Launching a mobile app alongside a large event is a great promotional tactic. There is a logical build-up to the event, a lot of piggyback marketing opportunities and a captive audience of attendees you can showcase the app to in a meaningful and relevant way. But once that event is over, it’s important to not let the momentum wane. You want to be sure to have a plan in place to refocus the app as a year-round tool that continually connects your community.
With a native, year-round mobile app, you don’t have the same sporadic usage as that of an event-only app. Event apps go dormant once the closing party ends, not to gain relevance again until the next event starts up. Year-round apps keep connections strong and engagement ongoing until regular app usage becomes second nature.
So here's what your organization should be doing between events:
- Promote 24/7 access to all membership benefits via the mobile app. It’s important to highlight its many engagement features, beyond those that are solely focused around events
- Link to the app in every organization-wide communication (i.e. weekly newsletters, email signatures and webpage footers)
- Use all social media channels weekly to promote individual features, updates, new content or opportunities for interaction available inside the app
- Identify and utilize organization influencers to help push the app’s adoption among members
- Optimize user navigation by creating and publishing tutorial videos
- Don’t stop promoting. It’s not just about downloads. User retention should be your top priority
Associations often do a great marketing job leading up to and during an event to get attendees engaged on their app. With some demographics it only takes a nudge, but with others, it takes several reminders before they’re on board. Once a user has downloaded the app, the goal is to prove to them why they should never delete it.
