Like any new initiative, the key to getting downloads for your safety app is a strong marketing push. Our best practices can help you connect students to their safety resources.
Maximize Safety: Drive Downloads
The logic here is simple: the more people download the app, the more people will have the safety resources they’ll need in an emergency. Downloads aren’t necessarily the most important metric, but it’s the first step towards improving campus security. You’ll also be able to reach out to more people on your campus in the event of an emergency thanks to the built-in push notification support on all of our apps.
Now let’s talk about how to get downloads.
Keep It Digital
This may seem like it is stating the obvious, but many institutions are misallocating their marketing resources and missing the benefits of digital marketing. The call to action of the marketing message will be to “download the app”, which calls for a school to utilize as many as their digital channels as possible. Having the app marketing in print, for example, requires the student to write down the information to download to app. The point here is to remove barriers to getting students to download the app.
A student is more likely to download the app if they see it in their twitter feed versus a poster for it on their way home. Make it easy for students to find and go to where they are; don't force them to use cumbersome non-digital methods.
Digital channels also provide valuable data on the success of your campaigns. In particular, you’ll have data on click through rates, impressions, unique visits, conversion rates, and more. Our article “Using Mobile Metrics to Improve Safety” further discusses these metrics.
In the end, you need to be advertising your app in the place that will get the most attention. Conveying the marketing message through a digital channel creates a direct pathway to downloading the app. In short, it makes it easy for the user.
The Rule of 3
When communicating the features and benefits of your app to the target market, it’s most effective to focus on three points. Three points allows you to convey enough information without losing the attention of the viewer. The average attention span of a person in 2015 is reported by National Center for Biotechnology Information to be 8.25 seconds, shorter than the attention span of a goldfish. This means that you need to ensure that your three main points can be effectively expressed in 8.25 seconds. Having only three points also forces you to pick the best, most attractive pieces of information, creating a sharper and more effective message. It’s important to ensure that your messages are simple and clear, minimizing the number of words you use when describing the benefits.
These are a few of our ‘Best Practices’ which we encourage for all of our safety app launches with our partner institutions. Learn how your school can engage a much larger percentage of the student body and have a successful app.
How did your app launch go? What were some of the tactics you tried? What metrics did you report? Comment below and let us know!
