avoid fully updating their subscriptions because of this. This causes mail to go to the wrong places, private information landing in the hands of the wrong people and missed opportunities.
1.6 How is it currently being solved?
What competitors are currently providing this solution and what other alternatives are people using to fulfil their need?
E.g. “Some of the entities that people are subscribed to provide customers with the ability to update their details on their website. The process the customer has to endure to do that is somewhat tedious in itself and they have to repeat the process for each entity. Therefore this doesn’t suffice as a wholesome solution.”
Marketing is about identifying a NEED and filling that NEED with the perfect SOLUTION.
