Hats off to the underdogs that bet email marketing would remain a key marketing channel in 2023 and beyond! Projections indicate that email marketing revenue will reach a staggering 11 billion by the end of 2023. Email marketing enables businesses to establish direct and personal communication with their audience, facilitate customer engagement, and foster long-term relationships. When done right, marketing emails can also contribute to other goals and KPIs like app acquisition. By encouraging email subscribers to download or engage in an app, brands can increase loyalty, usage, and lifetime value (LTV).
Why mobile apps are important for email marketing
With the majority of email interactions happening on mobile devices, mobile apps are becoming more and more critical to email marketing strategies. Beyond their enhanced user experience, apps drive higher engagement and conversion rates — both critical to email revenue goals. Moreover, apps increase brand visibility and loyalty by offering dedicated space on a user’s device. It’s not enough to ensure emails are optimized for mobile; it’s also important to make sure they’re optimized for mobile app acquisition and engagement.
How to make the most of your email campaigns
Successful email marketing requires an engaged email list. To get started, add opt-in forms to your website, landing pages, or social media platforms so visitors can easily subscribe to newsletters or updates. You can also offer incentives, such as exclusive content or discounts, to entice users to sign up. You’ll then have a direct line to promote content and products.
Once you have your list of users with an interest in your brand, you can take your relationship to the next level. But where you send them is an important detail. Routing email subscribers back to your mobile website rather than your app leaves revenue on the table. In fact, Branch’s Mobile Growth Survey found that for every one dollar a non-app user spends, app users spend an average of $3.30 — more than three times as much.
Instead, consider crafting compelling emails that highlight the value proposition of your app with download links and clear calls to action (CTAs) to encourage app adoption. With Branch’s deep linking technology, these new users will be routed to relevant content in the app upon install. Once users land on the in-app content, you can greet them with a custom onboarding experience to increase stickiness.
How Branch fits in
Brands use Branch’s deep linking technology and email service provider (ESP) integrations to connect email marketing to the app. First, we provide the means to drive installs from email subscribers. Then, we create seamless tap-to-app experiences for app users to increase engagement and conversions or accelerate new feature adoption for app-only or new high-value events. We also offer robust cross-platform email attribution so you can always view which installs, opens, and downstream events were driven from your email campaign.
By implementing Branch direct and deferred deep links in email, you can rest assured that all of the links in your email will react appropriately and route users to the right place regardless of their device, operating system, or install status.
Users without the app are first prompted to download the app before viewing their desired content:
Users with the app are taken directly to the desired in-app content:
By creating a pathway from email to the app with Branch, Ancestry® increased app downloads by over 50% and increased engagement by 3x.
Many other use cases exist to drive app acquisition from email marketing. You can add a CTA to download the app in your email footer for a modest, evergreen approach like Rent the Runway. Or set up your redirects so that users who don’t have your app are automatically routed to the app store when clicking a link in one of your emails on mobile. Reddit took the latter approach and increased installs by 6.5x.
You can also use Branch’s web-to-app Journeys smart banners to facilitate the email-to-app experience. Simply set up a Journeys banner targeted to users coming from the email channel that do not have the app installed. Customize the creative and messaging to ensure a smooth, personalized experience, and use Journeys Assist to ensure email attribution is preserved.
Leverage push notifications
By integrating mobile apps into your customer engagement strategy, you can leverage additional channels like push notifications to engage app users and drive them back to your app. While email offers a broader reach and allows for long-form, detailed content, push notifications provide immediate and direct communication. They can be used to deliver time-sensitive updates, exclusive offers, or important alerts that prompt users to take action. With Branch links inside every message, you ensure that users are always taken to the right content within the app. This maximizes user engagement and conversions.
Connect email marketing to your app
Mobile apps have become an indispensable channel to maximize the value of email marketing. By integrating mobile apps into your email campaigns, you unlock app acquisition and engagement. With Branch’s deep linking technology, you can seamlessly connect email marketing to your app, ensuring a smooth user experience and maximizing the value of your campaigns. It’s time to embrace the power of mobile apps and take your email marketing to new heights.