Introduction
Having the application is not enough considering
how many of them are made within an hour and uploaded on several App Stores
(Apples App Store, Android Store, Google Play...)
The necessity in todays
modern and electronic world is to “force” both your attendees and people
willing to attend your conference, festival, congress, is to actually use you
application in a correct way and therefore participate in spreading the word
about your event. A mobile App for your event (trade show, convention, meeting,
festival, etc.) can be useful, valuable, and fun for attendees. It can provide you with a source of revenue
and sponsorships. It can help
recognition of your brand and event, but the point is it has to be actually
used and used in a right way, and this article will help you understand the
ways and methods in order to make your App more visible.
Few things are a must, according to Mr.
Corbin Ball leading specialist in meetings and events technologies, for your
event App in order to increase downloads:
1. Users must know the App exists
2. Users must want to use the App
3. The App must be easy to find
4. The App must be easy to download
Lets take a look in all of them individually.
1. Users must know the App exists
Promotion
of the event App is crucial and if its done some time before the actual event
it allows potential users to get to know the app and its features so they can
easily use it during the event.
Use all your social medias
(Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare...) and websites, blogs, newsletters and let
people know that the App is available for download.
Help
it and make it go Viral by integrating your App with popular social medias
and encourage your exhibitors and sponsors to spread the word towards their
fans in order to make it more visible; allowing attendees to check-in or tweet
about your event using the hash tags that you define.
2. Users Must Want to Use the App
Guide and Information Provider is what
your App should be in the first place. But first, by explaining your attendees
how application actually works the best thing to do is to make it easy to use
and easy to navigate through it. Understanding the benefits of using the
application can be a motivation for the attendees to download it and use it
before, during and after your event. Providing a map of the surrounding city
and plenty of things to do, visit, places to have lunch can be both beneficial
for your attendees and for you because this is can make you significant revenue
through advertisement and adds.
Keep
in Touch After your event through this App with your attendees could
establish a long-term relationship. Allowing them to hear, see or download some
of the presentations from the event or having their personal networking
connection that they established during the event and sharing it with their
fans only from the App is a good way of making it so.
3. Users must be Able to Find the App
Make
sure your App can be found everywhere ON-LINE, especially in the App stores
as people tend to look after the Apps there first rather than informing about
the event on your website.
Next “first step” for
attendees to look for your App is Google search. Index your App so that people
can find it and download it easily without loosing their precious time. App
developers will often provide this “landing page” as part of their service.
Make sure your App can be found everywhere
ON-SITE. Information’s at the very entrance to the event, briefing the
registry staff so they can easily inform attendees about the App and its
benefits. Include the App presence in all paper form guides and information
flyers.
4. The App must be Easy to Download
Your
website is one of the starting points for downloading the App, so make sure
that the link to the App is included on your site.
Use QR
Codes to find and install the App. QR codes makes it easy to get exactly
the intended URL easily and it can be use for both finding the App and
installing it.
Don’t
just use QR Codes. Bear in mind that not all of your attendees have a QR
Code reader, so provide them with the short URL link so they can download it
without having to download QR Code reader first.
Use SMS to Install App. On your website
and your information flyers you can include an option to “send App to my phone”
when the user enters their phone number and get the App through text message.
QR Codes for Data
Within the App can
include all the information about each individual exhibitor, each scheduled
session, and each session room or venue. The mobile website will provide
immediate value and also provide another opportunity to download the native app
with a single click at the very moment they need it most.
Conclusion
To sum up, by using these small tips on how
to increase downloads for your event App, your relationship with your attendees
can become a long-term one and they can use your App after the event to inform
about your event, future plans, ticket purchasing, discounts before others that
didn’t include your App on their smart phone and maybe persuade them to become
the part of the family by downloading the App.
Contributed by Hamza
FARIS & Miroslav MILETIC
Article: Ball, C. (2013). Increasing
Downloads of Your Event App, retrieved from:
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